Mama♥s on Washington Square

http://www.mamas-sf.com/


Place: Mama♥s on Washington Square

Location: 1701 Stockton Street
(on the corner of Filbert Street)

Hours: open Tuesday through Sunday at 8:00am

Meal: Vegetarian Benedict ~ 2 poached Petaluma Farms eggs served on a toasted English muffin with homemade (well, Mama♥s-made) Hollandaise sauce and Mama♥s Grilled Potatoes, (with) sautéed mushrooms, avocado, baby spinach, and grilled tomato (I would just like to point out that they actually have an Oxford Comma between "spinach" and "and grilled tomato" on their printed menus; however, for some reason, their on-line menu seems to have it omitted; it is not very often that you see it placed or used correctly on many restaurant menus, anyway); and a large glassa fresh-squeezed orange juice

(I am juxtaselecting this the Beatles song today because I have heard that Paul, John, and Ringo are/were big fans of Eggs Benedict dishes and doppio Espressos. Little Georgie-porgie didn't like them... he hated everything.)


I made a return-visit to Mama♥s on Washington Square (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, April 2nd, 2017). A long time ago (c. 2001-2003), this restaurant was included in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation. The food is still (and has always been) excellent there, I just tired of "the long trek" over to-and-back from North Beach. Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, it is still located in San Francisco, but it takes at least a half-hour to drive over there and then the parking in North Beach totally s*cks (which is why I usually try to schedule my breakfastary visits in North Beach on Sundays only now).

As I had arrived plenty early this morning (about 7:05am), I was able to get a primo parking space just across the street (i.e. right on Washington Square) for a change. However, even at that stupidly-early hour, I was still only group #5 in line. I did not even think about it being Mother♥s Day today and apparently a whole lotta other "m♥thers" had the bright idea to eat breakfast there, too. By the time they had finally opened the doors, I estimated that the wait would be easily two-and-a-half to three hours for the people near the end of the line. Now, the food is good there, but nothing is worth that kinda wait (yeah, I did wait in line for fifty-five minutes myself... but still... ). It had to have been one of the longest lines that I have ever seen waiting to get in there.

Here are a few other good ideas that I was debating on this morning:

Mama♥s Children♥s Favorite (M♥Omelette) ~ sautéed mushrooms, green onions, roasted tomatoes, and Monterey Jack cheese (hmmm?! Mama♥s kids sound like stupid vegetarians to me);

South of the Border (M♥Omelette) ~ Spanish chorizo (which I would have ochenta-y-seis-ed), black beans, homemade ((well, Mama♥s-made, again) salsa, and pepper Jack cheese;

or

(off their weekendly specials board)
Mama♥s French Toast Sampler ~ Banana Walnut, Lemon Berry, & Swedish Cinnamon, topped w/ berries & bananas (of which we all are well-aware, are botanically a "berry", anyway).

Since my last visit there, it looks like they no longer offer either Papa♥s Favorite (M♥Omelette) or Vegetarian (M♥Omelettes) ~ both of which I had had in recent previous visits. These are both still listed in their on-line menu, but not on the printed menu at the front door, nor on the large menu on the wall behind the cash register that everyone orders from. (Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know that should be "... from which everyone orders.", but at least I know an Oxford Comma from a Liverpudlian Semicolon when I see one.)

First off, I would like to state that (thankfully) they have this dish listed as "Vegetarian Benedict" and not that ubiquitously obnoxious name "Veggie (uggh!) Benedict". Nextly, the grilled tomatoes turned out to be a very interesting taste-addition and added a nice "depth of flavour" (as they are always keen to state on food network) to this dish. Needless to say, I enjoyed it all (spinach, avocado, mushrooms, and tomatoes [grilled or plain] ~ all favourites of mine).

Mama♥s on Washington Square only offers for condimentary supplements Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. Being well-aware of this, I came well-prepared this morning and used some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce on the potatoes (Thanks, Brian!), some 
Chili in Hawaii Habanero Garlic Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on top of one poached egg, and some Dat'l Do-it® Classic Cayenne Hot Sauce (Thanks, M♥m!) on top of the other poached egg.

(not really so) Strange Coffee Interlude

As has become a (new-ish) tradition for me whenever I have breakfast in North Beach, I (try to) save room for a Coffee and pastry at Caffe Trieste afterward. This morning's meal was not that large and left me plenty of room for un doppio Espresso e some kinda pastry-ring-thing (what the h*ck, I figured I can always skip lunch). This had an almond paste in it and was very good. I had to ask the barista-lady behind the counter what it was, as I thought it might probably have been cinnamon (which I would have liked, too).

http://coffee.caffetrieste.com/


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Vegetarian Benedict ~ 6.9 (I am giving this an extra 0.1 GBS points for their sensible name and another 0.1 GBS points for the very nice grilled tomatoes addition);
doppio Espresso e almond pastry-ring-thing ~ 6.7