Ella's

"The one with the Spring Vegetable Hash."

http://www.ellassanfrancisco.com/


Place: Ella's Neo Classical American Cooking

Location: 500 Presidio Avenue (on the corner of California Street)

Hours: open for breakfast Monday through Friday at 7:00am; open for "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday at 8:30am

Meal: Spring Vegetable Hash ~ new potatoes, peas, spring onion, with two (over-medium) eggs added on top, served with toast of your choice (my choice was their honey oat raisin once again); and a glassa orange juice

(What's the EweToobular juxtaselections for today? 
It is a well-known fact that both Lady Ella and Satchmo were big fans of pea shoots/sprouts/greens.)


This was my first visit back to Ella's Neo Classical American Cooking (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, January 7th, 2017) since the new change of ownership. (I think this has been the third or fourth now since I have been going there, anyway.) New owners; same old name; open for "Brunch" at the same old time; somewhat same old menu; some old waitstaff/cook-staff; and some new faces in both the waitstaff and cook-staff (just fewer than they used to have crowded into the kitchen area).

Of note: they no longer list any of the dish names in the minuscule on the menu. Plus, it doesn't look as if they will be changing their "Brunch" menu every weekend. I liked that the menu changed from visit to visit; you never knew what you might see listed (it was never a complete surprise for me, as they would normally have the weekend "Brunch" menu up on-line on Friday night and I would pre-check it before heading over; there was always at least one good dish for stupid vegetarians). They may still change the menu seasonally, but just not as often as they used to.

Today's menu still had a few other good ideas for me: Spinach Salad (grilled portobello mushroom, pickled onion, shaved Parmesan, sherry vinaigrette; which I would also have had added a couple of eggs ~ probably poached for this dish ~ on top of); Wild Mushroom-Bacon Scramble (shallots, fines herbs, Asiago; which I would have ordered sans the porky bits); or Lemon Ricotta Pancakes (3) (with a blueberry compote on top; I saw this going out to one of the tables, these were three extra-large pancakes, and it looked very good).

Not for me, but if there are any of "those type of people" that enjoy eating dead, decaying marine insects, there is Shrimp & Grits (white Cheddar greets, Creole bbq sauce, greens). I also saw this dish being brought out and it didn't look half-bad (of course, that half would have been the half without the shrimpy-stuff on it). 

This was very similar to the dish that they used to call "potato scramble". The new potatoes were small/baby potatoes (blue [purple], red, and yellow) cut into half/bite-sized pieces. It also included lots of fresh peas, corn, AND (not listed, but this may be one of those items that gets changed seasonally) pea shoots/sprouts/greens. I happen to love me some pea shoots/sprouts/greens, so I was very happy to see that included in this dish. Needless to say (but I will say it needlessly here, anyway), I liked this dish a lot.

Ella's offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce) in bottles or Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce in single-use packets for condimentary supplements. I used some of my own Sunbelt Plantations Vidalia® Onion Picante Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on top of one egg and some Palo Alto Firefighters 
XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on top of the other egg.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Spring Vegetable Hash ~ 7.1