Cafe Mason

http://www.cafemasonsf.com/


Place: Cafe Mason

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

Hours: open 24 hours(???) every day of the week(???)

Meal: Blintzes[1] ~ ​cheese blintzes on top of your choice of homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) apple or blueberry sauce; a side of hashbrowns; and a glassa mango juice

(Why this particular EweToobular juxtaselection? I have it on good authority that not only is Dave Mason a big fan of cheese blintzes, but Randy Meisner, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey all love/d blueberries.)


If Cafe Mason (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, November 18th, 2017) did not happen to be "all the way" downtown, it could easily be a contender for a spot in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation. I have eaten there several times now over the past few years and have never had a bad breakfast (which they feel the need to list as "Brunch" on their menu ~ no matter how early in the morning it may actually be served) there yet. Once again, I scored the really cool (small-ish) two-seater booth along the front window.

There are several pages of breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) items from which to choose, ranging from categories listed as Crépes[ sic ], California Breakfast (not "Brunch", for some reason), Benedicts, French Breakfast (again, not "Brúnch", though), Omelettes (and Frittatas), Eggs, and Pancakes (or French Toast). Still a few other ideas that I want to get back to try: 

Spinach Crépes[ sic ] ~ homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) cream spinach soufflé topped with cheese and Mornay sauce[2] (Spinach, cheese, and Mornay sauce? They already had me at spinach alone.); 

California Omelette ~ tomato, Jack cheese, cilantro & fresh herbs (this can also be upgraded with added avocado, which would be the only way to go, anyway);

or

Fresh Homemade (again, Restaurant-made) Pumpkin Pancakes (3pc).

Now I am not sure if they still offer a breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) sandwich called Croque Vegetali. This was basically a vegetarian version of a Croque Monsieur made with diced and grilled portobella mushroom, zucchini, sundried tomato, and Feta cheese with homemade cilantro pesto on egg-battered nine-grain French toast. It was listed on an older version of their menu when I first started going there, but I have not seen it listed on their printed menu the last few times I have visited, and it is no longer listed in their on-line menu either. Bummer. I was really looking forward to trying it. Maybe they will add it back again some day in the future (because they can not add it back in the past, of course... unless they happen to own a 1985 DeLorean with a Flux-Capacitor... 
Great Scott!).

They had these Blintzes listed under the Crépes[ sic ] category; however, I think blintzes would best be listed culinarily under the Pancakes (or French Toast) 
section. These came as two blintzes, and were filled with some kinda soft cheese (probably quark[3] or farmer cheese[4]). I liked the blueberry sauce and it even had more fresh blueberries added between the two blintzes. I think the blueberry sauce was the way to go. I am sure the applesauce would have been good, too, but when I think of blintzes, I usually think more along the lines of a cherry compote.

Knowing that the blintzes alone would not have been a full meal enough (even for my rather exiguous appetite), I made sure to get a side order of some potato products. Both their current printed and on-line menus state that they serve "homefries" as an accompaniment with many of the breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) dishes. However, I was informed this morning that they only have hashbrowns now . Sadly, it does not seem as if they offer homefries any longer, and this is a real shame as their version was really very good; the homefries were one of the main reasons that I went back for a second visit after my initial visit a few years ago. Now, don't get me wrong, the hashbrowns were fine, but their homefries were sooooo much better.

Today's fruits (сегодняшние фрукты): strawberries (клубники); apple (яблоко); orange (апельсин); cantaloupe (мускусная дыня); honeydew melon (дыня); pineapple (ананас); and blueberries (и черники).

For condimentary supplementation, Cafe Mason only had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce). I used some of my own (schlepped-with) Palo Alto Fire Fighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) all over the hashbrowns.

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

On my way to the restaurant (and also upon leaving), I heard a herd (flock/pandemonium... whatever) o' Wild Parrots straight up Mason Street near Geary Street. I am pretty sure that they must have a major roost atop one of the taller buildings nearby.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Blintzes ~ 6.4;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, часть первая:

"Blintz" (singular) in Roosky is "блинчик" (pronounced "BLIN-chick"); "blintzes" (plural) is "блинчики" (pronounced "BLIN-chickee").

2. Well, technically, a Mornay sauce should already include cheese in it. The friendly folks at WikipediA already did the research (or stole it from elsewhere off the World Wild Webs), so here is their explanation:

"A Mornay sauce is a Béchamel sauce with shredded or grated Gruyère cheese added. Some variations use different combinations of Gruyère, Emmental cheese, or white Cheddar. A Mornay sauce made with Cheddar is commonly used to make Macaroni and cheese."

3. https://www.cheese.com/quark/

Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, часть вторая:

"Quark" in Roosky is "творог" (pronounced just like it looks).

4. https://www.cheese.com/farmer/