Perry's

Great Caesar's ghost! Where were my vegetables?



http://www.perryssf.com

(I am not sure whether this is a good link or not as I could not seem to get it to come up when I tried it, but it should be the correct web-site address according to Google.)


I had breakfast (well, technically "Brunch") this morning at Perry's (the original location on Union Street in Cow Hollow). Perry's has a mini-chain of restaurants/bars; there are three others in San Francisco: one on the Embarcadero[1], one downtown, and the other in the Potrero Hill area. As best as I can tell, Perry's has been around for forty years or more. They have that old-style San Francisco décor going on ~ lots of dark wood paneling and terra cotta[2] ceiling tiles; ferns hanging from wall planters; lots of brass on the bar, etc.

This is definitely a typical "Brunch" place (especially as it is dictated on their menu); there are cloth tablecloths and napkins on every table; plus, two(!) forks on the place settings (I normally am confused by just one fork, knife, and spoon). At least they do have the good sense to open up pretty early (8:30am) for a "Brunch" place. They also have four sidewalk tables, which is always good when the weather is nice like it was this morning.

While walking along Union Street this morning, I spied about four Wild Parrots of San Francisco flying overhead (of course, I heard their chattering first and then looked up to see them).

Perry's has a pretty good breakfast (well, again, "Brunch") menu from which to choose, I went with the Vegetable Frittata ~ sautéed (extra points for spelling this on the menu avec accent aigu) vegetables, Parmesan, & Fontina; most of the egg dishes come with a side salad, but I skipped that (What am I some kinda stupid vegetarian, salad-eating "Brunch" person?) and ordered a side of the Breakfast Potatoes. I also had a cuppa coffee.




I was very surprised to see that the breakfast dishes don't come with any toast (in addition to having to order potatoes as a side dish); must be a "Brunch" thing. Now my main gripe: as best as I could tell, the "sautéed vegetables" were just zucchini and mushrooms; there might have been some onions or something else in there, but I really couldn't see or taste any; now don't get me wrong, I like both zucchini and mushrooms, I was just expecting a variety of vegetables in it. At least it had lots of Fontina cheese melted on top; however, I really couldn't discern any Parmesan, either. The Breakfast Potatoes were pretty good, though; they were home fries style made with red potatoes and had lots of onions and red peppers in them (so, basically, as many vegetables as in the Vegetable Frittata).

Perry's condimentary supplementation is Tabasco® (the standard red) and Cholula® (so, just as many choices as vegetables in the frittata). I went with some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce on the frittata (Thanks agains, Amys!) and a little Sylvia's Restaurant® Kickin' Hot Hot Sauce on the potatoes (Thanks again, Sean!).

Perry's seems to be some sorta celebrity hang-out as there are several autographed photos on the walls of famous athletes and Hollywoodland stars. There was an autographed photo of Goldie Hawn right behind me that looked like it was from a movie (I didn't recognize the film) where the scene might have been filmed at Perry's. Goldie was smiling and seemed to be enjoying her meal, so I can only assume that she hadn't ordered the Vegetable Frittata, or if she did, hers included more than just two "sautéed vegetables".


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Vegetable Frittata ~ 6.2


[1] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer, número uno:

"Embarcadero" derives its name from the Spanish verb "embarcar", meaning "to embark"; Embarcadero itself simply means "the place to embark".

[2] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer, seconda parte:

"Terra cotta" or "terracotta" is Italian for literally "baked earth", "terra" meaning "earth" and "cotta" meaning "baked"; which in turn comes from Latin "terra" (again meaning "earth") and "cocta", the feminine past perfect of the verb "coquere" meaning "to cook".

The word root for "terra" can be seen in such words as "terrain" and "terrarium"; whereas, the word root for "cotta" can be seen in such words as "cottage cheese" and "you cotta be kiddin' me, Perry”.