Bayside Cafe

A breakfastary mini-roadtrip[1]:
Sausalito, Marin County, CA

http://www.baysidecafe-sausalito.com/


Place: Bayside Cafe and Juice Bar
Location: 1 Gate 6 Road, Sausalito, CA (located by the Kappas Marina, in the Harbor Center)
Hours: open seven days a week at 6:30am (closed every other day of the week)
Meal: the Veggie[2] Storm ~ scrambled eggs, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, spinach, & Jack cheese, all egg dishes served with choice of hashbrowns (which they have as two words, but I prefer the compound noun) or homefries (which they also have as two words, but I like to compound this word, too) and choice of toast; and something from their Juice Bar ~ Dole Express: pineapple juice, fresh-juiced apples, and fresh-juiced ginger

(I'll bet that you didn't know that the word "Sambade" in Spanish means "roadtrip". Would Carlos lie to you?)


I headed way up North for breakfast at
Bayside Cafe and Juice Bar this morning. I really like that they open up bright (well, the Sun was still not quite fully up yet when I pulled into the parking lot, but still) and early every day. This place was the complete opposite of the swanky dive that I ate at yesterday morning. This is more of a family-owned, nebby diner-ish joint. It is located in the Sausalito marina/harbour area just off Highway 101/Highway 1. 

Bayside Cafe is a medium-sized place and has seating of: six chairs (not stools) at the diner-counter; six tables for four; two tables for two; and ten extra-large booths for four (but I am sure these could accommodate a family of six if there were two small children in tow ~ if not, you can always leave the little rugrats outside to play in the low-tide mud ~ see following photo taken just around the back of the restaurant). Plus, there is a nice, large, covered patio area with an additional six tables for four and two tables for two.

The breakfast menu (which is served all day long, too) is really pretty extensive and offered lots of great choices; there were twenty different omelettes alone (well, twenty of the same omelette would not be alone, but together, I guess). Here are just a few of the dishes I was a-figurin'-on: (off their ?weekend/daily? Specials board as you walk in) Swedish Pancakes (with raspberry-blueberry butter and fresh fruit; I was really tempted by that one; maybe next time, if they have it offered again); the Heart Breaker (an omelette made with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, spinach, & cheese; which is not very different from what I ended up getting); the Veggie Volt (scrambled eggs, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach, & Swiss cheese; this was another one that I was really debating on; another time, too); the Spinach Poacher (poached eggs on top of sautéed spinach, topped with pico de gallo and Feta; served with tortillas or toast; as if there weren't enough reasons for a return trip already).

And just so those of you that aren't stupid vegetarians don't feel left out, there were a few really interesting meatetarian choices, too: the Wannabe Reuben (an omelette made with Pastrami, Swiss cheese, tomatoes, & grilled onions; if they had offered that one with sauerkraut in it, I may have even ordered it, less the dead, decaying, brined bovine product, of course); Mexican Mambo (an omelette made with Louisiana sausage, jalapeños, sour cream, salsa, & cheese); or Munga, Munga! (scrambled eggs, Italian sausage, mushrooms, Feta cheese, & salsa; I can't be sure, but I think that "Munga, Munga" translates from Italian as "internationally confusing as Hell" ~ Italian sausage, Greek cheese, and Mexican salsa?).

This was a very good scramble mess. The artichoke hearts were of the brined variety (not the kind that are marinated in an oil and vinegar base; I like those in salads, but they usually tend to make a scramble or an omelette a bit messy). Artichokes and spinach have always been two of my favourite "veggies" (Ugh!) since I was a kid.

I really like that they offer a choice of potato sides, that gets extra points for that right there. I went with the hashbrowns this morning and was glad that I did as they were prepared in a very interesting manner. These also get extra bonus points as they were made with (red and green) bell peppers and (white) onions mixed in with the shredded potatoes; I have never seen that done before and really liked that idea.

For my choice of toast, I went with a country biscuit. This seemed to just be one of those that are ready-made (as opposed to fresh homemade), but it still beats what Mr. Thomas may have to offer with his faux crumpets (nooks and crannies be damned).

The Dole Express was excellent. The juiced apples make a nice frothy head on the drink and the fresh ginger adds a nice bite to it all. I am not really much of a fan of straight pineapple juice, it's usually way too sweet for my taste (however, I really do love fresh pineapple), but the apples and ginger really tempered the overt sweetness. (The only minus that I can think of was that it came with a plain ol' straight/non-bendy straw. Bendy straws are the best!)

For condimentary supplements, Bayside Cafe has on all the tables Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (bottles of both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce). I just used some of my own The Wiltshire Chilli Farm Winter chilli sauce on the scrambled mess and smoked Chipotle chilli sauce on the potatoes (Thanks again for both, Greg & Cindy!).

This turned out to be one of the safest places for breakfast that I have eaten at in a long while as there were four Sausalito City Police officers and three California Highway Patrolmen all eating there while I was there. I would just liked to have seen Pumpkin and Honey Bunny try any of their foolish shenanigans there this morning (Vincent and Jules wouldn't even have been needed)!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: the Veggie Storm ~ 6.5; Dole Express ~ 7.2


1. I am calling this a "mini-roadtrip" mainly because it took me less time getting there this morning (about fifteen minutes ~ it is a straight shot for me north across the ol' Golden Gate Bridge) than it normally takes me to drive to most places right here in the city. 

2. Oh, sure! Billy-boy and his spell-checkering Gestapo at Microsoft do not even recognise perfectly valid words like "breakfastary" or "condimentary", but they have no problem with such idiotic, made-up words like "veggies". Buncha brown-shirted Nazi bastages!