Little Griddle

"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch." ~ Orson Welles

http://www.littlegriddlesf.com/


Place: Little Griddle
Location: 1400 Market Street (at the corner of Fell and Polk Streets[1])
Hours: Open 7 Days a Week|Breakfast, brunch & lunch; Saturday - Tuesday 7:30am-3pm, Wednesday-Friday 7:30am-4pm
Meal: Ultimate Hash Browns (w/ melted Cheddar, Muenster[2], & Pepperjack cheeses, topped w/ avocado, sour cream + chives; served w/ 2 cage-free eggs, & toast); and cuppas Stumptown[3] Coffee Roasters Holler Mountain Blend and Ethiopia Mordecofe Reserve

(Who knew that Gérard Depardieu could sing so well?)


I have been meaning on trying ("… meaning to try..."? Whatever.) a new place (for me, I am not really sure how long the restaurant has been there) and finally got around to eating at Little Griddle. Their location just makes it so much easier to eat there early on a Sunday morning (and they open up early enough to do so, too); I got a free and legal parking spot just two blocks away over by City Hall (just try doing that during the week or on a Saturday morning). They are really a "little" triangular place with seating for 26 only. You order and pay first at the counter/cash register and then they bring out your meal to you.

They had several other good ideas from the breakfastary portion of the menu for a stupid vegetarian (seeing as they are basically a burger-joint, there were plenty of choice for those dead, decaying animal-flesh eaters, too): A+ Student Omelet (Avocado, fresh spinach, crimini mushrooms, sliced yellow onions, diced stake[4] tomatoes); Backyard Medley Scramble (Fresh spinach, crimini mushrooms, sliced yellow onions, diced stake tomatoes ~ I suppose, that is, if your backyard has crucified tomatoes in it); and several types of Griddle Cakes (Plain, Pecan, or Chocolate Chip ~ with many different toppings options), too.

This was a very good meal; plus, I always like it when potatoes are the focus of the meal. I thought three cheeses was a very nice touch, and I always like the addition of avocado. However, I think it could have used maybe just one more ingredient to really put it over the top; perhaps some diced tomatoes (stake or otherwise), sliced (fresh) jalapeños, or some grilled or sautéed red onions… something extra… something that the French "just don’t know what"… some Goat cheese or Feta cheese even? The two eggs are prepared however you like and served on the side. I had mine over-medium and then placed them on top of the pile o' potatoes and such (I was going to say I "laid" them on top, but I am never sure if that is supposed to be "laid" or "lied", and I am not a chicken, anyway).

There were four different Stumptown Coffee Roasters roasts/blends from which to choose, and you could get your own refills. I made sure to try at least two flavours. I am not sure if I have ever had this particular brand of coffee before, but I will keep an eye out for it in the future. I started with Holler Mountain Blend; it was pretty decent. But with my second refill (well, third cuppa actually; I had my first refill of Holler Mountain Blend first… or second, whatever), I tried Ethiopia Mordecofe Reserve on the recommendation of the pretty counter-lady (by that, I mean the lady that was working at the counter; I know this is San Francisco, but it wasn't an early morning tranny-show on Polk Street… not that there is anything wrong with that, Jerry) who said that was her favourite; it really was very good and I liked it much better than the Holler Mountain Blend, which really was pretty good itself, anyway.

http://stumptowncoffee.com/

Liddle Grittle really excels with their condimentary supplements selection. They offer: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the original red); Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original); Tapatío®; Frank’s® RedHot® (Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce); and two types of El Yucateco® (Salsa Picante Roja de Chile Habanero and XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero; I almost brought my own bottle of this same sauce with me this morning). Even with all of those choices, I still went with some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters XX Habanero Pepper Sauce (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) liberally all over the mess and just 5-6 drops of Big Papi En Fuego Hot Sauce Off The Wall Triple Hot (Thanks, Kerry!) for some extra-added mojo (GO RED SOX!!!). 

And despite what some people say, there is not Mordecofe than meets the tastebud…


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Ultimate Hash Browns ~ 6.7; Holler Mountain Blend ~ 6.5; Ethiopia Mordecofe Reserve ~ 7.0


1. There used to be an old joke that said the building on the corner was located at "One Polk, Two Fell…".

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

There are two types of cheese with the name "Muenster" (the 'merican version) and "Munster" (the original French version, which is not one that Herman or Lily make). Both cheeses get their names from the Alsatian abbey of Munster (Haut-Rhin, in the Vosgian mountains; not to be confused with the similarly named town of Münster, Germany, but that place name also has the same word origin). 

"Munster" translates as "monastery", derived from Latin "monastērium" (see also "minster").

3. "Stumptown" is one of several nicknames of Portland, Oregon. In the mid-19th Century, the city's growth led residents to clear a lot of land quickly, but the tree stumps were not immediately removed; in some areas, there were so many that people used to jump from stump to stump to avoid the muddy, unpaved roads.

4. This was how they had it spelled/referenced on the menu. I am not sure if they meant "beefsteak
tomatoes" or that the tomatoes were actually grown on "stakes" (as opposed to hydroponically?).