Sunday, March 17, 2013

John’s Ocean Beach Cafe

Tabhair póg dom, táim Éireannach!



(No official web-site.)

2898 Sloat Boulevard (at 47th Ave)

phonicular contact: (415) 665-8292





(If today wasn't Saint Patrick's Day, I probably would have linked some EweToob videos from Doctor John or John Lennon or such. I wonder when Saint John's Day is.)


I had breakfast this morning at John's Ocean Beach Cafe, located right across the street from the San Francisco Zoo and just one block from the beach (which, coincidentally enough, happens to be Ocean Beach). This is an old, family-style diner place; it looks like it really hasn't changed much since they first opened for business probably fifty years ago now. They open at 7:30am every day except Mondays (I learned that the hard way a few years ago when I had planned on having breakfast there first before going to the Zoo ~ see 'blog-entry from June 14th, 2010). I have had lunch and breakfast there a few times in the past.

I noticed that my server/waitress-lady-person had a slight accent and I asked her where she was from. She told me that she was from Hamburg, Germany. I thought that I noticed a deutsch akzent. I then regaled her with one of the only remaining German phrases that I can remember: "Ich hatte in Berlin zwei Jahre gewohnt." (Which beats telling her that "I think your duck has rabies.", I suppose.)

John's Ocean Beach Cafe has a pretty extensive breakfast menu (and this place would never be mistaken for serving "Brunch", believe me); if they had an official web-site or if I could have found a link to their menu, I would have been able to explain it better. They have many (over twenty) different scrambles and omelettes, as well as about six different types of Eggs Benedict dishes. I settled on the Sausage w/ Gorgonzola[1] cheese, Asparagus, and Tomatoes Omelette (Wurst mit Gorgonzola Käse, Spargel, und Tomaten Omelett); served with John's Potatoes (which are just homefries) and a choice of toast (I went with sourdough again today).





Of course, I ordered this ohne die toten, verfallenden Schweinefleisch. I wasn't sure how Gorgonzola and asparagus would pair together, but it actually worked for me. Gorgonzola is one of my favourite of the stinky, moldy cheeses and asparagus is one of my favourite fruits. There was plenty of both in the omelette, and I was glad to see that the asparagus was fresh, not frozen (I am not sure if the Gorgonzola was frozen or not, though). John's Potatoes were really very good; they were extra chunky and crispy on all sides.

John's Ocean Beach Cafe has as condimentary supplements both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) and Tapatío®. I had come prepared and used some of my own El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero (Thanks, Brian!) on the homefries and some Cajohns Fiery Foods Oaxacan Hot Sauce (Thanks again, Brian!) on the omelette.

All in all, this was a pretty decent dining experience; however, it was marred slightly by meine freundliche deutsche Kellnerin. I think that she may have taken offense to the meager tip that I left on the table. As I was leaving, I can't be sure, but I think she may have called me a "Jew"[2] under her breath…


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Gorgonzola, Asparagus, & Tomato Omelette ~ 6.1


1. This is not really a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, but just a stupid, useless geographical/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day:

"Gorgonzola" is named after the village in Italy (near Milano) where it originated. I was hoping that it actually had something to do with "Gorgons" and "zolas", though.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer des Tages, Part A:

Okay, just so that any fervent reader doesn't sick B'nai B'rith or the Mossad on this poor, unsuspecting woman. That was only a joke. The slang way to say "Goodbye!" auf deutsch is "Tschüs!" and it sounds a bit like "Jews" to the untrained ear.

Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer des Tages, Part B:

The German word for "Jews" is actually "Juden" and is pronounced as "Yooden".


And for the record, I always tip at least 5%...

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