Kate’s Kitchen

"You can observe a lot by watching." 
~ Lawrence "Yogi" Berra

http://kates-kitchensf.com/


Place: Kate's Kitchen
Location: 471 Haight[1] Street (between Fillmore and Webster Streets)
Hours: open Monday at 9:00am, Tuesday - Friday at 8:00am, Saturday and Sunday at 8:30am
Meal: Veggie Scramble ~ wild mushrooms, red bell peppers, roasted tomatoes, sautéed onion, wild arugula[2], and smoked Gouda, served with homefries and a choice of toast, English muffin (Yawn!), or a fresh-baked Cheddar-green onion biscuit; and a cuppa (and several refillas) San Francisco Coffee Company ~ N'Arlins-style blend (with roasted chicory) 

http://www.sfcoffeecompany.com/

(I am not insinuating that there are actually any rats in the cooking area of today's breakfastary destination, but you just try to find any decent EweToobular juxtaselections for "Kate" or "Kitchen".

The second song is only because this particular song happened to be playing on the house stereo ~ kitchen stereo, whatever ~ this morning.)


I went back to Kate's Kitchen again after an extended break (see last 'blog-entry from July 4th, 2013 ~ That's the Spirit!). It has been newly remodeled (well, back in October 2013, but "new" since my last visit) with a bar/counter seating addition with three stools at which to dine. It looks like they cut the kitchen by about a quarter to extend the dining area (maybe that is why there aren't any rats in the kitchen any longer). In addition to the new bar/counter seating, there are now a total of eight tables for four and five tables for two.

Kate's Kitchen always has some other great suggestions off their Specials board (which changes seasonally, if not weekly). Today there were: Meat Omelette (shrimp, seared spinach, seared onion [Is there a difference between "seared onion" and "sautéed onion"?], scallion [they don’t specify if this item is "seared" or "sautéed", though], avocado, and Provolone, topped with Baja sauce; stupid vegetarians could always order this without any of the dead, decaying aquatic insects; stupid Vegans are basically out of luck); Mindy ♥ Hashbrowns (layered w/ scrambled eggs, bacon, and Cheddar); Cranberry & Chocolate French Toast (Say whaaa'?! That was going to be my fall-back ~ or spring-forward for Daylight Saving Time ~ choice.). They also offer several different kinds of Cornmeal Buttermilk Pancakes, notably: Blueberry (which is a botanical berry, of course); Pumpkin (also a botanical berry); Banana (and, yes, another actual botanical berry) & Walnut (but not actually a botanical nut); or Strawberry (despite its name, not actually a botanical berry), Banana, & Lemon Curd.

I always like the combination of fresh "veggies" that they offer in  their "Veggie" Scrambles (even if I find the term "veggies" rather  abhorrent). I can't really say if the arugula was quite as wild as the mushrooms in this, though. 

I really like their excellent homefries, too. These are made with red potatoes and a good amount of red bell peppers and (white) onions; and all generally very nicely charred (read: burned and crispy, just like I likes 'em).

Of course I went with the only intelligent choice for bread sides: the fresh-baked Cheddar-green onion biscuit. (When faced with these choices, what kinda absolute fool would ever order plain ol' toast or Mr. Thomas' lame-o excuse for a real English crumpet?) This was not only excellent on its own, but when adding some of their home-made (kitchen-made, whatever) strawberry (still not a botanical berry, sorry) jam, it was truly a worthwhile choice. Now you may be thinking "Strawberry jam on a fresh-baked Cheddar-green onion biscuit? That seems rather odd." Well, just mind yer own damn thinking, Nosey Parker! It actually went together very well.

Kate's Kitchen has for condimentary supplementation both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. I used some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Amys and Brian!) on the potatoes and some Fat Cat® Strawberry Serrano Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the scrambled mess.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggie Scramble ~ 6.8; fresh-baked Cheddar-green onion biscuit ~ 7.2 (an extra 0.2 points was added for the home-made ~ kitchen-made, whatever ~ straw-notabotanical-berry jam)


1. I just read somewhere this week that Bill Gates is the richest man on Earth. You would think that with all his damn money that he and the rest of the genius Spell-checkering Braunhemd Schweinhunde Nazi bastages at Microsoft would actually recognize this more than familiar name of one of the most popular (right up there with Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, and the Golden Gate Bridge) of San Francisco's tourista destinations. Of course, unfortunately, even with that ratiocination, you would be sorely wrong.

2. While "arugula" may not be a local, well-known street name in San Francisco, I would still expect Billy-boy and his Goose-steppering, verdammt Liebekinder to acknowledge this word as an actual plant name.