Caffé Union

"I do all my writing in bed. Everyone knows I do my best work there." 
~ Mae West

(No official web-site.)


Place: Caffé[1] Uníón 
Location: 1830 Uníón Stréét (between Octavia and Laguna Streets)
Hours: Monday through Friday open at 8:30am; Saturday and Sunday open at 8:00am (or 8:00ám); phonicular contact: (415) 673-4119
Meal: Basil Pesto, Fresh Tomatoes, Mushrooms, and Parmesan Cheese Omelet[2] ~ served with red country potatoes or herb potato pancakes with choice of sourdough or whole wheat toast; and a cuppa America's Best Coffee

(I really couldn't find any good Caffè-, Caffé-, Union-, or Uníón-related EweToobular songs, so I just figured I'd go with a couple of old Blues classics this morning.[3])


Sono tornato al Caffé Union (see 'blog-entry from June 24th, 2012) per la colazione di questa mattina. They are a medium-sized place with seating of five tables for four people, seven tables for two (which could always be combined for more tables of four if necessary), and even two Dog-friendly sidewalk tables for three people each (or two people and one large, black Dog each, like there was outside this morning).

Caffé Union has a few other good breakfastary ideas: Eggs of Paradise (two poached eggs in fresh homemade Tomato sauce with grilled French bread ~ which I had on my initial visit there; these were very good and always worth a return taste); a few different decent-sounding omelettes (Roasted Red Pepper, Smoked Ham, and Green Onions; Spinach, Tomatoes, and Feta Cheese; or Black Bean, Avocado, Homemade Salsa and Sour Cream); or the weekend special, Chicken Apple Sausage, Zucchini, Sundried Tomato Pesto, Yellow Onions, & Fontina Cheese Scramble. 

This was an absolutely HUGE omelette. The Basil Pesto was added into the egg mixture making it all very verdantly Seussian  ~ just with no side of green ham, Sam. While I liked this all well enough, I would not recommend this to those of you that are faint of heart with regards to either mushrooms or tomatoes, as they were both very much in abundance inside the omelette. For my potatoed side dish, I chose the red country potatoes (which I was happy to see were not from the country of Россия); the potatoes were all very nicely blackened/burned and crispy just likes I likes 'em (and apparently this is how they are normally prepared in one of them thar red countries). I went with sourdough toast as my choice in that department. 

The first cuppa Coffee was really kinda weak. I have had America's Best Coffee before, and while their moniker may be a bit on the lofty aspirations side (based in Oakland, CA, I wouldn't really even say they are the Bay Area's Best Coffee), it is still usually a decent enough cuppa. I was happy to see that the subsequent refilla was much better. So, I will just put it down to someone making the first potta the day a bit crummy (plus, I added the orange rind from the garnish on my plate ~ I ate the orange sections first ~ to help flavour it a bit more).

For condimentary supplementation, Caffé Union offers the San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces® (Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce ~ the standard red; Cholula® Hot Sauce; and Tapatio®). I simply used some of my own Youk's Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the commie potatoes and some El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero (Thanks again, Brian!) on parts of the omelette.

The bill came with a Charms® Mini Pop (mine today was Cherry mania), which is always nice. (This actually served as my lunch today as I was still pretty sufficiently stuffed from breakfast.)

(speaking of "mini") stupid parklets mini-rant of the day

Nooooooooooo!!! Not only have these street-side abominations already invaded the Outer Richmond, they have now crept (as in "creepy") into my immediate neighborhood! There is a brand new one of these obstructions (and an extra large, 3-4 car space one at that) in front of Simple Pleasures Cafe (see initial 'blog entry from March 15th, 2010) and, because of which, unfortunately, Simple Pleasures Cafe has now joined my ever-growing list of places to be boycotted. And in case you think I am being overly critical here: Golden Gate Park is just TWO BLOCKS away, fercryinoutloud! This is really a shame, because I really liked the Coffee there and the Bagel with Hummus and Veggies was a very nice light breakfast option; plus, their location just four blocks away was very handy. All of these stupid parklets are anathema to both actual parks and parking alike!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Omelet ~ 6.5


1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist (and pseudo-spelling Nazi) pointer of the day, prima parte:

"Caffé" is how they have it printed on both the menu and on their signage. As I have stated many times in the past (and a few times in the past weeks even), the correct spelling of both "Coffee" and "coffeehouse" in Italiano is "Caffè" and "caffè", con l'accento grave, non l'accento acuto. 

I really don't know why businesses wanting to emphasize their Italiano-ness insist on using the incorrect accentuation. Jùst hów hãrd ís ît tø věrïfý thësę?

2. And just because it's been a few weeks since I last added any (and I am getting paid by the word here, after all), here are several Italiano words from today's meal. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer(s) of the day, seconda parte:

A. "basil" = "basilico"
B. "pesto" = "pesto" (yeah, sometimes this stuff ain't Scienza Missilistica)
C. "tomatoes" = "pomodori"
D. "mushrooms" = "funghi" 
E. "Parmesan" = "Parmigiano"
F. "cheese" = "formaggio"
G. "omelette" = "frittata" (o "omelette"; sometimes this stuff ain't Chirurgia del Cervello neither)

3. For those of you not familiar with either Jazz Gillum or Bukka White, here is some information from our friendly friends at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Gillum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukka_White