the Grove - Fillmore

http://thegrovesf.com/


Place: the Grove - Fillmore

Location: 2016 Fillmore Street (between Pine and California Streets)

Hours: open Monday-Friday 7:00am, 
Saturday & Sunday 8:00am

Meal: Warm Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding ~ topped with classic vanilla icing, served with a side of fresh strawberries; a side of (as oxymoronic as it may sound) Crispy Golden Rosemary Hashbrowns; and a cuppa (well, actually, more like a small bowla) Verve Coffee Roasters - House Blend (I am not sure if this is a blend/roast made specifically for the Grove coffeehouses)

https://www.vervecoffee.com/

(As far as I can tell, there really is/are no juxtaselections between cinnamon roll bread pudding and Tom Waits [or Matilda ~ waltzing or not]; I just like the song[1].)


I went to the Fillmore Branch of the Grove (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, April 23rd, 2016) this morning. This location (opened back in 2002) was the second coffeehouse in their mini-chain; however, with the closure of their original shop on Chestnut Street a few years ago, this is now the oldest in their surviving mini-franchise. I have eaten at this location a few time before for lunch or dinner (or just for Coffee and snacks before or after a movie at the AMC Dine-In Kabuki 8), but this was my first breakfastary sojourn there. I have/had eaten breakfast at all of their other three joints already. There are currently just three coffeehouses, but a new one (which will be the existing fourth one, but their actual fifth one) is due to open later this year in the Design District/Showplace Square (South of Market Street). 

The Fillmore Street coffeehouse has a kind of a Western/Frontier theme going on: there is a rough, uneven wooden plank floor and it has a very tall, open-spaced ceiling (like you might have seen in an old Western/Frontier bar or saloon). There is lots of seating in various sized tables. I ended up siting in one of the bench-seat tables by the front windows (which were open this morning creating a nice breeze and fresh air). Plus, there are nine more tables for two on the sidewalk patio café.

As with their other two locations (and like most coffeehouses throughout the city), you order first at the front counter, pay for the meal, they give you a number to place at your table (mine was #22 this morning, but I was actually the third person/group to order for the morning), and then they will bring it out to you when it is ready (and not before, dammit!).

For "just a coffeehouse", they have a fairly decent breakfast menu and there are still some other ideas that I would like to try (maybe when the new space opens up later this year, I can make that an excuse to revisit and check out a different neighborhood ~ one where there is a dearth of  good places for breakfast currently):

Basil and Goat Cheese Scramble or Omelet ~ fresh torn basil and goat cheese, served with golden thick-sliced Semifreddi’s sweet batard toast and your choice of Crispy Golden Rosemary Hashbrowns or lightly dressed organic mixed greens (this meal would have been my choice if I wanted to go savoury instead of sweet this morning; I think this would be best as a scramble dish; and, as always, I would have opted for the potatoes over the silly rabbit food any day);

Spinach, Fontina and Tomato Scramble or Omelet ~ fresh spinach, Fontina and oven-roasted tomatoes, served with the same choices above (I also think this would be better as a scramble dish);

Seasonal Veggie (ugh!) Scramble or Omelet ~ seasonal roasted vegetables, served with the same choices above  (this one I would probably have gone as an omelette);

or

Veggie (ugh! again) Breakfast Sandwich ~ soft scrambled eggs, Fontina, oven-roasted zucchini, arugula, with a creamy spinach spread, served on a toasted Semifreddi’s brioche bun (they have a picture of this on their web-site and it looks very good; think Eggamuffin just with much more class and taste).

I don't know what I was expecting. Somehow, I figured this was just going to be served in a small(-ish) bowl. However, this came as a HUGE chunka bread pudding (I don't think you can truly gauge its size from the angle of my crummy photograph). It ended up being a lot of (good) food, but I ate it all anyway; I can always skip lunch today.

The side of hashbrowns was very good and this turned out to be a great idea to cut some of the (much expected) sweetness of the bread pudding.

For condimentary supplementation, the Grove only has Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce on every table, but they also have bottles of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce for use if requested. I used some of my own Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on half of the potatoes and some Dragon's Lair Extra Hot Cayenne & Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the other half of the potatoes.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Warm Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding ~ 6.6

___________________

1. This particular cover of a Tom Waits song was introduced to me by my brother Kerry several years ago now. He had sent me a CD of interesting (and some very strange) Tom Waits covers ~ that he titled "Lite Waits" (I told him that he could also have called it "Tom Waits for No Man"). I happened to be listening to this particular (or this peculiar) CD on my way to and back from breakfast this morning.

Thanks, Kerry!