Kate’s Kitchen

http://www.kates-kitchensf.com/

(As this entry is a Saturday breakfastary two-fer, I decided on making the music interlude a two-fer, too.)


I went back to Kate's Kitchen (see last 'blog-entry from February 18th, 2012) for breakfast this morning. They are located over on Haight Street near the corner of Fillmore[1] Street. Kate's Kitchen opens at 8:30am on Saturdays, but I thought that they opened at 8:00am (this is due to the fact that their official web-site does not state their hours… Really?!). So I had an extra half hour to kill this morning. Unfortunately it was a crummy, rainy morning and not even worth walking around the neighborhood, so I just sat in my car for thirty minutes listening to the Beatles on the radio (a local station plays two hours of the Beatles every Saturday at that time). This explains the Beatles two-fer above.

I had never really noticed the underside of their awning had artwork of the Old West on it. I probably wouldn't have noticed it this morning, but I was hiding out from the rain while waiting for them to open up and happened to look up.

I really like their breakfastary selections, and they always have several interesting specials (which change weekly with what is seasonally available) on their chalkboard menu. In addition to their standard French Toast selections, this week they also offered a few other versions: Pumpkin French Toast (w/chocolate chips & whipped cream); and Cranberry Chocolate French Toast (w/strawberries & chocolate butter). They also had a great selection of interesting looking pancakes: Strawberry, Banana, Lemon Curd; Bacon & Cheddar; Blueberry; Banana & Walnut; Pumpkin! (they added the "!", not me; however, it does sound good!); Strawberry & Granola; and Oatmeal w/Banana & Almonds. I just had the Irene's Wrap (which is their take on a breakfast burrito) the last time I was there and knew it to be good (Irene was my server again this morning and even remembered that I had ordered it the last time I was there).

I opted for this weekend's Veggie Scramble: Avocado, tomato, red onion, cilantro, cauliflower[2], roasted red bell pepper, Cheddar; topped with salsa & sour cream; all egg breakfasts are served with homefries (noted as one word, thank you) and choice of toast (I went with light rye; I only noticed later that I could have gotten one cheese green onion biscuit instead). I also had a cuppa (well, three refills) of their house coffee, which is a very good N'Arlins-style with roasted chicory.

This was a very good scramble with lots of fresh ingredients (and no scrimping on the avocado, I am happy to state). I like cauliflower, but really dislike "the vile weed" ~ go figger! This had a very good pico de gallo on top. The homefries were very good, too, with chunks of onions (white) and bell peppers (green) nicely caramelized throughout.

Kate's Kitchen offers for condimentary supplementation Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red), Tapatío®, and Mezzetta Brand Habanero Hot Sauce (and possibly a few others). I was basically aware of this, but I had brought a few of my own and used some Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce (the original version; Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) on the homefries and some Serious Food… Silly Prices Sweet Heat Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy!) on the scramble. Irene even asked to sample some of the PAFFPS (after I insisted it is the absolute best local hot sauce out there to a guy at the next table over, he said that he had tried it before but preferred plain ol' Tabasco®); she mentioned that it was very good, but thought it was a bit salty (of course, it is not anywhere as salty as Tabasco® which has salt as one of its three ingredients).

By the way, there is absolutely no truth to the rumour that this place used to be named Kate's Kulinary Kitchen, but it might explain why all the staff wear those really cool white hoodies…


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggie Scramble ~ 6.5; Coffee ~ 6.9


1. Fillmore Street is named after the 13th President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, not after the Rock-and/or-Roll theatre of the same name. You know the one that spawned the additional 60's Rock-and/or-Roll venues called Millard East and Millard West.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-horticultural pointer of the day:

Of course, cauliflower is in the same family as "the vile weed"; they both belong to the cabbage family. "Cauliflower" was originally called "cole florye" (see: cole slaw), from Italian "cavoli fiori" (meaning "cabbage flower"), which is the plural of "cavolo" (cabbage) + "fiore" (flower). Both Italian words come from Latin "caulis" (cabbage) and "flos" (flower).