Primo Patio Cafe

"It seemed like a matter of minutes when we began rolling into the foothills before Oakland and suddenly reached a height and saw stretched out ahead of us the fabulous white city of San Francisco on her eleven mystic hills with the blue Pacific and its advancing wall of potato patch fog beyond, and smoke and goodness in the late afternoon of time…"
~ Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Chapter 9

http://www.primopatiocafe.com/


Place: Primo Patio Cafe 
Location: 214 Townsend Street (between 3rd and 4th Streets)
Hours: Mon-Sat open at 9:00am (well, sometimes)
Meal: Monterey Scramble ~ Eggs scrambled with black olives, green onions, Jack & Parmesan cheese, served with Caribbean potatoes and black beans; and a cuppa San Francisco Coffee Company 

(Just some Caribbeany EweToobular videos to set the mood.)


I finally made it back to Primo Patio Cafe (see previous 'blog-entry from October 8th, 2011); and by "finally" I don't mean that I had other things pending that kept me from getting back there, I mean that they were actually open for a change when they were supposed to be. After two failed attempts to eat there in the past few months when they were either closed or not open at the intended time (once was due to rain, which is perfectly acceptable), I suppose the third time's a charm.

Once again, I sat outside back in their courtyard patio area (as that is all there is really available ~ hence the "Patio" portion of their name; I am still trying to figure out where the "Primo" and "Cafe" parts come in, though). For the winter months, they have a large covered awning to sit under, I was informed that starting next week, when the San Francisco Giants are back in town, they will take it down until next Fall again. There are even a few of those overhead gas heater jobbies ~ I chose to sit as far away from those as possible. (What is the point of eating outdoors if you need a stupid heater to do so?) Seating consists of twenty-six tables for two (or combinations of three to four people thereof), and there is an ocean/aquatic theme going on ~ some fishy decorated tables and seashells and stuff along the walls; of course, San Francisco couldn't be further from the water itself.

(You can really see the bright, vibrant colours that they have here.)


the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

I had parked over on South Park where there are 
(?where there is?) two hours of free parking during the day all week long (well, all day free on Sundays) and saw and heard several of the Wild Parrots in the taller trees around the park loop. I figure it won't be very long before most parks throughout the city are infested… er, inhabited by these little winged joys.

There were a few other good ideas for stupid vegetarians off the breakfast section of their menu: Scooter (Scrambled eggs on a soft French roll, lettuce, tomato, Primo sauce; if I had ordered that, I would have ordered it with a side of Caribbean potatoes) or Seasonal Scramble (Eggs scrambled with spinach, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, onions, & garlic).

This was just an okay scramble. It had a mess o' cheese in it, which is always good, but the black olives were just the boring, sliced canned variety; it was missing something else ~ some fresh, sliced/diced jalapeños would have been great even. Unfortunately, as I had gotten there just a few minutes after they had opened (and actually on time this morning), they did not have any of the Caribbean potatoes ready yet. They substituted those with a toasted/grilled French roll (the potatoes would have been much better, of course). ¡Mierda! Once again, I missed out and should have ordered a side order of plantains. 

The cuppa Coffee came in an extra large/tall mug, because of which I only needed a half-refill once. This was served in a pretty cool mug, too; and like me (and Eddie's Cafe and Straw), it seems they do not own a matching set of mugs either. Apparently this roast/blend is made specially for them by San Francisco Coffee Company.

The only condimentary supplementation that I saw out on some of the tables was El Yucateco® Salsa Picante Roja de Chile Habanero. This was kind of à propos as I had brought a bottle of my own El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero (Thanks, Brian!) with me this morning, which I used a bit of all over the scramble mess. The dish comes with a small tin cup of their own Primo sauce, too, which, as best as I can describe it, seemed like French dressing with some hot sauce added to it; a little sweet with a little heat. I added some of that to the scramble, too, and mixed with my own hot sauce, it made for a pretty nice flavour combination.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Monterey Scramble ~ 6.1; the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.2