café bean

DE KOFFIE STAAT KLAAR![1]

(No official web-site*.)

*(Well, there might be one, but I can not seem to get it to work and it hadn't worked two years prior; so I am just saying that there isn't one.)


Place: café bean
Location: 800 Sutter Street (on the corner of Jones Street); phonicular contact: (415) 928-0888
Hours: (possibly?) open at 7:15am every day of the week (there was a sign with one of those little clock-deals on the front door that stated: "Will Return" and it was set at 7:15, which I am guessing meant "ante" not "post" midday; again, without being able to confirm or deny the actual hours of operation from their official web-site ~ or none, I am sticking with this time for now)
Meal: Rembrandt (Omelette) ~ ham (ham), mushrooms (paddestoelen), olive tapenade[2] (olijventapenade), and cheese (kaas), served with whole wheat toast (buttered; the front counter/
owner-guy actually asked me if I wanted this buttered); and a medium (medium) cuppa (koppa) 
New Guinea "Organic" (now as to the actual brand name of the Coffee that is served there, I really have no idea whatsoever; there is a sign on the Coffee-dispensing thermoses that states "Chester's"; however, the last time I was there, the lady at the counter [whom I assume is Mrs. Owner-guy], said that was not actually the name of the brand, but just what the owner-guy had named it)

("Listen up students, the correct way to prepare an olive tapenade is to always use the choicest bits from the spleen.")

(And, yes, I know that I could have linked a EweToobular juxtaselection of the Rembrandts one hit song, but haven't we all pretty much heard "I'll Be There for You" enough through reruns of "Friends"?)


Ik keerde terug naar café bean als ontbijt (see previous 'blog-entry from November 17th, 2013 ~ which was almost exactly two years ago, give or take four days; it is pretty funny, the owner-guy remembered me from my only other visit there and even remembered the seat at which I was sitting before; he said he remembered me because he saw me taking out my hot sauces and pepper grinder again today). I sat at the cool, corner booth area (which is cushioned and has large throw-pillows for back-supports) that can seat up to six or seven people comfortably. (Don't worry, I didn't hog ~ of varken ~ the space; there was only one other customer inside the entire time I was there, and she had the large table [which can seat about eight to twelve] in the center of the room all to herself, too.)

There are still a few other good ideas left to try on their menu and worth going back again again: 

• From the Omelettes section: 

Van Gogh (bell pepper, onion, avocado, and cream cheese); or
De Vries (egg white, tofu, bell pepper, onion, and tomato);

• Several different breakfast sandwiches (made with either whole wheat toast, croissants, or bagels);

• and they also had two other omelettes on the specials chalkboard:

Michelangelo (who I am pretty sure wasn't a Dutch-guy); and
Daniel's (who may or may not be/have been a Dutch-guy, Dame Elton). 
(Neither of which of these did I bother to copy down the actual ingredients, though.)

Of course, I ordered the omelette zonder dat de dood, rottende varken vlees. The cheese in/on the omelette was Cheddar, I am pretty sure. Why not a nice Edam or Gouda (or Limburger, even, Moe and Larry)? Ik weet het niet. Maybe Chester or Daniel would know the answer to that. I was very happy to see that the olive tapenade was made with real olives, too (quite possibly of the Kalamata variety). My one minor quibble (kleine klacht) would be that all of the ingredients seemed to have been incorporated into the scrambled egg-base and then just folded over into an omelette; I would rather have liked to have seen all the ingredients on the inside of the folded over stuff.

Additionally, there are still no potato (aardappel) side-dishes offered; even though they do have a working (mini-)kitchen ([mini-]keuken) area.

The Coffee (Koffie) was a very decent cuppa. In addition to the New Guinea "Organic" (whichever brand it is), they also had two other thermoses from which to choose: French Roast and Kona Mac Nut (blend). I tried a little of the Kona Mac Nut and it really wasn't half-bad (whether the cuppa was half-full or half-empty or not).

From what I could see (as I didn't really bother to ask), café bean had for condimentary supplementation just Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. I went with some of my own Lucky Dog Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the omelette.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Rembrandt (Omelette) ~ 6.3; "Chester's" New Guinea "Organic" ~ 6.8

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

This was a sign on the wall of the café (of koffiehuis). It simply means "The Coffee Is Ready!" in Dutch.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, nombre deux:

"Tapenade" is a French word. It comes from the Provençal word for "capers", "tapenas".