Richmond Republic Draught House

"Beer Speaks, People Mumble" 
~ Lagunitas Brewing Company

(And sometimes Beer is silent and People will still mutter mindlessly to themselves.)

http://www.richmondrepublicsf.com/


Place: Richmond Republic Draught House
Location: 642 Clement Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues)
Hours: open Saturday and Sunday at 9:30am for "Brunch"
Meal: Veggie Scramble ~ spinach, bell peppers, tomatoes, scallions, Cheddar cheese, and toast, served with choice of home fries or salad; and a 16 oz glass of Lagunitas Brewing Company Censored (Rich Copper Ale)

https://lagunitas.com/beers/censored/

(Today's EweToobular songs are to commemorate the 51st Anniversary of the Invasion of the U.S. of America by the Beatles. Sure, people these days are way too busy complaining about illegal Mexican immigrants, worrying about threats from those bastages at Da'ish, commenting on under-inflated footballs, and afraid of Mickey Mouse's measles, but no one seems to care that this group of hoodlum Scousers took America by storm in the early 60's. Well, I, for one, will always remember this Day of Infamy, Frankie D.!)


The Sun had finally come out after a day or more of constant rain, and I was in a more than ebullient mood this morning to try another new joint for breakfast (or "Brunch", as the case may be), so I headed on over to Richmond Republic Draught House. They are a "relatively new" restaurant-slash-bar (meaning none of my relatives have ever eaten-slash-drank there yet) and have only been open since September 2014. They are located in the old space that used to house Haig's Delicacies for many years (fifty-seven years or so as a fixture on Clement Street).

They seemed to have made the transition from delicatessen-slash-bodega to restaurant-slash-bar well enough. The space is now large enough for seating of: three tables for two; six tables for three; four large bench-tables for six; and bar-seating for probably twenty or more. It was interesting to see that they kept the old "upper level" eating area up front from when it was still Haig's Delicacies (if anyone had ever been in there before, you know what I mean; it was directly across from the cash register/deli counter area and right on the left as you entered and up a few steps, past the large sliding door refrigerator with single bottles of sodas and Beers); this was where I sat this morning for nostalgic reasons.

Their "Brunch" menu doesn't really have that many items to offer (or honour); probably just ten items or so. A few of the other ideas that I was looking at were Chilequiles [sic] ("Chilaquiles" is the common spelling); Huevos Rancheros; Beer Batter Waffle (served with bacon-butter and maple syrup; of course, if I were to order that one, I would have had to get it without the bacon-butter, but the Beer batter sounded interesting; I asked one of the waiter-server guys which Beer they use for this and he checked with the kitchen-preparer guys and was told that they will just normally use any Beer that is available); or Cali Benedict (tomato, avocado, Hollandaise; I made sure to ask if "Cali" referred to "California" and not some crazy-bitch Hindu Goddess of Destruction; I don't know if I would like my Eggs Benedict covered with a bloody Hollandaise sauce all over it).

First off, I am never much of a fan of any place that use the moniker "Veggie" anything on its menu; it just sounds overly simplistic and rather stupid. As to the actual scramble itself, it was okay, but they completely forgot to add any Cheddar cheese or scallions. That is not a very good ratio when there are only five ingredients in the mix; at least there was a good amount of spinach in it. I went with the homefries as my choice of sides (naturally, Mr. Who), but they were rather skimpy on the amount of potatoes provided (three small potatoes halved). Seeing as they had skipped two of the five ingredients that were supposed to be in the scramble mess, the least they could have done was pile on more potatoes. I did like that the toast was grilled, but they didn't even provide any butter or jam/jelly with it.

The Lagunitas Brewing Company Censored (Rich Copper Ale) was nice and hoppy, Mr. Ergle, with a deep amber (copper, whatever) colour. This turned out to be the best part of the breakfast. Sure, Beer is not exactly a breakfastary beverage for most people, but I ain't most people (and it was after Noon somewhere). This weekend Richmond Republic Draught House was showcasing Beers solely from Lagunitas Brewing Company. Their normal Beer selection looked pretty decent and diverse and may need a return trip just to try a few of those. Of particular note (♪, possibly a B-Sharp), the Fort Point Beer Co. Park sounded very interesting; I was not even aware that there is currently a small brewery in the Presidio.

http://www.fortpointbeer.com/


I am glad that I skipped any Coffee with breakfast this morning as I asked (just for the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks of it) what was the brand of Coffee they normally serve and was told it is just St*rbucks house blend. To make up for it, I made a cuppa Taylors of Harrogate (aka Bettys) Hello Spring (note: no comma was noted between "Hello" and "Spring", but they also don't use any apostrophes in "Taylors" nor "Bettys"; punctuation must be at a premium in North Yorkshire) to drink and enjoy (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) while typing[1] up this 'blog-entry. This was a crisp, sweet, and breezy roast… whatever the heck that is supposed to mean, but that is what they have on the bag: "Crisp, sweet and breezy" (I added the Oxford comma in my description, but it seems that in Yorkshire, they also don't care for anything Oxfordian). I really liked this one a lot. It smelled great from the moment I opened up the new bag, and I was happy to see (and to taste) that the flavour matched the aroma and was extra robust ~ even though I am sure it was made with arabica beans (that is a little Coffee humour there… very little, apparently).

http://taylorscoffee.co.uk/blends/hello-spring/

Richmond Republic Draught House only has Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce for condimentary supplementation. I used some of my own The Wiltshire Chilli Farm Mango hot chilli sauce on the potatoes and some smoked Chipotle chilli sauce (Thanks for both, Cindy & Greg! These two people are no relation to the above "Greg & Cindy", though.) on the scramble mess. (Update: I am making a little headway in using up all four new bottles that I had received for Christmas. The Chipotle is probably the one that I have used the most; it is not too spicy and I can usually use more of it than some of the others.)

I was really hoping that Richmond Republic Draught House was going to prove to be a decent "go-to" place to go to breakfast, as they are close enough to be within walking distance of my apartment (if that walking distance happens to be twenty-seven blocks both ways). Unfortunately, the meal was not really much to write home about (or 'blog about even) and didn't really pique my interest for a return trip back there.

Breakfastary Conclusion: Listen to what Beer has to say, and skip anything that that drunken fool, Food, might be mumbling about.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: "Veggie" Scramble ~ 5.9; Lagunitas Brewing Company Censored ~ 6.9; Taylors of Harrogate Hello Spring ~ 7.4 (and trending upward)


1. Why do we even use the verb "to type" any more? When was the last time anyone used an actual typewriter to write anything? I suppose if I had typed, "While computering up this 'blog-entry…", it might just be too confusing for most people.

To be fair, I do sometimes still refer to the "ENTER" key as the "RETURN" key and get the strangest looks from anyone under the age of thirty-five.