Beach Chalet

Where the Park (that would be Golden Gate) meets the Pacific (that would be Ocean)

https://www.beachchalet.com/


Place: Beach Chalet

Location:  1000 Great Highway
(@ Ocean Beach, between John F. Kennedy Drive and Lincoln Way)

Hours: open for "Brunch" Saturday + Sunday 10:00am

Meal: Roasted Vegetable Frittata ~ roasted mushrooms + cauliflower, caramelized onion, spinach, Cheddar, marinated tomatoes, little salad (oh, how that would really p*ss-off Elaine Marie Benes); a side order of Hash Brown Cakes; and (because it is a brewery-type joint, after all) a pinta Sea Serpent Foggy I.P.A.

(Hmmm?! Okay, so maybe I probably mighta shoulda waited to use the EweToobular juxtaselection and header quote from Friday's 'blog-entry here today instead.

If anyone is wondering, I did not have a second pinta for dessert... but only 'cause I was too full.)


In revisiting some places that I had not eaten breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) at in a while, I decided to revisit Beach Chalet (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, July 9th, 2011). It seems that in the past few years they have changed their name (and signage colours) from the Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant.

Because I had arrived there about fifteen minutes before they had opened for the morning, I was one of the first people to get seated. (There were about twenty other people waiting in line ~ ahead of and behind me ~ before they started seating people.) I scored a primo window-seat looking out onto the Great (well, that is what they call it; it just seems kinda "Okay" in my book) Highway and Ocean Beach. I was seated right below an open vasistas[1], too.

The table one over from me had a young family of five (Mom, Dad, and three kids ~ two girls and one younger boy, probably four or five years old). The restaurant supplies kids with a small box of crayons and kids menus where the reverse side is a picture that can be coloured. I found it funny that the little boy yelled out: "I call the 'seahorse'! I call the 'seahorse'!" I watched... all three pictures were 'seahorses'.

There were still several other good ideas from which to choose on the "Brunch" menu (I am not sure what they may have had to offer on the kids menu, though, as no one thought to offer me a set of crayons and a picture to colour ~ Harrumph!): 

Florentine Benny ~ toasted English muffin, sautéed spinach, roasted tomato, Hollandaise, poached eggs, Hash Brown Cakes;

Honor Your Benny ~ sausage buttermilk biscuit, charred tomato relish, seared pork belly, poached farm eggs, sauce Choron[2], Hash Brown Cakes (I like the sound of both the charred tomato relish and Choron sauce; if this could be made vegetarian-friendly, I know I would like it);

or

Baked French Toast ~ thick sliced pain de mie bread, lavender honey, roasted local strawberries, maple syrup, applewood bacon (where I would 86 the dead, decaying porcine stuff and probably order a side of Hash Brown Cakes).

They also have an item under the heading Snacks + Apps: Charred Brussels Sprouts ~ onion agro-dolce(???), cashews, lime, mint, Aleppo pepper. I know I would love that one, but I am not sure how to make it into a complete meal. Possibly ordering two poached eggs as a side?

("Beer for breakfast, Brian?!" 

Mind yo' own bees-wax! It is made with wheat, barley, and yeast ~ them's the ingredients in toast, anyway. Plus, this I.P.A. was very citrusy... that spells breakfastary to me!)

Unfortunately, they did not have any special Oktoberfest Beers available yet for the season. I was initially just going to go with a standard Riptide Red Ale (I have had this one many times over the years and knew I liked it), but I saw the above Sea Serpent Foggy I.P.A. pull. The barkeep gave me a small tipple-taste of it and I was sold. This was a very decent rendition of an I.P.A.

They had me at "roasted cauliflower"[3]. I really enjoyed this traditionally-made frittata. And there were two different types of mushrooms (at least I think there were; I am not exactly sure which kinds of mushrooms they were, though) in the mess. The marinated tomatoes were halved cherry (or grape) tomatoes: purple, orange, and yellow, and served on top of the frittata, not added into the egg-mixture. The rabbit-food junk came piled on top of the frittata (which seems to be the ubiquitous way they are serving frittatas these days); I made sure to push it all off to the side out of the way.

Another pleasant surprise were the Hash Brown Cakes. I was just expecting these to be served as some kinda hashbrowns patties. They turned out to be a trio of towering tater-tots!

Now why have I not been back to this place in over seven years for breakfast ("Brunches", whatever)? (Probably due to their 10:00am opening time. I prefer to eat my breakfasts a lot earlier than that.) Hopefully I will make a return visit for breakfast sometime before the year 2025.

Their sister venue (their words on the web-site) in the back of the building, Park Chalet, does not open until even later for "Brunch" at 11:00am. That is wayyy too late for my liking. They do offer a whole different menu there, though.

For condimentary supplementation, Beach Chalet offers the Standard San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces (Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce - Original Red Sauce; Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce; and Cholula® Hot Sauce - Original). Even so, I still used some of my own Tijuana Flats Tex-Mex Smack My *ss  and Call Me Santa (Thanks, Rick!) on the frittata and Fan the Flames Sriracha Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the tater tots on steroids. And to make even the boring ol' rabbit-food junk taste better, I sprinkled a little Charlie's Chili Stuff by Thyme Farm Vinegars (Thanks, Sharon!) all over it.

("Wait a minute, Brian... what does Emmylou Harris singing a Noel Yang song have anything to do with Beer or frittatas or Ocean Beach?"

Just keep reading... [buncha impatient jerks])

(not so) Strange Coffee Interlude

On my way over to breakfast, I stopped by Marla Bakery and picked me uppa a small 12 oz cuppa Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters Ethiopia Guji Gr. 1 Uraga Tomme. I made sure to enjoy it while killing an hour-and-a-half ("I swear it was in self-defense, your Honour!") at various stopping places along the way westward in Golden Gate Park.

https://www.wreckingballcoffee.com/


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Roasted Vegetable Frittata ~ 7.1;
Sea Serpent Foggy I.P.A. ~ 7.2;
Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters Ethiopia Guji Gr. 1 Uraga Tomme ~ 7.3

___________________

1. I will let you all try to figure out that cunning linguist reference. 

(Hint: This is actually used as a French word, not a German word.)

2. Say wha'?!

https://www.foodnetwork.com/terms/choron-sauce

3. Now this is an interesting factoid that I just learned yesterday. In a 100 gram/3.5 ounce serving of cauliflower, there is 58% of the Daily Value for Vitamin C. That is the same amount as in a 100 g/3.5 oz serving of pineapple. As a comparison, a 100 g/3.5 oz serving of oranges has a 64% DV, the same size serving of mangoes has a 44% DV, grapefruit ~ 40% DV, tomatoes ~ 17% DV, and cranberries ~ 16% DV.

Now, I am not suggesting that Tropicana®, Welch's®, or Ocean Spray® start marketing cauliflower juice... not that I wouldn't try it... but that is a pretty impressive level of Vitamin C. 

Winter and flu season are approaching; so eat your cauliflower, kids!

If you are wondering (and even if you weren't) just how high a level of Vitamin C a 100 g/3.5 oz serving of Brussels sprouts packs ~ there is a wh*pping 102% DV! Yowza!

(Hmmm?! I wonder what the DV% of Vitamin C is in an I.P.A.)