Dolores Park Café

Which used to be called "Mulva Outdoor Public Open Space Greenery Bistro", but it was too much of a mouthful for people to remember, Jerry. (It just didn't roll off the tongue well enough.)

http://www.doloresparkcafe.com/


Place: Dolores[1] Park Café 
Location: 501 Dolores Street (at 18th Street)
Hours: Open Monday-Saturday 7 AM; open Sunday at 8 AM
Meal: Veggie Scramble (tomato, mushroom, onion, spinach, Cheddar cheese; served with fruit or potatoes & organic 5-grain toast); and a large cuppa Sightglass Coffee, Finca[2] Alcatraz (Columbia)

(This EweToob video may or may not have anything to do with "Dolores", or "Park", or "Café". Who the hell can ever tell what Mr. Zimmerman is singing about, anyhow?)


I had breakfast this morning at Dolores Park Café. This is the original of three sister-coffeehouses in San Francisco; the other two being: Duboce Park Café (see last 'blog-entry from August 24th, 2013) and Precita Park Café (the newest of the three, which I have never been to yet). Dolores Park Café has been in the Mission neighborhood now since 1997. I have had coffee and eaten there a few times for lunch and dinner, but this was my first breakfastary outing there. In addition to a pretty decent indoor seating area, there is a large sidewalk-patio seating area with about seven tables that could seat 2-3 people each. I mention that fact as there is really no need for any stupid parklets here; thank you! Plus, they happen to be located right across the street from Dolores Park.

(This is a replica of Mexico's Liberty Bell ~ Campana de la Libertad de México ~ from 1810.)


As with most local coffeehouses, you pay at the counter first, get a number, and then they bring your meal out to you. Dolores Park Café offers a few other good breakfast choices/ideas: Breakfast Burrito (which I already had at Duboce Park Café); Dolores Egg Sandwich (pancetta, egg, tomato, arugula, Cheddar cheese, & garlic aioli); Bagel Deluxe (cream cheese, cucumber, tomato, red onion, avocado ~ but not to be confused with Bagel De Lox); or even French Toast (with seasonal fruit & organic maple syrup).

The scramble was good enough; tasty, but nothing really special. I am sure I could make a dish of similar quality… if I ever had all of the ingredients that it has in it. Of course I went with the potatoes as my side choice over the stupid fruit; and these were a decent enough homefries variety. The toast was actually served as three half-slices. Why?! I don't know…
Third Base! I wonder if I had received a half-slice of someone else's meal or did some other fargin' bastage get a half-slice of mine?!

The coffee was from a very good local roastery, Sightglass Coffee. The specific blend/roast this morning happened to be Finca Alcatraz (a Columbian bean roast). Since when did coffee start getting described like a pretentious wine? This is a direct quote from their web-site: "This vibrant coffee shines with notes of cara cara orange and red grape and a sweet, cherry cola finish." What do I know? It just tasted like roasted coffee beans to me, which is really all I ask for, anyway.

https://sightglasscoffee.com/

As far as I could see (I knew I should have brought my bifocals with me), Dolores Park Café only has Tapatío® as a condimentary supplementation. I went with some of my own Serious Food… Silly Prices Mango Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the scramble and a little Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce ~ XX Habanero (Thanks agains, Amys & Brian!) on the potatoes.

As they offer many standard coffeeshop pastries, such as croissants and other heterogeneous[3] baked goodies, I got a Lemon-Poppyseed doughnut for a breakfast dessert. (Seriously, does anyone have any suggestions for a new portmanteau for "breakfastary desserts"?) Sorry, I didn't bother to take a photo of this. It was topped with a thick lemon-poppyseed glaze… and round… with a hole in the middle… you know, a doughnut.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggie Scramble ~ 6.0; Lemon-Poppyseed doughnut ~ 6.4; Sightglass Coffee, Finca Alcatraz ~ 6.9


1. "Dolores" was not the name of the first wife of Junípero Serra.

Dolores Park (and also Dolores Street) gets its name from the small town of Dolores, Mexico, which played a major part in the Mexican War of Independence in 1810.

(Besides, everyone knows that Father Serra's first wife's name was Gipple, anyway.)

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

"Finca" simply means "estate" in Spanish. 

Now, perhaps, someone could tell me just what the heck "No Tango De Niro" means. Is Tango related to Robert and unwelcome in most places in the barrio? And just who the heck is this "Pablo Español" person they are always talking about in the Mission, too?

3. Despite the protestations of Papa Duck, this has nothing to do with going against certain laws of your Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) God.