http://weirdfishsf.com/
Place: Dante's Weird Fish
Location: 2193 Mission Street (at 18th Street)
Hours: open for "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday at 10:00am
Meal: Weird Classic ~ 2 eggs, (weird) spuds, (drop dead) biscuits & portabella pepper-gravy; and a cuppa coffee
(There is no connection or relationship between today's breakfastary destination and today's EweToobular selection ~ well, none that I am aware of ~ I just like the song. That Cyndi Lauper lady singing back-up is pretty good and should have tried her own solo career.)
Per la prima colazione, sono andato a Dante's Weird Fish. They have been at this location for several years already (it says since 2006 on their web-site), but I first learned of them just a few weeks back when I was in the Mission (on another mission trying to locate a new shared-space coffee-and-waffles joint[2]) and happened to pass by the restaurant and liked what I saw on their menu.
Dante's Weird Fish is basically a Pescatarian[3] (with some vegetarian and Vegan additions) restaurant. It is a pretty small space with seating for just twenty-two total. I was the only "weirdo" there this morning and had the entire place to myself the whole time I was eating. Other than that they call their early morning meal "Brunch" and that they don't open up until 10:00am on the weekends, I really like the place. They have these cool napkins on all the tables which are actually black and white handkerchief/bandana thingys.
Dante's Weird Fish doesn't have that extensive of a "Brunch" menu (about fourteen items), but most everything they offer is vegetarian-friendly and there are a few Vegan options, too. The menu is broken down into Our Fathers (egg dishes), Hail Marys (desayunos mexicanos), and Hellis Griddle (French toast and pancakes).
I had my two eggs over-medium. That is always pretty simple and hard to mess up.
The weird potatoes were the real find here. These were Excellent! overall (if I were to rate them on their own, I'd probably have to give them a 7.5 GBS Rating) ~ made with both white (or maybe red) potatoes and sweet potatoes, and there was a ton of fresh, whole parsley cooked in with them (there was so much of it that I thought it might have been kale added in to the mix ~ which isn't that bad an idea ~ but the cute server-lady person checked for me and said it was just parsley). If they had whole cloves of roasted garlic in it, this would easily top even the Excellent! Roasted Home Potatoes at Eats. This is worth a return trip on its own merits.
The drop dead biscuits were good (but I actually survived); however, I thought they were a bit on the dry side. The portabella pepper-gravy really made up for it, though. That had a lot of flavour to it.
I am not sure if the coffee was "Vegan" or not. I asked the friendly server-lady what brand they used, but she didn't know. Sometimes the bags they buy the coffee in are just large and generic.
For condimentary supplements, Dante's Weird Fish offers a pretty varied selection: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red); Tapatío®; Crystal® Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce; and El Yucateco® ~ both Salsa Picante Roja de Chile Habanero and Salsa Picante Verde de Chile Habanero. I thought about using one of the bottles of El Yucateco®, but I went with some of my own Serious Food… Silly Prices Mango Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the spuds, and just 4-5 drops (at this rate, I may not use this bottle up before President Obama is reelected in 2016) of Blair's After Death Sauce with Liquid Fire (Thanks a lot, Sean!) on the eggs only.
I know that I will be getting back to Dante's Weird Fish again one of these day in the very near future for lunch or dinner: Seitan Hell Boy (a Vegan Po'boy), anyone?!
One of the only things I didn't find out was why the place is called "Dante's" "Weird Fish"? Was Durante degli Alighieri the Jacques Cousteau of the Middle Ages?
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Weird Classic ~ 7.0 (inclusively)
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-literaturistic puntatore del giorno, numero uno:
Of course, this is just my satirical take on the original quote from Dante Alighieri's La divina commedia (Canto III, line 9): "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate." ("Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.")
Dante's Weird Fish has this quote spelled as "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate." on their take-away menus. A quick Intro-Net search shows that alternate spelling in a few different places. I don't know if that is the spelling in Vecchio Italiano or not, but I am going with the correct spelling that I know of.
2. Linea Caffe and Lt. Waffle
http://www.lineacaffe.com/
http://www.ltwaffle.com/
For what it's worth, I didn't bother doing a 'blog-entry on this place as this was just a reconnaissance sortie to see if it would be worthwhile to go there for a breakfastary trip. The coffee was very good, and they do their own roasting; however, they only do espresso drinks and if you want just a plain ol' coffee, the closest you can get is an Americano.
As far as waffles go, they offer three sweet waffles and three savoury waffles. I tried the egg souffle waffle (w/chevre and fine herbs); it was good, but not really worth going back and doing an entire 'blog-entry on. (Hence, this footnote note only.)
I parked right in front of the place this morning and noticed that they do a pretty decent business on Sunday mornings.
3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist puntatore del giorno, numero due:
"Pescatarian" is just a new term where the root of "pesco-" is ultimately from Latin "piscis" ("fish"). However, the vowel "e" suggests that it has been taken from Italiano "pesce" ("fish").
(see: "Pisces" or "Pesci, Joe")
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