the Bistro Restautant at Cliff House

http://www.cliffhouse.com/bistro/index.html

Place: the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House

Location: 1090 Point Lobos (at the end of the Earth/Ocean Beach, "Where San Francisco Begins")

Hours: open for breakfast Monday - Saturday at 9:00am, Sunday at 8:30am

Meal: Classic Eggs Benedict ~ poached eggs, Canadian bacon (which they were nice enough to substitute with spinach instead; so, technically, this was a "Classic Eggs Florentine"), toasted English muffin, Hollandaise sauce, served with fresh fruit and roasted potatoes; a glassa grapefruit juice to drink; and, of course, a basket (or two) of (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!)

Knowing the improbable cromulence[1] of finding a decent restaurant that might have been open on New Year's Day, I simply forewent going to any place yesterday and just waited until this morning to venture out for my first breakfastary repast of 2017 at 
the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, August  14th, 2016), which ended up being the exact same place that I also went to first in 2016 (and on the same date, but it fell on a Saturday last year). Surprisingly, there was quite a crowd waiting to be seated when they had first opened this morning. (Did everyone have Monday off?! D*mn touristas!) They almost filled up the entire joint immediatley. Luckily, I was still able to score one of the window tables overlooking Ocean Beach, though.

There were no surfers or porpoises in sight this morning on or off Ocean Beach. There were only a few brave dogs and their silly humans frolicking along the beach (well, some were also frolicking into the water). I only saw one solitary pelican flying over Seal Rocks, too.

I liked that they offered to substitute spinach for me in place of the dead, decaying porcine stuff from the Great White North. Eggs Florentine are not even listed on their menu, and this was made with a nice amount of fresh baby spinach.

Black-eyed peas and collard greens might be a Southern New Year's Day tradition, but it seems that (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!) are now my San Francisco Day-After New Year's Day tradition. There were only two (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!) in my first basket, and I knew that would never be enough. So I asked for another (World) Famous Cliff House Popover(!). I was just expecting only one more, but there were two in the second basket, which I made sure did not go to waste. This actually turned out to be fortuitous as they were also still warm and fresh and much better to melt butter on. ("Get 'em while they're hot, folks!")

Today's fresh fruits were: watermelon (a botanical berry), honeydew melon, cantaloupe, grapes, and half of a large strawberry (not a botanical berry, though).

the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House only offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) for condimentary supplementation. Knowing this, and knowing that I have so many new hot sauces of my own that I haven't tested yet and need to try to use up, I brought along two of my newest bottles and used some homesweet homegrown® Punch Drunk™ Chocolate Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce[2] (Thanks, Sean!) on top of both of the poached eggs and some 
Pepper Palace™ Chocolate Habanero Hot Sauce[3](Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the potatoes. (With all these new [and old] hot sauces that I now have, it is going to be hard to remember just who gave me which hot sauces.) Do not let the "Chocolate" moniker in the names of both of these hot sauces fool you into thinking these must be some kinda sweet dessert-style hot sauces. The "Chocolate" in the first one was just a small amount of raw cocoa in the ingredients. In the second one, the "Chocolate" refers to the Chocolate Habanero chilli, which is just a dark brown cultivar of the standard Habanero chilli. Both supplied a nice amount o' heat.

Strange Coffee Interlude

Much like the inordinate amount of hot sauces that I had received for Christmas, I was given six different types of Coffee for gifts. Because of this, I have been eschewing any Coffee at the restaurants and making some of my own Coffee to drink while keyboarding up these 'blog-entries. This morning, I cooked me up (well, "dripped me down") a cuppa Colectivo® Coffee Seasonal Costa Rica Santa Maria (Thanks, Kerry!). This was a very good cuppa, too. I think I should be able to use up most of the Coffee by Summer of this year (which will probably be only the half-life of all the hot sauces) at least.

http://colectivocoffee.com/

Hollywoodland Spotlight of the Day

Today's Hollywoodland Spotlight is on actress Ruby Catherine Stevens. It seems that she appeared in a few movies back in the 30's, 40's, and 50's and might have had a minor roll in a 60's western TeeVee series. (If you have never seen the Preston Sturges screwball comedy "The Lady Eve", check it out. She absolutely steals the movie from Jane Fonda's father.)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001766/


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Classic Eggs Florentine ~ 6.5;
Colectivo® Coffee Seasonal Costa Rica Santa Maria ~ 7.4;
(World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!) ~ 8.2

___________________

1. Yes, this is a completely madeuppery word, but I am just amused how this word has actually found its way into the current-day 'merican lexicon by way of 
the Simpsons™ cartoon show.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cromulent?s=t

http://www.simpsonsworld.com/#/recaps/season-7_episode-16

Much like Seinfeld had several catchphrases (exempli gratia "Anti-dentite b*stard", "Sponge-worthy", "Soup Nazi", and "Shrinkage") work their way into everyday usage, the Simpsons™ has also colourfully peppered the English language with everything from "D'oh!"s to "Kwyjibo".

See, it is possible to embiggen your vocabulary from TeeVee and the Intro-Net.

2. http://homesweethomegrown.com/products/punch-drunk-ghost-pepper-hot-sauce

3. http://www.pepperpalace.com/Chocolate-Habanero-Hot-Sauce-p/q230.htm

Sparrow Bar & Kitchen

http://www.sparrowbarandkitchen.com/


Place: Sparrow Bar & Kitchen
Location: 1640 Haight Street (between Clayton and Cole Streets)
Hours: open for breakfast Tuesday - Friday at 10:00am; open for "Brunch" Saturday & Sunday at 10:00am
Meal: Quinoa Cake ~ spiced Brussel [ sic ] sprouts, Romesco[1], garden herbs; a side of Fried Cauliflower ~ sage and garlic; and a cuppa (or would that be a "pressa" ~ as this came in a 12oz French press pot) Sightglass Coffee Blueboon Blend

https://www.sightglasscoffee.com/coffees/blends/blueboon

(Just as an exalted lark[2], I am using this song today.

Besides, I have already used "Maybe Sparrow" by Neko Case, "Lark" by Linda Lewis, "Blackbird" by the Beatles, and "Black Vultures" [Twice now?] by Daniel Norgren. There really aren't that many good "bird" songs left, anyway.)


I went back to Sparrow Bar & Kitchen (see previous 'blog-entry from May 3rd, 2014) for "Brunch" this morning. Other than the use of that snooty early morning meal nomenclature and that they don't open until 10:00am, I like the food and location of this place. I sat outside in the backyard patio/garden area once again. They had several of those tall gas-lit standing heater things going, but I made sure to sit in the corner as far away from them as possible. What is the point of eating outside if you have to be warmed by some kinda contraption? However, I did keep my jacket on, all the same; I am not an idiot, after all. 

They have a pretty decent selection (even if it is called "Brunch" on the weekends) of items from which to choose (for both stupid vegetarian-types and those that partake of the dead, decaying animal flesh). The menu changes seasonally and some of the other meals that I was leaning toward were: 

(from the Savory section)

French Omelette (Brie and Prosciutto with vanilla bean poached apple salad; the salad thing sounded interesting, but I would have nixed the Italian ham-stuff, of course); Huevos Rancheros (salsa verde, Iacopi [Farms][3] gigante beans, house hot sauce, red pepper crema, corn salsa); Spring Soft Scramble (brown button mushrooms, oven dried tomato, basil, & Humboldt Fog[4]; I didn't have the heart to tell them that "Spring" was six months ago); or Cheddar Grits (grilled broccoli rabe, poached egg, and paprika; I was originally going to get this one, but was informed by the friendly, attentive waitress/server-lady person, Chelsea, that it was a larger dish, and I may not have been able to order the Fried Cauliflower as a side, and I really wanted to try those).

(or from the Sweet section)

Mini Souffle Pancakes (Bartlett pear compote and vanilla bean whipped cream; I will definitely have to get back there again to try this one ~ insert Homer Simpson-ish moaning/drooling here) or French Toast (hazelnut Chocolate, caramelized banana, and pure maple syrup; and while this may not be as Homer Simpson-ish moaning/drooling-inducing, it sounded pretty darn tasty, too).

The Quinoa Cake was a nice idea (and probably way too healthy for me). It had lots of roasted Brussels (please note: correct spelling) sprouts on it. The Romesco sauce was pretty nice, too. They used to offer this dish with a poached egg on top; I think they stopped doing that to make this a 100% Vegan-option. 

I liked the Fried Cauliflower well enough, but I would have liked to have seen (and tasted) more garlic and sage in it. There is no such thing as "too much garlic" in my book. And unlike David Lindley's hair, this was not "way too greasy" in the least, but I think that if they had roasted the cauliflower instead this would have been even better still. This was a pretty good-sized portion and probably would have been too much food for me if I had ordered the Cheddar Grits. (Thanks for the tip, Chelsea! Hey, wait... aren't I supposed to be tipping her?)

The cuppa was good, but I have had better roasts/blends from Sightglass Coffee before. This was a bit on the weak side for my tastes. It was either a mild blend or possibly there was not enough Coffee grounds in the French press to begin with. (And, yes, I am fully aware that one should never a sentence end a preposition with. However, "... there was not enough Coffee grounds in the French press with which to begin." just sounded even more awkward.)

I didn't bother to ask this morning, but from my last visit there, I had noted that Sparrow had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and some form of a Sriracha sauce (probably Huy Fong Foods Inc.) for condimentary supplementation. Unlike Wednesday morning's breakfastary sojourn, I had come prepared with a few of my own hot sauces. 
I used a little Pope's Whiskey River Hot Sauce (Thanks, Amy and Chef Joe!) on the Quinoa Cake dish and the last of my Fairhope Favorites, Inc. Moonshine Hot Sauce XXX (Thanks, Phyll!) on the fried cauliflower (and because garlic is one of the ingredients in it, it aided a bit in the lack of garlic provided by the restaurant).

(Not Necessarily) the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

I had parked over on Cole Street on the northern side of the Panhandle and walked over to Haight Street hoping to espy some of the Wild Parrots of San Francisco in the tall Eucalyptus trees along the way. Unfortunately, I didn't see any of the little red-and-green chatterboxes, but I did see a small murderous bunch of Crows[5] enjoying their own breakfast on the ground (I am pretty sure they were Crows, and not Ravens, because Ravens don't usually congregate in groups of more than six at most ~ besides, the only murderous Raven is retired and now works for ESPN).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Quinoa Cake ~ 6.6; Fried Cauliflower ~ 6.7; Sightglass Coffee Blueboon Blend ~ 6.5

___________________

1. "Hey, Brian, just what the heck is 'Romesco'?"

Well, it ain't some kinda despotic Romanian dictator, if that was what you were thinking.

Sometimes it is just simpler to cheat and use a WikipediA link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romesco

2. All of two people may get that awful pun.

For what it is worth, the Term of Venery for a group/flock of Sparrows is called "a host".

3. http://www.cuesa.org/seller/iacopi-farms

4. http://www.cypressgrovechevre.com/our-cheese/soft-ripened-cheeses/humboldt-fog-grande.html#.VketB3arSM8

5. See stupid footnote #2 above.

Popovers & a bit o’ History

"Mmmmmm… popovers!" (to be read in your best Homer Simpsonesque voice)



http://www.cliffhouse.com/

To say that their popovers are "to die for… " may be an understatement ~ well, they may not be worth committing actual Murder over, but they are at least worth breaking a few of the lesser Commandments. (I mean who really knows what "covet" means anyway? And who among us hasn’t broken the 11th Commandment at one time or another: "Thou shalt not use God's name in bed."?) The Cliff House is well-known for their supreme popovers, people come from all over the Bay Area just for these baked goodies. I like to butter them while still warm and fresh, and on the first one add dollops of orange marmalade; for any subsequent ones, I just butter them. The popovers come abundantly with most meals, in place of toast or bread, in a little basket; more can be requested at no extra charge if you go through what they first serve. But please don't be sacrilegious and do not waste these; we can always do with less trees in the Rainforests, but do not ask for more of these popovers to not eat them.

The Bistro at the historical Cliff House: "Where San Francisco Begins"® (… and civilization ceases to exist?), which is their actual "Registered Trademark" slogan. They also use the slogan "Where Geary Meets the Pacific Ocean", while not technically on Geary ~ it is at the end of Point Lobos Avenue, where that street meets the Great Highway. This is right down the street from my apartment (15 blocks or so) and it is a handy place to go if I am too lazy to drive anywhere else. It has been situated in one incarnation or another at this location since 1863. And how many people can say they ate breakfast at a National Park? The Cliff House is located on National Park land in San Francisco; it is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.












I had the Farmer's Breakfast Scramble (no ham ~ sorry, Sean and Emeril, with me it is a "no-pork fat" thing). It was a good combination of scrambled eggs, green onions, potatoes, and Cheddar cheese (no need to ask for a side of home fries ~ though their sautéed red potatoes are pretty good, too). As with most restaurants, they only offered the standard Tabasco® sauce (and ketchup) with the meal, so I came prepared with two bottles from my own collection: Roland® "Piri Piri with Lemon" (a semi-spicy Português brand that I got from a local Spanish import shop) and El Yucateco® "Chipotle Habañero" (a little spicier Mexican one). One time I had forgotten to bring my own hot sauces and the waiter went back in the kitchen and brought out a bottle of Cholula® that he "borrowed" from the cook's private stash. They really should have that particular brand on all tables.












As this place has been around for many, many years, they have their walls covered with vintage autographed photos of Hollywoodland celebrities (à la mode the Brown Derby, etc.). The wall closest to me was festooned with the likes of such vaunted stars as Noah Beery (Sr.), Johnny Weißmüller (the only real "Tarzan" ~ How many people, not named Washington, Jefferson, or Franklin, have a town named after them?), Alice Faye, Martha Raye… and Howie Mandel and Kevin Costner(?)! They also have Noah Beery's brother, Wallace, on another wall; however, my favourite wall of theirs has not only two separate signed photos of Clark Gable right next to one of Carole Lombard, but one with the Mark Brothers (sorry, Zeppo's and Gummo's autographs were not included).


The prices and atmosphere (REAL clothe napkins? What are we royalty?) would almost make this place a "Fancy Schmancy Brunch" place, but it opens at 9:00am on Saturdays and I got out of there for just under $20.00 'merican, so I will let it slide, and they do not allow "reservations" at this part of the Cliff House. (Plus, did I mention the Popovers?!)

The views from the large windows on a clear day of Seal Rocks and Ocean Beach are unbelievable ~ one morning I saw some porpoises following some of the surfers around on the waves (I am sorry, I see fins of any type and I am sticking to shore for good).












There is ample (free) parking either on the street right in front of the building (however, these are taken up pretty quickly in the day due to the proximity this is to Ocean Beach) or there is a large (20-30 cars) parking lot located up the street about ½ a block away. After a large breakfast, the walk uphill is not really a bad thing.

Come for the food, come back for the divine popovers!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Popovers ~ 8.2; Farmer's Breakfast Scramble ~ 6.5 (They used to have a Greek Omelet on their menu ~ with real Καλαμάτα olives in it ~ it was great and at least a 7.0. For some reason the owners ~ who are actually Greek ~ have taken it off the menu.)