Buttermilk ~ Southern Kitchen

(No official web-site. Yet?)


Place: Buttermilk ~ Southern Kitchen
Location: 2848 23rd Street (on the corner of Bryant Street)
Hours: open for "Brunch" at 10:00am weekends
Meal: breakfast vegetarian griddle cake ~ buckwheat griddle cake (Nu?! You were expecting maybe buttermilk pancakes?), poached egg, black eyed pea ragu, tomato confit, sauteed collards, green garlic, sour cream, and cornbread; a side of house pickles; a glassa lemonade; and, beforehand, for a pre-breakfast dessert, an apricot cardamom doughnut from dynamo donut + coffee and a small cuppa (hot) Gingersnap at Philz Coffee (the original one on 24th Street, en el corazón de la Misión)

http://dynamodonut.com/

http://www.philzcoffee.com/

(Well, both Jackson Browne and the Eagles got their starts in "Southern" California, so that is a good enough EweToobular juxtaselection for me. 

And for a little side-note, on my way out to Monterey, California for Intermediate Russkij training at Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, we made a stop in Winslow, Arizona for the night ~ it was Hallowe'en 1982 ~ and we made sure to stand on a corner while there. Unfortunately, no girls in flatbed Fords slowed down to take a look at me… heck, no one in Chevys or Dodges did either.)


Buttermilk ~ Southern Kitchen has only been open for about four to five months now (since late April). They are located in an old space that used to be a laundromat (lavandería). I bet they mighta coulda maybe called the joint "the Mission Laundry" or "La Lavandería Mexicana" (but I am sure that those snooty, Frenchy bastages up in Yountville might have something to say about that).

As could be expected, the place is typical laundromat-sized and has seating of seven tables for four, seven tables for two, and one large table right inside the front door for eight people (which could always be split in half for two more tables of four if needed, I suppose). Plus, outside, along the Bryant Street sidewalk, there are five to six more tables for four.

(The Wall of Fame of Pickles.)


There really were only a few other good ideas on the menu for stupid vegetarians (in the South, they call you a "vegetarian" if you order a side salad with your meal). There was either veggie omelet (beech mushrooms, okra, asparagus, bell peppers, pimento cheese, with roasted potatoes on the side; and despite its odious name, I almost went with that choice due to the asparagus and okra, both of which are two of my favourite "veggies") or baked french toast (which I would have had to order with some kinda side dish like whipped sweet potatoes with brown sugar and goat cheese or house pickles that I had today).

This came with two poached eggs and two griddle cakes (they have both in the singular on the menu). The menu stated that it had sautéed collards in it (which was one of the reasons I went with this choice; I love collard greens), but I really didn't notice any in the dish. It really didn't end up mattering as, in place of that, it had lots of asparagus, mange-tout (that would be "snow peas" to those of you not from England or France), and cauliflower in it instead, which more than makes up for any lack of collard greens in my book. I asked my waiter-server dude what kind of flour the griddle cakes were made with and he said they were gluten-free and made with something that sounded like "suka meal". Now, I did a quick Google-search and couldn't find anything that referenced "suka" or "souka" (maybe the guy was Russian and was just insulting me[1]). 

I liked that the lemonade came in a glass jar/mug thing with a handle (and extra added bonus points for coming with a bendy straw).

I asked what they had to offer in the way of condimentary supplements and they said they only had Crystal® Louisiana’s Pure Hot Sauce. I probably didn't really need to accessorize in any culinaristic way, but I had brought my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Amys and Brian!) with me and used some (well, a lot, actually) on top of one of the poached eggs. I loaned it out to a guy at the next table and he also really liked it. Plus, one of the other waiter-server-type guys tried it and said it really was pretty good, too.

I have had many of the doughnuts from dynamo donut + coffee already and there were several other good choices this morning (e.g. strawberry earl grey, passion fruit milk chocolate, caramel apple, chocolate rose, or caramel de sel). However, much like asparagus trumps collard greens, anything with cardamom trumps just about anything else with me. 

Normally, Philz Coffee has the Gingersnap as an iced Coffee entry, but I have found it makes an excellent hot Coffee, too. Of course, with the above doughnut, it ended up being a bit of a sugar-rush just before breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) and I was glad to go with something savoury there.

If Humphry Slocombe had been open early enough after I had finished eating, I coulda made it a Breakfastary Perfecta with: Breakfast ("Brunch", whatever), Coffee, Doughnuts, and Ice Cream.

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

On the way back to my car after breakfast ("Brunch", whatever), I saw two pairs of the Wild Parrots flying overhead. I suppose that small amount wouldn't exactly be considered a "Pandemonium of Parrots", but just more of a "Minor Infraction of Parrots".

All in all, today's entire breakfast (including the pre-breakfast dessert and Coffee beforehand) was a very good experience. Even though Buttermilk ~ Southern Kitchen doesn't open until 10:00am (and for a meal which they call "Brunch"), I really liked this meal today and can definitely recommend it to anyone; of course, it will probably be another year or more before I ever get back there again.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: breakfast vegetarian griddle cake ~ 7.4 (this received an extra 0.1 GBS points for having the good sense to not call it a "brunch" "veggie" griddle cake); house pickles ~ 6.6; apricot cardamom doughnut ~ 7.5; Gingersnap ~ 7.3; the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5


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1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

In Russkij (and some other Slavic languages), the phrase "son of a bitch" is "Сукин сын/(Sukin syn)". This is a pretty literal translation, as the word for a "female dog" in Russkij is "сука/(suka)" and the word for "son" is "сын/(syn)".