Luques Restaurant and Bar

"We've been rehearsing a classic from antiquity, Green Eggs and Hamlet, the story of a young prince of Denmark who goes mad, drowns his girlfriend, and in his remorse, forces spoiled breakfast on all whom he meets." 
~ Christopher Moore, Fool 

http://www.chancellorhotel.com/san-francisco-ca-hotel-dining.php


Place: Luques Restaurant and Bar
Location: 433 Powell Street (between Post and Sutter Streets)
Hours: open daily at 7:00am
Meal: Veggie Frittata ~ open faced omelette with mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, spinach, and Swiss cheese, served with home fries, hash(browns), or mixed greens; and a glassa orange juice

(Today's EweToobular juxtaselections are because they were mostly playing Big Band and Swing Era music on the house stereo at the restaurant this morning, which gave it all a nice olde-timey atmosphere. Plus, I couldn't find any "Luques", or even "Luke's", related songs; so the first "Lucky" song will have to do.)


Luques Restaurant and Bar is located in the historic (well, for San Francisco standards, anything older than 1915 is considered pretty old) Chancellor Hotel (which is along the Powell Street Cable Car Line and just a half-block up from Union Square). I am pretty sure that I have never eaten breakfast (or lunch or dinner) there before, and I figured I'd give 'em a go, Joe. This place seemed a bit on the small side for the main restaurant for a large hotel. There was probably only seating for about forty people or so, which was dispersed between several tables for two to four and booths all along the wall sides (which is where I sat this morning, of course). This is definitely a tourista joint; and apparently not many touristas are the early-riser type, as there were only a few other tables occupied the entire time I was there this morning (just before eight).

There were several other good ideas from which to choose for breakfast, too: Chilaquiles (made with scrambled eggs, salsa, and crispy tortillas, garnished with Cotija cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo, and avocado); Avocado and Tomato Benedict (toasted English muffins, topped with avocado, sliced tomatoes, poached eggs, and Hollandaise sauce, served with home fries); Spinach, Pine Nut, Feta Scramble (they don't list the ingredients for that one, but I am guessing it has at least a few of the named items in it); and Famous San Francisco Sourdough Pancakes (made from scratch ~ I think making these from sourdough would make more sense, though ~ using an old Gold Rush era recipe; I have never had sourdough pancakes before and if I ever get back there again, I just might need to check those out).

The frittata was decent enough. I think they use frozen spinach in it, though (at least it didn't appear to be the fresh stuff). I also think some shavings of formaggio Parmigiano would have paired much better with this than Swiss cheese (which was just a single slice melted on top). This also comes with a side of toast, of which, I went with the sourdough type.

I like that they offer a potatoey-side choice of either homefries or hashbrowns (I won't even mention the lame "mixed greens" choice ~ Who eats salads for breakfast? Are we a buncha damn rabbits or something?!); that always bodes well with me. I went with the homefries and it turned out to be an excellent decision. These were very good homefries made with of green bell peppers and (lots and lots of) red onions.

Luques had only Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) for condimentary supplementation. I just used some of my own 
Lucky Dog Hot Sauce Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the frittata and some 
Fat Cat® Strawberry Serrano Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the potatoes.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggie Frittata ~ 6.3