San Bruno[1], San Mateo County
http://jacksrestaurants.com/
(The reason for today's EweToob link is that yesterday was Leonard Cohen's 78th birthday. Now, much like Robert Zimmerman's work, I really love the songs of Leonard Cohen, just not as sung by him. Besides, Johnette Napolitano is much better to look at.
Late Edition Edit: I just happened to notice that Johnette's birthday is actually September 22nd, too; so that was very à propos of me.)
For a change, I thought I'd head out of the City and try someplace new. It's not really that much of a "Road Trip" to drive down to Jack's Restaurant & Bar, as they are just off El Camino Real in San Bruno. There are two Bay Area locations: this one and another one in Pleasanton. They are owned and run by two brothers (neither of whom are named "Jack", by the way). Plus, the Boulevard Cafe (see 'blog-entry from August 21st, 2011) in Daly City is owned by the brother-in-law of one of the owners of Jack's. I thought that there had to be some relationship between the three restaurants as their menus are very similar; this was confirmed to me by the hostess-lady.
Jack's is a pretty large facility and its location (right across the street from Tanforan Mall) makes it pretty handy. They have a sizeable breakfast menu. I was tempted to go with either the Greek Scramble (χωρίς το κρέας γύρου) or the Elena's Omelette, but I will probably have more than my share of Greek food tomorrow at San Francisco's Greek Food Festival. To compare Jack's with Boulevard Cafe, I decided to order the same thing as I did there last year: Bananas Foster French Toast ~ Texas French toast, caramelized bananas, cinnamon cream; with a side of Yukon Gold Hash Browns (Please note, they have this as two words, Herr Gates). I also had a large glass of orange juice to round out the square meal.
This was very good French toast (not quite as good as the version at Merchant's Way in Wareham, MA, but still much better than that which was served at that place that shall remain nameless); the bananas were sliced and sautéed, which really makes all the difference in the world (blue-haired tranny Nazis, please take note). There was a large scoop of the cinnamon cream on top and it really worked very well with all of the other flavours. The hashbrowns were good, also; however, I would have liked the potatoes to have been a bit crispier (at least they offer some kind of potato sides; again, blue-haired tranny Nazis, please take note).
Jack's has the standard Bay Area Trinity of condimentary supplementation: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red); Tapatío®; and Cholula®. I had brought a few of my own collection and used some El Yucateco® XXXTRA HOT SAUCE Salsa Kutbil-ik® de CHILE HABANERO (Thanks, Brian!) on the hashbrowns; the French toast really didn't need any extra heat.
It's just like I have always stated: "everybody knows jack…"
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Bananas Foster French Toast ~ 7.0
[1] San Bruno is a small suburb city about fifteen miles due south of San Francisco. It was named after Saint Bruno of Cologne. Unlike the cities of San Francisco, San Diego, and San Jose, San Bruno was not one of the original Franciscan Missions founded in Alta California by Junípero Serra and the rest of his Native American-torturing ilk.
I was surprised to find out that Saint Bruno wasn't really the Patron Saint of Pugilism as I had always thought.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno,_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bruno_of_Cologne
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