Baker Street Bistro

"Go placidly amid the 'Brunch' crowd and hunger, and remember what piece (of Pain Perdu) there may be in breakfast."

http://www.bakerstreetbistro.com/


Place: Baker Street Bistro 
Location: 2953 Baker Street (between Lombard and Greenwich Streets)
Hours: open for "Brunch" Saturday & Sunday at 9:00am
Meal: Pain Perdu (A brunch favorite!) ~ French toast, fresh fruit, strawberry coulis & crème fraîche; a side of homefries; et une tasse de Café (avec quelques recharges)


My decision to go back to Baker Street Bistro (see last 'blog-entry from October 11th, 2014) for my very first breakfastary outing of 2015 was a completely premeditated choice (even if it was for what they call "Brunch"). Of course, this was also because it is usually too difficult to park downtown near Dottie's True blue café of a Saturday morning (just wait until tomorrow morning, though).

It was way too chilly this morning to sit outside on their sidewalk café seating area (even though they did have some of those portable, tall, standing gas heaters fired up for anyone that was brave enough or possibly dog-encumbered; I didn't see any takers the entire time I was there ~ neither of the humanoid nor canine variety, though). They were still festively well-decorated pour Noël et le Nouvel An with a lot of ornamentation and several poinsettia[1] placed all around the joint.

As Baker Street Bistro is the only place in the immediate neighborhood which is open that early in the morning, it is always interesting to see local, loyal customers stop in just for a "to-go" cuppa. This is equally of interest as there is un St*rbucks maudit located just a few blocks away in the Presidio. Good on ya, Cow Hollowians! 

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

After breakfast, I took a little walk around the block, mainly to check out if any of my colourful li'l avian friends were still around for the morning. I had the good fortune to hear and see several of them (probably half a dozen couples or more) flying around (and making a happy, tumultuous clamouring) up high in the eucalyptus trees over in the Presidio near the Lombard Gate.

Le Pain Perdu at Baker Street Bistro is always the perfect cure for the desiderium[2] for hunger of breakfast past (or at least from the past week). It goes without saying (So why do people always use that caveat to start a sentence, anyway?) that Baker Street Bistro's version of French Toast trumps last week's version at Zazie (which was by no means a slouch on its own). If I have one minor complaint (une plainte mineure, peut-être?), it would be that I do miss the extra-added bonus of the old "orange-infused maple syrup" that they used to have with this meal.

I noticed that they are now slicing the homefries (made from red potatoes still) instead of just cutting them in large chunks (quarters of the whole small potatoes usually), which I always felt was a bit cumbersome to eat. I suppose it may just be a quirk of whichever sous-guy is preparing them in the morning, but I still liked them this way much better.

Les fruits d'aujourd'hui ~ les suspects habituels: les pommes (apples), les oranges (Do I really need to translate this one?), les cantaloups (Another one of which I will let you guess the translation), pastèque (watermelon), et l'ananas (pineapple). 

For condimentary supplementation, Baker Street Bistro only offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red). That really didn't matter, as I had come well-prepared with a few of my own hot sauces (and both of these were also a predeterminative selection). I went with some Fat Cat® Surprisingly Mild Guajillo Ghost (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on half of the potatoes and some Lucky Dog
Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the other half of the potatoes. (Of course, no hot sauces are ever needed or used on ce Pain Perdu ultime. Merci beaucoup!)

Not only was this another great meal at Baker Street Bistro, it was a great freebie meal, too. Une "Bonne Année!" de Chantal! (Don't worry, I still remembered to tip them as if it were the total amount ~ plus some.) I think she may have even done the same thing at an early-in-the-year breakfast once before, too.

I can truly say, with no qualms whatsoever, that this was definitely the Best Breakfast that I have had this year!!! (And seeing as it has been "My Favorite" Breakfast for several years running, I feel safe to state it will probably once again be "My Favourite" Breakfast for 2015, too.)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Pain Perdu ~ 8.2


1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numéro un:

"Poinsettia" est tout simplement "poinsettia" en français.

However, just to make up for my Greeky gaffe story from a few weeks back, this is what the definition would translate into French as: "un petit arbuste du Mexique avec de grandes bractées rouges voyantes entourant les petites fleurs jaunes, populaires comme plante d'intérieur à Noël". 

Try that one on for size, Mrs. Morin!

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist (and a bit of an English lesson, I suppose) pointer of the day, dualitis:

"Desiderium" (singular) or "desideria" (plural) are just English words that are derived from Latin. (see also: "desiderate" and "desideratum/desiderata")

Per my Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, the definition of this word is: "an ardent longing, as for something lost".

I particularly liked this used in juxtaposition with "Lost Bread" in the same sentence. 

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