the Manor

http://www.manorsf.com/


Place: the Manor ~ an American Bistro Diner

Location: 321a West Portal Avenue 
(between 14th and 15th Avenues)

Hours: open Tuesday - Sunday at 7:30am

Meal: Create Your Own Omelette (but, luckily, not "Cook Your Own Omelette" ~ I made sure to ask) ~ 
(my creation included) 3 eggs, caramelized onions, spinach, and chèvre (that would just be "goat cheese" for the French-impaired), served with house potatoes and toast (I went with the sourdough choice); a glassa orange juice; and, afterward, for a breakfastary dessert-thing, two mini-macarons (one vaniller and one mustachio) and a medium cuppa Naked Coffee (some kinda medium roast; that was the best I could get out of the counter-lady person) at Greenhouse Cafe

http://www.nakedcoffee.net/

(I may have already used the second EweToobular song before for another April 1st juxtaselection. Am I supposed to remember [or fool-proof-check] this junk myself?!)


For only being about three-to-four blocks long, there are actually a few decent places (at least four places now that I am aware of, so that would average out to be about one-per-block, even using Common Core Math) along West Portal that are interesting breakfastary destinations. This morning I headed back to an all new/old place, the Manor ~ an American Bistro Diner (Restaurant Food Eating Place?) (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, November 12th, 2011). I am calling this place "an all new/old place" because it is under new ownership, with just a slight name-change from its old diner/coffeeshop roots; however, they now offer a much smaller menu with (upscaley) diner-style food. They only re-opened in June of last year after having been closed for about a year or more when the old family-owned place had closed.

I sat at the restaurant-length diner-countertop (at the very end seat next to the kitchen, so that I could keep an eye on them preparing my creation), which I was glad to see remained from the original restaurant (diner/coffeehouse/bistro, whatever). They have retained several of the old-time diner booths, too.

There are really not a lot of choices for breakfast (particularly for stupid vegetarian-types). I could have gone with another omelette combination (I was originally thinking of creating my own artichoke hearts, spinach, and Swiss omelette). I also saw on their daily specials board that they had a mole chicken dish of some sort. I asked the owner/manager(?)-person guy and he said that they make their own fresh mole sauce (and he confirmed that it is 100% vegetarian-friendly). I bet that would be a great topping to an avocado, roasted bell peppers, and Monterey Jack omelette creation.

They do have a couple of salads that I could have breakfastized (Okay, maybe that is not a real word, but I am sure that I am not the first fool to use it on the World Wild Webs.[1]) by adding a couple of poached eggs on top of them, or, better yet, by adding some of their Deviled Eggs with Togarashi[2].

My creative creation turned out to be a good one (no foolin'), if I do say so myself. The spinach was fresh (baby?) spinach and lightly grilled/sautéed, and really complemented both the caramelized onions and creamy goat cheese. I liked their style of homefries, too.

For condimentary supplementation, I was informed that the Manor had Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original), a Sriracha hot sauce (probably Huy Fong Foods, Inc., I didn't bother to check), and a Sambal hot sauce (I also didn't find out which brand this might have been). I just used some of my own ★ Pope's ★ Whiskey River Hot Sauce (Thanks, Amy and Chef Joe!) on the potatoes (and I am happy to report that I have finally killed the last of that bottle... which only leaves me with twenty-seven more to go in my refrigerator currently) and some Lucky Dog Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on top of the omelette (and there is probably only one dose left in that bottle, too). 

I purposely (purposefully?) had skipped any Coffee with the breakfast meal because I had it in mind all along to stop back by Greenhouse Cafe (just a few doors down the street, anyway) for a breakfastary dessert-thing. (Does anyone know a fun portmanteau for a "breakfast dessert"?) I sat outside in the solitude and tranquility of their backyard patio area to enjoy my Coffee and breakfastary dessert-thing. Mustachio is one of my favourite flavours of those mini-macarons. I was told that they alternate between serving Naked Coffee and Equator Coffees & Teas™. It really didn't matter to me, as I like both of these local(-ish) purveyors of fine Coffees.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
CYO Omelette ~ 6.7;
Naked Coffee + mini-macarons ~ 7.0

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1. Ha! Do a Google-search for "breakfastized" and see for yourselves.

2. As best as I can figure, Togarashi is some kind of Japanese chilli powder/seasoning.

It's either that, or some kinda impossible Star Trek-ing training exercise...