the Castro Republic

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Place: the Castro Republic

Location: 2295 Market Street 
(on the corner of 16th Street)

Hours: open Saturday and Sunday at 9:00am para el desayuno

Meal: Huevos Escalfados[1] ~ poached egg/s [ sic/s ], olive oil, lemon, sea salt, Marash pepper[2], served over toast, topped w/ avocado and spinach salad with cherry tomatos [ again sic ]; a side of Grilled Potatoes (or possibly "Potatos", Dan); and a glassa Blood Orange Lemonade (which came served in a Ball® jar-glass)


A few weeks back, when I ate at KITCHEN Story, I happened to notice a new(-ish) restaurant in the same neighborhood that I had never had breakfast at before. the Castro Republic[3] has only been open a little over a year (and the last time that I had breakfast in the Castro was about two years ago now). I liked the look of their menu de desayuno and made myself a mental note (♪) to get back there one of these days. Well, because today happened to be "one of these days", and I have about run out of new places to try in San Francisco, anyway, I figured that today was as good a day as any to finally play that mental note (♪).

the Castro Republic is a small-to-medium sized place with seating of twelve tables for two and two tables for six. Plus, outside on the Market Street sidewalk, there are five tables for four (it was still way too chilly to sit out there at 9:00am, but I bet it's a great spot when the Sun is shining... well, if the Sun is shining).

There were several otras buenas ideas from which to choose (however, I am just not sure when I will be getting back there again any time soon to make any of these choices):
Chilaquiles ~ crispy corn chips with scrambled eggs, chile sauce, queso, crema, Fresno chiles[4], avocado and cilantro, served with black, pinto beans or salad;
Verde Benedict ~ sautéed spinach, mushrooms, roasted tomatoe, served with grilled potatos or salad with citrus dressing (they do not specify anywhere on the menu that this comes topped with Hollandaise sauce, though; I might have ordered this one, but I just had another version of really good Huevos Benito last weekend which I figured would be hard to top ~ with or without any Hollandaise sauce);
California Omelette ~ avocado, greens mix, green onion, Jack cheese, mushrooms, and cherry tomatos, served with grilled potatos and toast;
Monte Spinach Scramble ~ eggs, baby spinach, queso, grilled potatos, salsa fresca and avocado;
or
Sopes Con Huevo y Carnitas ~ hand made corn sopes, with carnitas (which I would have ochenta-y-seis-ed, of course), tomatillo salsa, sunny side eggs, queso, crema, & salad or black or pinto beans.

I think that this was supposed to have been served Eggs Benedict-style with the poached eggs on top of each half-slice of the avocado toast (at least that was the impression that I got from the description on the menu). After eating one half-slice of the toast and one poached egg, I decided to do just that and laid (placed, whatever) the remaining egg on top of the toast. In my opinion (and if'n you don't wanna hear my d*mn opinions, why are you reading this silly l'il 'blog-thing in the first place?), this was the way to go. I did like the Marash chilli flakes (which were sprinkled on both of the poached eggs and on the avocado toasts); I would liked to have had more even of those, too.

The side of grilled/roasted potatos was very good. It was made with both your standard yellow/white potatos and sweet potatos, and with lots of red onions mixed in with them. I would rather have seen this as an optional side in place of the baby spinach and cherry tomatos pile (even I can open a bagga baby spinach and cut cherry tomatos in half.... well, given an hour or more to prepare it).

Surprisingly, the Castro Republic only had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) for use as condimentary supplementation; I would have expected a good Mexican restaurant to offer a few other hot sauces, too. Luckily I came well-equipped and I used some of my own Dat'l Do-it® Scorching Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on top of both poached eggs (just a few drops on each for a bit o' heat and flavour) and some Sunbelt Plantations Vidalia® Onion Picante Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) all over the potatos (about the amount a normal person might use ketchup).

Strange Coffee Interlude of the Day

When I was back in Massachusetts (the newer one in New England, not the older one in Olde England) last month, my brother Kerry had given me a pounda Coffee for my birthday: Gold Star Coffee Inc - Hawaiian Kona Extra Fancy (Thanks, Kerry!). So I made sure to brew me uppa (well, drip me downa) cuppa to enjoy while keyboarding uppa this here 'blog-entry. I still am working my way through several of my Christmas gifts of Coffee, but did manage to finally use up one of those and was able to break into this newest bagga last week. 

I normally am not a big fan of Kona Coffee. I have always found it to be a bit on the weaker side for my tastes. This may be due to the fact that Kona Coffee is normally produced as a Light or Medium roast. However, this stuff is labeled as a Medium roast, but it really is more of a Medium-to-Dark roast and I have been enjoying it immensely. It has brought Kona Coffee to a new light in my eyes.

http://goldstarcoffee.com/products/4-kona


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Huevos Escalfados ~ 6.8 (this is factoring in their mighty fine roasted potatos to the meal);
Gold Star Coffee Inc - Hawaiian Kona Extra Fancy ~ 7.5

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del día:

"Huevos Escalfados" literally translates from Spanish into English as "poached eggs". I was hoping it was going to be some kinda cool nickname for the dish.

2. Ne dedin?

https://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=P-MAR

(There were several other on-line links from which to order Marash pepper flakes. I chose this one from Zingerman's® on purpose. I bet that I can find them locally and will not have to have them shipped from 
the Republic of Ireland, though.*)

*(I am sure that only a few ex-residents of Sharow, Ripon, North Yorkshire, England will get that stupid joke.)

3. the "Castro" Republic? I was expecting some kinda restaurante comunista cubano. 

(Besides, everyone knows that there are no "Republicans" living in the Castro. That would be like a Mormon coffeehouse.)

4. http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Red_Fresno_Chile_Peppers_8101.php