Café Coco

Richmond (District) Coffeehouses ~ Part V

(and also Breakfast on Geary [redux, Rabbit], Part XXI)

(No official ~ nor unofficial ~ web-site.)


Place: Café Coco
Location: 4201 Geary Boulevard (on the corner of 6th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 750-1898
Hours: open Monday through Friday at 6:30am; open Saturday and Sunday at 7:30am
Meal: Multiseed Bagel with Chèvre[1] and Tomatoes; for breakfastary dessert, (a day-old) cinnamon-walnut-apple-cranberry bun/roll/thing; and a small (12oz) cuppa Peerless Coffee & Tea® (I didn't ask which blend/roast, though)  

(Today's EweToobular juxtaselections are because I heard on the house radio/stereo at Café Coco that tomorrow, August 17th, is National Black Cat Appreciation Day. Dammit! These major holidays always tend to sneak up on me. 

The other two videos are because we all know that every Cat ~ Black, White, Calico, or Other ~ believes he is a true Lion[2] or Tiger at heart.)

https://www.aspca.org/blog/celebrate-black-cat-appreciation-day-on-august-17


Continuing the whole Chocolate/Cocoa theme from yesterday, and also continuing with the Richmond (District) Coffeehouses series, I decided to go to Café Coco this morning. While it is technically within walking distance of my apartment (well, "technically", that is, if you don't mind walking twenty-six blocks there and back), I just drove over there this morning and easily found an empty parking space right next door on Geary Boulevard.

This was a bit of a surprise to me: a quick Intro-Net search revealed that there is just one each 
Peet's Coffee & Tea® and St*rbucks in the Richmond District. I would have thought that there would be at least a few more of each still. I have been to the 
Peet's Coffee & Tea® on the corner of Geary 
Boulevard and 16th Avenue (which is actually walkable distance for a lazy person like me) many, many times before and will be including it in this series somewhere along the way (however, I really can't say as much for that "other" place, though).

Café Coco has been open now for approximately three years, and right at a 38 Geary bus stop (and, conveniently enough for the local constabulary, just a half-block from the City & County of San Francisco Police Department Richmond Station on 6th Avenue). There are eleven tables for two-to-three people and five seats/stools along the 6th Avenue window side. I particularly liked the design on the backs of all the wooden seats; I want one for myself now.

Café Coco offers several other toppings (along with hummus and that other ubiquitous bagel-topper soft cheese stuff) like cucumbers, lox, peanut butter (very good with a cinnamon-raisin bagel, by the way), sprouts, and avocado. They also have a decent selection of sandwiches (that is, if you wanted a sandwich for breakfast, which I saw a few people were already ordering that early in the morning) that are named after famous writers/authors, such as: Rabelais (salami, arugula, olive puree, pesto, Swiss cheese, prosciutto, ciabatta; which I would have ordered without any of the dead, decaying porky products); Diderot (ciabatta roll, yellow mustard, pickled jalapeños, grilled ham, Gruyère; diderot on the porcine junk); Tolstoy (rye bread, Swiss or Gruyère, arugula or spinach, tuna salad; I would have submarined the dead, decaying fishy-stuff, too); Hugo (Chèvre, grilled "veggies", pesto, crusty white bread, Vegan option); Zola (Mozzarella, tomato, basil, Balsamic vinaigrette, ciabatta); Kafka (grilled Cheddar, Gruyère, or Swiss, whole wheat bread); or Heller (tomato, veganaise, salt, pepper, whole wheat bread).

In my book (which has been pointed out many times before is just a 12-pager colouring type-book; I am almost finished with it now and may need to start another one soon; I know that three years is a pretty long time on one book, but not all of us can be bibliophiles like Mr. Red Kipe) Chèvre (like hummus) is a much better addition to bagels than any plain ol' Philadelphia-brand soft cheese. I was going to go with cucumbers and tomatoes for toppings in addition to the Chèvre, as I felt those would all be nice together. When they brought out the bagel sandwich, it also included capers in it… lots and lots of capers! I hadn't asked for any capers, but, had I known that was an option, I might have done so. It's just a good thing that I like capers. (And "caper", as a verb, goes right along with the whole goaty cheesey stuff, too. Look it up yourself, you buncha lazy etymologists!).

I only went with the day-old bun/roll/thing as there were no fresh ones of that sort in the display case. The cranberries are what first caught my eye and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it also had apples in it. For a Chocolate/Cocoa tie-in, I suppose I mighta coulda gotten a Chocolate croissant again, but my choice ended up being a very good decision, anyway.

I didn't really feel the need to check out what Café Coco might have to offer in the way of any condimentary supplements. I didn't think I was going to need any of my own hot sauces this morning, either, and didn't bother schlepping any with me even.

Does anyone else think that "Black Cat Backgammon Café" would be a cool name for a café/coffeehouse-joint? I only thought of this because of tomorrow's major national holiday and there was a backgammon board in the corner just behind my table this morning.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Multiseed Bagel with Chèvre and Tomatoes ~ 6.2 (I am giving this an extra 0.2 GBS Points for the surprising ~ and much-welcomed ~ addition of the capers, and especially for the quantity that were added); Coffee ~ 6.5; cinnamon-walnut-apple-cranberry bun/roll/thing ~ 6.6 (and that was for a day-old one; I can only imagine how much better it would have been as a fresher, day-new one); cool Coffee-cup design wooden chairs ~ 7.7


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

"Chèvre" simply means "goat" in French.

http://www.cheese.com/chevre/

(And I really hate having to point out once again that Billy-boy and his band of Nazi-spellcheckers at Microsoft do not recognize this type of cheese. The suggestions they are offering: "Cheever", "Chevron"*, "Chives", and a few others. Now, unless the author of "Rabbit, Run" was a Sergeant in the Army and grew wild herbs to feed to his goats before milking them for cheese-production, I really don't care for any of those choices. Perhaps ol' Wild Bill is one of them lactose-intolerant types; in which case, I would like to tell him to "lighten-up" and stop picking on dairy products!)

*(At least this word has the same root as Chévre. Look it up yerdamnself!)

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, inombolo ezimbili:

The original title of the song "the Lion Sleeps Tonight" was "Mbube", which is just the Zulu word for "Lion". And, of course, it was written by some South African guy named Wimo Weh**.

**(Nah, not really. It was written by Solomon Popoli Linda. There is really no such Zulu word as "Wimoweh". This was just a mishearing by the Weavers of the chorus of the original song "uyimbube", meaning "he is a lion".)