http://www.andalusf.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fezrsTAf5x0&ob=av3n
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_vsvX2qiLM
(The first two songs were actually playing on the house stereo while I was eating breakfast, and in that order, just not consecutively, I think there were a few songs between them. As this morning was a pretty dismal, rainy day, I asked my server if this was a weather theme; I half expected "Here Comes the Sun" to play next. The Bill Withers song is one of the best ~ but little heralded ~ songs to come out of the 70's. The third song by McKinley Morganfield[1] is self-explanatory if you keep reading where I went for coffee this morning.)
I have been meaning to get to Andalu (I am really not quite sure what the name means, perhaps it is a reference to the Andalucía[2] region of Spain; I asked my very friendly and helpful server, but she didn't know either) ~ over in the Mission, on the corner of 16th and Guerrero ~ ever since last year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 11 (see 'blog-entry from October 1st, 2011). Andalu runs a food wagon at the local festivals and the food is really much better than your run-of-the-mill corndog (if a mill ran corndogs, that is) or veggie-burger; not many restaurants also have roach-coaches at festivals, so I was intrigued to try their actual restaurant food.
Andalu is basically a hipster tapas joint at night and definitely a "Brunch" place (due to the atmosphere, location, and time that they open on Saturdays and Sundays ~ 10:30am is a little later than I normally go out to eat breakfast). They have very high 20-foot ceilings and orange velvet(?)[3] curtains hanging down all around (covering the walls mostly and not the windows), and they also have a balcony/mezzanine[4], which they use for private parties or overflow when they fill up (and by the looks of the crowd that was there this morning, that is every day). The old brick building is probably from the turn of the 20th Century and looks like it may have once been an old pharmacy from the ornate, gilded overhang out front.
Their "Brunch" menu isn't that extensive, but they do offer a number of interesting sounding egg dishes (scrambles and Benedicts ~ if I ever go back and order the Benedict, I definitely would have it with the Cambazola fondue, which is a mixture of Camembert and Gorgonzola cheeses!), French toast (or the Spanish equivalent), varieties of waffles, and salads and such. I ordered the Ultimate Veggie Scramble ~ Artichoke Hearts, Mushrooms, Tomato, Spinach, Onions; served with toast and choice of Hashbrowns (Ha! They have it as one word, Herr Billgates!) or Polenta Fries. I also ordered a glass of Raspberry-Lemonade.
As Andalu really doesn't open until I usually have been awake for several hours already, I headed over to the Mission a bit early and stopped at Muddy Waters Coffee House, where I had a very strong cuppa; it was good enough, but had a bit of a burned flavour to it. I have been there many times before and knew the coffee to be pretty decent, so I will chalk up today's cuppa as just a bad batch.
"Brunch" comes with four fresh (mine were still piping hot, Peter) donut holes, dusted with cinnamon-sugar. These were very good and more than enough for me (the guy at the next table offered me his four as he said he needs to watch his carbohydrate intake, but I really couldn't have eaten another four and finished my meal). You can order these as an appetizer, too, and they would come with a thick cuppa Castilian Hot Chocolate for dipping them in.
There was lots of fresh, baby spinach leaves and brined (not marinated) artichoke hearts in the scramble (I know, as a vegetarian, I should not really be eating anything made with hearts, but I also love ears of corn and heads of lettuce and cabbage). For my choices, I chose sourdough toast and Polenta Fries. The Polenta Fries were an "excellent" choice as they really were; crispy/crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside.
The Raspberry-Lemonade was not really on the menu as a non-alcoholic drink (they probably don't get too many Mormonians going there for either "Brunch Libations" or tapas, Brigham), but my server had them make one without the Vodka for me; it seemed to have been made from fresh raspberries. They even added some fresh-mulled mint, which really was a nice addition and perked it up even more. My server said they should name the drink after me; I told her that no one would want to buy something called "Lame-ass Lemonade", though.
Andalu has just Tabasco® for condimentary supplementation. I kinda figured on that and used some Sylvia'’s Restaurant® Kickin' Hot Hot Sauce (Thanks, Sean!) on the Polenta Fries and some Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks agains, Amys!) on the scramble. I shared some of the PAFFPS with the guy at the next table, he also agreed that it was very good.
Seeing as I have never really been to Spain proper other than one week in Tenerife, Canary Islands (and, even then, we spent most of the time in a British resort hotel) and an all-night layover in Madrid/Torrejón Air Base (where we played Uno all night long) on my way to Saudi Arabia, I still don't know what a desayuno español auténtica entails.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Ultimate Veggie Scramble (especially with the inclusion of the Polenta Fries) ~ 7.0; Raspberry-Lemonade ~ 6.8; Muddy Waters Coffee House coffee ~ 6.4
[1] Here is some more information on Muddy Waters courtesy of (stolen from) our friends at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muddy_Waters
How many 'merican music legends can say they had both a Rock-and/or-Roll band and a Rock-and/or-Roll Magazine named after one of their songs?
[2] Andalucía is located in the southern part of Spain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalusia
[3] Not that I could ever really tell the difference between velvet or corduroy*, Mr. Reed.
Stupid, useless cunning linguist and pseudo-fabrician pointer du jour, numéro un:
"Velvet" comes from Old French "veluotte", from "velu" meaning "hairy", from Vulgar Latin "villutus" (unattested), from Latin "villus" meaning "shaggy hair".
*Which leads us to the stupid, useless cunning linguist and pseudo-textilian pointer du jour, numéro deux:
"Corduroy" is of American English origin, probably from "cord" plus obsolete 17th Century "duroy", a coarse, woolen fabric made in England. Folk etymology is from "corde du roi", "the king's cord", but this is not attested in French, where the term for cloth was "velours à côtes".
[4] Ha! Fooled you! I'll bet you were expecting another "stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer", weren't you? Look it up your damned self, fainéant!
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