Toy Boat Dessert Cafe

Richmond (District) Coffeehouses; #22

(Why would anyone ever want to say "toy boat" ten times fast, anyway?)

(No official web-site.)


Place: Toy Boat Dessert Cafe
Location: 401 Clement Street (on the corner of 5th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 751-7505
Hours: open at 8:30am every day
Meal: Breakfast Burrito ~ two eggs with Jack cheese (they actually offered me a choice of cheese, but I figured [correctly, of course] that Monterey Jack would be the most appropriate of cheeses in this meal), tomato, cucumber, sweet red onion, peperonicini [ sic ][1], delicious salsa, wrapped on [ sic, also ] a warm spinach tortilla (where you also have a choice of whole wheat tortilla); a scoop of Double Rainbow® Hazelnut Truffle Latte for breakfastary dessert (hey, I had to get something dessert-like; it is right there in their name, after all); and a (16 oz) cuppa 
Peerless Coffee & Tea® Hawai'ian Golden Kona

http://www.doublerainbow.com/dr/products/ice_cream/hazelnut_truffle_latte

http://www.peerlesscoffee.com/product/all-coffee/hawaiian-golden-kona-blend/

Finishing up the last few spots along Clement Street in my Richmond (District) Coffeehouses series, the next stop was Toy Boat Dessert Cafe this morning. This leaves just Cumaica Coffee remaining on Clement Street to visit now.

Their menu states that Toy Boat Dessert Cafe is 
"Family Owned & Operated Since 1982". I knew that they had been around at least since I moved to the neighborhood in 1986, anyway. I have stopped in many times before for lunch, a quick snack, Ice Cream, or to purchase toys/gifts (more on that later), but this was my first breakfastary visit there. There are just eight small round tables that can seat two to four people and two small booths along the back wall that can seat two to four, too.

The best choice for a standard breakfast (well, "standard" if you live in San Francisco or California, I suppose) was the selection with which I went. (I am sorry, but "... the selection I went with." just sounds a little smoother to me. Sometimes, these d*mn grammarians just p*ss me off.) Otherwise, they mainly have bagel dishes from which to choose ("...to choose from", dammit!). Of course, their bagelry options are pretty decent ones. 

They also offer a number of sandwiches and wraps that could probably be substituted for a breakfast meal. I did like the sound of the Avocado & Veggie Wrap ~ a spinach tortilla, fresh avocado (that would be the first part of the wrap's name, I assume), tomato, cucumber, sweet red onion, organic salad mix, peperocini [ sic, with a different mispelink here even] (these last five ingredients being the "& Veggie" portion of the name, most likely), Jack cheese, and honey mustard dressing. Also available for stupid vegetarian-types, Hummus & Swiss Wrap. Not really one for the stupid vegetarians, but I did like the sound/looks of Chicken Gorgonzola Wrap ~ grilled chicken breast, Gorgonzola cheese, fresh avocado, tomato, sweet red onion, organic salad mix, mayo, on a spinach tortilla (which I could always have ordered without the dead, decaying poultry stuff and also without the vile white goop junk. Who-the-heck puts mayo in with Gorgonzola cheese?! That should be a Capital Offense. I know it offends me capitally). All wraps come with a side of pickle, chips, or potato salad.

I got the burrito with avocado (fresh sliced and plentiful inside) added (to "kick it up a notch" ~ which is how they have it on their menu; I am not sure if Emeril Lagreasee is aware of this blatant usurpage of his catch-phrase or not). Like many little places with no real kitchen of which to speak, they had to nookularise the eggs (not scramble them). I did like the added (sliced and chopped) peperoncini (or "peperonicini" or "peperocini", take your pick... or pickini); I wasn't quite sure how these would pair with the rest of the ingredients, but they went very well with all.

They offer about twenty different flavours of 
Double Rainbow® from which to choose; of which, there are even a few choices (I think I saw three today) for stupid Vegans. I made sure to try a sample-spoonful of the Sea-Salted Chocolate Caramel Truffle (it was very good and would have been my first choice, but I had already ordered my Ice Cream before seeing that one in the display case/freezer-thing), too.

They have three different carafes of Coffee at the front counter/cash register area from which to serve yourself. The other two offerings this morning were: Organic Sumatra and Dark Guatemala. I didn't really need a refilla this morning, but there is only an additional 40¢ charge if you want to try a different roast/blend.

I didn't notice (nor bother to ask) what Toy Boat Dessert Cafe might have to offer in the way of condimentary supplements. I had come prepared with the last two bottles of my newest hot sauces in my collection (Thanks again, Mom!) and used some Dancing Dragon Cayene Pepper Sauce on half of the burrito and some Golden Pagoda Jalapeño Hot Sauce on the other half. Neither of these were extremely espicy, so I could go pretty heavily-handed with both of them.

(Just in case anyone was wondering where Bill Belichick was spending this Super Bowl Sunday.)


The food is good here (and Ice Cream is always worth a return trip), but the real attraction to this cool little neighborhoody joint is all the cool toys that they have on display (most of which are collectibles and are for sale). There is even a working olde-timey mechanical horse for the kiddies to ride. (Sorry, there is a sign specifically stating that adults shouldn't sit on the horse.)

(Now how did that B STRONG baseball cap get there?!)


For the PEZ®[2] enthusiasts (and Star Wars and Disney geeks alike) out there, there are dispensers of all sorts (Is the plural of PEZ®, PEZ's®?) displayed along the front counter, in the front window, and in a large display case over the Ice Cream area.

Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Breakfast Burrito ~ 6.4; Hazelnut Truffle Latte ~ 6.6; multitude of way-cool toys ~ 8.5

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, Nummer eins:

"Peperoni" in German actually means "chillies" or "peperoncini". How do I know this? Just ask my old buddy from (what was still at the time West) Berlin, Doug Depraved. He was very surprised when he figured he was ordering a nice meatatarian-style Pizza with lots of 'merican peperoni on it and it came out covered with peperoncini instead. 

(How do you say "D'oh!" in German?)

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

The name PEZ® was derived from the German word for "peppermint" ~ "PfeffErminZ".

https://www.pez.com/

There is even a local museum dedicated to PEZ®. I have yet to get down there, but one of these day...

http://www.burlingamepezmuseum.com/