Jo Ann's Cafe & Pantry

A(nother) breakfastary mini-roadtrip:
South San Francisco, CA

(Friday, March 10th, 2017)

(No official-type web-site.)


Place: Jo Ann's Cafe & Pantry

Location: 1131 El Camino Real, South San Francisco, CA; phonicular contact: (650) 872-2810

Hours: open Monday-Friday at 7:30am; Saturday & Sunday at 8:00am

Meals: (mine) Spicy Migas ~ two eggs scrambled with yellow onion, green bell pepper, jalapeño pepper, tomatoes, & crispy tortilla strips, topped with Cheddar cheese, & served with black beans, warmed tomato salsa, & corn tortillas;
(Cindy's) Orange Bread French Toast ~ three slices of our (well, their) homemade (well, restaurant-made) bread, dipped in our (again, their) delicious orange batter, topped with butter and sliced oranges, & served with real maple syrup (I think Cindy may have optioned for a side of some dead, decaying grounded-up porcine or fowl links, too);
(Greg's) Denver Omelette ~ 3 eggs with bell peppers, white onions, Cheddar cheese, & ham, served with home fries and your choice of toast, muffin, bagel, tortillas, or scone;
and there were also some drinks drank (however, after four days in a row of breakfasts, the drinks part of the meal all seem to blur together; I might have had a glassa either orange or grapefruit juice; I am pretty sure that Cindy had a glassa milk and Greg had a cuppa Coffee and probably a refilla or two)


With my friends Greg and Cindy (these would be the same two people mentioned above and in the last 'blog-entry) in town for the weekend on their way to Hawai'i, we were going to head down to visit another friend, Dave (who has been my traditional Thanksgiving Day host for the past several years), in Gilroy for the day. I figured that this was as good a time as any to have breakfast somewhere south of the city on our way down to Gilroy, and I remembered to remember that I had not eaten at Jo Ann's Cafe & Pantry (see previous 'blog-entry from [Easter] Sunday, April 24th, 2011) for quite a while now (Almost six years ago?! Who is scheduling these breakfasts?). I really should have revisited Jo Ann's Cafe sooner; it is truly good enough to be in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation (if not for the distance there and back).

Their version of "migas" is very similar to a chilaquiles dish, just with strips of crispy corn tortillas in it in place of the standard corn tortilla triangles/bits. I have had this dish of theirs a few times in the past (well, way past six years, at least) and always like it. Needless to say, it was very good on this visit, too. The scrambled eggs mess was topped with a nice chunky tomato salsa (think pico de gallo-style). 

I really liked the looks of Cindy's Orange Bread French Toast and may need to order that the next time I get back to Jo Ann's Cafe (hopefully not in another six years, though). Cindy said that it was good, and I would like to see how it compares to Baker Street Bistro's Pain Perdu.

Greg's dish was just a boring ol' Elw*y-town omelette. I did talk him into getting one of Jo Ann's Cafe fresh-baked muffins instead of boring ol' toast. I even got to try some of it; I just don't remember what kind of muffin it was (three days on now).

Jo Ann's Cafe condimentary supplements offerings are Tabasco® Brand Hot Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original). I did bring a few of my own hot sauces with me; the Spicy Migas wasn't all that spicy, but still picante enough where I didn't think I needed to mess with the flavour or heat level by adding any of my own hot sauces.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Spicy Migas ~ 7.0;
Orange Bread French Toast ~ 6.8 (per Cindy's educated rating)
(Apparently, no one cares what Greg's Glen Bacon Scale Rating might be)