Taylor Street Coffee Shop

(No official web-site.)


Place: Taylor Street Coffee Shop
Location: 375 Taylor Street (between Ellis and O'Farrell Streets)
Hours: open at 7:00am daily
Meal: Greek Omelet ~ mushroom, spinach, black olives, and Feta cheese, served with hashbrowns or sliced tomatoes or organic mixed greens, and toast; and a cuppa America's Best Coffee Roasting Company

http://www.ambestcoffee.com/

(Today's EweToobular juxtaslection is because, as everyone is well aware, Stevie Wonder's real name used to be "Taylor Street"[1].)


I made a (long overdue) return trip to Taylor Street Coffee Shop (see previous 'blog-entry from March 3rd, 2013). This is a pretty small place and it is very popular with the downtown hotel clientele. I got there just a little after they had opened at 7:00am and it filled up almost immediately with the tourista crowd.

There really are a lot of other good ideas for breakfast at this place, and I will have to get back again one of these days (just not two-and-a-half years later, I hope). They have three different Specialty Hash Plates (served with two eggs and toast): Special Hash (seasoned hashbrowns topped with onion, bell pepper, mushroom, bacon, and cheese); Hollandaise Hash (seasoned hashbrowns with habanero-infused pickled onions, mushroom, tomato, bell pepper, bacon, drizzled with Hollandaise sauce; I got this one the last [first] time I was there and this was the main reason for my return visit); or Sailor's Hash (seasoned hashbrowns topped with eggs scrambled in garlic butter, shrimp, Dungeness crab, jalapeño, and bacon, covered with scampi shrimp, smoked salmon; while I could never order that one, it would be an excellent choice for anyone that partakes of the dead, decaying piscine stuff and also of the dead, decaying aquatic insects). They also offer several versions of Three Egg Omelets. Some of the choices that I was looking at were: Florentine (spinach, tomato, drizzled with Hollandaise sauce, no cheese); Italian Delight (sundried tomatoes in olive oil, Italian sausage, Mozzarella cheese, sprinkled with basil flakes; which I could always order less the grinded-up awful porky offal); or Vegetarian (mushroom, onion, bell pepper, spinach, and zucchini, no cheese).

I liked this omelette, but it was made with those plain ol' sliced, canned (read: boring) black olives; luckily, there was a decent amount of Feta to make up for that culinary faux pas (which is French for "Όπα!", of course). If you are going to call an omelette "Greek", it really should contain authentic Kalamata olives.

With the choice of sides that are offered with their omelettes, who in their right mind would ever order "sliced tomatoes" (other than Greg Kipe, of course)?! I knew that any dish that I would order today would have to have hashbrowns and that I would have to upgrade them with habanero-infused pickled onions. These aren't your Uncle Bob's pickled onions. They have a good amount of heat to them, but are really tasty and not overpoweringly hot. And there was a right good amount of them all over the top, too. The habanero-infused pickled onions would also be a great addition to any of their omelettes or scrambles.

For a change, I had an English muffin for my toast choice.

Because they are a "Coffee Shop" (it states so right in their name, just check out their official web-site), I had to get some Coffee with breakfast this morning. I am not sure which specific roast/blend of America's Best Coffee Roasting Company (I didn't ask) they serve. The Coffee was just okay (but it didn't stop me any from getting two refillas).

For condimentary supplementation, Taylor Street Coffee Shop has Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce), Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce, and Traina Foods California Sun Dried Tomato Ketchup (both the original and Hot Sriracha versions). If they didn't already offer their excellent habanero-infused pickled onions, I would most definitely have used some of the Hot Sriracha on the hashbrowns. I did use some of my own Fat Cat Chairman Meow's Revenge (Scorpion Pepper Sauce) (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the omelette. I probably could have done without any extra-added supplementary heat, as the habanero-infused pickled onions were a decently picante addition already.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Greek Omelet ~ 6.4 (but easily 6.5 or 6.6 with real Kalamata olives); hashbrowns with habanero-infused pickled onions ~ 7.5

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1. Nah, not really. Did anyone actually buy that one?

I just happen to think that Stevie Wonder (whose actual birth name was Stevland Hardaway Judkins) happens to be one of America's best singer-songwriters of the 20th Century. And this particular song may be one of the best (gritty) paeans to New York City ever written.