(No official web-site.)
Place: Bayside Café
Location: 2011 Bayshore Boulevard (at Hester Avenue[1])
Hours: Monday through Saturday open at 5:00am and Sunday open at 6:30am;
phonicular contact: (415) 467-2023
Meal: Nopales Plate ~ onions, bell peppers scrambled with eggs, served with rice & (refried) beans (arroz y frijoles refritos) and tortillas (choice of corn or flour/maíz o harina); and a cuppa Café Mexicano
(Today happens to be Robert Allen Zimmerman's 73rd birthday. And as much as I would like to honour him with actual versions of his own songs, who the heck can really understand a word when he is singing ~ other than Keith Richards or Tom Petty, perhaps? So, I am just going with these EweToobular covers of his tunes.
And I know I could have linked the quintessential Dylan cover, "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix, but everyone knows that ~ even though Bob may have penned the song ~ Jimi really owns that one.
Don't worry, if Bob were asked about all this, I am sure he would reply with an agreeable: "Heeminna hummina hominna…" or something else equally as unintelligible.)
My breakfastary peregrination this morning took me all the way 'cross town to Bayside Café. They are located right where the Bayshore Boulevard/3rd Street flyover to Highway 101 is in Visitacion Valley[2]. However, they are not really "bayside", as the San Francisco Bay is about another half mile south-eastward still; you can easily see Candlestick Cove from the street, though. "Highwayside Café" just didn't have the same cachet, I suppose.
Bayside Café is an old 50's family diner-style place. They have fourteen diner-counter seats; eight booths for up to four people (all along the window-sides of the joint); one extra large corner booth for about six people (there was actually one family of eight squeezed in there this morning, but four of the eight were little kids); and one solitary (because two really isn't such a solitary number, is it?) table for four by the entryway.
The breakfast menu (and, believe me, there ain't no fancy-shmancy "Brunch"-ified menu to order off of here) was pretty diverse with many 'merican breakfastary standards and several desayunary mexicano dishes, too. Some other decent suggestions: Popeye Omelette (zucchini, mushrooms, spinach, bell peppers, and onions); Creamed Spinach & Mushroom Omelette (garlic butter and mushrooms in a rich, creamy sauce ~ this was going to be my fallback decision, because I was really interested in seeing how creamed spinach worked in an omelette); (and for those dead, decaying animal flesh fans) Fajita Omelette (choice of beef or chicken, onion, bell peppers, mushrooms & Jack cheese, topped with salsa & sour cream); or maybe even Huevos Rancheros.
I really liked my scramble. It made the trip all the way over there this morning worth it. All of the vegetables were grilled/charred first before adding them to the mix ~ this was all extra good to me! There was a good amount of nopalitos (hence the name of the dish) diced up into small bite-sized pieces all throughout. I went with corn tortillas (of which there were three, tres); I always feel these are a much better choice with a desayuno típico mexicano. The cuppa Coffee really wasn't called Café Mexicano, I just call it that whenever I add three to four creams (leche) and two to three sugars (azúcar) to it.
For condimentary supplementation, Bayside Café only offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (just the standard red) and Tapatío®. This was kind of disappointing, seeing as they looked to be mostly a Mexican-owned-and-operated place, I was expecting some fresh, homemade salsa around. Or, if it was available, I would probably have gone with some Cholula® Hot Sauce all over the scramble mess. As it was, I ended up using some of my own Mama Africa's™ Zulu Sauces Chilli Mint (Thanks, Kerry!) on the scramble.
A Breakfastary Update
There was a guy and his young teenage son sitting next to me at the diner-counter and they both used to be big fans of Breakfast at Tiffany's (see last 'blog-entry from February 12th, 2012) also; we all agreed that their hashbrowns were truly "Stella". He told me that they still haven't reopened yet, but there is a lot of construction going on (they basically gutted the entire place). So, hopefully, they will be reopening up later in the year.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Nopales Plate ~ 6.2
1. For any of you geeky Superman fans, it should be noted that Hester Avenue circles around to cross (and the very next street along Bayshore Boulevard is) Lois Lane. I looked on a map and did not see a Lex Luthor Way in the neighborhood, though. Interestingly enough, there are a Clark Street and a Kent Street in San Francisco, but they are both in the northern part of town.
2. If you want a little more information on Visitacion Valley, here is a link from those friendly folks at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visitacion_Valley,_San_Francisco
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