Original Buffalo Wings (OBW)

Happy Cat in the Hat Day!

http://www.originalbuffalowings.biz/ 

 

 

(Yes. Three EweToob videos this morning.

The first one is in reference to Cat in the Hat Day. Today is the anniversary of the birthday of Theodore Geisel, aka Doctor Seuss. March 2nd has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day in his honor.

I would also just like to point out that if you look at the album cover artwork for "Year of the Cat", you can see that Al Stewart was the original inspiration for Grumpy Cat.

The connection with the next two songs can be figured out easily enough if you actually waste your time and read along through today's 'blog-entry. You can consider this your contribution to National Read Across America Day, but I will expect everyone to contribute and Pay It Forward on their own.)


In keeping with my self-imposed 2013 breakfastary restrictions, I decide to go to Original Buffalo Wings (OBW) on Lombard Street (on the corner of Divisadero Street) this morning. They open up plenty early enough at 7:00am everyday, and do not do "Brunch". They are a small local chain and have six or seven Bay Area locations (depending on which part of their official web-site you look at).

OBW is located in the space that once housed the Not Yet World Famous Clown Alley. I think that the Lombard Street restaurant of that particular hamburger joint had already closed by the time I had moved to San Francisco in 1986, but the main location on Columbus Street remained open for a few more years yet.

I distinctly remember the first time that I went to the Not Yet World  Famous Clown Alley. Back in February 1978 when I was stationed at the Defense Language Institute/Presidio of Monterey, a friend of mine (Hey, Wayne!) had just bought a new (used) VW Bug and wanted to test it out on a road trip up to San Francisco. Of course, he only came up with this great idea at 11:00pm on a Friday night (alcohol may have been involved in this decision). However, this didn't stop us (that would be Wayne, myself, and Glen Bacon ~ no relation to the illustrious inventor of the Glen Bacon Scale) from jumping in the car and arriving at the Golden Gate Bridge around 1:00am on Saturday morning. After driving across the bridge (and running out of gas, but that's a "whole nuther" story for some other time), we decided to get something to eat.

Unfortunately, the only place nearby that was open at 2:30am happened to be Clown Alley. At that early/late hour, we shared the place with a bunch of (other) drunks and hookers. After grabbing a bite to eat, we decided that maybe we should find a place to crash for a few hours before playing touristas in San Francisco for the rest of day before heading back to Montereyski. We ended up finding a nearby flea-bag motel right along Lombard Street.

As we were stupid, poor Air Force Airmen, we really couldn't afford a room each to ourselves, so we got one room between the three of us. However, there were only two large beds in the room, so I chose to sleep on the floor between the two beds. Sure, I had just been through six weeks of Basic Training with both of these guys and had seen both of them naked many times before (meh?!), but when Wayne said there was plenty of room in the bed for the both of us, I told him: "No thanks. Why do you think they are called 'Queen-sized' beds?" Of course, Glen was already sound asleep by this time and could have cared less where I slept.

The Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

This morning I once again parked over by the Lombard Gate of the Presidio. I heard at least a few dozen of my little feathered buddies, but they were way up in the tops of the eucalyptus trees and I really didn't see any of them flying overhead.

Pay It Forward Weekend… or bugger off! ~ Part III
(To get this reference, please see 'blog-entries from March 3rd, 2012 and March 5th, 2011.)

After breakfast, I walked over to Chestnut Street and was planning on "Paying It Forward" at the Peet's there. However, along the way (and just a half-block from reaching my destination) I passed a table set up on the sidewalk by some Girl Scouts. Now, I am a sucker for this time of year and always like to buy a few boxes of cookies in support. So I bought four boxes of Girl Scout Cookies (two boxes of samoas® ~ the toasted coconut/caramel/striped chocolate ones, which are my favourite, I bought one for now and the other I have to hide from myself so that I can enjoy them later for my birthday in June ~ yes, I really am that manic; one box of savanah smiles™ ~ lemon wedge cookies; and one box of thank u berry much™ ~ with cranberries and white fudge chips) and instead of getting the $4.00 change back from my $20.00 bill, I just told them to give a free box of cookies to the next customer that came along. I told them that if the person questioned this act of unbridled kindness to say that the free box of cookies was "on Scott".

I didn't have a bag to carry all the boxes, as I really wasn't figuring on buying any Girl Scout Cookies today, but the mother-lady gave me a large paper bag (the kind with handles) to carry all of them. So, the five boxes really only cost me $19.90 (to get that joke, you have to understand that San Francisco has a new stupid law that people have to use their own bags at all stores or get charged 10¢ per bag).

R.I.P. Mr. XV!

Anyway, back to the breakfast part of this breakfast 'blog…

I know what you are thinking, "Buffalo Wings for breakfast?" Well, they taste just like chicken, Jessica. Actually, they offer a pretty decent selection of breakfast items on the menu. I ordered the Garden Omelette ~ avocado, green bell peppers, onions, spinach, tomatoes, and Monterey Jack cheese; served with hashbrowns and a choice of toast (I had English muffins this morning). I also had a cuppa their house coffee, which was America's Best Coffee (that is just their claim, they are not really).
 

The omelette was really nothing special, it just had lots of avocado and spinach in it, which is always nice. Surprisingly, the coffee was actually not that bad for a greasy-spoon diner/hot wings joint.

OBW only has as condimentary supplementation Tapatío® (you'd think that as a "Buffalo Wings" place that they would at least have some Frank's® RedHot). But as Stevie Nicks' dad, Max[1], would say, it was lucky that I  had brought some of my own bottles with me; I used some Cherry Republic® KaBOB's Kick'en Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the hashbrowns and just six drops total (I counted; this stuff is pretty "nukular") of BIG PAPI En Fuego Hot Sauce Grand Slam XXXtra Hot (Thanks, Kerry! At this rate, I should be able to use up the bottle in another hundred or so uses) on the omelette.

 
"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck…" on Lombard Street again.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Garden Omelette ~ 5.8; The Cat in the Hat/Doctor Seuss ~ 8.5; Girl Scout Cookies ~ 6.0-7.0


1. You really thought that you could get through another one of my 'blog-entries (and especially one with references to DLI) without a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day? Well, here is the stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer des Tages:

"Macht nichts" (which sounds a bit like "Max Nicks") is German for "It makes no difference" or "No matter". I think the direct translation is "It makes nothing".