Slow Club

"If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the Universe." ~ Carl Sagan

http://www.slowclub.com/


Place: Slow Club
Location: 2501 Mariposa Street (on the corner of Hampshire Street ~ the signs don't specify "New’" or "Old", though)
Hours: "Brunch" is served on Saturday and Sunday at 10:00am
Meal: bourbon french toast ~ spiced roasted pears, candied walnuts & bourbon maple syrup; a side order of homefries; and a cuppa Mr. Espresso® Organic Seven Bridges[1] Blend (formerly Organic Special Blend)

("Slow" Club ~ "Fast"ball/"Frequency"… get it?! 

Well, I really don't care if you like my musical juxta-selections or not, I couldn't think of any good lack of speed or velocity songs.

Would you believe me if I said I chose those songs because they have a Bo Diddley[2] beat?)


I went back to Slow Club (see previous 'blog-entry from June 4th, 2011) for "Brunch" (their terminology, not mine) this morning. They are supposed to open at 10:00am, but they were running a little late this morning and didn't open until 10:05am (someone must not have read my mini-Rant last weekend), which really isn't that bad, and they more than made up for it by their expediency in taking my order (around 10:10am) and bringing out the food in a less than slow manner (probably by 10:25am or sooner). It really wasn't that busy yet when they first opened, but it did fill up rather quickly.

Slow Club is located just a block down the street from KQED. There is lots of available (read: free) street parking in this neighborhood on the weekends. I thought it was funny that where I parked the sign stated "12 HOURS LIMIT"; luckily, I only planned on eating breakfast for 11 hours tops. 

Slow Club is a medium-sized restaurant and they have two tall tables with four or five high stools for seating, three tables dedicated specifically for four people, and fourteen tables for two. They also have five sidewalk tables for two people each that can be enjoyed on sunny days (like today); these were mostly filled when I had finished and left.

Stupid Pet (mainly Dog) Owners mini-Rant of the Day

It is understood that animals (of any type and size) are not allowed in many stores or restaurants (as well as most places that are open to the human public), right? So, what would ever make you think that your sweet, little… mangy, flea-infested, disease-carrying mongrel is any better than anyone else's pet?! "But I didn't want to leave the poor thing unattended while I was inside eating." Well, shouldn't you have considered that this morning before you decided to schlep the mutt with you?! And it's not as if I am a dog-hater. I love the massively drooling, butt-licking fools, but just outside, not inside where I am trying to enjoy a meal.

(Thus endeth the mini-Rant for today. Idiots!)

Slow Club doesn't have that extensive of a "Brunch" menu, but I did see a few other items that looked good: frittata ~ or fritatta even ~ (spinach, king trumpet mushrooms, red onion, swiss cheese & balsamic reduction served with greens), but this was almost the same as the weekend special frittata ~ or fritatta ~ that I had there on my last visit and I wanted to try something different; or grilled flatbread (montasio[3], arugula, yukon gold potatoes, bacon, caramelized onions & a fried egg), which I saw someone at another table had ordered and it looked like a pretty decent version of a breakfastary Pizza ~ solo senza sugo rosso.

The French toast came as three large slices (and about ¾-inch thick each). My one minor complaint would be that they had already poured the bourbon maple syrup on the French toast before bringing it out to me. I would much rather have them bring out a little syrup pitcher and be able to use as much or little of the stuff as I liked and pour it on myself (well, to be able to pour it on the French toast, not on my body… Hmmm?! That doesn't sound that bad either.). And in this case, it would have been "as much as" as the bourbon maple syrup was really very good. This is easily the Best French Toast that I have had this year… after Baker Street Bistro's Pain Perdu, of course.

The potatoes were also good and had lots of caramelised red onions, and they came with some kind of herbed aioli/mayonnaise stuff to dip the potatoes in.

The Coffee seemed rather weak at first, but, by the third cuppa (the second refilla), it was much better and probably from a newly brewed batch.

I only noticed Cholula® Hot Sauce for condimentary supplementation on all of the tables. I used some of my own hot sauces on different areas of the potatoes: just five to six (and believe me, you want to count how much you use of this stupid stuff; I was given this 5 oz. bottle over two years ago and have barely made a dent in its volume; and this isn't even the absolute hottest of their brand) drops of Blair's After Death® sauce with Liquid Fire (Thanks a lot, Sean! ~ with requisite sarcasm) and some (this one I went a lot more liberally with) Mama Africa's™ Zulu Sauces Chilli Mint (Thanks, Kerry! ~ without any real sarcasm noted there). The aioli/mayonnaise stuff seemed to temper the Blair's a bit, which was nice. 

Between the large portion of French toast and potatoes, I am so full now that I may not eat again until tomorrow morning's breakfast…


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: bourbon french toast ~ 7.2


1. Off the top of my head, I could only name six bridges in the Bay Area:

Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Bridge, San Rafael Bridge, Carquinez Bridge, San Mateo Bridge, and Dumbarton Bridge.

The one that I couldn't think of was "that other 680 Bridge", which is actually called Congressman George Miller/Benicia-Martinez Bridge.

2. a) see previous 'blog-entry from June 4th, 2011 to get that reference;

b) the name "Diddley" isn't recognized by the Nazi Microsoft Auto-spellchecker thingy. Apparently, Billy-boy doesn't know Jack… or Bo!

3. Montasio is a type of Italian Alpine cheese. It is named for the Jôf di Montasio peak in the Julian Alps.

http://www.formaggiomontasio.net/

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

Market & Rye

"Compare the times they say they are open and actually are. Simples!"[1]

http://www.marketandrye.com/


Place: Market & Rye
Location: 68 West Portal (between Ulloa and Vicente Streets)
Hours: "Brunch" is served on weekends starting at 8:00am
Meal: Huevos Verde[2] ~ stewed eggs, black beans, Roma tomato, salsa roja, guacamole, sour cream, queso fresco, crispy tortilla, cilantro; and a cuppa mighty fine Palio Brand Gourmet Coffee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDTOLbNG1RE

(Okay, today's EweToobular video selections don't really have any sort of correlation with "Market" &/or "Rye", and it would seem to fly in the face of nature and really can not be emplaced by normative fiat[3]. I just like the group and their songs. 

You can completely ignore the fact that these are basically "Christian" Rock-and/or-Roll-ish songs; just listen to the sounds and music. Besides, it is Sunday, and if you can't share a little love and understanding and obtain a little religiosity on this day… you can all go straight to Hell! 

Yeah, so, today I decided on going with four songs, too. Just shut up and deal with it, ya buncha heathens! 

Dammit!)


Isn't it nice when a place says that they are open at 8:00am and then they are actually open for business at 8:00am? (This is compared to yesterday's double late openings debacle, of course.) Well, that was precisely the case this morning when I ate at Market & Rye (the one on West Portal; see last 'blog-entry from January 20th, 2013 at their Potrero Hill location on). Both locations have probably been open for a little over two years now, but the West Portal store has only recently (within the past few months or so) started serving "Brunch" (and I can always forgive that snooty breakfastary moniker as they open up nice and early... and, more importantly, when they are supposed to open). 

One really cool thing about this place is that they have lots of toys and games for kids to play with (and I would also like to point out that they have several games for adults, too ~ dominoes, Yahtzee®[4], or even Candy Land). I saw one family with a couple of ankle-biters head straight for the corner area with all the toys as soon as they came in. (No one told me ahead of time that there were toys to play with. If I had known that, I would have beaten the little bastages to them first.)

It is interesting to note that the "Brunch" menus at the two locations differ in a few items. But they both offer a very decent array of choices, and I know that there are a couple that I would like to get back and try: Scrambled Egg Sandwich (soft scrambled egg, Cheddar, roasted tomato, aioli, greens, on a house-made English muffin, served with potatoes & salad); M&R Breakfast Burrito (chorizo, eggs, black beans, fried potatoes, Poblano aioli, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, queso fresco, served with Breakfast Potatoes and mixed greens ~ I am not quite sure what the "M&R" refers to, though); or Scramble of the Day (served with Breakfast Potatoes and mixed greens ~ I only asked after I had already finished my meal what today's scramble included and was told "Brussels sprouts and Parmesan", which sounded like a great combination to me).

This was served in a deep bowl and there were either two or three (or possibly four) poached/stewed eggs in a very nice salsa verde with a good amount of black beans, too. There are several crispy corn tortilla strips piled on top of the mess for a bit of texture. My only minor complaint (un quibblito) would be that they didn't provide any fresh tortillas (either corn or flour) with which to sop up the remaining tasty salsa verde.

The counter-guy (he wasn't being a contrarian jerk or anything, he was just the guy that was working the cash register at the counter) told me that they serve Mr. Espresso® Coffee at their other location on Potrero Hill; however, looking back at the 'blog-entry from that other visit, I showed that they also serve Palio Brand Gourmet Coffee. Either way, I think both are very good, local roasteries.

http://paliocoffee.com/

Market & Rye really excel with their condimentary supplements; they offer two entire shelves full of different hot sauces. They even have an extended version of the San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (three types: the standard red, Garlic, and Chipotle), Tapatío® (just the one type), and Cholula® Hot Sauce (also three types: Original, Chili Garlic, and Chili Lime). And as many different types (there had to have been twenty to thirty different kinds from which to choose) they have at their West Portal location, there are probably two to three times that amount at the Potrero Hill restaurant. 

Unfortunately, there was really nothing in my meal that needed extra flavour or spicing up as the salsa verde that the eggs were swimming in was pretty tasty on its own. I couldn't leave there without sampling some, so I did try a couple drops of a few different hot sauces on some of the corn tortilla strips: Shiloh's™ Caribbean Hot Sauce, Jufran® Banana Sauce ~ Hot, and some of the Cholula® Chili Lime. The Shiloh's™ was very good, made with habanero chillies and pineapple; it is worth looking for if you like a "sweet heat" kind of hot sauce.

Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Huevos Verde ~ 6.8; Palio Brand Gourmet Coffee ~ 6.9; awesome collection of hot sauces ~ 8.0 


1. Only a few (well, probably just one) faithful readers in North Yorkshire might get that stupid reference.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número uno:

I hate to get picky with them, but I think the correct term should be "Huevos Verdes" in the plural. Whatever the case may be, I didn't notice any jamón verde on the menu, Señor Geisel.

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, dualitis:

"Fiat" ~ despite what some anti-Italiano pundits may think, this does not mean "Fix it again, Tony!" ~ comes from Latin, meaning "let it be done", and is the 3rd singular present subjunctive form of the verb "fieri" ("to become").

4. Okay, in addition to Billy-boy and his Spell-check Nazis not knowing many standard food terms or famous place names, it appears they never played many games when they were children as they do not recognise this as a valid word.

Just in case you also aren't familiar with this long-standing 'merican dice game either:

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

Greenburger’s

"Life is a combination of magic and pasta." ~ Federico Fellini 

http://www.sfgreenburgers.com/


Place: Greenburger's
Location: 518 Haight[1] Street (between Fillmore and Steiner Streets)
Hours: "Brunch" available Saturday and Sunday from 10:30am
Meal: Veggie Scramble ~ 3 eggs, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and baby spinach with smash browns and your choice of toast 

(The EweToob videos used here today in a prolegomenon sense should be pretty self-evident.)


I ended up eating at Greenburger's for breakfast this morning. However, this was not my originally intended destination (feel free to follow along for an explanation), but, after last week's unsuccessfully attempted visit to Primo Patio Cafe, I had this as a back-up plan all ready. Greenburger's is a new-ish place in the Lower Haight (they have been around for less than two years, I believe). There are original photos (for sale) along one wall and old family photos along another wall (but I am pretty sure that those are not for sale). You order and pay first at the front counter, they give you a number, and then bring out the food to you when it is ready. They open at 10:30am sharp, just like they state they do; and I only mention that as (get ready for it)…

Restaurants that do not open when they state they are supposed to open mini-rant 

Okay, I know that the restaurant business is not exactly run on a strict timetable like the banking industry is, but why do restaurants (at least from what I can see a lot of in San Francisco) feel that if they state (on both their web-sites and also on the signage on their doors) they are open at 9:00am (or 9:30am) that they don't have to actually open their doors until after 9:45am (or later)? I had originally planned on eating again at Primo Patio Cafe as they were closed last Saturday due to inclement weather. Well, today there was pretty clement weather and I arrived over there at about 9:20am. I saw some workers milling around inside and just figured that they were running a little late this morning. So, I decided to walk around the neighborhood and see what else might be open. Just around the corner is  farmerbrown's little skillet ~ they have a sign stating that they open at 9:30am on Saturdays ~ so, I figured I'd give both Primo Patio and little skillet a chance to open, and whichever one opened first, I would just eat there. Well, 9:30am came and went and neither place was open yet. No problem, I can wait a few more minutes… 9:35am ~ still nuthin'… 9:40am ~ no signs of either place opening any time soon… 9:45am ~ forget it… on to "Plan B".

(Now back to your regularly-scheduled 'blog-entry.)

As you enter the joint, there is a cool old Wedgewood cast iron stove that they now use as a planter.

I have eaten at Greenburger's a few times for lunch/dinner ~ both the House Made Greenburger (veggie patty made from organic black beans, beets, oats, brown rice, and spices on a brioche roll) and the Vegetarian Sloppy Joe (organic tempeh[3], sautéed onions, Poblano and bell peppers in a tangy chili barbeque sauce served on a soft roll with a dollop of coleslaw) are very good (and available as a Weekday Lunch Slider Special where you can get both). They are mainly a burger joint (hence the "Green" part of their name) and don't really offer that many different "Brunch" items on the menu, but a few other good breakfastary ideas for stupid vegetarians are: Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes (with organic maple syrup and seasonal fruit); Simple Breakfast (2 eggs any style served with smash browns and your choice of toast and bacon, sausage, Canadian bacon, or avocado); Breakfast Sandwich (2 fried eggs with Cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo with your choice of meat on an English muffin served with smash browns; *Vegan upon request).

Other than the pedestrian moniker of the "Veggie" Scramble, this was a pretty good breakfast. I completely missed the "Add goat cheese .75" (which I assume means for an extra 75¢, not that you only get a ¾-serving of the normal amount) on the menu; which I probably would have done if I had seen it. Goat cheese is always good with a scrambled egg dish. I went with sourdough bread as my toast choice. The smash browns were the real find this morning and worth checking out even as a side if you are only getting pancakes or French toast. These are basically just mashed potatoes formed into a patty ("potato patty"? Try saying that ten times fast.) and browned up on the grill (somewhat like "Bubble & Squeak" ~ the British breakfast potato dish, not a Greek Cockney ~ but just without any extra added leftover junk in them). I always love any different take on potatoes, and these were a very good take, too.

For condimentary supplementation, Greenburger's offers Frank's® RedHot and two different types of Pretty Dog Hot Sauce (Louisiana Style and Sea Salt & Peppercorn w/Lime). I had brought a few of my own collection with me, but I knew from past experience that Pretty Dog Hot Sauce is really very good. I used a little of the Louisiana Style on the smash browns and some Sea Salt & Peppercorn w/Lime on the scramble (all over the mess, and I used quite a mess of it, too). The Louisiana Style (Ingredients: red chiles, ground Cayenne, white vinegar, water, sea salt.) is not just another lame version of Tabasco® Brand's standard red; this was chunky and very flavourful. The Sea Salt & Peppercorn w/Lime (Ingredients: Habanero chiles, red chiles, white vinegar, water, fresh squeezed lemon juice, fresh squeezed lime juice, ground black peppercorn, ground white peppercorn, ground Cayenne, onion powder, sea salt.) was even better.

https://squareup.com/market/pretty-dog-hot-sauce-2

Pretty Dog Hot Sauce is "a local artisan hot sauce company based out of Oakland, CA". Their products are all handmade and all natural (and all very tasty). According to one of the pretty, friendly worker-server-lady-persons, she told me that Greenburger's usually only has two different flavours at a time (always the Louisiana Style and another seasonal flavour), and that they sell bottles of the product, too. I will have to keep that in mind for the next time my collection dips below ten bottles or so (it's holding at fifteen bottles currently). 

Now 10:30am is usually a little later than I would like to eat breakfast (or "Brunch" even), but at least I didn't have to wait in vain to get in, Mr. Marley.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggie Scramble ~ 6.5; smash browns ~ 7.2; Pretty Dog Hot Sauce ~ 7.0 (Louisiana Style) and 7.3 (Sea Salt & Peppercorn w/Lime)


1. Not only do the Spell-check Nazis at Microsoft not seem to know the spelling of many simple, common culinaristic words, but they also don't seem to recognize many famous place names either. Seriously, Billy-boy, you really need to broaden your horizons a bit.

2. Case in point: die Braunhemden Idioten at Microsoft have absolutely no idea what this vegetarian soy product is.

Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

"Tempeh" comes from the Javanese word "témpé", simply meaning "soy meat made next to Phoenix".

Delancey Street Restaurant

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." 
~ Charles M. Schulz 


(Okay, so I forgot to take a picture of the restaurant itself. But in my defense, it was raining this morning and I am a wimp and don't like getting wet.)

http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/enterrestaurant.php


Place: Delancey Street Restaurant
Location: the Embarcadero at Brannan Street
Hours: open Saturday (?) and Sunday at 10:00am for "Brunch"
Meal: New Mexican Omelette ~ pepper Jack cheese, green onions, & tomatoes, topped with sour cream, salsa, & guacamole (served with home fried potatoes & toast); a side order of (three) Potato Pancakes (with sour cream and applesauce); and a large glass of orange juice

(To continue with the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of their invading America, here are a couple more covers of the Beatles. Interestingly, the first one was actually recorded at a live session at the Abbey Road studio. The second song isn't really as much a "cover" as it is the inimitable Richie Havens taking ownership of the song and making it a classic in its own right.)


Yesterday's breakfast at Town's End Restaurant & Bakery reminded me that I had not eaten at Delancey Street Restaurant (see last 'blog-entry from May 14th, 2011) in quite a while, and it was far overdue for a return visit. Delancey Street Restaurant is located just a block up the Embarcadero from Town's End. On their menus they have the sub-titular "An Ethnic American Bistro" (whatever that might mean). I parked a block away on Delancey Street (this is actually 1st Street, but they have renamed one block near the Delancey Street Foundation and its buildings; it is just a dead-end street ~ kinda like an homage to "the Dead End Kids/the Bowery Boys", too). 

Delancey Street Restaurant has several other good breakfastary choices, of note: Garden Scramble (onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, & tomatoes, served with 5-grain toast and home fried potatoes); French Omelette (Gruyère cheese & forest mushrooms; of course the hardest part about a French Omelette is not burning your tongue on the pan while making it); or Cheese Blintzes (with sour cream & strawberry preserves; which probably would have paired very nicely with the Potato Pancakes; next time perhaps ~ if I can actually remember that in another three years).

They bring out a basket of bread and fresh bagel chips (two kinds, too: made from plain and rye bagels) to start you off before the meal comes out. I tried not to fill up too much on these as I had two kinds of potatoes still to come. But how can you not eat any bagel chips when they are right there in front of you? Besides, they were just "waffer-thin" chips, Mr. Creosote. To make up for all of these extra carbohydrates, I told them to hold my toast (and not in the "Five Easy Pieces" way, Jack).

All in all, this was a pretty good omelette. It wasn't knock-your-socks-off stuff (besides, who likes to dine barefoot in a nice restaurant?), but I can easily recommend it to anyone that ever dines there. There was a very nice guacamole and salsa roja on top, and it had a good amount of pepper Jack cheese inside. I don't know why it is called the "New" Mexican Omelette; maybe the old one got deported. The homefries are made with red and green bell peppers and red onions, and were very good, too.

The Potato Pancakes were very good, too. These were not quite as good as the Latke that I recently had at Saul's Restaurant & Delicatessen (see ‘blog-entry from December 15th, 2013), but this was still a very decent rendition, Mr. Gravas, and definitely worth ordering again (as I did from my first visit there). These Potato Pancakes used to be called Potato Latkes on their menu, but I can only guess that idiot touristas must have questioned what they were too many times and now they have just Americanized and simplified it for the simple 'mericans. It was always listed under the "Pancakes & Waffles" section of the menu, anyway. I wonder if the simple 'mericans now expect a standard pancake with either mashed potatoes on top or French fries in the batter. The only knock (and it is a very minor one) on this dish would be that they use just plain ol' applesauce on the side; a good, chunky German-style Apfelmus would be so much better.

Delancey Street Restaurant only offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) for condimentary supplements. It really didn't matter, as I had come prepared as usual and I used some of my own Pickapeppa Sauce (Thanks, Amy!) on the potatoes and just a little Florida Gold Premium Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on the omelette to complement the guacamole and salsa roja.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: New Mexican Omelette ~ 6.6; Potato Pancakes ~ 6.7

Town’s End Restaurant & Bakery

You can't squeeze blood from a turnip… but you can get a mighty tasty juice from a Tarocco.

(Good luck trying to measure the diastole and systole of an artichoke heart, too.)

http://www.townsendrb.com/


Place: Town's End Restaurant & Bakery
Location: 2 Townsend Street (on the Embarcadero)
Hours: open Monday-Friday at 7:30am for Breakfast; open Saturday-Sunday at 8:00am for "Brunch"
Meal: Asparagus Benedict ~ grilled organic local asparagus on our English muffin, poached eggs, Hollandaise (eggs & omelettes are served with a choice of potato-carrot pancakes [with apple compote & sour cream], grilled polenta, or fresh fruit); all meals are served with a selection of pastries from their bakery; and a cuppa Mr. Espresso® Coffee

(Just a couple of the Beatles covers this morning from EweToob to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of their invasion of America. And how come we never heard of the Far Right complaining about these Brit wetbacks coming over here and taking all the jobs away from all the 'merican musicians?)


I was actually planning on eating at Primo Patio Cafe again (see 'blog-entry from October 8th, 2011), but, as they have an actual outdoor patio space for dining, they were closed this morning due to the rain. Thinking quickly on my feet (because people lying down tend to think very slowly?), I figured that as long as I was in the area that I should just go back to Town's End Restaurant & Bakery (see last 'blog-entry from October 28th, 2012). This turned out to be a very good back-up choice (and, in actuality, it was probably better than the originally scheduled destination).

Almost as soon as you sit down, they bring out a mini-basket of baked goods for you to enjoy while waiting to order and before your meal arrives. Today's mini-basket included: four mini-muffins (two corn muffins, one cranberry muffin, and one chocolate chip muffin) and one mini-scone (your basic raisin). And not to be missed is their seasonal fresh-made jams to be used with the pastries. Today's fresh-made jam was a blueberry jam. Due to its colour, I thought it was a raspberry jam at first until the friendly server-person-lady corrected me ~ either way, it was still very good.

As always, Town's End offered several other (seasonal and always changing) good ideas for breakfast (both of the vegetarian and dead, decaying animal flesh eater variety), particularly of note this morning: Spinach, Tomato & Mushroom Omelette (they don't specify what ingredients are in this one, but I am sure I would have liked it, anyway); Red Pepper Scrambled Eggs (with fire-roasted red peppers, green onions & Laura Chenel goat cheese); or Wild Mushroom Omelette (roasted garlic & yellow cippolini onions, wild arugula, wild yellowfoot mushrooms, with Nicasio Valley organic Farmstead cheese).

This was a great take on ol' Benny's eggs. I particularly liked that the asparagus was grilled ~ this was a nice touch and one that added a depth of flavour ~ and I was also very happy to see that there was a good amount of it, too, which is always a plus. Their Hollandaise sauce had an extremely intense yellow hue to it (I doubt the above photo will do it jaundiced justice, though; don't worry, the photographer has already been reprimanded for his ineptness); I understand that most Hollandaise sauces are basically yellow (egg yolks are the main ingredient, after all), but this was even deeper yellow than I have normally seen (now it makes me wonder what other places have been putting in their Hollandaise sauces).

For a change, I opted for the grilled polenta instead of the potato-carrot pancakes (the fresh fruit was never really a viable choice with me, anyway). The grilled polenta was good, but their potato-carrot pancakes are even better. I had even thought about ordering a side of the pancakes, but it would really have been too much food for me to finish (a side order is four pancakes, and with finishing all of the baked goods I was sufficiently sated). Now what might be an even better idea is if they made a Benedict dish using the grilled polenta as the basis for it; with asparagus or sun-dried tomatoes that would easily have rated a 7.2 (or higher) on the Glen Bacon Scale.

For condimentary supplementation, Town's End has both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) and Cholula® Hot Sauce. I forewent any of the former (or latter) and just used some of my own Hula Girl Chipotle Habanero (Thanks, Jim!) on one of the eggs and on one of the polenta squares. Chipotle really seems to enhance a Hollandaise sauce (no matter the shade of yellow) and goes equally as well with corn.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Asparagus Benedict ~ 6.7; Basket of mini-muffins/scone ~ 7.0; Blueberry jam (even if it wasn't very blue-ish or purple-ish and fooled the likes of me) ~ 7.3

cafe barley

"What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow." ~ A.A. Milne (founder of that non-drinking club in America)

http://www.cafebarley.com/

(While this appears to be their official web-site, I honestly hope they are working on it as it is pretty useless as it is. It "barley" contains any pertinent information in it right now.)


Place: cafe barley
Location: 343 Clement Street (at 4th Avenue)
Hours: (?) open at 8:00am daily (?) (See? Here is where a working web-site with the hours of operation would come in very handy.)
Meal: Wild Mushroom Frittata ~ wild mushrooms, Burrata[1], basil, and Parmesan home fries with choice of Applewood smoked bacon or Canadian bacon; and a cuppa Sightglass Coffee

(Yeah, it's a pretty corny ~ or barley, even ~ song, but I was limited with available videos on EweToob about this particular grain.)


A few weeks back, when I last ate at Q Restaurant and Wine Bar, I passed by a new(ish) place on Clement Street called cafe barley. I was hoping to get a (very) early breakfastary repast out of the way this morning so that I would have time to write up this 'blog-entry and then head south to San Mateo for the big annual event… yup, it is Groundhog Day and Steve's birthday ("Happy Birthday, Spark!") once again! (Oh, and there is also some televised Football game going on this afternoon, I guess.) However, I checked several on-line sources (including cafe barley's own defacedbook page) and they all said that the restaurant opens at 7:00am every day of the week. Well… I got there at 7:30am, just to be on the safe side, only to find out that they do not actually open up until 8:00am (I don't know if that is just on the weekends or every day of the week). So, I ended up wasting a half-hour sitting in my car listening to the radio while it rained gently outside. One good thing about getting there that early is that I was just about the only idiot on the street and actually got a parking space right in front of the restaurant.

This is a brand new place (probably six months old or less… or is that "six months old or fewer"?). It used to be a dingy ol' Vietnamese sandwich and coffeeshop where dingy ol' Vietnamese guys would hang out all day in the front sidewalk patio area smoking cigarettes and such. I am happy to see that cafe barley kept the sidewalk patio area and that it has also been updated a bit. I almost sat out there this morning, as they have both overhead heaters and plastic screen covers for the windows; but, even so, it was still a bit too cold and breezy for me. It looks so much nicer inside now than it ever had in the past twenty years; sort of an upscale coffeehouse joint ("Dat broad has a lotta class!"). It does appear a bit smaller inside than it used to, but that can be attributed to the much larger kitchen area now. There is seating inside for just twenty people, but the outside patio area seats an additional twenty-eight people (weather, or whether, permitting).

Currently there are only eight items on the breakfast portion of the menu, and a couple of the other items also looked good to me: Vanilla Bean French Toast (served with diced maple-glazed Fuji apples, with choice of Applewood smoked bacon, Canadian bacon, Spanish chorizo, or grilled chicken breast); or Breakfast Sandwich (scrambled cage-free eggs with a choice of Applewood smoked bacon, Canadian bacon, Black Forest ham, Spanish chorizo, or grilled chicken breast on a croissant bun) ~ both of which I could always have ordered without the accompanying, offensive, dead, decaying animal flesh.

Of course I also ordered the frittata without any of the porky products; they were nice enough to substitute half of a sliced avocado for me instead. This was very good; however, I really couldn't detect very much Burrata and not a lot of wild mushrooms in it, but there were lots of red and green bell peppers in the frittata that weren't mentioned in the ingredients on the menu. This was not an awful lot of food, but what there was I found was very good; it's not as if I have a huge appetite, anyway. (For those with a larger appetite, I would suggest ordering a side of something else, or a pastry.) The homefries were extremely good, too, made with a good amount of real shredded Parmigiano (unlike yesterday's omelette with that powdered/grated stuff).

The cuppa Sightglass Coffee was absolutely HUGE and very good. I have had this local brand a few times before, but this morning it kept tasting better and better with each subsequent sip I took. I initially was thinking of rating it "just" a 7.0 on the Glen Bacon Scale, but kept upping the ante; I am just glad I finished it before it reached double digits as no Coffee is really that good (or, if it is, say "Hi!" to Jay-Cee and his buddies for me). 

https://sightglasscoffee.com/

cafe barley offers as condimentary supplements Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both the standard red, and green jalapeño) and Tapatío®. Those aren't bad choices, but I still used some of my own Nando's Extra Hot Peri-Peri Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on the frittata and Serious Food… Silly Prices Chunky Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on the potatoes.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Wild Mushroom Frittata ~ 6.8; Sightglass Coffee ~ 7.3


1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day:

"Burrata" means "buttered" in Italiano.

Again, the auto-spellchecker Nazi idiots at Microsoft do not recognize this word. Seriously, Billy-boy, you really need to eat out more often; Velveeta (which the auto-spellchecker had absolutely no problem with, of course) is not a real cheese!

Little Henry’s Restaurant/Italian Food

"I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them." 
~ Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

(No official web-site.)


Place: Little Henry's Restaurant/Italian Food
Location: 3600 Balboa Street (on the corner of 37th Avenue); phonicular contact: (415) 387-8761
Hours: open Monday-Friday at 10:30am, Saturday and Sunday 10:00am (however, their take-away menus just state 10:30am 7 days a week)
Meal: Fine Herb Omelette ~ three eggs - tomato, herbs, Parmigiano[1] and American cheese (comes with hash browns and toast); a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice; and (on the way there) a cuppa Simple Pleasures Cafe House Blend

(We really hate that Nancy person!)


I felt like keeping it local for breakfast this morning (and by "local" I mean very local, as in "within walking distance of my apartment local") so I sauntered over to Little Henry's Restaurant/Italian Food, which is only six blocks away. I write the name as such because the signage on the building (awnings and windows) reads "Little Henry's Italian Food", but the printed menu states "Little Henry's Restaurant". I'm sorry, but without an official web-site to correct me one way or the other, it will remain thus. I know I have eaten there before for lunch and/or dinner, but probably just once or twice in the past twenty-seven years that I have lived in this neighborhood; however, this was my first ever breakfastary adventure there. It's a strange little place. It is Asian family-owned, with Mexican cooks and servers, and they mainly make Italian food(?!). The available seating is six tables for four people, three tables for eight people, and one table for six people.

There is another Little Henry's Italian Food in San Francisco over on the corner of Larkin and Post Streets. That one is probably owned by the same family, as the on-line menu (the other place actually has a web-site; go figger?) is very similar to the printed take-away menu from the location that I ate at this morning.

On my way to Little Henry's (it's just easier this way) I had to pass by Simple Pleasures Cafe (see main 'blog-entry from March 15th, 2010) and, as I was running a little early anyway before Little Henry's opened up, I figured I might as well stop in there for a decent cuppa as I had no idea what the Coffee at Little Henry's might be like.

http://www.simplepleasurescoffee.com/

In addition to your standard Asian-owned/Mexican-cooked/Italian cuisine, Little Henry's has fourteen items on the Breakfast portion of their menu (hence, my reason for going there for breakfast this morning and not for a Chop Suey Burrito Marinara). There were a few other items on the menu that could have served my culinary apostasy from partaking of the dead, decaying animal flesh, such as: Provencale[2] Omelette (three eggs - mixed vegetables and Parmigiano cheese) or even Eggs Florentina [sic] (poached eggs and fresh spinach with Hollandaise sauce on an English muffin).

I really think the dish should be called "Fine Herbs Omelette" as I am sure there were more than just one type of herb used (which ones, though, I really couldn't detect). It was a decent enough omelette over all, but the best part was that they grilled/roasted the tomato slices before placing them inside the omelette; this added an extra .2 points on the Glen Bacon Scale for today. As for the Parmigiano cheese portion of the omelette, it was just the standard powdered/grated stuff that is in shakers like you would find in most Pizza joints (I really wasn't expecting any freshly sliced or grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, but that would have been great). My least favourite part was that there was way too much of the tasteless 'merican cheez stuff, but it is really not worth kvetching[3] about it. I know that the orange juice was extra freshly-squeezed, as I watched them actually make it for me; it was very good ~ extra pulpy and nice and frothy.

Little Henry's only provides Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) for condimentary supplementation. They do have shakers of crushed red pepper flakes and more grated Parmigiano (which I saw fit to use even more of on my omelette, mainly because it was there and I could). I ended up using some of my own Youk's Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) judiciously all over the omelette (it still couldn't mask the taste ~ or tastelessness ~ of that pseudo-cheezy product) and a little Dave's Gourmet® Ginger Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks, Jim!) on the hashbrowns.

An Afternoon with Rocky and His Masked Buddies ~ a zoological interlude

After eating, I decided to head over to my newest, bestest find in Golden Gate Park: Raccoon Island. I happened across this little gem of an urban isle just two days ago and I am sure I will probably head over there very often (well, until I am either attacked by one of the furry little bandits or the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department decides to relocate the animals for their own safety). The island is located in the little lagoon that is near Fulton Street where the cross-over drive from the Sunset passes John F. Kennedy Drive. The actual name of the pond/lagoon is North Lake (and the road is called Chain of Lakes Drive East), but I am sure no one ever calls it that.

Apparently, one of the little islands in the pond/lagoon/lake has recently become inhabited by a number of raccoons. I actually saw nine adolescent raccoons this afternoon, but in talking with some other people that mentioned that they go over there more often, they said that there are anywhere from fifteen to thirty of the (normally) nocturnal rodents residing there. 

I can not stress this enough. Yes, these are cute little fur-balls, but they are still wild animals and, as such, really need to be treated carefully and people should try to keep a safe distance between themselves and the animals. That being said, the other day when I first saw them on the island, I had no idea how many there were or how adapted to stupid humans they had become. I crept down to the shore (about fifteen feet from the island) and started taking pictures of them. No sooner had I knelt down to get some steady (well, steady enough for my shaky purposes) shots, than they started to swim across the inlet right towards me. I was soon surrounded by three to four of them (a couple more joined them a little later on, too). 

I later found out that people stop by there all the time and feed the animals and now the raccoons have no qualms about coming right up to humans to beg for food. Luckily, I had no food on me the other day and they just looked at me disappointedly and walked on. And by no means should people stop by to keep feeding the raccoons. That would include any bags of peanuts that I may or may not have had in my pockets this afternoon.

Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Fine Herb(s) Omelette ~ 6.0; Simple Pleasures Cafe House Blend ~ 7.0; Raccoon Island ~ 8.5

1. Of course, the correct Italiano spelling of this word was completely unrecognized by the Spell-check Nazis at Microsoft. 

Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, numero uno:

"Parmigiano" is simply the Italian adjective meaning "from Parma". The alternate word we use, "Parmesan", comes from the French name for it.

2. I think this was meant to be either the Italiano word "Provinciale" or more likely the French word "Provençal". Did I mention that it was an Asian-owned, Mexican-run, Italian restaurant?

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number two:

"Kvetch" is a Yiddish word of German origin. It comes from the German word "quetschen" (pronounced "kvetchen" kinda rhyming with "Gretchen") meaning "to squeeze/to press".