Dottie’s TRUE BLUE CAFE

10, Десять, Zehn, Δέκα, Dieci, Dix, Diez, عشرة, and עשר















As today is October 10th, 2010 (or 10/10/10 for you numerologically challenged), I figured what better way to celebrate than with one of the best (again, there are no Tens on the Glen Bacon Scale) breakfast places in San Francisco (and subsequently, one of the best in the World). And to top it off, Dottie's TRUE BLUE CAFE was playing a little Lady Ella when I was sitting there waiting for my food (but just what the heck does "Take A Train" mean, though?) ~ I can’t think of a better way to start off a beautiful Fall Sunday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNxuc0W--88

The above photos are of Dottie's chandeliers that are made from coffee making instruments and cups: a copper pot one and an Italiano espresso maker one. They have several others, too; I just figured I'd open this entry with something different other than a shot of the outside of the restaurant as I have already written about Dottie's twice and both times supplied a picture of the façade; it hasn’t changed in the past two months.

As usual, I ordered from their Specials Board: Zucchini cakes ~ topped with poached eggs & spicy Marinara sauce; fruit & potatoes. Think of this as an Italiano fresh take on the classic Eggs Benedicto, Arnold. The zucchini cakes form the basis for this, and are a great idea. The Marinara sauce was excellent ~ chunky and fresh, with just a touch of spicy heat. I have had this dish a few times before and it is always a good choice. I also had a glass of grapefruit juice and a cuppa coffee to round it out.



Dottie's is one of the few places that offer more than just one or two different types of bottled hot sauces on the tables. They have several different varieties of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce and a few others from which to choose. I went with the Tabasco® Chipotle and Frank's® RedHot Chile'nLime ~ a little of both on the potatoes (on each sides of the pile); Dottie's Marinara sauce was plenty tasty on its own and did not need me messin' with the flavour any.

Dining at Dottie's is always an International affair. There were two Israeli women sitting at the table next to me. I only learned this as after one of them sneezed, I insulted her by saying "Sakha!" (which is Arabic for "Gesundheit!", which you should probably not say to someone from Israel either, "Greg"). I really didn't catch much of what they were saying to each other beforehand and my language ID hadn't really kicked-in yet this morning; I just assumed they were speaking Arabic… oops!* I did make sure to say "Shalom!" when they were leaving, though. The next table over was a guy visiting from Los Ångeles, his friend was a local San Franciscano, though; I talked him into ordering the Zucchini Cakes, too.

One day I will have to go there and just order from their Baked Goods Specials board. Today's line-up included some great choices: Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake; Red Plum Streusel Coffee Cake (which would have been my first choice); Coconut Honey Muffin; Pumpkin Crumb Cake; Whiskey Blueberry Crumb Cake (which would have been my second choice); Apple Caramel Tart; and several other tasty entries.



One of Dottie's cute little trademarks (Dottie's™?) is that at each table there is a different kitschy salt-and-pepper shaker combination. Today, mine happened to be these Siamese cats (sorry, no Lady or Tramp available, Walt). There is also a display of several snow globes on the dining countertop by the stove. I presented Kurt with one that I had bought from Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard; it was one from the Flying Horses Carousel. I had specifically purchased it for this purpose. Next time I go, I will be sure to take a photo of these.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Horses_Carousel


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Zucchini Cakes ~ 7.77 (in keeping with the whole numerological thingy)


*(Just to let everyone know I am not generally anti-semantic: I actually know the difference between Jewish, Hebrew, and Israeli.)

Linda Jean’s Restaurant

Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, MA (Tuesday, 07/13/10)




No vacation to Massachusetts should be complete without a trip to Cape Cod or Martha's Vineyard. I was lucky enough to do both this time.

Joining me on this trip were my mother, my sister Sharon (see, I didn’t forget to mention you), and my brother Sean. An early morning ferry from Woods Hole took us to the town of Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard. If we had waited another 1:15 minutes for the next ferry, we could have disembarked in Vineyard Haven instead and had breakfast at the Black Dog, but that would have been almost lunchtime by then. As it was, we went straight to breakfast to Linda Jean's Restaurant in downtown Oak Bluffs. Linda Jean's is a decent enough place, it’s not the Black Dog, though.

I ordered "the Mess" (they added the quotation marks), just because it sounded like something I would order. "The Mess" is: 3 eggs scrambled with fresh spinach, onions and Swiss cheese, served with home fries, toast and coffee. There was a ton o' "fresh spinach" and lots of cheese, too. Their home fries are very good: just greasy enough and with a good amount of spices. I choose a homemade biscuit as my toast choice. All the food was great, but their coffee was just your standard restaurant/diner fare ~ nothing special.
My mother had the (boring) Number 2: "2 large eggs - any style - home fries, your choice of breakfast meat, toast and coffee." Mom went with poached eggs, bacon (which she gave to Sean), and the marble rye toast. She thought the home fries were too greasy; I thought they were just right.

Sharon had the Healthy Start: "We start by substituting Egg Beaters, then we scramble in a mix of br*ccoli, spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, tomato, peppers and onion. Served with home fries, toast and coffee." First off, again with the vile weed?! At least they also had the good taste to included spinach and asparagus. Secondly, who wants to order a healthy start to the day? (And exactly how healthy are those home fries?) It looked pretty decent; however, the photo I took of her meal didn’t come out very good. Sharon also opted for the marble rye toast; I liked my biscuit, but the marble rye looked pretty darn tasty, too.
 
Sean had the Other Fruit Pancakes. He ordered the peach variety and the pancakes were of the buttermilk type. Now this was a pretty disappointing dish. He had expected the peaches to be fresh and inside the pancakes. As it turned out, they were only canned peaches and served on top of the pancakes with whipped cream. They really missed the boat (or ferry) on this one; fresh peaches (and some fresh ground ginger) would have made this a real winner. At least there were four of 'em.

 



Glen Bacon Scale Rating: "the Mess" ~ 6.5; Other Fruit Pancakes ~ 6.0 (per Sean); Coffee ~ 5.2
(Oops! I forgot to poll the rest of the table on their ratings. Sorry. Besides, it's my 'blog. Let them write their own reviews.)