Grain D'or

Richmond (District) Coffeehouses; 
nummer/numéro enogtyve/vingt et un

http://usa.andersenbakery.com/index.html


Place: Grain D'or[1]
Location: 236 Clement Street (between 3rd and 4th Avenues)
Hours: open at 7:00am daily
Meal: Jalapeño Cheese Bread ~ roll with three cheeses and creamy jalapeño sauce; Cream Cheese Walnut ~ honey walnut brioche with sweet cream cheese topping; Mango-Coconut[2] Danish[3] ~ mango and coconut filling in a Danish; and a large cuppa Peerless Coffee & Tea® Italian Roast Classic

http://www.peerlesscoffee.com/product/all-coffee/italian-roast-classic/

Next up along Clement Street (still heading eastward) for a Richmond (District) Coffeehouses series visit was Grain D'or. This bakery is now part of the ever-growing Danish-owned Andersen Bakery/Group chain of bakeries/restaurants. I think it originally was a smaller locally-owned/Bay Area chain of French bakeries. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against chains (just as long as they aren't attached to shackles and tethered to slaves); 'merica has been built on chains. Well, at least it ain't part of St*rbucks... yet.

I was originally planning on going to Blue Danube Coffee House/Café (see previous 'blog-entry mentions from January 21st, 2012 and September 5th, 2011) this morning, but they have been closed now for a little over eight months (since mid-May 2015) due to "plumbing problems" (seems to me, someone needs to see a good café-proctologist). It does not look like they are about to reopen again any time soon (if at all) either. This just leaves Toy Boat Dessert Café (where you can expect more pictures of cool toys than my actual breakfast) and Cumaica Coffee remaining on Clement Street to visit.

This particular location of Grain D'or is very spacious and has eleven tables for two. They offer about fifteen different types of fresh-baked breads for sale as whole- or half-loaves, and they will slice the bread for you if asked; I saw a few people getting whole loaves sliced to take home with them (well, I suppose eating a whole loaf of bread in a bakery is a bit much).

There were only a few other possible breakfastary ideas: Pesto Cheese Bread (roll with basil pesto and Pizza cheese mix [I can only assume that "Pizza cheese mix" is Danish for "Mozzarella and/or Provolone"]) or International Cheese Bread (roll with Gruyère, Fontinella, Mozzarella, and Provolone cheeses [So it seems that "International" in Danish means "Swiss and Italian"]). They also offer a few different vegetarian sandwiches (if you happen to be "that type") that would be great for breakfast (along with one of their fresh-baked pastries or two, too): Vegetarian Feast (lettuce, sprouts, tomato, cucumber, fresh avocado, Provolone cheese, Dijon/mayonnaise) and Roasted Tomato Caprese & Avo (without looking at the menu, I bet that it has roasted tomatoes, Mozzarella, and possibly something called "avo"; however, I could not find a good Danish-to-English translation for that word).

All of these baked-goods items were very good and fresh. The Jalapeño Cheese Bread was even still warm (the counter-guy told me it was recently out of the oven and offered to toast it up a bit for me, but that was not necessary). I especially liked the Mango-Coconut Danish; it had loads of fresh, cubed mango on top (easily half a mango) ~ plus, there was one small sprig of fresh rosemary[4] on top that really added something a bit extra, but I can't quite put my finger (or tongue on it)[5].

Not that I really expected to be using any sort of condimentary supplementation on any of these fresh-baked items, but I did notice that Grain D'or has bottles of Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce if needed.

This may have seemed like a lot of bread/baked-products this morning, but you know what they say: "Man does not live on omelettes and potato side dishes alone."


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Jalapeño Cheese Bread ~ 6.5; Cream Cheese Walnut ~ 6.4; Mango-Coconut Danish ~ 7.4

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

Unlike what some people may think (Okay, how was I to know that "Grain D'or" was not an opening to a silo. There was absolutely no reason for the guy at the cash register to laugh at me for asking. And it really didn't help any when I also asked "Grain or what, then?"), "Grain D'or" is simply French for "grain of gold".

"Grain of gold" in Danish is "korn af guld".

(I have no idea what "John Stewart" or "Stevie Nicks" translates as into either French or Danish, though.)

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, nummer to/nombre deux:

a) "Mango" = "mango" in Danish and "mangue" in French.
(Sometimes this linguistic stuff ain't Raketvidenskab.)

b) "Coconut" = "kokosnød" in Danish and "la noix de coco" in French.
(And sometimes it ain't even Opération du Cerveau.)

3. I can't seem to find a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer on how to say "Danish" in either French or Danish, though.

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, nummer tree/numéro trois:

"Rosemary" = "rosmarin" in Danish and "romarin" in French.

5. Does anyone know how do you say: "Je ne sais quoi!" in Danish or French?