Noah’s New York Bagels/Peet’s Coffee & Tea/jamba juice

http://www.noahs.com/

http://www.peets.com/

http://www.jambajuice.com/

(Consider today's EweToob links as a PSA against child abuse.[1] Parents, if you feel it absolutely necessary to have to resort to beating your children in order to maintain discipline… at least let the rest of us get a whack at the little brats, too.)


I decided to try something different for a change and have breakfast from three places in a local shopping center: Noah's New York Bagels, Peet's Coffee & Tea®, and jamba juice®. They are all located in the Potrero Center over on 16th and Potrero Streets, basically on the border of Potrero Hill and the Mission; and they all happen to be lined up next to one another. This shopping plaza sits on the area where Seals Stadium used to be (which was the home of the San Francisco Seals from 1931-1957, the Mission Reds from 1931-1937, and also the San Francisco Giants from 1958-1959). Somehow, it always seems to come back to food and Baseball with me…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seals_Stadium

The interesting thing about all three of these chain restaurants is that they were all originally founded in the San Francisco Bay Area or in Central California. Noah's was started in Berkeley. Peet's® was also started in Berkeley (in 1966). jamba juice® was started in San Luis Obispo (in 1990). Both Peet's® and jamba juice® headquarters are now located in Emeryville. However, Noah's "New York" Bagels is now owned by a company in Colorado ~ the same company that owns the Boston Market® chain (coincidentally enough, of which there is also a restaurant in the Potrero Center); I hear that they are also thinking of purchasing UNO® Chicago Grill. (The real joke here is that UNO® is now headquartered in Boston, MA.)

At one time back in the late 90's, it seemed that there was even a sort of a relationship between Noah's, jamba juice®, and St*rbucks. I think that the CEO of St*rbucks served on the Board of Directors of both Noah's and jamba juice® back then. Whenever a new St*bucks location was going up in the Bay Area, you could be sure to see a new Noah's and jamba juice® being built in the same complex or nearby. (There was already a St*rbucks inside the Safeway® at the Potrero Center, and maybe Peet's® had beaten them to the punch to get the vaunted spot that they did.)

Noah's is a New York-style bagelry (this is not a real word, and, for which, I am being warned by der Führ-Gates & his Green Police Spell-Check goons) and offers many different types of freshly-made bagels and baked goods. For breakfast you can have an Egg Mit® Sandwich; this is just scrambled eggs in a bagel with your choice of ingredients. I had one mit[2] spinach, mushrooms, and Swiss cheese, on a toasted and buttered whole wheat bagel.

Peet's Coffee & Tea® only has one caffeinated and one decaffeinated coffee ready to go daily. Today's caffeinated (Who really goes to a coffeehouse to get a decaffeinated cuppa, anyway? That is like ordering a "light Beer" at a bar. Just stay at home and drink water, dammit!) offering was Uzuri African Blend. Noah's also offers fresh-brewed coffees, but I made my mind up many years ago to not buy my bagels at Peet's® and the vice is also the versa.

jamba juice® has many different types of smoothies, fresh juices, and drinks from which to choose. I usually go with one of their juicy selections, but went with a smoothie this morning: Peach Pleasure ~ peaches-bananas-peach juice-orange sherbert. They are now offering (For a limited time!) fruit refreshers with coconut water; one of the seasonal choices is Watermelon Splash™; had I seen that before ordering, I probably would have gotten it instead.

Noah's bagels are decent enough, just not quite as good as House of Bagels (see 'blog-entry from May 2nd, 2010). I had actually asked for a plain sesame bagel, and the lady at the counter said "Whole Wheat Sesame?", to which I replied "No, plain Sesame." That must have really confused her and I didn't even get any sesame on it. I really wanted to get it on a Peppercorn Potato bagel, but didn't see any fresh ones available this morning. The sandwich was good, but nothing I probably couldn't have made at home myself… if I had eggs… or spinach… or mushrooms in my refrigerator/kitchen… and actually cooked. On the plus side, Mrs. Morin, I do usually have 2-3 different types of cheeses in my refrigerator at all times (right now it's sliced Havarti, sliced Jarlsberg, and Bavarian Red ~ a soft, creamy cheese; sort of a Teutonic twist on Brie); I am not a complete food hermit, after all.

Peet's® coffee is always good. Uzuri African Blend is a new one for them and I am not sure that I have ever had it before. I liked it a lot, but it's not my favourite of theirs. I mean, the only time I ever have a Peet's® that is just "okay" is when I make it at home myself; even then it's generally better than 50% of the "perfeshinul koffee joints" around town.

As for the jamba juice® smoothie, I really liked the peachiness (which, oddly enough, actually seems to be a real word, as the Spell-Check Nazis at Microsoft® don't seem to have a problem with me typing it here; maybe I shoulda typed "peachiosity") of the drink, Sergeant Carnehan; there were even small cubes of real peaches still left in the bottom of the cup when I was done (which I felt necessary to upend into my mouth, of course).

I didn't even bother to see what Noah's had for condimentary supplementation, as I went with a little of the newest acquisition to my collection, Youk's Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!), on the Egg Mit®. This is a pretty decent flavoured and heatiness (again, not a real word; tough, bite me, Billy-boy!) sauce. And I am not saying this just because I am a Boston Red Sox fan (I don't care much for Boston Market®, though). I should probably point out some follow-up information from yesterday's breakfast on my new HB™ Guinness® (Thanks again, Cindy!), too; I liked it a lot (It has real Guinness® in it. What's not to like, Arthur?) and am sure it will be put to good use on many more potato dishes.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:  Noah's Egg Mit® ~ 6.0 (but it is still a 7.5 compared to the normal crappy breakfast sandwiches that are available at most fast food joints, e.g. Eggamuffin, etc.); Peet's® Uzuri African Blend ~ 6.8; jamba juice® Peach Pleasure ~ 6.7


[1] I suppose I could have linked "Noah's Dove" by 10,000 Maniacs instead today, but then I would have been hard-pressed to find two other decent EweToob songs that incorporated "coffee" or someone named "Pete", and you just try to find any titles with "jamba" or "juice" in them.

 
Ah, what the heck:

[2] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, Nummer eins:
 
"Mit" simply means "with" in German or Yiddish, Mr. Romney.