nourish café

http://www.nourishcafesf.com/


Place: nourish café 
Location: 189 6th Avenue (at California Street)
Hours: Monday-Friday open at 7:00am; Saturday & Sunday open at 9:00am
Meal: Acai [sic][1] Bowl ~ açai, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, apple juice, topped with coconut, bananas, and sprouted buckwheat granola (gluten-free) from Floating Lettuce (whoever they might be); and a cuppa Ruby's roast COFFEE Dark Roast

http://www.rubysroast.com/

(Sorry. I couldn't find any good EweToobular juxtaselections that referenced either "nourish" or "açai".)


nourish café (they use the minuscule script on their menu and signage, but sans l'accent aigu; however, on their web-site they do reference it as "Nourish Café", avec l'accent aigu; so I am combining both here) is a relatively new place in the Richmond District. I think they've only been open now for a few months or so since February of this year; I remember walking by one day after they had just opened up and figured I'd have to give 'em a go one of these days. They call themselves a "100% plant-based café" (it states that right on their menus and on their web-site), but I saw some metal wire shelving in the kitchen and the front counter and front dining area were covered with ceramic tiles. They really don't specify it anywhere, but they might be a completely Vegan-type restaurant, as I didn't see anything on the menu that would include any milk (or milk products) or eggs (Which came first, the cheese or the eggs?) or honey, even. 

The seating offered is also pretty minuscule: 
(inside) there are just four tables for two; (outside on the sidewalk area) there are another four tables for two. I got there just as they were opening and was lucky enough to get one of the inside tables (it was still pretty overcast and misty outside and even stupid vegetarians and Vegans like to remain dry when eating).

I thought this was pretty funny. In preparation for eating there this morning, I checked out their defacedbook page (it really wasn't much more informative than their web-site menu). Anyway, on their defacedbook page, there seems to be a small "noisy" battle going on with some people in the neighborhood complaining about the noise. I couldn't figure out just what the heck they could mean by that… until I heard all of the "smoothie" blenders going this morning. It was a bit loud inside. Even so, how much of that noise could actually travel outside? Seems to me, some of these neb-nosed complainants need to get an açai smoothie and just chill. (Get it? "Chill" with a frozen smoothie? Whatever!)

There really aren't that many items from which to choose for breakfast (or "Brunch"). There was Green Acai Bowl (açai, spinach, the vile weed, bananas, ginger, citrus, apple juice; topped with coconut, hemp & greens granola [gluten-free]). They also had a "Brunch" Special Waffle (coconut, quinoa, almond flour, gluten-free flour, topped with bananas and maple syrup), which sounded good, but I doubt that I will be getting back there for either "Brunch" or breakfast again. I might check them out for lunch (after 11am) one of these days, though.

They offer a number of freshly-blendered juices and smoothies, too. There were Summer Special ~ Dragonfruit[2] Smoothie (dragonfruit, orange juice, bananas) and Zucchini Dreams (with zucchini, basil, pineapple, celery, lemon). I don't usually mention or complain about prices (I figure if you can't afford to eat out, just stay home and eat your own crappy food), but at $9.00 per 16oz, their Smoothies all seem a bit overpriced to me.

This was kinda like having a bowl of Ice Cream for breakfast (except that the açai smoothie base at the bottom of the bowl included no actual milk or cream). They do state that their smoothies have no added ice and no added sugar. I am not really sure what the (supposed) health benefits of açai berries (well, botanically these are really "drupes", not "berries") are (I bet my cousin Barry does, though) ~ heck, I am not even sure how to correctly pronounce "açai berries" (the first word is easy, that second word, "berries", always throws me) ~ but they are pretty tasty, all the same. This was an okay enough meal, but I think it would have been better with the addition of some other whole fresh fruit slices: sliced apples or strawberries (both of which are already in the smoothie mixture) would probably have paired (or "peared") nicely.

This ended up not being an awful lot of food and I probably should have ordered something else to go with the meal. They also offer these one-slice toast things. (I saw a few other customers had ordered some; they were about ¾"-thick.) Some of the choices were: Avocado (avocado, sea salt, drizzle of oil, pepper), Hummus (house made hummus, radish, sprouts), and Miso[3] (adzuki bean miso, radish, flax oil).

The best part of the meal to me ended up being the Coffee. I have had Ruby's roast COFFEE Dark Roast a few times in the past and knew it to be a good local (as in Berkeley-local) brand. They also sell this by the pound bags of ground Coffee at the counter.

I didn't bother to ask what nourish café might have to offer in the way of any condimentary supplements and I hadn't brought any of my own hot sauces with me for a change, as I figured (correctly) that there would probably be no need of any.

Conclusion: While this was all pretty tasty, breakfasts (or "Brunches") were never meant to be "healthy", dammit!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Açai Bowl ~ 6.0; 
Ruby's roast COFFEE Dark Roast ~ 7.1


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1. For some reason, nourish café does not use the "ç" in their spelling of "açai". 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A7a%C3%AD_palm#Fruit

(That information from WikipediA already includes a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer on the etymology of açai, so I didn't feel it necessary to make my own.)

It seems that Billy-boy and his band of Spell-checkering Nazis at Microsoft do not recognize either spelling ("açai" or "acai") of this word. They really need to start eating healthier and broaden their epicurean horizons.

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya

3. Apparently, Microsoft's spell-checking Braunhemden do not recognize this common Japanese culinaristic word either. Miso sorry for them…