Royal Ground Coffee

Richmond (District) Coffeehouses 
~ Chapter Six

(and also Breakfast on Geary [redux], 
Part XXIII)

http://www.royalgroundcoffee.net/


Place: Royal Ground Coffee 
Location: 5301 Geary Boulevard (on the corner of 17th Avenue)
Hours: open at 6:30am daily
Meal: Egg & Cheese Bagel; an apricot-raspberry scone; and a medium cuppa Cafe Borgia  

(Same as yesterday: Monday still happens to be the 70th birthday of one Sir George Ivan Morrison, OBE. So, I am sticking with his music for this weekend.

"Sir"? Yes, sir!

I am including the last cover of one of his songs by Marianne as I think she really does it justice… faithfully.)


Continuing along with my Richmond (District) Coffeehouses series, I went to Royal Ground Coffee. They are a local Bay Area mini-chain of "non-corporate" coffeehouses. There are twelve in all thus far, and three of them happen to be located in my general vicinity (and all three of which I have been to at least a few times in the past). To the best of my recollection, today's specific shop has been open now for at least twenty years (or more). This one is also within walking distance of my apartment (that is, if you don't mind walking the fifteen blocks both ways, there and back). 

It is a medium-sized coffeehouse with fifteen tables for two (which can always be combined into tables for four, of course). Additionally, there are two comfortable-looking, large, stuffed sofas and two rattan beach-style chairs (positioned around an indoor water-fountain thing). My table (and several others) had a cool Coffee-cup design painted on it.

As with most coffeehouses, there really aren't that many items from which to choose for a breakfastary meal, but I figured on all that ahead of time. A couple of other ideas (for stupid vegetarians and dead, decaying meat-fleshatarians alike) were: Veggie Bagel (cream cheese, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, & capers) or perhaps some kinda Croissant'wich (I am not quite sure that name has been legally approved with Burger King®, but that was exactly how they had it listed on the menu).

Like many coffeehouses, there is really no kitchen/stove in/on which to cook stuff, and they have to rely on a microwave or a toaster-oven to prepare everything. I am not a big fan of "nukular" foods (much like them thar new-fangled mobular telephonic devices, I do not own, nor have I ever owned, a microwaving oven), but one must make do with which they have to offer. This was also made with boring, plain ol' 'merican cheese; I probably mighta shoulda asked for either Swiss or Cheddar (both of which I noticed that they offered after I had already started eating it). I went with a basic sesame bagel for the base; they did offer several other choices (but even I wouldn't have liked this made with a cinnamon-raisin bagel… well, maybe not).

Their version of a Cafe Borgia (Eh?! Why-a-no "Caffè Borgia", Lucrezia?) was basically a Mocha made with orange syrup added to it; it was a little (well, a lot) on the sweet side for my liking. The first time I ever had a Cafe Borgia (o Caffè Borgia) at Simple Pleasures Cafe, it was made with a whole fresh orange quarter ("a whole quarter"?) on the bottom of the glass; I much preferred that (less sweet) version; plus, when you did get to the bottom, you got to suck on/eat the orange quarter that had soaked up the Coffee-Chocolate flavours (and, okay, you got to do that orange-smile Godfather thing to scare any nosy
little kids around). I mainly went with the Cafe Borgia 
(o Caffè Borgia) because they offered it on the "Coffee & Espresso Drinks" section of their menu, and, apropos-iatley, I had just mentioned it in yesterday's 'blog-entry. They listed a "Cafe Flore" on the menu; I have no idea what that might entail (a quick Intro-Net search was not to much avail either). And they had also listed one called a "Keith Richard". (Now, just what the heck is that supposed to be, do ya think?! Is there actually a "heroin-flavoured" syrup?) 

Once again, I didn't bother to find out what they may have had to offer in the way of condimentary supplements. I simply went with some (well, about a good ketchup-portion amount) of my own 
Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) all over the nuked-scrambled eggs stuff.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Egg & Cheese Bagel ~ 5.9 (this probably would have been a 6.0 or 6.1 with "real" cheese on it); Cafe Borgia (o Caffè Borgia) ~ 6.3; apricot-raspberry scone ~ 6.4