higher grounds coffee house

"I don't want to spend my life 'dancing as if nobody is watching', but more like 'dancing as if everyone is watching and make sure they are all taking notes'." 
~ Robin Williams[1]

(No official web-site.)


Place: higher grounds coffee house ~ a nice little place to eat (it says so right on their window and they do not lie)
Location: 691 Chenery Street (on the corner of Diamond Street); phonicular contact: (415) 587-2933
Hours: open daily at 8:00am
Meal: Alla Toscana[2] (crêpe) ~ Mozzarella, Parmesan, olive oil, spinach, egg, Ricotta, special spices (savory crêpes served with potatoes & salad); and a cuppa the (Coffee)house blend

(In celebration of Veterans Day, which is coming up on Tuesday, I am including the first EweToobular song by Stevie Wonder. I bet that not many people were aware that Stevie Wonder used to be an Air Force Pilot back in Double-U, Double-U, Aye, Aye. 

The second song is just because they happened to be playing old 30's and 40's Big Band songs on the [Coffee]house stereo this morning. Of course, this massive hit for the "King of Swing", Benjamin David Goodman, was written by none other than "King Louie" Prima himself.)


For this morning's breakfastary experience, I headed all the way over to higher grounds coffee house (alternately, this may be called higher ground ~ a coffeehouse, with a singular "ground" and "coffeehouse" as one word, as this is what the older wooden sign above the door reads) in Glen Park. It is a very small place; there is just seating of nine tables for two inside, and another two small tables for two on the sidewalk. It was a hopping little place the entire time I was there this morning with most of the tables occupied and a steady amount of walk-in customers taking stuff to go. There is even a pretty cool Coffee bag-covered ceiling.

There was just one guy (probably the owner-guy) working behind the counter taking orders, making Coffee drinks, and doing all the cooking when I first got there. Someone else showed up at 9:00am and was helping with all the duties afterward, though.

It is super dog-friendly (if not maybe a little illegal), too, as there was a small, white Poodle-dog at another one of the (inside) tables when I had first got there. And everyone knows that you should never let dogs drink Coffee!

There were several other good crêpes/ideas: Puttanesca[3] (tomato, olives, onion, mushroom, garlic, capers, red pepper, parsley, olive oil, sour cream); Simply Italian (Mozzarella, Parmesan, basil, spices, salt, pepper, olive oil, zucchini); Curry (bell pepper, cheese, onion, sour cream, potato); Salsa (avocado, olives, tomato, cheese, onion, salsa, sour cream); Cannelloni (cheese, onion, mushroom, spinach, cottage cheese, Marinara; this probably would have been my pick other than the one I went with); or Apple Cheese (cheese, apple, brown sugar, cinnamon; which I would have had to order a side of potatoes to go with). With this many good crêpes from which to choose, I will really have to make a plan to re-visit higher grounds again some time (of course, with all the re-visits and new places that I already have planned to visit, this may not happen for another two to three years).

This was a very good crêpe ~ kind of like an omelette inside a crêpe. This is a very cool idea. It had lots of spinach and Mozzarella that I detected, but I really couldn't discern much Ricotta. It was all still very good, anyhow. I actually liked this so much so that I claiming this place as "The Best 'New' (for me, at least) Crêpe Joint of 2014".

The Coffee was very good, too. I asked the owner-guy what roast/blend they normally have prepared in the thermos up front, and he said it is a special (Coffee)house blend that they make themselves from a few different local wholesale Coffees that they buy. Now, I normally don't comment on the prices of any food or Coffee products (they are what they are), but I just found this to be pretty funny. They charge $2.07 for a standard cuppa. I have no idea why it is such an odd amount. Why not a more even $2.05 or $2.10? (Okay, yes, the current Sales Tax in San Francisco is 8.75% and that would make a standard cuppa $2.25 total with tax, but it is all a moot point if someone orders any other items with Coffee.)

For condimentary supplements, higher grounds has just Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce available. They do also have bottles of fresh, whole peppercorn grinders on most tables, too. I used some of my own Fat Cat® Surprisingly Mild Guajillo Ghost (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the crêpe and some (the last of it ~ but don't cry for me, Argentina, I still have about a dozen more bottles of hot sauce left in my collection) Dave's Gourmet® Ginger Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks again, Jim!) on the potatoes.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Alla Toscana ~ 6.8


1. Nah, this is not really a quote by Robin Williams. This just goes to prove that you can't believe everything (or anything) that you read on the World Wild Webs. I made it up this morning on my way back from breakfast. I just thought it sounded like something Robin might have said; plus, it makes the quote sound funnier if he had said it.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numero uno:

"Alla Toscana" simply means "from/in the manner of Tuscany" in Italian. There is no corroboration that there was ever an Italian-Irish TeeVee show called "Alla McBeal", though.

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numero due:

"Puttanesca" means in Italian "of the whore". The word for "whore" in Italian is "puttana". The same word and word root "putana/puta" can be seen in Spanish, too.