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

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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.