Ella's

Neo Classical American Cooking


http://www.ellassanfrancisco.com/


This was my first visit this year back to Ella's over on California Street in Laurel Heights* (for my last visit, see August 29th, 2010 entry). I still have no idea who this "Ella" person is, but she makes some damn fine food.

Their weekend Brunch menu changes weekly and always has some nice choices. I liked the sound of the "Open faced omelette with pasilla pulled pork, tomato corn relish, chipotle crema and jack" (without the piggy portion, of course), but I went with the "Potato scramble with assorted grilled vegetables and feta" (with two scrambled eggs added to the mess). The roasted vegetables today were: red peppers, red onions, corn, zucchini, carrots, and green beans. There were no really exotic ingredients (e.g. kale, pea sprouts, fennel, etc.) in today's scramble, but corn and feta are always a good tie-breaker for me when deciding on a meal; and they use fresh corn off the cob, not the frozen kernels.

As I have stated in the past, they make all of their own baked goods (breads and pastries) fresh daily. I had their honey-oat-raisin bread for toast again. It's very good, so why mess with it? Maybe one of these days I will try another of their breads; I have had their buttermilk biscuits in the past and have liked them, too.




I also had a glass of the Ginger Orange Juice Punch ~ today it was made with (in season) blood oranges (which gives it the appearance of ruby red grapefruit juice) ~ and a cuppa coffee.




They only have the standard red and Jalapeño Tabasco® varieties of hot sauces; knowing this, I came prepared with my own Trees Can't Dance ~ Tree Fire Sauce (Medium Hot) (Thanks again, Greg and Cindy!) and Roland® Piri Piri with Lemon, and I put a little of each on different halves of the pile.

This was another "neo classical" winner for breakfast; any meal centered around potatoes is always good with me (after all, Fish & Chips without the chips would just be some greasy fish wrapped in old newspaper).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Potato Scramble ~ 6.9; Ginger O.J. Punch ~ 7.2


*(I have no idea who this "Laurel" person is either, but according to Wikipedia:

"Laurel Heights is a neighborhood to the south of the Presidio and east of the Richmond District. It is bordered by Geary Boulevard or the University of San Francisco campus to the south, Arguello Boulevard to the west, California Street to the north and Presidio Avenue to the east. The Laurel Village shopping center is located on California between Laurel and Spruce, the California Pacific Medical Center is on California between Arguello and Maple, and a UCSF campus is located in the north eastern corner of the neighborhood."

As far as I know, there is no "Hardy-Ashbury" neighborhood in San Francisco, though.)