Cafe Mason

"Walking incognito behind my dark glasses in a future world not so far away, I see the deadly sins. Fighting to survive (it is the law of the jungle), we meet with envy, violence, greed, fear, indifference, and even bureaucracy and nostalgia, this favourite sin of mine which helps me accept the future…" ~ Amanda Lear, 1981

(No official web-site.)


Place: Cafe Mason
Location: 320 Mason Street (between Geary and O'Farrell Streets); phonicular contact: (415) 544-0320
Hours: open 24 hours of the day
Meal: Vegetable Frittata ~ zucchini, the vile weed, mushroom, (green and red) bell pepper, (white) onion, tomato, fresh herbs, with Jack and Parmesan cheese melted under an open flame, comes with home fries and a choice of toast; and a cuppa Coffee (with one refilla)

(Today happens to be the 109th Anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of Ought-Six.)

I really wasn't expecting to get back to Cafe Mason (see last 'blog-entry from March 29th, 2015) as soon as I did, but it is very lucky that they are open 24 hours a day. After attending the predawn ceremonies of the aforementioned Earthquake, I wasn't sure where I could get a decent breakfast close by at 5:30am, but this restaurant is located only a few blocks west of Lotta's Fountain. Otherwise, I would probably have just gone to Lori's Diner (two doors away from Cafe Mason on Mason Street) which is also open 24 hours a day.

I once again was lucky enough to sit at the same cool mini-booth (a small two-seater jobber) that I sat at during my first visit. As there were only a few other idiots eating there that early in the morning, I really had my pick of seats, anyway.

I can't be sure if they have changed their menu or not since I last ate there recently, but this morning there were less items (only two pages as opposed to a full four pages) from which to choose than before. I think it might be that they offer a different "Brunch" menu a little later in the morning. I only noticed this because I didn't see the excellent Pumpkin Crépes (which are really "Crêpes", of course) that I had on my last (which was also my first) visit there.

This was a decent enough frittata, but it had way too much of the vile weed in it, but at least it was just small florets only. Luckily, there was just as much (or more) of zucchini in it to make up for this. I suppose I could have ordered it without the vile weed, but I kinda liked the idea of a six-vegetable frittata (and was just hoping they were out of any of the vile weed).

My choice of toast was actually supposed to be "rye", but something must have gotten lost in the English-to-Russian-to-Belorussian[1] translation, and I ended up with "white bread" toast. It's all good, though, as it ended up being pretty good toast all the same.

Their version of homefries is still very good and always worth a return visit, Pumpkin Crépes (or Crêpes) notwithstanding, or the vile weed withstanding. 

Cafe Mason offers both the Original Red Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce and Cholula® Hot Sauce as condimentary supplementation. I ended up using a good amount of the Cholula® on the potatoes. I didn't bother bringing any of my own hot sauces with me this morning as I knew I would be out for most of the morning and didn't want to have to schlep any extra stuff with me.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Vegetable Frittata ~ 6.0; Earthquake Day ~ 7.9 (on the Richter Scale, not the Bacon Scale)


1. My waiter-server guy this morning had a bit of an accent and I asked where he was from. He said, "Guess!" Well, cunning linguist that I like to pretend that I am, I just assumed from his accent that he was from Russia and that was my first "guess". He said "No, but close by." So, I guessed again at "Poland". He again said, "No, but it is between Russia and Poland." So I guessed in rapid succession: "Lithuania.", "Latvia.", and "Estonia."… "No.", "No.", and "No." I was running out of Baltic countries that I could remember and said "Belarus." and finally got a "Yes."

(Его зовут Влад, г-жа Хоникут.)