(No official website.)
990 Valencia Street (at 21st Street)
phonicular contact: (415) 875-9622
(Okay, so it's really Sunday. Whatever.)
I had originally meant to go to the Blue Fig[1] last Sunday morning to bookend my Blue Jay Cafe entry, but I had a touch of a summer flu/cold and couldn't complete my Blue Period, Pablo. the Blue Fig is a pretty large coffeehouse joint over in the Mission along the trendier restaurant row on Valencia Street. They even have a large backyard, open-air patio with about 6-8 tables. They also have an additional seven two-seater tables in front on the sidewalk, five of which are right in the street taking up spots for two parked cars (see above photo) ~ this is a new trend that I have seen in the City (I think it started along Columbus Avenue in North Beach); like it's not hard enough to find a decent parking spot already.
the Blue Fig is mainly a coffeehouse that serves breakfast bites like bagels, granola, and oatmeal and such; however, they do have a couple of other breakfastary items from which to choose. I was sorry to see that they do not offer any potato side dishes, though ~ pity. I ordered the Blue Waffle[2] ~ organic blue corn meal topped with fig reduction, house whipped cream, banana, and syrup. I also had a large glass of orange juice and a cuppa very decent coffee ~ McLaughlin Coffee™, House Blend (which is made with five different types of African beans, as per the baristo/counter guy).
http://www.mclaughlincoffee.com/
I don't usually get waffles when I go out to breakfast. Looking back through some of these 'blog-entries, I don't think I have had any waffles in the past few years even. I mean, what are waffles, anyway, but just disfigured pancakes with a bad case of chicken pox, right? This was pretty good, though, and one (large one) was just about right for me (still would have liked some potatoes on the side, though). According to the baristo/counter guy (who was also the food preparer guy, as he was the only one there that early in the morning), the reduction is made with actual blue figs, which I had never heard about and had to look up for more information (see below explanation/clarification). The blue fig reduction was a bit tart, but I guess the idea is to mellow the harsh with some of the provided syrup, which seemed to work perfectly. The waffle was piled with tons of both bananas (mentioned on the menu) and strawberries (unmentioned on the menu), which was nice.
Not that I needed any extra flavours, but I noticed that the Blue Fig has just Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) available for condimentary supplements. I had pre-checked what they had to offer for breakfast from an on-line menu and knew that they really didn't offer much that would warrant me bringing any of my own hot sauces with me today, so I didn't bother.
I doubt I'll be going back any time soon (maybe if I was more of a waffle fanatic, Jean Claude), but the cuppa coffee was good enough to merit popping back in if I am ever in the neighborhood.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Blue Waffle ~ 6.8; House Blend coffee ~ 7.0
[1] Blue fig trees are not really related to the fig tree family that we know. They are an Australian rainforest tree that bear a bitter edible fruit, Lamont.
The common fig tree that we know, Mr. Newton, is a member of the Ficus family.
Additional information courtesy of our courteous friends at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_fig
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus
[2] Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day:
The word "waffle" is directly derived from the Dutch "wafel", which itself derives from Middle Dutch "wafele", of Germanic origin; related to Old High German "wabo", meaning "honeycomb".
But I could go vaguely on and on for hours talking in a wordy manner about "waffles"… if I didn't stop.
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