"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." ~ (apocryphally attributed to) Abraham Lincoln "Wanna bet?!" ~ (apocryphally attributed to) Donald Trump (but more than likely he just apocryphally plagiarized it from a speech of Hillary Clinton's)
http://www.thegrindcafe.com/ Place: the Grind Cafe Location: 783 Haight Street (near the corner of Scott Street) Hours: open 7:00am every day of the week (wellll... supposably) Meal: Acropolis (Omelet) ~ artichoke, tomato, olives, spinach, & Feta, served with hash browns (noted as two words, but at least it is in the plural) or home fries & choice of toast; and a 12 oz cuppa the GrindHouse Blend
(Today's EweToobular juxtaselection? Who isn't aware that both Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are big Feta fans, too?) Thankfully, the Grind Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, May 14th, 2016) was open for business this morning when I did an exploratory drive-by (a little after 7:15am) before committing to finding a nearby parking spot. Even so, I had another back-up plan all ready to back-up this restaurant just in case they were not open early in the morning again. ("Fool me once... ") I was glad that they were actually open this morning so that I will try to make more return trips in the future. ("Fool me twice... ") There are still a few other good ideas that I want to check out: Lower Haight (Omelet) ~ chicken apple sausage, spinach, sun-dried tomato& Feta (if they would substitute the grinded-up poultry stuff with their vegetarian sausage patty); Scott Street (Omelet) ~ avocado, spinach, bacon, onion & Cheddar (without the bacon, of course); Garden Scram (Scrambler; hence the "Garden" moniker) ~ spinach, peppers, mushroom, tomato, onion & Cheddar; or Hash Brown Hill ~ a mound of home fries or hash browns covered with melted Cheddar & topped with sour cream, black olives, avocado & green onion (Next time? Plus, I would probably have them add an egg or two on top of the Hill). Strange Amazing Gracie Interlude of the Day The next customer behind me in line was a blind man with his seeing-eye dog (a very happy and friendly Black Lab). After I had ordered and left the front counter, I overheard him say to the barista/counter-guy: "I haven't seen you for a while... well, I have never really seen you, but you know what I mean." Later, as the blind guy was leaving, the barista/counter-guy says to him: "It was nice to see you again!" (I hope none of my blind friend's will read this and take offense.)
"But, Brian, didn't you just have a Greek-style omelette yesterday morning for breakfast?!" First off, mind yer own beeswax! Secondly, I purposefully went with this omelette to do a comparison with yesterday's meal!! And, lastly, but definitely not leastly, it's Feta, dammit!!! While there was not nearly as much Feta as yesterday's omelette (but that was pretty much an anomaly anywhere), this was still a very good omelette. My one complaint would be that it was made with those plain ol' sliced black olives of the canned variety (but most places do this, too, anyway). I went with homefries and sourdough (or home fries and sour dough) as my side choices. I love when a place gives you a choice of potato sides. And these homefries were really very good once again ~ made with (white) onions and red and green bell peppers throughout. Not that most coffeehouses don't have good Coffee (it is right in their name, after all, but there are still some places that could use better roasts or blends), but the Grind Cafereally does offer a very good cuppa, too. I asked the barista/counter-guy who does the roasting for them, but I only remembered that it was from a local roastery in Berkeley. If I didn't already have four different types of Coffee in my refrigerator, I probably mighta picked me up a bag to bring home, too. the Grind Cafehas Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce on the tables for use as condimentary supplements. I used some of my own Pepper PalaceChocolate Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & that other person!) on the potatoes and some Fan The FlamesSriracha Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the omelette. the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude Just as I was entering the coffeehouse, I heard and then looked up and saw a mini-pandemonium of four of the colourful chatter-birds flying southward over Haight Street (probably heading to the Mission for their own breakfast). Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Acropolis (Omelet) ~ 6.4; the GrindHouse Blend~ 7.2
You know what ol' Robbie Burns once said: "The best plaid lands of mites and hens often go to Rye." (Well, ol' Robbie said it in Scotlandese and no one can ever understand what those people are saying, anyway.)
http://www.sealrockinn.com/restaurant.html (This is their "official" web-site; however, it is basically useless. It does not list their breakfast [and especially] nor their International Omelettes menu items.) Place: Seal Rock Inn Restaurant Location: 545 Point Lobos Avenue (on the corner of 48th Avenue) Hours: open at 6:00am every day of the year Meal: Greek Omelette No. 2 ~ Feta cheese with fresh spinach, served with hash brown [ sic ~ printed as two words and in the singularity], toast (I went with the sourdough [or should that be "sour doughs"?] variety) and jelly; and a cuppa (and 1-1/2 refillas) their house Coffee I was originally planning on revisiting the Grind Cafe(in the Lower Haight). They are supposed to open at 7:00am on the weekends. However, I arrived there about 7:10am and they still had their rolling gate down and locked for the morning. I figured that maybe they were just running a little late (there were no signs of activity inside, though). So, I decided to walk up and down Haight Street for about twenty minutes. (Unfortunately, absolutely nothing else is open that early on Saturday in the Lower Haight, so my options were definitively limited.) I came back to the storefront around 7:30am and there were still no signs of an imminent opening or any signs of life, so I just bagged it and headed back home to the Richmond.
Luckily, I had a viable (and very executable) back-up plan. I just drove over to Seal Rock Inn Restaurant (see last 'blog-entry from Friday, April 18th, 2014), which I was planning on heading back to tomorrow, anyway. As this restaurant is located directly down the street from me (about fifteen blocks or so), I figured I was going to be heading back this-a-way, any-a-way. I really can't believe that it has been three years since my last visit. Seal Rock Inn Restaurant has one of the best selections of omelettes in town (well, that is, if you don't include their French Omelette [assorted fruits with strawberries (seasonal), sour cream ~ this is supposed to be an "omelette"?!], Swedish Omelette [low fat cottage cheese & assorted fruit ~ contrary to popular belief, this does not include any soft and chewy fish-shaped candies, though], or Sunrise Omelette [don't even ask! ~ I tried it once on a self-imposed dare, but never again]). Even though I had arrived there around 8:00am, I still had the entire front (covered/enclosed) patio area all to myself for the better part of twenty minutes. Before I had finished eating, another three groups of people later came in to join me.
Hoo-boy! I have always liked this omelette, but today's entry made me even more of a maven. The omelette came this morning with lots and lots (and I mean LOTS) of spinach and Feta. I am not exaggerating any here; it probably included at least a half-pound of Feta ~ and we're not talking just any crummy crumblies here, I mean, there were HUGE chunks of Feta stuffed inside! "But, gee, Brian, isn't that a bit of Feta-overkill?" Puh-lease! The only way it would be an "overkill of Feta" is if it actually killed me... and, even then, I would gladly succumb to that pleasurable form of Death. ("San Francisco man overdoses on Feta. Donald Trump is thinking of legislating [tweeting, whatever] a complete ban on all Greek imports.") I probably ingested my RDA[1] of Iron and Vitamin F(eta) for an entire week. For condimentary supplementation, Seal Rock Inn Restaurant offers both Tabasco®Brand Hot Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula®Hot SauceOriginal. I used some (I think I went a little heavy-handed on this one, though) of my own Pepper PalaceGator Bite Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the potatoes (or seeing as it is read as "hash brown", maybe I shoulda just written "potato") and just a little Dat'l Do-it®Spicy Jalapeno Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the omelette (I figured [correctly] that the green [jalapeño] on green [spinach] would be a nice envious juxtaselection). Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Greek Omelette No. 2 ~ 6.8 (I normally would give this a 6.6, but due to the complete preponderance of Feta, I added another 0.2 Glen Bacon Scale points) ___________________
1. By which, of course, I meant "Recommended Dietary Allowance". However, with the amount of Iron in the meal, I suppose it may also refer to "Redland railway station".
Richmond (District) Coffeehouses ~ Part 25b When life hands you Marathons... make (or just buy some) lemon tarts!
http://www.butterlovebakeshop.com/ Place: Butter Love Bakeshop Location: 3717 Balboa Street (between 38th and 39th Avenues) Hours: open Tuesday-Friday at 7:30am, Saturday-Sunday at 8:00am Meal: a slice of Cheddar-Jalapeño Quiche; a Sun-Dried Tomato & Ricotta(???) Galette; a large chunka Nectarine Bread Pudding; and a large cuppa Mr. Espresso®Organic Seven Bridges Blend ("There are seven bridges that keep the people of the Bay Area connected, and the Seven Bridges Blend pays homage to the diversity of people and tastes in the San Francisco Bay Area." Well, technically, there are eight bridges in the Bay Area; most people forget about the Antioch Bridge. Or, perhaps, Mr. Espresso® doesn't count that big brick red one heading to Marin as an "organic" bridge.) https://mrespresso.com/coffee/blends/
(I know what your're thinking: "Hey, Brian, just what the h*ck is today's EweToobular juxtaselection?" I bet you were not aware that ol' Satchelmouth himself invented the New Orleans Marathon; he was also a big fan of galettes ~ savoury or sweet.) I really shouldn't need an excuse to get back to Butter Love Bakeshop (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, March 13th, 2016), but(ter) the San Francisco Marathon was back in town, cutting the city in half, and basically making me an involuntary hostage (as opposed to any of those "voluntary" types of hostages in Stockholm) in my own neighborhood. So, rather than try to deal with any stop-and-go (more stop-and-wait than go, really) traffic to get anyplace else, I figured I could just walk the eight blocks over to this bakery-joint and stay very local. I sat outside in the backyard patio area (and I was the only idiot to do so this morning; the fog was still pretty thick and had not burned off yet and everything was kinda dewy and wet). I sat at the only table that was still dry, as this table was under a covered area right by the back door. There were four to five other tables of varying sizes that could seat from two to six people, though. One of the hardest problems was deciding on exactly which savoury and/or sweet baked-goods items to go with ~ there were just too many good choices. I almost went all savoury and was thinking about also getting their savoury bread pudding item this morning (which I have completely forgotten already what it included; I just remember that it was vegetarian-[but probably not Vegan-]friendly). I do remember that the sweet galette choice was a strawberry one (it looked very good) and almost went with that over the savoury galette.
I put the "(???)" after the "Ricotta" in the galette name above because I could not remember what was in it and forgot what the front counter lady-person had told me it included (and, yes, I could have asked again on my way out, but didn't want to seem like too much of a geek[1]). Needless to say, I enjoyed all three of my pastry/baked-goods items this morning. I really have to say that I liked the Nectarine Bread Pudding the best of the three; I kinda figured that I would, and that was one of the reasons I chose it over the savoury bread pudding. Once again, I really didn't bother to ask what Butter Love Bakeshop had for condimentary supplements. I actually brought a few of my own bottles of hot sauce and used just a little Dat'l Do-it®Zesty Chipotle Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) as a complementary pick-me-up on the quiche. I am sure that both Uncle Albert and Fleet Admiral "Bull" Halsey would be mighty proud of this place... Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Quiche ~ 6.6; Galette ~ 6.8; Bread Pudding ~ 6.9 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist (mostly etymological) pointer of the day: (Note: Copied directly from our friendly friends at WikipediA, so take this explanation for the paper that it is written on.) The word comes from English dialect geek or geck (meaning a "fool" or "freak"; from Middle Low German Geck). "Geck" is a standard term in modern German and means "fool" or "fop". The root also survives in the Dutch and Afrikaans adjective gek ("crazy"), as well as some German dialects, and in the Alsatian word Gickeleshut ("jester's hat"; used during carnival). In 18th century Austria, Gecken were freaks on display in some circuses. In 19th century North America, the term geek referred to a performer in a geek show in a circus, traveling carnival or travelling funfair sideshows (see also freak show).
"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand.” ― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Cat's Cradle
http://www.itsjane.com/ Place: Jane Location: 2123 Fillmore Street (between California and Sacramento Streets) Hours: open daily from 7:00am Meal: the Green Queen ~ arugula, quinoa, cauliflower, asparagus, snap peas(???), mint, soft (as in "boiled", which was not specified on the menu, but that was what it was) egg, sorrel vinaigrette (and, thankfully, none of that d*mn "the vile weed" junk); a Vegan GF[1]blackberry muffin (to start and to end the meal... I ate a little before the salad arrived and had the rest for afters); and a cuppa their own house blend (café blend, whatever) Bread & Butter http://www.itsjane.com/shop/bread-and-butter
(The EweToobular juxtaselections here? Much like myself, Maria McKee, Lou Reed, and Freddie Mercury really like[d] asparagus and completely despise[d] those odious parklets and "the vile weed".) My original plan of attack for breakfast this morning (if one is like myself and pre-plans to attack an innocent breakfast) was to go to a brand new(-ish) bakery called b. patisserie. However, in doing a reconnaissance run on Friday afternoon, I noticed that there was one of those odious parklets directly in front of the establishment. I can only assume the responsible party for that particular parking obstruction was the bakery itself as it was set directly in front of the building and not in front of (or overlapping) any of the neighboring commercial businesses. No biggie, it was only a(n overtly upscale) bakery-joint for the most part and didn't really look like it had any specific breakfastary items from which to choose. (Sorry, Maggie Boofé, looks like I won't be able to give you a report on this place.) Because of which, I decided to head back to Jane (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, February 19th, 2017), only this time to their original location on Fillmore Street. Now, don't get me wrong, Jane is also a(n overtly upscale) bakery-joint, but at least they don't support any of those odious parklet things. "Jane opened on Fillmore in February 2011 with the mission of serving top quality Coffee, breakfast and lunch." (quoted directly from their web-site) I have eaten lunch a few times at this restaurant/café, but this was my first early morning visit to this location. I arrived there a little after 7:00am and it was not too busy, but about a half-hour later, there was already a line out the door (there are only a couple of other coffeehouses open in the immediate vicinity that early, and none of those has anywhere near as good a breakfastary menu). (Note: that "other [overtly upscale] bakery-joint and odious parklet-supporter" doesn't even open until 8:00am every day.) Like a lot of other coffeehouses/cafés in town, you first order at the front counter/cash register, get a number, and then they bring the food to you when it is ready (any sooner and it would not be ready, of course).
(I am not quite sure what the significance is of Mr. Buff A. Lowe [or possibly Ms. Buffy A. Lowe] on a coffeehouse/bakery back wall, but it was there.) This location may have just a few more seats than their location on Larkin Street. Size-wise (or "size-wize"), they seem about the same. However, this Fillmore Street location also has an upper level (where I sat this morning). Seating: (lower level) twelve tables for two and seven stools at a counter-bar area; (upper level) six tables for two and six stools at the upper counter-bar directly overlooking Mr. Buff A. Lowe above. (Don't think that I didn't think about trying to get a shot of him wearing one of my baseball caps. I did, but I was just worried that I might not be able to get it back off his head after doing so.)
(Those d*mn yahoos and their graffito[2] artwork! Even inside and upstairs is not safe any more!) There are still several other good ideas (let's see that "other [overtly upscale] bakery-joint and odious parklet-supporter" do that) on their menu (but I had pretty much decided on going with the choice that I did if salads were available that early in the morning for breakfast): Avocado Mash ~ avocado, cracked black pepper, soft boiled egg, pickled shallot and jalapeño on house (café, whatever) sourdough; Spicy Baked Eggs ~ two eggs, spicy tomato and black bean stew, Cheddar, cilantro, olive toast(this was going to be my back-up plan if they didn't do salads that early; from the description on the menu, I can only assume that this was a dish à la Shakshouka; I asked the barista-person lady who took my order and she said that I was the second person to mention "Shakshouka" to her, but she did not know what that was); Breakfast Frisee Salad ~ frisee, arugula, chive, lardons (not sure if these are Vegan Girlfriendly or not), radish, rainbow carrot, soft boiled egg, shallot vinaigrette, toasted baguette; Raw Sprouted Black Rice Porridge ~ almond and coconut milk, chia seeds, coconut crunch, goji berries, fresh kiwi (served warm upon request) (??? I have absolutely no idea what all this might be, but I would give 'er a go at least once); Walnut & Fig Bread (on the Toast section of the menu) ~ fresh jersey ricotta, honey and hazelnuts; Warm Quinoa Bowl ~ quinoa, roasted brussel [ sic ] sprouts, sweet potatoes, kale (Brussels sprouts AND kale?! This will be another dish that I have to get back and try; if they can add a soft [boiled] egg on top, it would be perfectly breakfastary, too); or Jane's Dragonfruit Smoothie Bowl ~ dragonfruit, pineapple, banana, ginger, coconut water, blueberries, raspberries, hemp seeds, flax seeds, cocoa nibs, goji, mulberries (this sounded very good, too, if I was in more of a sweet ~ or smoothie ~ mood).
The Vegan Girlfriend blackberry muffin wasn't all that bad. It seemed a bit on the dry side to me, but that is to be expected without any momma bovine products in it. I just made sure to enjoy it with alternating sips of the very good cuppa Coffee. "Salad for 'breakfast', Brian?" Hey, it had an egg on top... besides... asparagus (and lots of it). Asparagus has to be one of my favourite of the cladode-type vegetables. I really didn't notice many (any?) snap peas in it, though. Some fresh, sliced jalapeños might also have gone nicely in this salad (and keeping with the whole "green-theme", too). While this salad may not have been as "Killer" as "gunpowder" and/or "gelatine", it was almost as tasty as "Moët et Chandon in a pretty cabinet". Plus, this salad was also "GF" (and could easily have been made "Vegan Girlfriend" if you had them omit the poultry ova on top). I didn't really bother to ask what Jane might have had to offer in the way of condimentary supplementation. It didn't matter, anyhow. I had brought some of my own hot sauces with me, but by checking their menu ahead of time, I didn't figure that I would need much extra flavouring. I did end up using just a little of my own Golden PagodaJalapeñoHot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the salad, but I mainly did that to keep with the whole "green-theme". Strange Coffee Interlude "At the heart of Jane, there is great Coffee." (again, quoted directly from their web-site)
Because I am such a Nose E. Parker, I made sure to ask one of the barista-person guys where they get their Coffee. I couldn't believe that a small (but with three locations now), local coffeehouse would roast their own Coffee for use and for sale. However, I was informed that they in fact do just that. They roast all of their own Coffee in small batches at the Archery over in the Mission. http://www.thearcherysf.com/ "See Jane roast. Roast Jane, roast." (Way to go, Jane, go!) I liked this Coffee so much, that I bought a pounda it[3] (after I had finished eating and while I was on my way out) to take home for my own use later on. When you buy a pounda their Coffee, they offer a free cuppa with it, too. (I really didn't need another cuppa, but there was no way I was gonna turn down a free cuppa very good Coffee; so, I got it to-go and drank it on the drive back home.) This was an actual 16 oz pound bagga, too. It is a bit pricey at $20.00, but many places charge about $12.00-$16.00 for a 12 oz bagga, anyway. So, I figured this would equate to (less the $3.00 that I didn't have to pay for the second "free" cuppa) $12.75 per 12 oz bagga, which isn't really that bad. They incorporate three different kinds of beans (Oaxaca, Mexico; Jinotega, Nicaragua; and Sumatra, Indonesia) in the blend; and, surprisingly enough, this really works out to be a very nice blend in all. "Nuanced and comforting. Rich and robust with a subtle sweetness, our signature house blend is delicious no matter how you drink it." (once again, quoted directly from their web-site)
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: the Green Queen ~ 6.8; Vegan Girlfriend blackberry muffin ~ 6.6; Bread & Butter ~ 7.2 (which I can only hope translates to 6.9-7.0 when I make some myself at home) ___________________
1. I had to ask to make sure this abbreviation didn't mean that it was a "Vegan's GirlFriend's" muffin... not that there is anything wrong with that. 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: "Graffiti" (and its less-used singular form "graffito") comes from the Italian word "graffiato", meaning "scratched". The word originates from the Greek "γράφειν" ("graphein"), meaning "to write". 3. Don't worry, I have finally gotten to the bottom of most of the ChristmasCoffee that I had received. I still have three different types of Coffee in my refrigerator, but two of those are almost finished and the third is only from a recent birthday gift.
Another breakfastary mini-roadtrip[1]: Sausalito, Marin County, CA
http://www.baysidecafe-sausalito.com/ Place: Bayside Cafe and Juice Bar Location: 1 Gate 6 Road, Sausalito, CA (by the Kappas Marina, in the Harbor Center) Hours: open seven days a week at 6:30am (closed every other day of the week) Meal: the Spinach Poacher ~ poached eggs on top of sautéed (I added the "é" there; please note: no G£êñ Bäçòń §čåłē points are ever deducted due to spelling/accentuation preferences) spinach, topped with pico de gallo and Feta, served with tortillas or toast; and a cuppa (with two refillas ~ it was a smallish cuppa) of whatever their house (café, whatever) Coffee might have been (I forgot to ask; the Coffee pots had Peerless Coffee & Tea® on them, but those may just have been promotional leftovers from when they might have served that specific brand of Coffee)
(This EweToobular video/song is just a reminder that we should all make an effort to get to and to see the World outside our window once in a while.) I really don't know why it has taken me over two years to make a return trip to Bayside Cafe and Juice Bar (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, March 22nd, 2015). I remember that I really liked my first visit there. I love that they open up at 6:30am... every day... and for breakfast (minusculed and un-italicized, thank you; I hope they never learn of that odious word "Brunch" here). Plus, breakfast (minusculed and un-italicized still, thank you) is served all day long (it even says so right on their web-site thing: "where breakfast is served all day" ~ of course, there it is italicized, but it's still in the minuscule, at least). And with a very extensive breakfast menu, this place is certainly Breakfastary Starting Rotation-worthy... if only they were a bit more local. This morning, I sat at one of the seats at the long diner-style counter. However, I probably shoulda sat outside at one of the tables in their covered/screened patio seating area (overlooking the marina/houseboats). The weather was perfect for it. Plus, no other idiots were even out there yet that early in the morning, I woulda had the entire space to myself. As I mentioned above, Bayside Cafe has a lot of other great-sounding breakfast entries, such-as: the Heart Breaker (omelette) ~ artichoke hearts, mushrooms, spinach & cheese; the Veggie Volt (if we can overlook the dreaded "Veggie" moniker) ~ scrambled eggs, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach, & Swiss cheese; Munga, Munga! (yeah, I have no idea what that means; I wonder if it was simply a misinterpretation of the Italian "Mangia, Mangia!" ~ "Eat, Eat!") ~ scrambled eggs, Italian sausage (which I would have omitted), mushrooms, Feta cheese, & salsa; Mediterranean (omelette) ~ spinach, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, avocado, & Feta; or (off their weekend specials board) Breakfast Quesadilla ~ with eggs, bacon (No gracias.), cheese, and spinach, served with sour cream and salsa. I really did have a hard time deciding on which meal to go with this morning. There are way too many good choices; hence, I need to make more return trips oftener.
I knew that I was going to like this meal from the description, but I enjoyed it even more in conception. Feta and spinach?! Needless to say (but I am needlessly keyboarding it, anyway), I enjoyed this dish immensely. This ended up being sorta Eggs Benedict-estilo mexicano for the gluten-free crowd (those people really don't want to pay for their gluten) with a bit of an ελληνικός-twist to it, too. I like that they offer a choice of (corn or flour) tortillas or toast. I opted for the corn tortillas option, as I thought (correctly so) that it was the best way to go. I bet this dish would have been interesting with the tortillas under the spinach and poached eggs, too. It may have been a bit too soupy-wet, but I would liked to have tried it that way, anyway. For condimentary supplementation, Bayside Cafe had just Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (both Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce). I used some of my own Punch Drunk™Chocolate Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Sean!) on top of one of the poached eggs for some extra flavour, but their fresh pico de gallo was pretty tasty all on its ownsome, anyway. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: the Spinach Poacher ~ 6.8; Golden Gate Bridge and Bay views ~ 8.5 ___________________
1. The round-trip time there and back (including a forty-five minutes to one hour side-trip to the Golden Gate Bridge in an [unsuccessful] attempt to spot ol' Humphrey and friends) was exactly two hours. H*ck, I spend more time than that most times driving to a location just on the other side of town.
(Still no official-type web-site again.) Place: Dottie's True blue café Location: 26 6th Street (on the corner of Stevenson Street); phonicular contact: (415) 885-2767 Hours: open Thursday through Monday at 7:30am Meal: Banana Raspberry Rice Flour Pancakes ~ (self-explanatory, I would hope) with pure maple syrup; and a glassa milk Sticking to my self-prescribed Rhadamanthine schedule of going to Dottie's True blue café (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, June 11th, 2017) at least once a month for 2017, I made yet still another return visit there this morning. Once again I sat at "Seat #1" at the front counter. This was very easy to do as I was the fourth person in line this morning.[1] I had gone there with the specific idea of having either French toast or pancakes (something on the sweet side), depending on what was specialized on the weekend Blackboard. I liked the sound of this pancake choice better than the French toast option this weekend, so I went with that. I may have even had these in the past before, but after so many meals at Dottie's True blue café, I really can't be too sure. Otherwise, my back-up choices would have been: Fried Egg Sandwich ~ with prosciutto (which I would have ottantasei-ed), avocado, + Provolone on a biscuit, with fruit + potatoes; some kinda omelette combination ~ possibly roasted garlic, spinach, tomato, and goat cheese; or Spinach Provolone Strata ~ served with Italian sausage (No grazie.), roasted tomatoes, + fruit (which I just had back during my January visit, but wouldn't mind having again).
These came as three large pancakes and they were deceptively filling; I could only finish two-and-a half of them (barely). Because the pancakes were made with rice flour and not wheat flour, they weren't as fluffy or airy as "normal" pancakes might have been, but I actually liked how they made a nice crunchy shell/crust on the outsides. Kurt told me that it took him a while to come up with the correct formula (recipe, whatever) for using rice flour instead of wheat flour, specifically as a gluten-free option for those kinda cheapo people that don't like to pay for any extra gluten. I liked the flavour combination of banana and raspberry a lot, too. (And, once again, students, how many botanical berries were in these pancakes? Yes, there was just one... banana; because we all know that raspberries are not real berries.) I did not need to use any of Dottie's supplied bottled hot sauces, but I did use up all of the pure maple syrup (Duh!). Strange Ice Cream Interlude
Because of a conversation I had with complete strangers while standing in line[1, again], I decided that I had to make another stop at ShakeDown this afternoon. I had a small scoop (which is actually two scoops-size) of Satisfaction ~ peanut nougat, Chocolate ganache, citrus zest, and caramel swirls. The owner-scooper guy told me this was mostly inspired by and meant to be à la mode deSnickers® candybar. I actually liked it much better than any ol' Martian Chocolate bar and the peanut nougat crunchies in it really stood out. http://www.shakedownsf.com/ Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Banana RaspberryRice Flour Pancakes ~ 6.8; Satisfaction ~ 7.4 (Don't ever tell me that I can't get no... no, no, no!) ___________________
1. I actually got there right around 7:00am and figured that I would be the only idiot waiting in line for a half-hour for them to open. However, it was a nice enough morning (read: no fog for a change), and there were already three other idiots (one group of two and one single guy) ahead of me that must have had the exact same idea. Because we had a half-hour to kill (and because I am basically a Nose E. Parker), I started talking with them while waiting there. The guy just ahead of me was wearing a Y*nkees cap, but, even so, he seemed like a nice enough guy (just a bit misguided in his Baseball fandom). The conversation between the four of us ranged from breakfast ideas at Dottie's True blue café and to everything from the Boston Red Sox[a] v. Y*nkees rivalry (and why there really isn't the same kind of animosity between Celtics and Knicks fans) to Joe Montana's and Tom Brady's love-lives to where is a good place for Ice Cream (hence the above Strange Interlude this afternoon) in San Francisco[b]. [a](As luck would have it, I happened to be wearing my 2013 World Series Champions t-shirt this morning, too. Come to think of it, luck really didn't have much to do with it. I was planning on wearing something Red Sox-y today to help with the mojo over the current Y*nkees series; plus, I figure about one-fifth of my t-shirts are either Red Sox-related or San Francisco Giants-related, anyway.) [b](I made sure to point out that Humphry Slocombe is probably one of the best local Ice Cream joints in the city [and probably my favourite, too]. I also recommended ShakeDown, Bi-Rite Creamery, and the Ice Cream Bar. They all had been to Salt & Straw earlier this week already.) http://www.humphryslocombe.com/ http://biritecreamery.com/icecream http://theicecreambarsf.com/ https://saltandstraw.com/sf-locations/
