the Fat Lady

A return breakfastary roadtrip:
(Historic) Jack London Square, Oakland, CA
(via "Planes [well, Fairy-boats[1]], Trains [well, BART/Subways] and Automobiles [well, MUNI Buses, but still...]")

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot." 
~ John Griffith "Jack" London 
(born John Griffith Chaney)

http://www.thefatladyrestaurant.com/


Place: the Fat Lady

Location: 201 Washington Street (on the corner of 2nd Street), (Historic) Jack London Square, Oakland, CA

Hours: open for "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday at 9:00am

Meal: Roasted Asparagus Omelet ~ fresh spinach, applewood smoked bacon (which I [apple]wood always have nixed, of course), Mozzarella, & roasted asparagus, served with homestyle potatoes or mixed greens and ciabatta toast; and a cuppa (and 1-1/2 refillas) (the very local ~ as in roasted/produced just four blocks away) Mr. Espresso® Coffee (I didn't ask which roast/blend, though)

https://mrespresso.com/

(A Happy Father's Day! to each and every Leader of the Band out there.)


Via a number of public transportation conveyances 
(I was too lazy to actually drive all the way over to Oakland this morning myself), I found my way back to the Fat Lady (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, May 24th, 2015). I would have taken the Fairy-boat to Jack London Square from the Fairy Plaza in San Francisco, but the first morning Fairy-boat on the weekends does not depart until 9:45am (arriving at 10:20am), which is just a bit late for my early morning tastes. As it was, I did complete my triumvirate of trusty transportation and took the Fairy-boat back from Jack London Square to the Fairy Building after breakfast ("Brunch", whatever).

I sat inside this morning as it was air-conditioned and the weather outside was starting to warm-up exceedingly already for the morning. I know that I probably shoulda sat outside at one of the seven or eight sidewalk tables; I noticed that they were all still in the shade even after I had finished eating.

The next time I get back there (which hopefully is not another two years wait) I will have to try one of the following:
Greco/Roman Benedict (herb roasted roma tomatoes, fresh basil, Feta, drizzle of EVO on ciabatta);
Greek Omelet (Feta cheese, fresh herbs, spinach, & tomatoes);
or (if I am in a sweet kinda mood)
Grand Marnier French Toast (cinnamon brioche bread, fresh berries, pure maple syrup, & powdered sugar; it doesn't state it anywhere in the menu, but I hope it also includes some Grand Marnier® in it, too).

I like that every breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) starts with a complimentary (and complementary) plate of mini-baked goods. These included four various mini-muffins, a triangle of cornbread, and a slice of fruitcake. I can not be sure (I didn't feel like bothering my friendly and attentive waitress/server lady-person one more time on the extreme minutiae of my pondering), but one of the mini-muffins (possibly some kinda spice muffin) may very well have had some cardamom in it; which is always a great thing in my book. It's funny, I noticed that they brought out the same amount of items whether there was just one solo idiot or a table full of idiots; I am sure that you can always request additional items if needed.

One thing that was not provided, like on my last visit, was some crayons[2] and a paper place-mat upon which I could scribble/doodle. I made sure to voice my concerns to my friendly and attentive waitress/server lady-person. (She actually told me that they normally only provided those at Lunch or Dinner for the kids.)

While this may not have been any Farro & Beet Hash extraordinary finding, this omelette was more than worth the hour-plus trip over (and the hour-plus return trip home, too). This one was all about the roasted asparagus. And I was very pleased to see that there were at least five or six spears/stalks represented inside the omelette, too.

For condimentary supplements, the Fat Lady still offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce ~ Original Red Sauce and El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero.  I used some of my own (I had only packed two different bottles this morning because I really didn't feel like schlepping even another 5 oz bottle with me in my backpack) Florida Gold Premium Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry! And with today's dosage, that kills another brave soldier from my collection... finally.) on the potatoes and some Hot Licks® Serrano Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian! This bottle has only juuuust about reached its half-life, though.) on top of the omelette.


Up next:

Back to Mo'z Café to check out their brand newest digs (which happens to be right along my street, too)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Roasted Asparagus Omelet ~ 6.9;
a beautiful (almost) Summer morning in scenic (Historic) Jack London Square ~ 8.2

___________________

1. Yes, we in San Francisco have our own designated Navy.

2. How cool is it that both the words crayons and rainbow have the perfect amount of letters for which the colour spectrum can be completely used, Mr. Roy G. Biv?

The Fat Lady

A breakfastary roadtrip:
(Historic) Jack London Square, Oakland, CA


"It's much better to live rich than to die rich!"

(Of course, if your name happens to be "Richard", I suppose it is all the same.)

http://www.thefatladyrestaurant.com/


Place: The Fat Lady
Location: 201 Washington Street (on the corner of 2nd  Street), (Historic) Jack London Square, Oakland, CA
Hours: open for "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday at 9:00am
Meal: Farro[1] & Beet Hash ~ organic beets, asparagus tips, fire-roasted peppers, leeks, baby kale, & potatoes, topped with poached eggs; and a cuppa (and two refillas) Mr. Espresso® (I forgot to ask for the specific roast/blend, though)

http://mrespresso.com/

(No, Robert Allen Zimmerman was not born in [Historic] Jack London Square [or in a brothel]. Today just happens to be his 74th birthday. 

The first EweToobular video is one of my favourite songs of his: 

"Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin' high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps…"

"A self-ordained professor's tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
'Equality,' I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow…"

"Ah, but I was so much older then 
I'm younger than that now…" 

You just can't write stuff like that. Well, maybe you can, but I can't. 

And I just liked the ironic juxtaselection of the other two songs of his.

What do you think happens when Opportunity knocks on Heaven's Door and no one is home to answer?!)


For a mini-roadtrip on this Memorial Day 3-Day Weekend, I went "all the way over" to Oaktown and had breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) at The Fat Lady (or The Fat Lady Restaurant, or The Fat Lady Restaurant & Bar, or The Fat Lady Bar & Restaurant; take your pick, they are all listed somewhere either on their menu, web-site, or printed cards). As I had arrived there about twenty minutes before they opened, I went for a walk down by the water (that would be the Oakland/Alameda side of the San Francisco Bay) around (Historic) Jack London Square.

(That would be a statue of [Historic] John Griffith Chaney, not Robert Allen Zimmerman.)

This turned out to be a completely cool spot for breakfast ("Brunch", whatever). As the story goes, the building may (or may not) have been an old early 20th Century bordello and Jack London may (or may not) have actually "slept" there. Thanks(!) for this great suggestion go to an old Air Force buddy, Karl Brandt (son of top NASA scientist John C. Brandt, of course).

http://www.cartoonistsgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=124770

In addition to the awesome selection with which I ended up going, there were several other good ideas from which to choose (and if any of these are half as good[2] as today's stellar breakfast ~ "Brunch", whatever ~ they would still be worth a return trip all on their ownsome): Roasted Asparagus Omelet (fresh spinach, applewood smoked bacon, Mozzarella, & roasted asparagus; served with homestyle potatoes or mixed greens, and Ciabatta[3] toast; this would have been my first choice IF the meal that I ordered didn't also have asparagus… and beets… and kale ~ all favourites of mine; I would have ordered this without the smoked porky product, of course); Greek Omelet (Feta cheese, fresh herbs, spinach, & tomatoes; again, served with homestyle potatoes or mixed greens, and Ciabatta toast; I was informed by my knowledgeable, friendly, and very cute waitress/server lady-person that the owners are Greek); Greco/Roman Benedict (herb roasted Roma tomatoes [I highly suspect that is the "Roman" part of the name], fresh basil, Feta [which would probably then make this the "Greco" part of the name], drizzle of EVO [take your pick: either a good quality "Roman" olive oil or "Greco" olive oil] on Ciabatta); or Grand Marnier French Toast (cinnamon brioche bread, fresh berries, pure maple syrup, & powdered sugar).

All "Brunch" meals start out with a complimentary (or complementary) plate of mini-muffins and baked goods stuff. Mine included: a triangle of cornbread, two slices of some kinda fruitcake (or something like that; I liked it, whatever it was), a blueberry mini-muffin, a banana-walnut mini-muffin, a cranberry-orange mini-muffin, and another mini-muffin that I really couldn't figure out what it was (it was all still good, anyway). I made short work of all of them way before my meal came out, and they brought that out pretty quickly still.

They don't state it on the menu, but this hash all sits on a base of farro (hence the first part of the name of the dish). That was a piece of genius in my book (okay, we all know "my book" is just a wee 12-page colouring book, but I do try to stay within the lines). This interesting meal is going down as another "Great New Find for 2015" (I can actually say "New" here and mean it, as my knowledgeable, friendly, and very cute waitress/server lady-person also told me they had just added this specific dish on the menu last month). I especially liked that they didn't go "el cheapo" (which, of course, is Greek for "Hey, Yorgo! Where's all the asparagus at?!") with the asparagus, and it all worked very nicely together as a pile/mound of hash on which the poached eggs to sit. Heck, I even liked this meal so much that I finished all of the side of mixed greens for a change; they were nicely lightly dressed and went well as a nice addition to the rest of the meal.

For condimentary supplements, The Fat Lady had both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero. I used some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce (the original strength kind) (Thanks, Amys and Brian!) on top of just one of the poached eggs to flavour just half of the mess/pile.

Even though they call their early morning meal "Brunch" (breakfast, whatever), this was definitely worth the hour (or 32.7 miles) roundtrip this morning, and I won't have any problem doing it again (probably just not within the next several months, though).

(I bet you are all surprised that there was not even one quip about "the Fat Lady singing" in this entire 'blog-entry… well, up until just now.)

(See? This is what happens when you allow children the use of crayons at the dinner table… "Brunch" table, whatever. 

Sorry. Not all of us can be as talented as Berkeley Breathed[4] or Bruce Ozella[5].)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Farro & Beet Hash ~ 7.5


________________

1. Oh… come… on… now! Billy-boy and his troupe of smarty-pants Brown-shirted spell-checkers at Microsoft do not even recognize this common wheat grain. 

2. I know what you are thinking (and just cut it out right now!), "But, Brian, if today's breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) was a 7.5 on the GBS, wouldn't half of that only be 3.75 on the GBS? 3.5 is not even up to the standards as such fine breakfast fare as one can get at Mickey D's Golden Arches."

Well, no. Generally, any actually palatable meal will start at 5.0 on the GBS (an Eggamuffin sandwich is probably just at 5.0... if I am being quite liberal with the GBS points). So, half of 5.0 to 7.5 would be 6.25 on the GBS. That is still a very decent rating and worthy of a return trip, too. 

(Hey, I didn't make up these complicated rules. Complain to Glen Bacon if you have any complaints.)

3. I won't even justify this lack of recognition (once again) of this well-known Italian bread type by Microsoft's spell-checkering "jeenyuses" with a footnote rant. 

Well, other than this minor one.

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Breathed

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Ozella

Brown Sugar Kitchen

A breakfastary roadtrip:
Oakland, CA

http://brownsugarkitchen.com/


Place: Brown Sugar Kitchen
Location: 2534 Mandela Parkway[1], Oakland, CA
Hours: open at 7:00am Tuesday - Saturday,
8:00am Sunday
Meal: Cornmeal Waffle (with brown sugar butter & apple cider syrup); side of breakfast potatoes; and a cuppa ROASTco Artisanal[2] Coffees Brown Sugar Kitchen Blend

(Did you really expect any other song?)


This morning was my first trip across (and back, too) the new half of the Bay Bridge (Nice job, but what the heck took them so long?) and my destination was Brown Sugar Kitchen. This is a somewhat newish (well, about six years old now) nouveau-soul food-diner kind of place. 

(There is no photo of the Bay Bridge, as I was busy driving and that would have just been foolish and dangerous… and I really only thought about it after already having entered the Yerba Buena Island tunnel on my way home.)

To label them just a "Diner" would be very unfair and far from the truth, but, in addition to many standard tables (about 15-20 two-to-four seaters), they have a long diner-style counter overlooking the kitchen area which seats twelve people. That was where I sat this morning.

For not really knowing where Brown Sugar Kitchen was located, it wasn't that bad a trip over there. It was actually very easy to get to from Interstate 80 and it took me less than half an hour to get over there this morning (compare this to about the same amount of time getting to the Ramp yesterday morning on city streets). Let's face it, most San Franciscans won't travel to Oakland unless it's right along a BART line, and even only then if the destination is no more than two blocks from a station. (Okay, Mrs. Nichols, I will admit that this wasn't exactly the posh Nob Hill area, but it was easy enough to get to, and I could see clearly for blocks if there were any minor skirmishes happening around the corner. As it were, I only got shot at twice, but I blame myself for wearing Crips colours in the wrong neighborhood.)

Brown Sugar Kitchen opens up at 8:00am on Sundays. I got there probably at 8:10 and they were already three-quarters full (or one-quarter empty, if you are rather pessimistic). They had three waffle-makers going constantly the entire time I was there. The Kitchen specials seemed to be: Buttermilk Fried Chicken & Cornmeal Waffles, Organic Cheddar Cheese Grits (with or without two poached eggs), and (to start) Beignets (three very large, oblong ones from what I saw, but it looked like they dusted them with wayyyyy too much powdered sugar ~ which was just the plain ol' white variety, not brown ~ on top for my liking) served with BSK seasonal jam (I am not quite sure what this "BSK" stands for, but I am sure that it is something quite tasty).

The cornmeal waffle was excellent and definitely worth the early morning roadtrip over to Oak-town! My one minor (well, major, due to their actual name) complaint would be that they didn't give me enough brown sugar butter on my waffle; there was just one small dab (about enough to fill one grid) on just one quarter of the waffle only. From what I could tell, it was pretty good, but I really would have liked just a little bit more. However, that omission was all made up for (and major-ly eclipsed by) as the real find here is their extremely awesome apple cider syrup! It was absolutely fabulous and extremely tasty! They do offer plain ol' regular maple syrup (and for an additional $2.00 charge at that), too, but I don't know why anyone would not want to try the completely original apple cider syrup. I used my entire little pourer thingy on my waffle and probably could have used more still. I won't say that I was caught trying to lick the last few drops out of the bottom (well, I think the only one to notice was the guy sitting next to me).

The side of breakfast potatoes (which would be "homefries" to those of you named Mrs. Huneycutt) was very good, too. These are made with lots of spices and herbs. It had large chunks of potatoes, but also had lots of potato crumblies, like hash, in it.

The coffee was also very good this morning (well, good enough for at least two refills). ROASTco Artisanal Coffees is a local Oakland coffee roastery and they make an originally crafted blend specifically for Brown Sugar Kitchen. There are also bags of this coffee available for sale at the front. I tried to get the last few drops of the apple cider syrup into one of my refills to see how that would work, but to no avail.

http://www.roastco.com/products/brown-sugar-kitchen-blend

Brown Sugar Kitchen has for condimentary supplements both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce and Crystal® Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce. I had come prepared with a few of my own bottles, but only used some Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce ~ XX Habanero (Thanks agains, Amys & Brian!) on the potatoes.

"I said yeah, yeah, yeah, woo!
How come you… how come you taste so good?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo!
Just like a… just like a waffle should
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo!"


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Cornmeal Waffle ~ 7.2; Apple Cider Syrup ~ 7.4; ROASTco Brown Sugar Kitchen Blend ~ 6.9


1. Mandela Parkway is a relatively new street/boulevard. It basically runs along the area where the Cyprus Freeway used to cut through the neighborhood overhead prior to the Loma Prieta Earthquake on October 17th, 1989 which mostly leveled all of that freeway extension. 

I am not really sure of the parkway's nomenclature, but I think it has something to do with an Italian large, fretted, stringed instrument.

(This is a mural across the street from Brown Sugar Kitchen on a building which is probably a survivor of the demolition.)

2. I swear that Billy-boy and his brownshirt staff of spell-checkers really need to eat out more often. They did not even recognize this as a valid word.