http://www.stfrancisfountainsf.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2riRUmZNn2g
St. Francis Fountain, over on 24th Street in the Mission, is a true diner-dive in every good sense of the word(s) and a great place for breakfast. It has been in operation at the same location (give or take a few years) since 1918. I just don't know why they call it "St. Francis" Fountain, what does he have to do with San Francisco or ice cream?
Now, this is not the greatest of neighborhoods, but it's still a relatively safe area if you stay along "Main Street" Mission District (24th Street). I suppose Mission Street is the real "Main Street", but I really like the choices of restaurants and shops along 24th Street to get the full "sabor" of the Mission. St. Francis Fountain is just across the street and down a half block from Casa Sanchez*, another "Main Street" mainstay.
I sat at the counter to get the full dinerific-effect; they have several old wooden booths that you can sit at, too. Speaking of booths, Kal-El, they even have a cool old phone booth, with an actual rotary dial ("Sorry ~ Temporarily Out of Service") phone inside.
There are tons of good choices on the menu for both Vegetarians and Vegans. I went with the Veggie Mess ~ eggs scrambled w/spuds, vegan chorizo** & mushrooms, topped w/cheese, tomatoes, sour cream & cilantro; choice of toast or baked good (my choice: homemade biscuit); and a cuppa Peerless® Coffee to round it all out.
This was a heaping pile o' spuds, covered with lots of gooey, melty, cheesy goodness… what's not to like? Plus, there was no chintzing*** on the chorizo, chica. It was an awful lot of food and I really couldn't finish all of it. The only thing I can think of that might have made this even a little tastier would have been a nice fresh pico de gallo instead of just chopped tomatoes.
The only condimentary supplementation that I saw on the counter and tables was Tapatío®; so I used some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce on the pile (Thanks again, Amy!).
They were mainly playing old 60's Girl Group music on the house stereo while I was there; hence, the above EweToob link. Tracey Ullman also did a nice cover of that song which was a minor hit in the 80's when I was living in (West) Berlin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BDLcutLekU&feature=related
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggie Mess ~ 7.0
*(Casa Sanchez is a just a local taquería, but they have their tortilla chips and salsas for sale in most Bay Area supermarkets. They really are very good chips.
http://www.casasanchezfood.com/
At one time, they had a promotion that offered free burritos for life ~ up to one a day, I believe ~ to anyone that would get a tattoo of their cartoon logo "Jimmy the Cornman". All you had to do was present your tattoo before ordering… this was a bit of a mistake, as some people ended up getting the tattoo in rather private places.)
**(For those uniformed, chorizo ~ or chouriço in Portuguese:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorizo
I just assume the Vegan variety is made from certified Vegan pigs.)
***(Semi-etymological/completely boring, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:
"Chintz" is actually a printed, patterned cotton fabric, with glazed finish; or, a painted or stained Indian calico. It comes from Sanskrit "citra" meaning "gaily-colored".
"Chintzy" has come to be used as a term meaning "cheap"/"vulgar" or "stingy"/"miserly".
However, I guess it is more correct to say that the participants in tomorrow's 41st Annual San Francisco Pride Celebration & Parade will all be wearing chintzy clothing ~ according to the original Sanskrit meaning.)
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