Beanstalk Cafe

Richmond (District) Coffeehouses ~ #35

♪ "A little ditty 'bout Jack & the Beanstalk..." ♫ 

(No official-type web-site thing.)


Place: Beanstalk Cafe

Location: 4555 California Street (on the corner of 8th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 742-4101

Hours: (Inner Richmond location) open every day of the week at 7:00am 

Meal: Bush Street (Sandwich) ~ bacon or sausage (which I 86-ed on both accounts), eggs (scrambled, of the nookular-prepared variety), mayo, Cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onions, and arugula; and a cuppa Contraband Coffee Black Market Blend 

http://www.contrabandcoffeebar.com/

(What's today's EweToobular juxtaselection all about, you ask? Well, it's a well-known fact that little Johnny Cougar[1] is a big fan of cragels.)


Welcome to the 'hood, Beanstalk Cafe! 

I made my very first visit to this newest addition (or edition [probably not audition, though]) to Richmond (District) Coffeehouses this morning for breakfast (and, of course, for Coffee). Beanstalk Cafe has been open only four weeks now at their new Inner Richmond location. They have an original downtown/Nob Hill/
Union Square coffeeshop on Bush Street (hence the name of this morning's particular breakfastary entry) that has been operating there for a few years now 
(late 2013 or so, I believe).

The new space is a vast improvement and a lot more spacious than was previously available when it was still the coffeehouse known as Village Market (see previous/last 'blog-entry from Sunday, November 15th, 2015) and had to compete with actual grocery shelves. 
Currently, there is seating of: four tables for two; three tables for four; one large table for six (possibly more); and two other very cool seating areas in the front of the coffeehouse (in the two front window alcoves): one with a comfy-looking sofa and some chairs, and the other has four large comfy-chairs (even if you didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition).

(I particularly liked this transom[2] to nowhere. It was directly over my head this morning. I asked the owner/manager-sorta guy-person, Collin[3], about it and he said that it was brand new and not a part of the original store. Way cool idea!)


I also really like that they are open at 7:00am (and every morning). I will never understand why so many coffeehouses/cafés do not open until 9:00am (or later). Isn't the whole point of a "Coffee"-joint to be able to provide the public with a good cuppa early in the morning before they get to work?!

There are only a few breakfast choices on their menu, but they do have another item called a Toast Cup that I would like to try one of these days. From pictures that I have seen on yelp*, etc., it looks pretty intriguing. The only way I can describe it is that it is a cup made out of some toast slices with an egg, bacon, and cheese in it.

This sandwich is normally served on an organic Acme rustic roll, but they were nice enough to substitute (and at no extra cost, I might add [or subtract, I suppose ~ with my 86-ation of the dead, decaying porcine products, they charged me $3.00 less for the sandwich, anyway; so the Coffee ended up basically being a freebie; don't worry, so that it would all work out in the wash, I made sure to leave a $3.00 tip for the baristo/counter-person guy (whose name I think was "Snow"[?], I only asked him just before I was leaving and can not be sure)])[4] this on a "cragel" (which is a portmanteau of "croissant" and "bagel") for me. (Hmmmm?! Maybe they will now make a new vegetarian sandwich entry on their menu and call it the "California Street"...) I really enjoyed the cragel (and just because I abhor the portmanteaued word "Brunch" [it's not so much the word that I dislike, it's the entire "Brunchified" attitude that I hate], does not mean that I am averse to all forms of portmanteauery) and highly-recommend it; not just as a sandwich basis, but also for the idea/conception of it all.

I was informed by Collin that they get all their bagels from House of Bagels™ and their baked goods/breads from the Acme Bread Company in an effort to keep everything locally produced and sourced (and seeing as House of Bagels™ is located just ten blocks or less away, that is a pretty d*rn local production and source, if you ask me).

http://houseofbagels.com/site/

I love when a coffeehouse serves a d*rn good cuppa (it is in their name, after all). And from previous experiences, I knew that Contraband Coffee was/is a d*rn good cuppa. I was told by the friendly and knowledgeable baristo/counter-person guy (Snow or not?) that this is sorta their Mocha-Javanese blend/roast. They usually offer two ready to go/already-brewed blends; this morning's other roast/blend was a Colombia roast/blend. They also offer the one cuppa/pour-over versions of both of these roasts/blends as well as an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (which I think I had before at Contraband Coffee's own coffeehouse on Nob Hill and seemed to remember really liking). They have bags of all three types of Coffee for sale (which I will keep in mind for the next time I am outta Coffee ~ I am currently still working through four different bags in my refrigerator), too.

Beanstalk Cafe offers just Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce and Huy Fong Foods, Inc.® Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce (Collin stated that this was his wife's hot sauce input) for condimentary supplementation. Not really knowing what to expect in the way of food, I only came prepared with a couple of my own hot sauces and used some Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on one half of the sandwich only.

I am not quite sure when I might get back there again for breakfast, but I do hope to return for Coffee and/or lunch again sometime soon.

♪ "Oh yeah, life goes on, 
long after the thrill of Coffee is gone... " ♫ 


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Bush Street ~ 6.4 (and I would give the cragel a 6.7 all on its ownsome);
Contraband Coffee Black Market Blend ~ 7.3

___________________

1. I have an old Greek import (well, seeing as I bought it in Greece when I was living there, it's not really an "import", but it was pressed there) album (as in vinyl) that has the artist's name printed as "Johnny Cougar - A Biography" on the cover. I kid you not.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-biography-mw0000254953

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

The word for "transom" in Korean is "트랜 섬 창" ("teulaen seom chang")*. 

I only mention this because I think Collin is of Korean dissent himself. 

*(I wonder if all of that translates to "What is that?" in German.)

3. During the course of breakfast, I found time to bore stiff... er... discourse with Collin on several coffeehouse-related (and some not-related) topics. I grilled... er... asked him about why he went with the Coffee roastery choice that he did, etc. From past experiences, I knew Contraband Coffee to be a very good (and very locally produced/roasted) Coffee already. We also talked about hot sauces (of which I emphasized how great [and also local... well, Palo Alto-local] Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce is and that he should maybe look into getting some for the restaurants). And because they have a Beer & Wine license, I suggested they might want to carry some Founders Brewing Co. (which, while not really being San Francisco-local, is still a small-ish 'merican-local brewery... at least for now until they are eaten up by the likes of those bastages at AB InBev or Heineken N.V.).

Collin also informed me of a another good, local small roastery in the Sunset called Andytown Coffee Roasters. I may need to make a specific breakfastary trip there in the future.

4. I think I may have gotten all that obfuscatory paranthetical punctuation correct there, but possibly not.