Han's Coffee Shop

Does anyone know how to say "Wookiee" 
in Korean?!

(No official web-site.)

Place: Han's Coffee Shop

Location: 900 Sutter Street 
(on the corner of Leavenworth Street); 
phonicular contact: (415) 800-8792

Hours: open for breakfast every day of the week at 7:00am

Meal: Popeye's Omelette ~ 3 eggs, spinach, tomato, onion, mushroom, & cheese (it did not state if this was made with Olive Oyl or not, though), served with 
hash-brown[ sic ; hyphenated-and-singular ] and toast; and a large glassa orange juice to drink

(I am not exactly sure when Popeye became a corporate shill for the Spinach Growers of America, but this EweToobular video states that it is from 1934.)[1]


I was originally planning on going back to café bean this morning for another decent ontbijt, but when I arrived there just a little after 7:00am, they were not open yet. So I just walked around the immediate neighborhood to kill some time until they may finally open up about fifteen minutes later. Well, just a block west, I came across an interesting little corner diner/café-looking joint and made a mental note (I think it was an insane C-flat) to check it out some day in the future. When I arrived back to café bean about 7:15am, they were still not open and it did not look like they would be opening any time soon... so... the future is here(!) and I walked back up the block to Han's Coffee Shop. (Just as a point, when I had finished breakfast about a half-hour later, I walked back by café bean, but they still did not look like they would be opening any time soon.)

Han's Coffee Shop turned out to be a great, friendly, little neighborhoody place. The whole time I was there I saw shiny, happy people (but neither Michael Stipe nor Peter Buck was among them) coming and going and many seemed to be return-regulars as the two workers there (one griller/cook-guy and one waiter/server person-guy) greeted them as if they knew them well. It is located in that DMZ area bordering the southern end of Snob Hill's upscalety (which some feel fit to classify as "Lower Nob Hill") and the scary, run-down part of the Tenderloin (so, maybe they can classify this area as "Upper Tenderloin", too). There are only eleven tables (which seat from two to four people) and two diner/counter-stools overlooking the kitchen-grill 
(but those seemed to be mostly used by people ordering "to-go" food and sitting there chatting while waiting for their pick-up orders).

(This cool-looking mural takes up the entire back wall, so you can picture just how small the place really is.)

I am not sure when I might get back there again (if café bean is again closed on my next attempt perhaps), but I did see a few other interesting ideas for breakfast:

Kimchi Omelette ~ kimchi, bell pepper, onion, cheese, ham (which I was planning on 여든 여섯-ing), & rice (this was actually my first choice, but, unfortunately for me, I was informed that their kimchi is made with fish-sauce in it);

Vegetarian (and they get extra points for not calling this a "Veggie" [uggh!]) Omelette ~ avocado, bell pepper, mushroom, onion, tomato, & cheese;

or maybe even

Bi-Bim-Bob[ sic ][2] ~ mixed vegetables, beef (아니요 괜찮습니다!) over rice & hot sauce (they have this dish listed under their "Korean Special Menu"; I am not sure if it is available for breakfast, but I bet it would be great as it normally is served with either a raw egg [which will get "cooked" from the heat of the hot rice] or an over-medium egg on top).

This was your basic "no frills-but nicely made" corner-diner omelette. It was much better than I can ever make and still pretty tasty. It was made with lots of fresh ~ not frozen or canned ~ (and, yes, this really does make a difference) sautéed spinach. I was not aware of Popeye being such a fungophile, though. If I were to quibble about one minor point, the "cheese" that they used in and on top of it was that tasteless, faux, processed-sliced junk (which is best used for caulking an old kitchen sink in a condemned building and not for human consumption).

From what I saw on the tables, Han's Coffee Shop offered for condimentary supplementation both Frank's® RedHot® (Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. I did see a large bottle of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(Original Red Sauce) back on a shelf in the kitchen area, though. Once again, I just used some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) all over the hashbrowns and some Hot Licks® Serrano Hot Sauce (Thanks again, Brian!) on top of the omelette. 

Strange Gochujang Interlude

I asked my friendly waiter/server-guy if they had any gochujang, because I would probably have used some of that on my hashbrowns instead. He told me they didn't have any. What?! No gochujang?! This made no sense as I am sure that they must have some that they serve with most of their Korean specialty dishes (it just ain't bibimbap, Bob, without some d*rn gochujang!). I didn't push the issue and I am putting it down to him probably not understanding my dawg-awful pronunciation of "gochujang".


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Popeye's Omelette ~ 6.1 
(now if this had been made with real Swiss cheese, I probably would have given it another 0.2-0.3 GBS points);
the whole friendly atmosphere-vibe ~ 7.5

___________________

1. Hmmm?! I wonder if Popeye had been a big br*ccoli fan instead if I might actually like "the vile weed" myself today.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day:

As best as I can tell, the Korean dish "bibimbap" (a more standard spelling) translates simply as "mixed rice". The word for "(cooked) rice" in Korean is "밥" (pronounced/transliterated as either "bab" or "bap"; however, I am not sure if Robert's nickname is ever invoked).