Brenda's Meat & Three

http://brendasmeatandthree.com/


Place: Brenda's Meat & Three

Location: 919 Divisadero Street 
(between McAllister Street and Golden Gate Avenue)

Hours: open everyday[ sic ] except Tuesday at 8:00am (they call the early morning meal breakfast for everyday usage, but insist on calling it "Brunch" on Saturday & Sunday; they can be forgiven for using that snooty-*ssed faux breakfastary term because they open up plenty early enough for me and their food has always been very good)

Meal: Eggs Florentine with Creole Hollandaise ~ two poached eggs on our famous cream biscuit, served with greets or hash(browns); and a tall glassa Grandma's Molasses-Black Walnut Iced Coffee ~ topped with whipped cream

("Hey, Brian, what gives ('Gibbs'?)? There ain't no one named 'Brenda' in 'Romeo [or Romeu] and Juliet [or Julieta]'!" 

Well, here is a little-known Cliff Clavinistic fact. Wild Bill Shakespeare was originally gonna title his famous tragedy-play about these two young star-crossed lovers "Bill and Brenda's Excellent Adventure", but did not want to feel the wrath of Keanu Reeves for that obvious bit of titular plagiarism.[1])


Of course, my going back to a restaurant with a name like Brenda's Meat & Three (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, February 22nd, 2015), would be like a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan returning to a local bar/restaurant named "Connecticut Y*nkee"[2].

This Western Addition location had virtually no line and no wait to get in this morning. I arrived at 7:55am, found a parking space directly in front, and there were only two groups/tables ahead of me. Even then, it was only about one-third filled when I had finished eating. On the other hand, (on the other side of town) their Tenderloin location rivals Dottie's True blue café for ridiculously long lines and longer wait times.

There are also fewer items offered at this spot than at their Tenderloin restaurant, but I would still like to check out Fried "Veggie" (ugh!) Po' Boy ~ cornmeal-fried cauliflower, yam & okra with lettuce, tomato, bread & butter pickles (which are homemade... well, restaurant-made; they even sell these in jars for take-home use ~ I know this because I bought me a jarra them, plus a jarra pickled watermelon, too) & vegan chipotle rémoulade, choice of fries or cole slaw. Additionally, on their weekend "Brunch Specials" board they had Bananas Foster French Toast, which I have had at their Tenderloin location and knew to be very good, but I wanted to try something different this morning (besides, I just had a "sweet breakfast" yesterday). Unfortunately for me, they no longer offer Sweet Potato Pancakes (topped with butter pecan sauce). Oh, well. You snooze, you looze(ianna).

I prefer a good N'Arlins-style Coffee with roasted chicory, but this was not that bad. It had a very interesting flavour and was good enough to be served as a dessert, and not overly sweet either. I bet it would also make a very good hot Coffee drink, too.

While this dish may not be "My Favourite 'New' Eggs Benedict Dish of 2017" (see 'blog-entry from Sunday, September 17th, 2017 for that particular honourific), it was one of the better Eggs Benedict dishes (new or old) that I have had this year. There were two major pluses (as opposed to one Captain Minus) in this dish: the Creole Hollandaise was very tasty (but not extremely spicy) and I really liked the cream biscuit (one, split in half) as the base (in lieu of ol' Mr. Thomas' faux crumpets-things). Not that I would ever attempt to make this at home, (and I am sure that Popeye would "Blow me down!" if he ever heard me say this) but I bet it would have been even better (and more Loozianna-ey) with either collard, turnip, or mustard greens (take your pick; I likes 'em all) in place of the spinach.

I went with the greets side-choice and was asked if I wanted it "with cheese". H*ck, yeah! This came out with a whole mess o'  (I have never heard of a "half mess o'") Cheddar cheese melted all over the top.

For condimentary supplementation, Brenda's Meat & Three only has Crystal® Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce on all the tables. I came prepared with a few of my own hot sauces and only used a little (well, it poured out quickly, so it ended up being a lot) Dragon's Lair Extra Hot Cayenne & Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mon!) mixed in with the cheesy greets. I made sure to taste their Creole Hollandaise before messing it up with any extra spiciness and determined it was good enough as is.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Eggs Florentine with Creole Hollandaise ~ 7.0;
Grandma's Molasses-Black Walnut Iced Coffee ~ 6.9

___________________

1. Nah! I had both of these songs in mind yesterday, but just didn't feel like posting five EweToob videos in one 'blog-entry.

Besides, I just happen to believe that Mark Freuder ("Freuder"?) Knopfler, OBE, is one of America's* finest songwriter/musicians of the 20th Century.

http://www.markknopfler.com/

*(Yeah, okay, he's really Glaswegian-born and Geordie-raised, but that is almost the same as being 'merican. Just ask anyone from Great Britannia, they will agree with me 100%.)

2. Which is actually a local San Francisco Boston/New England Sports-fan bar/hangout.

http://www.pourguys.com/connecticut-yankee/

I probably should check them out for "Brunch" one of these days. I used to work right across the street from the restaurant for about fifteen years, and have had lunch and dinner there plenty of times.

Café de Casa

♪ "Flat and tan(-nish) and fresh and tasty
The crêpe from Ipanema goes walking(???) and
When it passes, each one it passes goes 'Ahhhhh!'... " ♫ 

http://www.cafedecasa.com/


Place: Café de Casa

Location: 2701 Leavenworth Street 
(on the corner of North Point Street)

Hours: open Monday - Saturday at 7:30am

Meal: (starter) Pão de Queijo[1] ~ gluten-free cheese rolls, warm and chewy; Romeu & Julieta (Crêpe Brasileiro) ~ guava jelly and cheese (I am not really sure what kinda cheese they actually use in this one; I would assume it was Mozzarella [as they list that cheese on a few other crêpe-entries]; it was some kinda soft, melty cheese); and a medium cuppa (pour-over style) Coffee Magic Gold Rush

http://quickdrip.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=105

("Hit the crêpes, Percy"?!

I figured as long as I was already EweToobular juxtaselecting the first Bob song, anyway, I might as well link the second one from him, too.)


Now whatd'ya suppose are the chances of discovering three good "new" breakfast places in a year, let alone even one (and all that are within a few blocks of each other) on Fisherman's Wharf?! Having already gone back to both Surisan (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, October 14th, 2017) and eight am (see last 'blog entry from Saturday, November 11th, 2017), I figured (correctly) that it was time for a return visit to Café de Casa (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, April 29th, 2017).

I was the only (first?) customer in this morning when I had arrived around 7:45am, but the place started getting filled up quickly with a lot of walk-in tourista business by the time I had finished eating. I sat at the long window-counter overlooking the outside sidewalk-café seating area ~ which is where I really shoulda sat this morning, the weather was still a bit coolish, but Senhor Sol was up and shining already ~ at least I sat in front of one of the open windows to still get the full fresh-air experience, Ms. Gross.

There are still a few outras boas idéias para o café da manhã that I want to get back to try:

Omelette Crêpe ~ eggs, ham (which would get oitenta-e-seis-ed) and cheese;

Caprese (another savoury crêpe) ~ fresh Mozzarella, tomato and basil;

Cartola (a sweet crêpe) ~ Mozzarella cheese, banana & cinnamon;

or

Açaí[2] - Fruit[ sic ][3] e Granola[4] (served in a cup-size or a bowl-size) ~ traditional Brazilian treat, a cross between a sorbet & a pudding, made with guarana syrup, topped with granola, strawberries & banana (I saw another person order this one; it looked pretty good, but wayyyyy too healthy for my tastes; maybe one of these days).

On my next visit (and, trust me, there will be a "next" visit), I will have to decide between either the Caprese or Cartola crêpes. I was told by one of the worker-guys (well, after I had bugged the h*ck outta him with several other annoying questions already) that their South San Francisco location does not offer any of these tapioca flour crêpes for breakfast, they only have the fresh-made pastries and Coffee; so, I probably won't need to head south on a mini-roadtrip to check it out, too.

I really shoulda said something to the management. This pastry was served to me with a large bite already taken out of it. Luckily, it was good enough to finish, anyway.

This ain't une crêpe de ton père, Pierre!

I spoke with one of the worker-guys (unfortunately for him, it was the same worker-guy that I had pestered... er... asked questions of all morning) there and he told me that these tapioca flour crêpes are very popular in Brazil now-a-days. One of these days I would love to get down to Brazil myself... one of these days...

This idea of "gluten-free" crêpes made from tapioca flour is a great idea; it does make for a bit "chewier" experience, though, Han Solo. Even if you do not have gluten allergies or aren't following some kinda silly new-fangled (with olde-timey sounding names like "Paleo"[5] or "Neoprotero") diet, you can still enjoy this one.

"But... 'cheese'... and 'guava jelly', Brian?!" (and don't forget all the tasty caramel sauce drizzled across it that they do not even dare mention on the menu)... Hey, it works and I really liked it! Besides, how many of you negativists have ever had something called "cheesecake"?

I am not so sure what the connection is to "Romeu" and/or "Julieta"; perhaps ol' Wild Bill really liked his gauva fruits and Mozzarella cheeses mixed together, too. Hmmmm?! Does this mean that Romeu (or "Romeo" for you Montague purists) is the guava jelly and Julieta (or "Juliet" for you House of Capulet fans) is the cheese?!

It is a rare find, Mercutio, when you can get both an interesting breakfastary meal and good, local Coffee at the same joint. The Gold Rush Coffee that I had this morning was listed as a "Light" roast, but this was plenty dark enough for me still. In addition to the Coffee that I had today, they offer three other roasts/blends (all from Coffee Magic, too) that can be made single-cuppa pour-over style: Brazil Poço Fundo (a Dark Roast; which I had on my last visit and liked just a bit more than the one I had this morning); Foglifter (a Dark and Light blend); and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe (another Dark Roast; this is the one I will probably check out next time).

Pretty much knowing ahead of time that I was going to go the "Sweet-not-Savoury-Route" (which, by the way, Mr. Brandt, is an actual highway transversing New Mexico and Arizona), I did not bother bringing any of my own hot sauces with me this morning. I also knew from my last visit there that, if needed, Café de Casa 
has a bottled hot sauce of their own that ain't bad none neether. (And don't think that it didn't cross my mind to try juuuust a little of their hot sauce on a small part of my crêpe... )

Good food AND good Coffee?!? Maybe this place should be called "Casa de Café e Comida Muito Saborosa" instead.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Pão de Queijo ~ 6.8;
Romeu & Julieta ~ 7.1;
Coffee Magic Gold Rush ~ 7.0

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número um:

"Pão de queijo" literally translates from Portuguese as "cheese-bread" (well, "bread of cheese").

2. While this fruit is commonly called an "açaí berry", it is as much a true botanical berry as is a strawberry. (However, as everyone knows, bananas are botanical berries.)

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dois:

This really should read as "Fruta" or "Frutas" in Portuguese.

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número tres:

Sorry, I could not locate the English translation for this word anywhere on the World Wild Webs.

5. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, νούμερο τέσσερα:

If anyone on this silly "Paleo" diet was wondering, the word "παλαιός" ("palaios") in Greek means "old"... and the word "ζωή" ("zoe")* means "stupid".

*(No offense, Dave and Patryce.)

Sandy's Café

A (sorta) breakfastary roadtrip:
Gilroy, CA

(No official-type web-site.)


Place: Sandy's Café

Location: 6120 Monterey Street, Gilroy, CA; 
phonicular contact: (408) 848-1200

Hours: open at 6:00am every day of the week

Meal: (me) Ortega Chili[1] and Cheese Omelet ~ chopped Ortega chilies, Jack cheese, black olives, sour cream, topped with salsa ~ omelets made with 
(4) eggs and served with hash browns or fruit and choice of toast or (1) pancake; (Dave) Biscuits & Gravy Combo ~ 2 eggs with choice of 2 bacon or sausage; (Patryce) Vegetarian Omelet ~ spinach, mushroom, asparagus, and topped with cheese; 
to drink: (me) a large glassa orange juice; (Dave) a glassa (and one free refilla) Coke® (or, perhaps, seeing as this is a Greek family owned diner/restaurant/café ~ "No Coke®! pepsi®!"); and (Patryce) a cuppa (and one refilla) the house/diner/restaurant/café Coffee

(Yeah, I coulda probably went with Rick Springsteen's classic "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)", but this was the day after a completely different truly-'merican holiday and I figured this EweToobular juxtaselection would fit better.)


So, what does one do the morning after a large Thanksgiving Day dinner? Go out for another large meal, of course. 

Technically, seeing as I was already still in Gilroy-town from yesterday's Thanksgiving Holiday, this was not really a Breakfastary Roadtrip (which would actually have entailed an 166 miles round-trip to do so, otherwise), but I went back to Sandy's Café 
(see last 'blog-entry from Friday, November 27th, 2015) for breakfast this morning. This was the fourth time now that I have eaten at Sandy's Café (well, for my first visit there, they were still operating under the old nefarious name of "Sunrise Cafe").

I really like this little family-owned/operated diner-joint. The people working there were super friendly and helpful (even the day-after Thanksgiving, when most people have already warn-out their fake cheeriness/thankfulness). If I lived in the area, I could easily see this place being Breakfastary Starting Rotation-worthy.

They have a very good list of items from which to choose for breakfast. Here are a few other good ideas yet:

Feta Omelet ~ they do not list the ingredients for this one on the menu, I think it has some kinda cheese in it, though;

Chef's Favorite Omelet ~ tomato, onion, bell pepper, mushroom, sausage (which I would have ογδόντα έξι-ed, of course), Feta cheese (this one would be my choice next time... on Friday, November 22nd, 2019?);

Maserati Omelet ~ sausage, mushroom, Jack and 'merican cheese, covered with Italian meat sauce, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese (I really tried talking either Dave or Patryce into getting this one; there really is no point in trying to vegetarian-ize this meal, without the Italian sauce, it would just be a mushroom and cheese omelette);

Aloha Omelet ~ pineapple, Canadian bacon, and topped with Swiss and 'merican cheese (this is another one that would not translate very well to being vegetarian-ized);

or

Banana French Toast (this was a special listed on a sign/blackboard at the front door that I had completely missed until just when we were leaving; if I had seen it upon entering, I would definitely have gone with that choice ~ probably with a side of potatoes, too).

(I did not want to bother my other two dining mates by taking photos of their plates this morning.)


This was a simple enough omelette, and simply enough HUGE. (Did I mention that they use four eggs in their omelettes?) The black olives inside the omelette were just your boring ol' canned, sliced variety. Even so, I still liked my omelette well enough, the amount of Ortega chillies in it more than made up for the innate blandness of the black olives (but I think they forgot to add any salsa on top, which may have been worth another 0.1 to 0.2 points on the Glen Bacon Scale). 

However, Patryce did not seem as quite enamoured of her omelette. She did not like how the cheese is presented melted on top and not inside the omelette itself. She did like that it was made with asparagus (which is her favourite vegetable ~ as it is mine, too), but felt it had a bit more spinach than asparagus ratio.

I really like that Sandy's Café offers both hashbrowns or homefries as a potatoey side-choice. 
I went with the homefries (Patryce, too) and this turned out to be a very wise choice because their version of homefries was extremely tasty. The potatoes were cut into nice half-inch squares with lots of green bell peppers and white onions in the mix, and all of these were charred perfectly to my liking (read: a bit on the crispy-crunchy side).

I opted for a pancake (Patryce, too) instead of plain ol' toast ~ even I know how to push down the d*mn lever on a bread-toaster-thing.

Now, Dave's dish was all pretty simple, too, but I was very impressed how it was presented with the two eggs (which I think he ordered over-medium) already on top of the biscuit(s?) as if it were some kinda Southern Fried Eggs Benedict, y'all. As I have been of the stupid vegetarian ilk for many years now, I don't think that I have ever had biscuits with country gravy; as best as I can figure, these are normally made with either a porky-sausage base or sometimes with grinded-up dead, decaying bovine meat. And, not that it really matters much to me (but just for the sake of the whole 'blog-integrity), Dave went with the two strips of bacon choice.

Sandy's Café has both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce for use as condimentary supplementation. I tried something a bit different this morning and went with a base layer of A.1. Original Sauce® on top of the homefries then added some Tapatío® on top of that, too.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Ortega Chili and Cheese Omelet ~ 6.4 (this is factoring in their extremely good side of homefries);
Vegetarian Omelet ~ 6.0 (per Patryce's rating, after I had educated her on the intricacies of the highly-technical Glen Bacon Scale);
Biscuits & Gravy Combo ~ 6.6 (I forgot what Dave said about his dish, but I am giving this rating based on the coolness of the Southern-style Eggs Benedict presentation)

___________________

1. Also known as an Anaheim chilli. It is a mild variety of the cultivar "New Mexico No. 9". The name "Anaheim" derives from Emilio Ortega, a farmer who brought the seeds from New Mexico to the Anaheim, California, area in 1894. They are also called "California chilli" or "Magdalena", and dried they are known as chile seco del norte. Often it is used for Chile Relleno. When mature, it takes on a red colour and is referred to as a Colorado.

The chilli "heat" of Anaheim varies from 500 to 2,500 on the Scoville scale; however, typical cultivars grown in New Mexico can selectively and uniformly range from 500 to 10,000 Scoville units.

http://chilefacts.nmsu.edu/

Black Bear Diner

A(nother) breakfastary mini-roadtrip:
Colma, CA[1]

"It's great to be alive in Colma."

https://blackbeardiner.com/location/colma/


Place: Black Bear Diner

Location: 4927 Junipero Serra[2] Boulevard, Colma, CA

Hours: open bright (well, sometimes even before the Sun has bothered to wake up) and early every morning at 6:00am 

Meal: Shasta Scramble ~ avocado, spinach, tomato, onion, bell pepper & Jack cheese, served with your choice of strip-cut hash browns, country red potatoes OR fresh fruit and a housemade (well, diner-made) biscuit; and a cuppa (with two refillas) Java City™ Coffee (not sure which blend/roast they serve, though)

https://www.javacity.com/

(Today's EweToobular juxtaselections oughtta be pretty self-explanatory from the name of the restaurant and the town in which it is located.

And, yes, that is actually Jesus Christ singing in the first song; this was during his Hippie-era days in the early 70's when he was trying to get all the young folks more interested in his church-stuff. I think that is Keanu Reeves singing duet with him, too [and I always thought he was a Canadianlander and not a Christian.].)


At the suggestion of my brother Sean, who had dined at a Black Bear Diner (one of the original locations in Northern California/Mount Shasta[3] Area) a few months back, I decided to check out one of the newer locations in this California-based restaurant-chain. I am never averse to trying new places and I don't hate chain-restaurants; I just generally much prefer locally-owned smaller places. I have seen commercials for Black Bear Diner on TeeVee for several years now and this was the first time (as Colma's restaurant is pretty d*rn close for me) that I could check out anything from the diner-chain.

I think the original/first Black Bear Diner opened in 1995. This newer location just opened last month. It is in the same space in the parking lot of Serra Center that used to once house Fresh Choice, then California Fresh, and many other businesses over the past thirty years or so. I would think that a family-oriented, kitschy diner will probably do a much longer business there. (Something tells me that ol' Guy Fietti won't be checking into any of these places any time soon on his "Triple-D" show... which ain't necessarily a bad thing.)

I enjoyed that the house (well, diner) stereo was playing many old 50's and 60's kinda songs. When was the last time you heard "Classical Gas" along with "I've Been Everywhere(, Man)" (I'm talkin' the original 1962 'mericanized version by Hank Snow, too) and early Ray Charles?

(Adding to the kitsch-quality, their menus are in the form of newspapers.)


I am not sure if I will be getting back again any time soon, but they do offer many other good ideas for breakfast, suchas: 

California Omelette ~ avocado, mushroom & Jack cheese;

Vegetarian Omelette ~ mushroom, onion, tomato, bell pepper, spinach & Jack cheese (and I am so glad they do not call this a "Veggie Omelette"; see, even Black Bears have more sense than that);

Fiesta Scramble ~ scrambled eggs, tortilla strips, pickled jalapeño, Cheddar cheese, onion & cilantro, topped with black olive & avocado. Served with a warm flour tortilla, housemade salsa & your choice of potato OR fresh fruit (this sounds like it is their version of Chilaquiles);

Cinnamon Roll French Toast ~ 3 slices of thick-cut cinnamon roll dipped in French toast batter and grilled then topped with powdered sugar and drizzled with icing. Served with fresh fruit (okay, so maybe this just-disgusting-enough-to-pique-my-abnormal-tastes dish might deserve a return visit);

and two others that I can not try, but sounded interesting for the meatetarians out there:

The Scrambowl ~ a hearty all-in-one bowl of ham, bacon, link sausage, eggs, bell pepper, onion & pickled jalapeño, scrambled over country red potatoes, then topped with Cheddar cheese & country gravy. Served with a housemade biscuit;

or (for those of you that prefer your dead, decaying bovine meat fried-up poultry-style)

Country Benedict ~ No Hollandaise on this one! Split English muffin, chicken fried steak, two poached eggs and country gravy.

There really is not much to say about this dish. It was scrambled eggs with a mess o' junk in it. It was tasty and better than I could ever make. (Besides, I don't remember when the last time that I actually bought eggs... or had bell peppers and tomatoes in my refrigerator at the same time.)

I went with the country red potatoes as my side choice. These were very good homefries made with red potatoes, red and green bell peppers, and red onions. Their "strip-cut" hashbrowns looked pretty decent, too, but I just had hashbrowns yesterday and wanted to try the homefries.

I was asked if I wanted to substitute toast for the housemade (diner-made, whatever) biscuit ~ yeah, right! I can make my own d*mn toast at home. I will always go with the fresh-baked item, thank you! Plus, the biscuit was HUGE and very good.

This ended up being a whole lotta food. I will be honest, I could not quite finish it (and left maybe two or three bites). I did make sure to finish all of the biscuit and homefries, though.

The Coffee was really not that bad either. This was better than your Papa( Bear)'s average diner muddy-water drink. It was even better after I dumped the orange slice garnish into it.

I had come well-equipped with a few of my own hot sauces, fully expecting a chain-diner-type-joint to supply only Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(Original Red Sauce) and maybe Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original). However, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that Black Bear Diner offers three of their own hot sauces on all the tables: Papa Burn ~ Hanañero[ sic ], Mama Burn ~ Chipotle, and Baby Burn ~ Original Pepper Sauce. Plus, there is a fourth hot sauce (which I didn't see on any of the tables ~ I actually got up and looked around for some) that you probably have to ask for, Crazy Cuz' Sriracha chili sauce. I used some Papa Burn on the scramble-mess, and Mama Burn and Baby Burn on separate halves of the potatoes. None of these hot sauces were extremely hot (well, for someone that has progressed beyond the "Man, those habanero peppers are painful!" stage), but they all had a bit of heat and nice flavour. Of the three that I tried, I would have to say that I liked Mama Burn the best (it's a chipotle-thing).

Even though it was all a bit of a walk on the kitschy-side (which I believe was going to be Lewis Allan Reed's original title for his 1972 hit song), sometimes a "beary" corny diner can still be a lot of fun, too.

At least the meal didn't kill me, but, even if it had, I wouldn't have had to be moved very far to be buried...


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Shasta Scramble ~ 6.5 (while not really being anything extremely fancy, the portions alone are worth this rating);
Java City™ Coffee ~ 6.4

___________________

1. Affectionalately known locally as "the City of the Dead" due to many cemeteries in the town. Colma was founded as a necropolis in 1924. 

Some notable names (well, people with these names) that are buried in Colma: 
Levi Strauss, Wyatt Earp (coincidentally, he is interned in the same Jewish cemetery as Levi Strauss), William Randolph Hearst, and some guy named Joseph Paul DiMaggio (I think he once played Baseball for some team in da Bronx).

https://www.colma.ca.gov/ 

2. You know, the guy who exploited and killed more Native Americans than George S. Custer ever dreamed of.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/us/to-some-indians-in-california-father-serra-is-far-from-a-saint.html

3. https://mtshastaca.gov/

Cafe Mason

http://www.cafemasonsf.com/


Place: Cafe[1] Mason

Location: 320 Mason Street 
(between Geary and O'Farrell Streets)

Hours: open 24 hours(???) every day of the week(???) 
(YGIAGAM: their "official" web-site does not indicate what their actual hours of operation are anywhere on it) for what they feel necessary to call "Brunch" (no matter what the early hour of the morning might be)

Meal: Huevos Rancheros ~ over medium eggs on a bed of corn tortillas and black beans topped with salsa and Jack cheese melted under an open flame, garnished with cilantro & herbs, served with home fries or fresh fruit; a glassa very freshly-squeezed (I could see them making it in the kitchen-area on one of them newfangled Jetsons orange-juicing contraptions) and extra pulpy (this is a good thing, Martha) orange juice; and, after breakfast, a small (12 oz) cuppa 
Philz Coffee Jamaican Blue Mountain

https://www.philzcoffee.com/coffee-varietals-jamaican-blue-mountain

(That is NOT a typo [or type-p, even]. This Coffee is actually priced at $120.00/pound. Seriously. At least it ain't cr*pped outta no Civet Cat or Elephant...[2])

(Why this particular EweToobular juxtaselection cover? 'cause the place ain't named Café Zimmerman.)


I am very surprised that the end of the year is almost here and this was my first visit back to Cafe Mason (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, October 8th, 2016) for 2017. It truly is one of the better places in the Union Square/downtown area for breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) and they really do offer a lot of good choices.

This morning, they were playing a very interesting/eclectic/cool music selection on the house (café, whatever) stereo (possibly some kinda pandora®-channel or such) ~ everything from Buena Vista Social Club to Hozier to 60's and 70's classic Soul/Motown hits, too.

Still other good ideas for breakfast (and more reasons to get back there again; hopefully sooner than later):

Spinach Crépes[ sic ] ~ homemade (well, café-made) cream spinach soufflé topped with cheese and Mornay sauce;

Blintzes ~ cheese blintzes on top of your choice of homemade apple or blueberry sauce (I would probably go the blueberry-route [which is known as Route 1 up in Maine, eh-ya!]; and also make sure to order a side of their excellent homefries [if still available]);

California Omelette ~ tomato, Jack cheese, cilantro & fresh herbs (which can be "Deluxe"-d for a nominal extra charge adding avocado, which is what I would definitely go with);

or

Croque Vegetali ~ diced and grilled portobella mushroom, zucchini, sundried tomato, and Feta cheese with homemade cilantro pesto on egg battered nine grain French toast (this will have to be my choice next time; however, I am not quite sure that it is still available; it still is showing in their on-line menu, but I do not remember seeing it in their printed menu).

I did not expect to see (or order) Huevos Rancheros, but I was so surprised to see it on the menu, that I decided to go with that choice this morning. This was served with a decent pico de gallo on top (and lotsa fresh cilantro ~ luckily I am not averse to the Chinese parsley stuff) and not your salsa ranchera tradicional/estándar. This was a different take and very good, but I do prefer the salsa ranchera version.

The hashbrowns were also very good; however, I was rather looking forward to their excellent homefries, which was one of the things that most impressed me on my first visit there a few years ago and one of the reasons I like returning. I just hope they have not stopped offering the homefries.

For condimentary supplementation, Cafe Mason offers both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(Original Red Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original) (at least they did last time I was there; I didn't bother checking this morning as I had come armed with a few of my own hot sauces, anyway). I used some of my own Punch Drunk™ Chocolate Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Sean!) on the hashbrowns and left the huevos-dish unadulterated.

I had skipped ordering any Coffee with breakfast because I had planned on getting a decent cuppa afterward at a nearby downtown Philz Coffee. I knew they had started offering their own Jamaican Blue Mountain and wanted to see how theirs compared to Bettys (which, to me, is not only the touchstone of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, but also the Marilyn Monroe of Coffees). This was a very, very good cuppa (and at $7.00 for a small cuppa [12 oz] and $10.00 for a large cuppa [16 oz] it oughtta be); however, I really do appreciate Bettys version (it might be the roasting they do) a bit more. The truly funny thing is that all of the baristas and baristettas are trained to ask if you would like your Coffee with "cream and sugar" (which they actually stylize as "Creamy and Sweet"). I had to laugh and told the baristetta-lady person making my cuppa that no one should EVER ruin a perfectly good cuppa Jamaica Blue Mountain by adding any cream and/or sugar. She actually laughed along with me and agreed 100%. That would be like adding ice cubes to a glassa fine red wine... or ketchup on a hotdog!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Huevos Rancheros ~ 6.5 (this is factoring in their good hashbrowns; however, it would probably have another 0.2 Glen Bacon Scale points added to that if this came with their excellent homefries);
Philz Coffee Jamaican Blue Mountain ~ 8.0

___________________

1. I think it is funny how they have "Cafe" spelled sans l'accent aigu; however, they have "crêpes" mispelded on their menus (both on-line and printed) as "crépes". Maybe the place should be renamed "Câfê Mâsôn"?!

2. If you have to ask, don't. Trust me.