Mission Beach Cafe

There was nothing quite atrocious about this sublimely precocious breakfast, Mohandas!

http://www.missionbeachcafesf.com/

 

(I mainly used the above subtitle and linked this silly EweToob video to tell a corn-ball joke that I heard this morning on Car Talk[1]. It's not always about the great food.)


I went to Mission Beach Cafe (I am going sans accent aigu here as they really don't specify which way to spell "café" on their menu or awnings), which is located on the corner of Guerrero[2] and 14th Streets in the Mission/Castro (you decide; it's right on the border of the two). I found it to be pretty easy parking early on a Saturday morning (I actually parked one block away as I found a spot on my way over there and figured "a single hand-held Aves is easily worth double the feathered creatures in a tree"; but when I got to the restaurant I saw that there were a few open spots closer by still). It's not a very large place; there are just six counter/window seats and 10-12 tables/booths that seat four.

Mission Beach Cafe is basically a "Brunch" place, not so much in décor or clientele, but in the actual menu offerings (and they even state it as "Weekend Brunch" on their menu). I would have gotten the MBC Scramble because it is printed as including asparagus; however, I was informed that as (fresh) asparagus is not in season, they have substituted zucchini in this instead. I like zucchini, just not as much as I love asparagus. So, I ordered Brioche[3] French Toast ~ market fruit, honey Mascarpone, Bourbon syrup. I also had a side of "brunch" potatoes and a cuppa Blue Bottle Coffee Co (Giant Steps blend?).

I will list all of the pluses of this dish first to get them out of the way before I really rip-into them:

1) it was made with three large, thickly-sliced (at least 2" each) bread ~ good!;
2) the "market fruit" today was a nice cranberry-apple compote ~ very good!!;
3) the honey Mascarpone ~ very, very good!!!; and
4) the Bourbon syrup ~ most excellent!!!!

Okay, I guess there really were no minuses… well, I suppose I could have gotten a little bit more of the most excellent tasting Bourbon syrup. I am sure that if I had asked they would have given me more, as the entire staff were very friendly and helpful. I think one of the people I spoke with may even have been one of the owners.

They make their "brunch" potatoes with Yukon Gold potatoes. These were very good and just either roasted or homefries style.

In speaking with the staff this morning (well, I overheard someone saying it and neb-nose[4] that I am, Mr. Durkin, I had to ask), I found out that this will be the last few days that they will be serving Blue Bottle Coffee Co, as they feel that Blue Bottle Coffee Co have gotten too large for their tastes (pun intended); Blue Bottle Coffee Co is going global and now has a deal with Bloomingdale's. As soon as they use up the reserve of coffee that they now have, Mission Beach Cafe will start serving Flying Goat Coffee out of Healdsburg; which is still a local and small company. I don't know if I have ever enjoyed that particular brand, but always look forward to trying another good cuppa.

http://www.flyinggoatcoffee.com/

Mission Beach Cafe only offers Tapatío® for condimentary supplementation. I went with some of my own Cherry Republic® KaBOB'S Kick'en Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy!) and a little One Stop Hot Shop 'Smart Arse' (Not really thanks, Cindy!, but I am working my way through the bottle as best I can.[5]) on the "brunch" potatoes (the most excellent Bourbon syrup was good enough for me on the French toast).

This version of French toast was equally as good as Neighborhood Restaurant & Bakery Coconut French Toast (see 'blog-entry for July 10th, 2010), but not quite as good as I remember the Bananas Foster French Toast at Merchants Way (which used to be in "downtown" Wareham, MA) used to be. Of course, it goes without saying, that it is not as good as Baker Street Bistro Pain Perdu, either, or else I would be bumping this tasty and creative meal right up into my Breakfastary Starting Rotation. But I will be going back to try more of their "Brunch" items, as well as have this one again.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:  Brioche French Toast ~ 7.5


[1] Whenever I am driving on a Saturday morning, and if it is between the hours of 9:00am-11:00am PST, I am usually tuned to Car Talk "Click and Clack, The Tappit Brothers" on National Public Radio. This morning Tommy happened to tell the most dawg-awful, corn-ball joke… which I feel absolutely necessary to repeat here:
 
Mahatma Gandhi always walked around barefoot for which he developed extremely hard calluses on his feet. Because of his strange vegetarian diet, he ended up with weak bones and usually wreaked of bad breath. I guess you might say that he was a "super-calloused, fragile mystic, hexed by halitosis".
 
If you have any problems with that joke, please contact the below website; be sure to ask for Heywood Jabuzoff in their complaints department:

http://www.cartalk.com/

[2] This street was named in honour of Francisco Guerrero who was the Alcade (a municipal magistrate; basically Mayor) of Yerba Buena (modern day San Francisco) in 1836 and 1839.

I am not sure who 14th Street was named after.

[3] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:
 
"Brioche" is a type of French bread. It comes from the French word "brier" (meaning "to knead the dough"), from the Norman word "broyer" (meaning "to grind, pound"), from Germanic "brekan" (meaning "to break").

[4] Not really a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, unless you consider Pittsburghese a foreign language (which I am sure many people from Cleveland and Philadelphia do):
 
"Neb-nose" (noun)/"nebby" (adjective) in Pittsburgh and parts of Western Pennsylvania means "a busybody"/"nosy, curious". Possible origin: derived from "neighborly", but since the connotation was negative, the pronunciation was distorted to indicate this.
 
Example: "Stop being so nebby, Lester J, and grab me one of dem der  Ahrn City Beers."
 
[5] Now I am not really complaining about a freebie gift. I love hot sauces of all heat ranges; however, this fiery stuff might be more palatable if your best friend is named Jack Paper, Jr., and you happen to live by the sea and frolic in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.