http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBx6mAWYPU
http://www.lezinc.com/
Le ZiNC is a French Bistro/Wine Bar over in Noe Valley, right along "Main Street Noe Valley" ~ 24th Street (between Castro and Noe). Apparently, "zinc" is another term for a café or bistro in Paris; the name is derived from the pewter bar tops which became a trademark of those establishments. Although this is technically a "Brunch" place (as stated in their menu), I cut them some slack because they open up early enough for my liking (9:30am).
They have a very nice backyard patio space (with a lemon tree and a fig tree ~ both fruit-bearing even) that has several tables; however, it was still wet out there from the earlier morning rain, so I opted to sit inside for a change. Although it was sunny and warm enough to have sat outside otherwise this morning if the tables and seats had been dry. And this was another one of those embarrassingly nice restaurants that had their bathroom decorated nicer than my apartment (and it was almost as large) with many nice photos and artwork, and one pretty cool (?pewter?) coat-hook that was in the shape of a cat (your coat/hat would hang on its tail).
I had the Vegetable 'Brik' ~ crispy Moroccan crêpe with Feta, red bell peppers, niçoise olives, and tomato. As best as I can discern, a brik is an interesting North African pastry dish made with a thin pastry shell very similar to Greek phyllo dough. The Vegetable 'Brik' has no eggs in it; whereas, their Egg 'Brik' has ham in it, so I couldn't try that one.
My one major complaint (une plainte majeure): les niçoise olives* seemed to me to be just the plain ol' canned, sliced black olive variety; this was really very disappointing. I suppose the cans could very well have been imported from Nice, but that would be like going to Edinburgh and buying a bottle of Jim Beam and calling it "the finest Single malt Scotch whisky". The olives were really rather plain and tasteless; this would have been soooooo much better avec olives de Nice authentique.
There were some pluses, too: it did have lots and lots of Feta and roasted red peppers in it, which is always a nice combination (it was just a shame about les olives, Popeye). I did not ask for (nor bring any of my own) hot sauces, but the meal was pretty tasty as it was with a spicy harissa coulis encircling the brik. And they do have small pepper mills on each table, which is always nice.
I also found it odd that a French café does not really have any "regular" style coffee on their menu; the closest would probably be the Café Americano. So, I ordered un café (not "bistro", nor "zinc") Viennois ~ which comes avec crème Chantilly (which would actually be called Schlagsahne in Vien); it was sprinkled with some chocolate and spices and was okay enough, but I have never been to Vienna (nor Vien, nor Vienne even), so I really have nothing to which to compare it.
I also ordered a glass of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice (jus de pamplemousse). It was very good grapefruit juice ~ Pink or Ruby Red? ~ but was served in just a wine glass (granted a large wine glass, but that is still pretty small for a juice glass).
I have had their Eggs 'Aurore' in the past; that was a much better dish than today's and was one of the reasons I went back to try a different breakfast. I have not tried their "French Toast" yet (again, as this is an "authentic" Frenchified bistro/café/zinc, why don't they call it "Pain Perdu"?); it looked like a good choice and I may have to go back again to try it one of these days. They did not show any side orders of potatoes available on the menu; I would like to have tried them as I seem to remember them being decent.
All in all, everything was très bien.**
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Vegetable 'Brik' ~ 6.4; (Café) Viennois ~ 6.3; Jus de Pamplemousse ~ 6.7
*(Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:
The word for "olives" in French is "olives"; the "niçoise" we have already borrowed from the French to specify "from Nice".)
**(This does not mean "Cool Beans!" in French, Luke.)
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