Cafe Golo ~ Boutique Cafe

"I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees
I went to the crossroad… and had myself an Artichoke-Spinach Scramble"

(No official web-site.)


Place: Cafe Golo ~ Boutique Cafe
Location: 1602 Lombard Street (at Gough Street ~ Highways 61 and 49 be damned! <<< pun totally intended, too)
Hours: open at 8:00am every day of the week
Meal: Artichoke-Spinach Scramble ~ egg whites, spinach (it says so right in its name), artichokes (again, it's right there in its name), grilled onions (not in its name, but that would probably have been overkill), sun-dried tomato (while this ingredient is also not in its name, it could easily have been and would have added a bit more cachet even), served with toast and choice of potatoes or fruit

The last (and newest) of my Breakfastary Rotation Starters to check out before Spring Training is Cafe Golo ~ Boutique Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from October 26th, 2014). 

Miss PB explained to me that they have tweaked their menu a bit since my last visit; they have changed some items (Veggie Tater Scramble is now called Florentine Tater Scramble; I don't know what is different about it, though), added some items (my meal this morning was one of the new additions, Mr. Bivins), and deleted others. Luckily some of my favourites have remained on the menu and some other possible ideas this morning were: Florentine Tater Scramble (country potatoes scrambled with spinach, sautéed onions, the vile weed, mushrooms, zucchini, and cheese; which I would have ordered sans la mauvaise herbe vile, of course); Breakfast Burrito (eggs, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla; for you dead, decaying meatatarians, you can also add chicken, chorizo, bacon, sausage, or ham); Breakfast Tacos (3) (corn tortillas filled with egg, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and cheese; again, chicken, bacon, sausage, or ham can be added to this to ruin it); or, what I am calling their "signature" breakfastary dish now, Golo Ranchero (corn tortillas topped with eggs, beans, cheese, spicy salsa verde, served with sour cream and avocado; I even talked two other customers into getting this one upon my recommendation; of course, beneath my recommendation, these would probably taste awful).

I can honestly say this is the Best Egg White
Scramble that I have ever had! Needless to say, it was the only egg white scramble that I have ever had, too. Not noted on the menu, but this scramble also included a good amount of Cheddar cheese in it; I pointed this out to Miss PB and she said they must have missed it when they printed the new menus, but would correct it in the future. This was a very good scramble and I really liked the combination of items in it. The artichoke hearts (quarters, whatever you want to call 'em) were of the brined, not marinated, kind (which really does make all the difference in the World, or at least in the scramble). I particularly liked that they do not Golo cheap-o on the amount of sun-dried tomatoes in the scramble (a lot of places seem to treat sun-dried tomatoes and other ingredients as if they are gold leaf, and are usually very stingy with adding a good amount in).

Of course, I went with the option of their country potatoes (which are made with both standard potatoes and sweet potatoes) for my side choice. However, Miss PB said their side of fruits is very good and that she'd also throw in a side of this just to let me see. The small bowl included this morning: bananas, pear (a green kind), pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, and apple (a red kind). Yes, this was much better than I could (or would) ever make at home, but it still doesn't trump their country potatoes (the wild card in the winning hand there would be the inclusion of sweet potatoes). I simply went with sourdough for my toast choice.

Not only was the free side of fruit a nice marketing touch (like I needed to be bribed to go back there again, anyway), but they will usually start you off with a few "bites" of some of their fresh-baked pastries; mine this morning were Blueberry-Mango Tart and Kiwi-Cranberry Tart.

I really didn't pay much attention to what Cafe Golo offered for condimentary supplements, as I wanted to try the final two of my newest hot sauces from The Wiltshire Chilli Farm (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!). I went with a good amount of Winter chilli sauce on the scramble mess.

Ingredients: tomatoes, onion, green pepper, apples, celery, cider vinegar, sugar, chilli - 1%, mustard seeds, salt, spices

And I used a good amount of Mango hot chilli sauce on the potatoes ~ the curry-like flavour of this one really paired well with the two kinds of potatoes.

Ingredients: mango - 31%, cider vinegar, onion, sugar, lime, chilli - 3%, garlic, mustard, various spices

Neither of these two hot sauces specify which type (or types) of chilli is (or are) used, but that doesn't really matter because: "Our sauces are hand made in small batches using the chillies grown on our Wiltshire Chilli Farm". Both of these had a nice bit of heat to them, but neither was overly spicy (for me, at least; these would both probably be considered "Gringo Espicy", though).

The only minor problem I foresee with all four of these new hot sauces is that they all state on the label: "best before: see base; refrigerate once opened and use within 6-8 weeks". Normally most hot sauces don't have any kind of expiry date on them or specify that refrigeration is needed. (Just how long do you think those bottles of hot sauces, ketchup, and mustard have sat out on the counter of your local diner?) With chilli peppers and vinegar as two of the main ingredients in these, any other type of preservatives seems kinda moot, though. All the same, I will probably try to use them up within 12-16 weeks just to be on the safe side.

Here is my current ranking after just the one-time use of each (based mainly on my preference of flavour and heat):

Winter chilli sauce
smoked Chipotle chilli sauce
Mango hot chilli sauce
Hell Mouth

No visit to Cafe Golo would be complete without getting at least one of their excellent fresh-baked pastries, so, I bought one each to Golo for later-o of Peach Cobbler Tart (even before the "bite" bit of bribery, I was planning on getting one of these to take home with me as I don't think that I have ever had this one yet) and Kiwi-Cranberry Tart (I was all set on getting my favourite Sweet Potato Tart, but Miss PB told me the Kiwi-Cranberry Tart was her favourite and talked me into it). I will probably be enjoying these later today while watching the NFL Championship games ~ Go Packers! Go Patriots!

Before leaving, I asked Jay what is the most recent update on when they will be opening their new restaurant, Grits, in the Tenderloin and he said that the date has been pushed back once again to April now (which will be one year exactly after they were supposed to have opened in 2014).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Artichoke-Spinach Scramble ~ 7.1; various fresh-baked tarts and pastries ~ 7.0-7.5