Breakfast at Tiffany’s

"Never let a gift horse in the house." 
~ Leo Rosten

(No official web-site.)


Place: Breakfast at Tiffany's
Location: 2499 San Bruno Avenue (at Thornton Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 468-8805
Hours: open Monday - Friday at 7:00am; Saturday and Sunday at 8:00am
Meal: Veggie Tater-Tot Skillet ~ kale, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, bells [sic], black olives, avocado, and Jack; with two over-medium eggs laid on top of the pile; and a cuppa America's Best Coffee Roasting Company (and a coupla refillas; they don't specify which roast/blend they serve, though)

http://www.ambestcoffee.com/

(There is really no EweToobular juxtaselection for today's video/songs; at least, I don't think these songs reference either "Tiffany's" or "Breakfast" or even "Audrey Hepburn" in any way. Once again, I just came across this new-ish Swedish singer last weekend while quarrying over on EweToob. I really liked her cover of Lucinda Williams' "Big Red Sun Blues".)


I have been looking forward to checking out the newly reopened Breakfast at Tiffany's (see last 'blog-entry from February 12th, 2012) and I finally got around to eating there. They had closed back in October 2013 and recently reopened under new ownership in November 2014. From what I could see, it looks like the new owners are a Mexican family. The place has been remodeled a bit with new tables, newly painted walls, etc. One noticeable difference is that they now do all the cooking in a back kitchen (which used to be a backroom storage area, I believe) and have removed the diner-grill from behind the counter. Plus, there are no longer any photos or paintings of "the delicate Belgian flower" herself on any of the walls.

The seating is still at a minimum. There are currently ten diner-counter seats, six tables for two, four or five tables for four, and one large table for eight. I was seated right away when I arrived (just a little after 8:00am); however, by 8:30am there was already a small line to get in and people had to do the sign-in sheet waiting list.

I was happy to see that the old menu remained mostly intact (with a few new additions, but generally the same as before) and, more specifically, that they still offer both Hash Browns de la Casa (Cheddar cheese, sour cream) and Hash Browns Stella (green chile, tomatoes, Cheddar and Jack, sour cream); this old dish was a big hit with me in the past and one of the reasons I went back again. They also have a good amount of omelettes from which to choose; both San Bruno Ave (spinach, mushrooms, Jack) and Veggie (kale, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, bells, black olives, avocado, and Jack; which were all of the same ingredients in the Tater-Tot Skillet that I got this morning) appealed to me. They also offer five different versions of Eggs Benedict dishes. It was nice to see that they even kept the "Good Morning, San Francisco" chalk/blackboard with ten additional specials on the wall (it's been moved from over the diner-grill to the back wall by the kitchen now).

This was an absolute HUGE pile o' tater tots (but it came in a bowl, not in a cast iron skillet like I was hoping) and made with lots of fresh "veggies" (I really do hate that nomenclature. How hard is it to just write "vegetables" instead? Do they get charged by the letter?), which is always a plus. My one minor complaint (uno quibblito) is that I really would have liked a bit more kale (there was hardly any noticeable amount of it; I guess you could say that they "went lightly, Holly" with the kale), and it was listed as the first ingredient, after all. Plus, they forgot the black olives completely (which is forgivable, as they probably just use the standard, tasteless canned kind, anyway). It took me a while to figure out that by "bells", they actually meant "bell peppers". I was expecting some kinda tintinnabulation while swallowing. The "bells" were of the red, green, and yellow variety.

For condimentary supplements, Breakfast at Tiffany's has the Standard San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red), Cholula® Hot Sauce Original, and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce; and I also noticed some Huy Fong Foods, Inc. Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. I just used some of my own The Wiltshire Chilli Farm Hell Mouth and Winter chilli sauce on separate halves of the mess (Thanks for both, Cindy & Greg!). (Like the Chipotle from yesterday, I am making a decent dent in the bottle of Winter, too; that is, if one could actually dent a glass bottle without breaking it.)

While this new place lacks the old school "Mom & Pop"-ish charm of the original joint (this is like comparing the latter version of the Three Stooges ~ with Joe Besser or "Curly" Joe DeRita ~ to the classic version ~ with either Shemp Howard or Curly Howard), I am sure that in thirty to forty years loyal customers will be lamenting the closure of this "Mamacita y Papacito" place, too.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggie Tater-Tot Skillet ~ 6.5 (this would probably have been a 6.6 with more discernable kalocity to it)