eight am

♪ "Don't blame us if we ever doubt ya
You know we couldn't live without ya
Breakfast... you are the only only ooooonly..." ♫

(No official web-site [or none that I could find].)


Place: eight am

Location: 1323 Columbus Avenue 
(between Beach and North Point Streets; right across the street from Joseph Conrad Square [you know, the triangular mini-park ~ but not odious "parklet" ~ across the street from the Cannery Shopping Center]); phonicular contact: (415) 292-4888

Hours: (ironically enough, they actually) open at 7:00am seven days a week 

Meal: Pacific Heights (Frittata) ~ asparagus, tomato, and Manchego cheese; and a glassa freshly-squeezed (extra-frothy/foamy with lotsa pulp) orange juice

(There are absolutely no EweToobular juxtaselections with this morning's songs/videos. I just happened to catch one of T Sisters[1] songs on the car stereo on the way to breakfast this morning and really liked it. The second one is just because... GO RED SOX!!!)


I only have two words to say about today's new breakfastary find: "Yow"-and-"zah"! 

I happened to notice a "new" (well, for me, anyway) breakfast spot last month when I was checking out another great new place, Surisan (see 'blog-entry from Sunday, March 19th, 2017); so I made myself a retarded missive to get back again to check out eight am one of these days. Well, today happened to be one of these day. Much like last month's visit to Surisan, I really have to make an effort to get back again soon to sample some more of their other offerings. Who knew there were now two great breakfastary locations in the confines of (the usually breakfast-bereft) Fisherman's Wharf?

eight am has only been open now since late March 2015. I don't blame myself for not "discovering" this place sooner; it's not my fault that there are not normally enough good breakfast joints in Fisherman's Wharf for which to get over there more often. I think this space used to house just another neighborhood coffeehouse. This is a very cool little spot, with seating for about 34-36 people and additionally three tables for two people each outside on the sidewalk (if you want to brave the cold and don't mind watching the homeless sleeping/waking-up across the street in the mini-park, that is). There was only one table occupied when I had first arrived (a little after 7:00am), but I was happy to see that the place really fills up fast (even early on a pastoral Easter morn). Apparently all the touristas in the nearby hotels and motels have already gotten the word about this great little place.

I especially like that they offer many other options for stupid vegetarians (and, I suppose, many others for dead-decaying-meatetarians, too). There are several more (locally-named) Frittatas and a full line (of the anti meridiem and post meridiem variety) of Crêpes[2] from which to choose, ferinstance: Haight Ashbury (Frittata; mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and Swiss cheese); Noe Valley (Frittata; Black Forest ham, zucchini, and Gruyère; which I would have, of course, sechsundachtzig-ed the Schwarzwälder Schinken, Adolf); Nob Hill (Frittata; mushrooms, spinach, shallots, and Swiss cheese); 7AM (Crêpe; tomatoes, yellow and red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and Swiss cheese); 8AM (Crêpe; berry compote made with fresh seasonal berries [just not seasonal heirloom tomatoes or eggplant, I hope ~ please see the silly A Berry Strange Interlude below to get that joke] and Chantilly cream); or 11AM (Crêpe; peanut butter and sliced bananas [which are an actual berry, of course] drizzled with maple syrup).

However, for my next visit, I will probably (most definitely!) have to opt for their Avocado Toast Three Ways (a culinaristic ménage-à-trois, peut-être?!). I was informed by one of the ever-attentive, friendly waiter/server-person guys that this is one of their most popular choices. This meal includes: Avocado Toast with Fried Egg (toasted multigrain bread spread with mashed avocado topped with one sunny-side up egg), Avocado Toast with  Heirloom Tomato (toasted sweet baguette spread with mashed avocado and heirloom tomato slices), and Avocado Toast with  Bacon (toasted sourdough spread with mashed avocado and bacon; of course, I would probably ask for a second sunny-side up egg in place of the porky-butt bits). This also comes with a side of fresh fruit. The person at the next table over from me had ordered this and it looked really good. It might all be a bit too much food for me to order it with a side of their very tasty homefries. Pity. 

One of the main reasons for my exclamatory first sentence of this 'blog-entry is that not only was this a very good rendition of a frittata, but it was completely fully-wrought with asparagus! That is always a very good thing with me. Asparagus (asparagi?) happens to be one of my favourite of the stalk-fruits! There had to have been at least enough asparagus pieces in it for one-per-bite of the frittata. Oh, yeah!

A Berry Strange Interlude

This meal came with (an unexpected, but much welcomed) small bowla fruit. It included bananas (a botanical berry), pineapple (not-a botanical berry), blueberries (a botanical berry), blackberries (not-a botanical berry), raspberries (not-a botanical berry), strawberries (not-a botanical berry), cantaloupe (not-a botanical berry), honeydew melon (not-a botanical berry), and kiwifruit (a botanical berry). Just on a whim (and because I am a bit of a nudnik), I happened to ask one of the waiter/server-person guys if he could name how many different types of "berries" were in the bowl. Of course, he immediately said "Three: blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries." I told him that he had the count correct, but only one of the berries correct. I then went on to explain to him (read: bore him to tears, where he pretends to listen intently to humour me) the "botanical berries" junk. He seemed most impressed that both tomatoes and watermelons are classified as "botanical berries".

For condimentary supplements, eight am had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original) on all the tables (and I did spy one bottle of Huy Fong Foods, Inc Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce in their front refrigerator; maybe they only dole it out when specifically requested). None of that really mattered as I had once again brought a few of my own hot sauces to use and went with some Laura Plantation Vidalia® Onion & Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the homefries and some Dancing Dragon Cayenne Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of the frittata (just a few drops for flavour, no way did I want to overpower or mess with all that asparagusy goodness).

I had parked a block away on the corner of Bay and Leavenworth Streets (near where the mini-funicular is located on that street) and I could see that there was some police activity/morning excitement a block up Bay Street at Hyde Street (which I would have to pass by on my way back home). It seems that one of San Francisco's famous "Trolley Cars" had a minor misunderstanding with a couple of vehicles early this morning. Luckily, when I passed by, it did not look like anyone was severely injured, but it was easy to see which would win a battle between a personal automobile and a large cable-operated street railway car that can not veer out of the way of any cross-traffic.

I had skipped any Coffee with breakfast because (after a conversation about this very product on defacedbook yesterday) I had predetermined to use up the last of my Bettys Christmas Blend (Thanks once again, Greg & Cindy!). As luck would have it, I had juuuust enough grounds left to make a cuppa-and-a-halfa by using my French press. (Hey, Cindy! Is it too late to requisition one of those surplus bags that you were offering?!) It's all good, as that now clears the way for yet-still-another bagga Bettys Coffee from Christmas to be opened now. 

https://www.bettys.co.uk/christmas-coffee-pack


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Pacific Heights (Frittata) ~ 7.0 (this is taking into consideration the plethora of asparagus, the very good homefries, and the nice bowla fruits);
Bettys Christmas Blend ~ 7.6 (even though it is an entirely different [as opposed to "entirely the same"?] Christian seasonal holiday already)

___________________

1. T Sisters are (is?) a local Oakland (the one in California, not the much larger suburb of Pittsburgh, PA)-based Folk-Rock musical group. It's just such a shame these sisters are each as ugly as the next. They will never be able to cut it in Musiclandia looking and sounding like they do...

http://tsisters.com/

(I highly recommend checking out more of their songs on EweToob, too. I have been listening to [and enjoying] them all morning while typing [keyboarding, whatever] up this 'blog-entry. 

Bettys Coffee and great harmonies? What a great way to spend a quiet [and extremely wet] Easter Sunday morning!)

2. Not necessarily a stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, but more of a personal pet peeve* pointer of the day:

Please let it be noted that, unlike yesterday's breakfast at an actual crêperie-joint, eight am has this word correctly âččêñtêð (Sorry, I couldn't locate a decent accent for a "t" with which to emphasise my useless point there.) on their menu. 

*(I once had a pet peeve of my own, but it died because I could never find the right kind of food for it to eat.)