NICK’S ~ since 1927

A breakfastary roadtrip:
Rockaway Beach, Pacifica[1], CA

http://nicksrestaurant.net/homepage.html


Place: NICK'S ~ since 1927
Location: 100 Rockaway Beach, Pacifica
Hours:  Monday through Thursday open at 10:00am, Friday open at 9:00am, and Saturday and Sunday open at 8:00am
Meal: Farmhouse Scramble ~ zucchini, spinach, red bell pepper, onion, and goat cheese, served with potatoes and choice of toast; and a glass of orange-grapefruit (half-and-half) juice

(I know what you are thinking about today's EweToobular juxtaselections: What?! Breakfast all the way down in Rockaway Beach, Pacifica and no songs by the Ramones? Well, the truth is that I couldn't find a decent the Ramones song about "Pacifica".

Actually, it was just a year ago that Linda Ronstadt[2] revealed that she has Parkinson's Disease and "can no longer sing a note". So, I have designated this weekend as International Linda Ronstadt Weekend. And if any of youse knuckleheads and wise-guys doesn't like it, youse can start your own stupid 'blog-thingy.

And here's an extra little known Cliff Clavin fact: "Different Drum" was written by one Robert Michael Nesmith, formerly of the Monkees fame.)


It was such a great sunny (well, almost) morning today, that I decided to make a breakfastary roadtrip… all the way down to NICK'S ~ since 1927 in Rockaway Beach, Pacifica. I've eaten there for lunch a few times in the past, but this was my first time eating there for breakfast. There were dozens of surfers out this morning (along with hundreds of seagulls) along the shore. (And, okay, I will admit that I may actually have been humming to myself ♪ "Rock-Rock-Rockaway Beach" ♪ as I walked along the shore for a bit after breakfast.)

NICK'S is an old-style, 50's-ish family seafood restaurant. They have actual cloth napkins (unfortunately, I left some blood-red stains on my napkin from some of my hot sauces; Oops! Well, you shouldn't bring a blanket to the beach if you don’t expect to get sand on it.) and tablecloths. The main dining space is a huge area ~ with about fourteen aquamarine leather-covered (vinyl-/naugahyde-covered?) booths (about eight are located right along the window side overlooking the ocean ~ and in case the name of the town wasn't already a give-away, that would be the Pacific Ocean) and sixteen tables for four each; and there is also another complete dinner/evening/cocktail lounge area about as big where there is an open dance floor for nights when they have a live band playing (on Friday and Saturday nights).

Now, I am not quite sure if the place is actually named "NICK'S" (possessive) or "NICKS" (plural). There really wasn't an apostrophe on the signage that I could see. And I kind of like the idea of a plethora of Nicks owning and running the joint: 

Nick 1: "Hey, Nick, did you remember to order the swordfish?" 
Nick 2: "No, that was Nick's job, ask him." 
Nick 1: "Hey, Nick, did you remember to order the swordfish?" 
Nick 3: "Why are you bothering me about it? Nick was supposed to do it. Ask him." 
Nick 4: "Don't even look at me. I did it last month."

Well, you get the idea. (Hmmm?! Maybe I shoulda posted some Stevie Nicks songs instead of Linda Ronstadt songs. Or was there ever a "Nicky Ramone"?)

There were a couple of other interesting-sounding dishes on their standard breakfast menu (but just one other choice really for stupid vegetarians): Cowboy Omelette (sausage, onions, mushrooms, bell pepper, and Jack cheese); Rockaway Omelette (Dungeness crab meat with tomato and onions); and Sanchez Omelette (linguiça, green chilies, onions, tomato, with avocado, cilantro, and sour cream ~ or substitute Soyrizo; which I would have done, of course). They also had on the weekend "Specials" board: American Benedict (which seemed to be a standard Eggs Benedict, but with tomato slices and avocado in place of the normal dead, decaying porky stuff ~ so, I almost went with that as my choice).

This was another fine scrambled mess you've gotten me into, Stanley. It was made with lots of zucchini and spinach, both always a good thing with me. Plus, there was a lot of goat cheese on top to add a nice creaminess element. (I think that is represented as "Cr" on the Periodic Table, with an Atomic Number of 20.5.) I went with the marbled rye for my choice of toast. (Sure, it may not be up to Schnitzer's Bakery standards, but I bet you can't get fresh Dungeness crab or avocado readily in Manhattan, ya old bag!) The side of potatoes was of the homefried variety; I liked them a lot; they were very good and crispy and crunchy.

As I had skipped any Coffee with breakfast, I made sure to make a cuppa Peet's Coffee & Tea® Sulawesi-Kalosi blend that I just picked up the other day (and I am still using my Peet's® gift card from my birthday ~ Thanks, Amy!) to enjoy while I am typing up this 'blog-entry. This was another great new find for me. I like this roast/blend a lot. It has a very full body and a balanced liveliness (I really have no idea what that is supposed to mean, I just copied those terms from their web-site). After their Alta De Dota (which is one of the best new Coffees that I have tasted in a long time, but was only available for a very short time earlier in the year), this is probably my current favourite of theirs. 

http://www.peets.com/coffee/by-region/coffee-shop-by-category-indo-pacific/sulawesi-kalosi.html

For condimentary supplementation, NICK'S only has Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce and Tapatío®. I used some of my own Fat Cat® Surprisingly Mild Guajillo Ghost (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) generously ('cause that's the kinda soul I am) all over the potatoes and just a little El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero (Thanks, Brian!) on the scrambled mess. The Fat Cat® proved to be a big hit with both my waitress-server person lady and the hostess-manageress lady; they both made sure to open up the bottle for a nice whiff of it. I would have gladly given them some to sample if they had wanted, too. For a hot sauce that has the dreaded Ghost Chilli as one of its ingredients, this really is very palatable and not as deadly as it may sound.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Farmhouse Scramble ~ 6.4; Peet's® Sulawesi-Kalosi ~ 7.5 (and possibly trending higher still)


1. For those of you unfamiliar with the town/city of Pacifica, it is located about ten miles due South of San Francisco right along Scenic Highway 1. 

One of its notable residents is the comedian/Saturday Night Live alumnus, Rob Schneider ~ the Robinator, Rock Rob-ster, the Schneid, Rooooob! 

2. It seems that the musical geniuses at Microsoft Spell-checker do not recognize Linda's last name as being a valid spelling. The options I am getting are "Rundstedt" or "Ramstad", because those make soooo much more sense.