Eagle Cafe

"I'll have the eagle-free omelette, please."

http://eaglecafe.com/

 

(I may wish to fly like an eagle, but I generally have to deal with a bunch of turkeys and chicken-poop.)


For a change I decided to venture over to Fisherman's Wharf  for breakfast; however, there really aren't that many places that specialize in the breakfastary métier in that neighborhood (see last 'blog-entry from September 4th, 2011). So I simply went to Eagle Cafe on Pier 39. They have been in operation since 1928, and have been a stalwart on Pier 39 since October 1978 when Pier 39 first opened for business. There is an interesting story about how they had the original building uprooted (from across the street) and transferred to it's current location amid much hubbub and to-do. Eagle Cafe is now part of a larger seafood restaurant chain, named Tin Fish, which is based out of San Diego. One of the nice things about this place is that it opens at 7:30am ~ whereas, nothing else much opens before 9:00am on Fisherman's Wharf, which makes this a good location for tourists of all types; the family at the next table over from me were from Germany. Another tourist plus is that they offer a great view as they are on the second floor of Pier 39.

I happened to notice when I was seated and looking around the restaurant (it's hard to notice things when you aren't looking around) that most of the men in the restaurant (myself included), and even a few of the womenfolk, were wearing baseball caps of some kind (even der deutsche Vater at the next table); I like to think that baseball caps and denim jeans are 'merica's great contribution to the World of haute couture[1].

Eagle Cafe do not really have that much on their standard breakfast menu for vegetarians; however, if you are of the ilk that partake of the dead, decaying animal flesh (or of the dead, decaying large marine insects), they offered a few interesting specials this morning:

I ordered the Veggie Omelette ~ with Swiss cheese, bell peppers, spinach, onions, scallions, mushrooms, and tomatoes; served with breakfast potatoes, fresh fruit, and bread. I also had a cuppa coffee (the house brand is Peerless Coffee & Tea®).

Meh! This breakfast was really nothing much to write about (and I know that "nothing much about which to write" is the grammatically correct phrase, but that just sounds silly), but I already started writing about it, so I might as well continue. It was served as an open-faced omelette where the vegetables and such were in the egg mixture (which were not even made from eagle eggs) ~ sorta like "scrambled eggs with stuff in 'em", which is something that even I can accomplish at home (again, if I actually had any eggs or the assorted vegetables in my refrigerator, or had any inclination to cook). The Swiss cheese was not even real Swiss cheese, it was that pseudo-processed, sliced crap that Kraft® might produce; this was a major disappointment. Just how hard is it for a professional restaurant-type place (even one that caters to stupid tourists) to actually use real, quality products in their cooking?

Also of negatory note, the "fresh fruit" on the side was just one chunk of watermelon and two slices of orange. This looked more like a garnish than a side dish ~ which didn't stop me from finishing all of them, though, Stymie.

There were some positives to the meal: the coffee was good, the breakfast potatoes were good, and the bread (some kinda sweet roll/bun that was toasted) was good. Plus, they had this fancy-shmancy presentation with a large sprig of fresh rosemary sticking out of the roll (seriously, people, if you are going to go to the extra effort to make the meal look good, at least use real cheese); I tore off several of the leaves to use on both the omelette and potatoes; this ended up being the best part of the omelette.

Eagle Cafe has for condimentary supplements just Tabasco® (the standard red). I had come prepared (as usual) and used just the smallest amount of my own One Stop Hot Shop 'Smart Arse'® (Thanks a lot, Cindy! ~ sarcasm intended) on the omelette and some Serious Food… Silly Prices Mango Hot Sauce (Thanks for real, Cindy! ~ no sarcasm intended) on the potatoes. Another plus to this place is that they have real maple syrup on every table, which I used liberally on the toasted roll to good effect.

It really wasn't that "sad" of a breakfast, but I don't really think I'll be going back again or would even recommend it to anyone unless they were stupid tourists and wanted to know of a place on Fisherman's Wharf that opens pretty early.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:  the Veggie Omelette ~ 5.5


[1] Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer du jour:
 
"Haute couture" does not mean "hat culture" in French; it literally means "elegant/high fashion" or "elegant/high dressmaking" in French.