Ella's American Kitchen

"The one with the 'Veggie' Scramble."

(I do not know if you can see it or not [well, "not see it"], but the logo of "Ella's" on the left side window is missing the apostrophe in the possessive word. Maybe that side had been painted by a British sign-maker.[1])

https://www.ellassanfrancisco.com/

(This web-site has been newly-updated and is much more user-friendly [read: not-so-savvy-computer-user-friendly] now.)


Place: Ella's American Kitchen

Location: 500 Presidio Avenue (on the corner of California Street)

Hours: open for breakfast Monday through Friday at 7:00am; open for "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday at 8:30am

Meal: "Veggie" Scramble ~ tomatoes, leeks, broccolini[2], white Cheddar, served with country potatoes and toast (I simply went with my standard choice of honey-oat-raisin); and a large glassa orange juice (I was informed by the waitress/server lady-person that they were out of Ginger Orange Juice Punch this morning, and had not made a fresh batch yet; pity)

(I may very well have EweToobular juxtaselectioned this song once [or twice] before in the past. But so what?! It's Lady Ella! You'll listen again and like it! Dammit!)


Because it is the start of yet still another September (Lady Ella would never lie to you), that can only mean one thing: it is do-or-die (or "due"-or-die) time for the Boston Red Sox once again... and that means that it is about time for another workout of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation. So, it was back to (the now-called) Ella's American Kitchen (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, April 30th, 2017) this morning to start it all off.

Since my last visit a few months back, there have been some minor changes made by the new ownership. They have tweaked their name a bit and no longer go by Ella's Neo Classical American Cooking, but are now stylised as "Ella's American Kitchen". They have also re-done (or so I think) the kitchen-overlooking diner-counter seating area (I know that there are brand new chairs at least; I used to be able to hang my backpack off the back of them, but the new chairs do not have any posts up-sticking). Plus, there are lotsa new faces in both the cook-staff and wait-staff.

They have also standardised their weekend "Brunch" menu a bit. I do not think they change the menu every weekend like they once did, but probably just update it seasonally. They no longer offer a version of a "potato scramble" every weekend, but I am looking forward to any interesting concoctions that might be available seasonally as a weekend "Brunch" item. Even so, they do still offer a very decent breakfastary (well, "Brunch"-ary) menu and have several other good items (for both stupid vegetarians and stupid dead, decaying animal-fleshetarians alike) from which to choose. Some other possible (new) ideas: 

Avocado Omelet ~ avocado (natch'), Cheddar cheese, pico de gallo, country potatoes, toast (this might be my choice next time that I visit; unless they have a really interesting weekend special offering);

Mushroom Swiss Omelet ~ sautéed mushrooms (natch'), Swiss (doppelt/à deux fois-natch'), country potatoes, toast;

or

Kale Caesar Salad[3] ~ organic kale (natch', once again), croutons, Parmesan, Caesar dressing (if it is made sans poisson minuscule mort en décomposition) (I would probably have a coupla eggs dropped [well, cooked first ~ probably poached or over-medium] on top of).

There was also an off-menu weekend "Brunch" special: Lemon-Ricotta Pancakes. I have had a similar version of these in the past there and really liked them.

I thought it was very cool that during a lull in the cooking-chores, their head chef Veronica[4] came around to the tables asking how everything was. (Big mistake) of course, I bored her for a few minutes with my hatred of all things "the vile weed" and my unbridled enthusiasm for broccolini (luckily, she agreed with me, too).

And for those of you Vaniller-lovin' Y*nkees fans, they do also offer the simple[minded]-enough-named "Two Eggs, Country Potatoes and Toast", which can be ordered with bacon or country style sausage.

Even with the moniker of "Veggie" Scramble (uggh!), this was a very tasty scramble. I particularly liked this combination of broccolini (happily, of which there was a very good amount) and cherry tomatoes. I made sure to compliment chef Veronica on her choices of ingredients for this dish. Yeah, I am not ashamed to say it: I really do love me some broccolini!

This was a different (and, per chef Veronica, brand new as of this very morning) version of homefries than they used to serve: it is now made with lots of fresh red and green bell peppers and (white) onions interspersed throughout the potatoes. This was a very good rendition of breakfastary potatoes, and would (will?) still make a great base for a potato scramble.

For condimentary supplementation, Ella's American Kitchen only has Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(two ways: Original Red Sauce and Green Jalapeño Sauce). I used some of my own Sunbelt Plantations Vidalia® Onion & Jalapeno[ sic ] Pepper Hot Sauce 
(Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the scrambled-mess and some Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg! [For the record, these are two entirely different people from the first thank-you-ed pair. I think that I might even have four or five other "Greg & Cindy" couples as "Friends" on defacedbook, too.]) on the potatoes.

New owners, new web-site, and somewhat new name: still a great place for a breakfastary repast (and Starting Rotation-worthy, too).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
"Veggie" Scramble ~ 6.9 
(no GBS points are ever deducted for "uggh!"-ly named meals)

___________________

1. Fans of both Bettys Café Tea Rooms and Walkers™ Crisps might get that joke.

https://www.bettys.co.uk/

https://www.walkers.co.uk/

2. "But, Brian, how can you like broccolini and hate 'the vile weed'?!"

First off, they are NOT the same thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broccolini

(Mmm-mmm!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai_lan

(Mmm-mmm!)

And, similarily:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapini

(Mmm-mmm!)

(Sorry, there will be no additional WikipediA links for "the vile weed".)

Second off, I like Ashley, but feel Mary-Kate is too pretentious and not that pretty (or maybe it is the other way around; like anyone can really tell the difference between the two of them). Plus, I used to like the actress that played Patty Duke's English "twin" cousin much better than Patty herself.

Third off, mine yer own bidness! Dammitt!!!

3. Ha! I just got that pun now.

4. When I first introduced myself to chef Veronica, I kiddingly asked her if she was the eponymous "Ella" in the window logo. Of course, I was just joking as I knew the name was around for many years and did not represent a name of the previous owners or chefs. Veronica also told me that the restaurant name was originally in honour of Lady Ella herself. This was the first time (in the past twenty years or so that I have been eating there) that I had ever heard that explanation. Whether it is apocryphal or not, I do like that reasoning.