"Such was life in the Golden Gate,
Gold dusted all we drank and ate,
And I was one of the children told,
'We all must eat our peck of gold'"
~ Robert Frost (who was born in San Francisco and lived there for the first eleven years of his life; however, he is normally associated with New England where he spent most of his life)
(No official web-site.)
Place: Cable Car Café
Location: 519 Powell Street (between Sutter and Bush Streets)
Hours: open for breakfast every day of the week at 7:00am; phonicular contact: (415) 982-3097
Meal: Eggs Florentine Crepe ~ 2 scrambled eggs, cheese, baby spinach, tomato, and pesto sauce (with side fruits); and a cuppa Mountanos Brothers Coffee Company Columbia Supremo and a refilla French Roast
https://mountanosbros.com/
(Seeing as this restaurant is located only half-way up the hill, I suppose I can be considered just a half-wit.)
As I had to head downtown on Saturday to meet up with an old high school classmate ("Hey, Kathy!"), anyway, I figured I might as well eat breakfast somewhere down there, too. I just ended up going to Cable Car Café. It is a little place that is mainly a crêpes joint and tourista crowd destination, which is to be expected, as they are right in the hotel area of town (and, Jesse James, take note, they are located right across the street from the San Francisco Marriott Union Square). There are only fifteen tables for two people (many of which are already pushed together for seating for three to four people); one large table for four to five people; and five counter stools along the back wall (for one person each, of course). The Cable Car tracks on Powell Street pass by right outside the front windows (hence their name, and because "One Block Uphill From Union Square Crêperie" would have been a mouthful and might really have scared off the touristas).
There were a few other good crêpey and breakfastary ideas from which to choose: Lox Crepe (cream cheese, sundried tomato, red onion, caper, and smoked salmon, spinach ~ that one actually sounded pretty good, less the dead, decaying aquatic animal); Pesto Turkey Crepe (smoked turkey, Mozzarella cheese, tomato & house pesto sauce); Good Morning Crepe (2 eggs, cheese, sausage, onion, and bell peppers with salsa); or Cheese Omelet (3 eggs, cheese, potatoes and toast).
This was a HUGE square crêpe (which they have spelled on the menu sans circumflex; that is okay and an accepted spelling, but if you are going to serve French crêpes, I think you might as well include the little hat on the "e"). It was a decent enough crêpe, but once you get the crêpe batter down correctly, it is a pretty easy thing to make well. However, due to my somewhat perspicacious tastes, I really did not notice much (any?) of the requisite pesto sauce. This was okay, as there was more than a good amount of fresh, sautéed baby spinach inside. (I would never have guessed that Popeye was un marinaio da Firenze.) I think that the cheese that was mixed in was probably just Cheddar, which seems to be a pretty standard ingredient with most local crêperies; I would liked to have seen some kind of Hollandaise sauce incorporated inside it (or on top of it, even). Of course, as stated on the menu, this was made with scrambled eggs instead of the normal poached eggs, and there was no English muffin stuffed inside either.
Today's side of fruits were grapes, strawberries, pineapple, and cantaloupe[1].
For condimentary supplementation, Cable Care Café has both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) and Huy Fong Foods Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. I went with a some of the Sriracha Sauce generously squirted all over the top of the crêpe.
After breakfast (as I still had a few hours to kill, Bill), I just walked around Union Square for a bit. Since 2004, there has been a display of large heart statues throughout the city, and all four corners of Union Square sport one.
(This one is in the northwest corner and was created by some little-known cantante italiano named Anthony Benedetto; apparently, he considers himself to be a bit of un artista and may have something to do with being a benefactor of cardiology or something.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_in_San_Francisco
Lastly, this is just a well-deserved plug for an organization called Suspended Coffees. I first heard of them through their defacedbook page. They are based out of Ireland and their philosophy is based upon the simple idea of paying for a cuppa Coffee in advance as an anonymous act of charity. I have not located any such coffeehouses that participate in this directly in the Bay Area, but there are many such places throughout the United States that have joined in. Check them out and see if there are any in your nape of the forest.
http://www.suspendedcoffees.com/
How do you say "Pay it forward." in Italian? "Caffè sospeso."
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Eggs Florentine Crêpe ~ 6.2
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer(s) of the day:
Just because I felt like it, here are several fruity words in Russian:
fruit ~ фрукты/frukty
grape ~ виноград/vinograd
strawberry ~ клубника/klubnika
pineapple ~ ананас/ananas
cantaloupe ~ канталупа/kantalupa
No comments:
Post a Comment