Cafe Mason

Because कर्म[1] is such a b*tch, you have to try to fool her once in a while...

http://www.cafemasonsf.com/


Place: Cafe Mason

Location: 320 Mason Street 
(between Geary and O'Farrell Streets)

Hours: your guess is as good as mine... possibly open 24 hours(???) every day of the week(???); they call their early morning meal "Brunch" on their menu, but I have eaten there as early as 6:30 (that would be of the ante meridiem mode), so they can be forgiven for that snootified moniker

Meal: California Omelette ~ tomato, Jack cheese, cilantro & fresh herbs, where I Deluxe-d it and had avocado added (for an additional $1.50 extra), all omelettes and open face omelettes (frittatas) come with a choice of: hashbrowns, fresh fruit, or roasted tomato with herbs, and a choice of toast (nine grain, white, rye, English muffin, or sour dough); and to drink, a cuppa (with one-and-a-halfa refillas) Sunrise Coffee Company, Ltd - House Blend

https://www.sunrisecoffee.net/

(For the record [vinyl only, of course], I would never be one to call Boy George "a 'man' with-or-without conviction"... )


Okay, so, I made a poor homeless guy (whose name is Andrew) cry this morning... and I am not gonna apologize for it in the least! Mainly because it was not out of any direct effrontery or abject meanness on my part, but due to simple human-kindness. (I like to perform random acts of kindness every once in a while to offset my normal bastagery. It always keeps 'em guessing.) And all I did was simply ask Andrew (and, by doing so, simply acknowledge his existence, which seemed to him to be the most important thing):

"So, how are you doin' today?" 

After enjoying breakfast, while wandering around Union Square area, I had stopped in front of Bartlett Hall to check out the breakfastary menu in their front window to see if it would be worth-my-while to visit them for breakfast some other morning. (It turns out that there are not a lot of items from which to choose, and less-so for stupid vegetarians. However, they do offer Chilaquiles ~ with a tomatillo salsa ~ and that might merit a visit.) I was trying to mind my own business, but I overheard Andrew asking for some money from a couple of tourista-types that were passing by. They ignored his request and brusquely brushed past him. At that point, Andrew went all Joseph Merrick on them for completely ignoring him as if he did not even exist. So, I just turned around and asked him how he was doing. After the silent rebuke of them d*mn touristas, he seemed flabbergasted at any other human-bean recognizing him as one, too. He was literally so choked up that it took him a good minute or so just to get out his name after I introduced myself.

I felt so bad for making him break-down on the street that I offered to buy him a sandwich at a nearby Subway® shop. (Andrew suggested the Subway® 
shop himself, because he told me that he ate there often.) After buying Andrew the 12" sandwich combo 
(of course, it was Andrew himself that had graciously decided to throw that in for me... ) which comes with chips and a drink, I also left him with another fiver for later in the day.

Anyway, back to the breakfast portion of this silly li'l 'blog-thing (it is called "Breakfast at Epiphany's", not "Stupid Heartfelt Charities at Epiphany's", after all)...

I went back to Cafe Mason (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, February 10th, 2018) for breakfast again this morning. This is why it is always important to have a viable back-up plan up your sleeve. One of these days, cafe bean may very well be open again when I stop by (however, they were not at 7:46 this particular a.m.), but until that day I am making sure to always be prepared just like the Girl Scouts motto says. As it was still a little before eight o'clock when I arrived there, I was able to score the cool two-seater mini-booth again this morning. (See? Instant Karma's gonna get you... just add water.)

One of the things that I really like about this joint (other than always getting a decent meal) is that they seem a bit on the international side. Not only are most of the waiters/waitresses-server persons normally from other countries, but the restaurant always seem to attract customers from all over the World. There were vier deutsche Frauen at the booth on one side of me and two Arab(-ish?) guys in the booth on the other side of me.

Having eaten there several times now, I am running out of new ideas to eat. However, I still want to try the Spinach Crépes[ sic ] ~ homemade (restaurant-made, whatever) cream spinach soufflé topped with cheese and Mornay sauce. Additionally, they list Fresh Homemade Pumpkin Pancakes (3pc) on the on-line "Brunch" menu, but I did not see it listed anywhere on the printed menu; I will have to ask if it is still available on a future visit.

This was another very well prepared omelette dish, where the eggy-stuff was nice and fluffy (which I can never seem to get right at home). The added avocado was definitely the way to go and worth the Deluxe-ification option.

My Mexican waiter-server person-guy (named Pily) pointing out the two slices of avocado displayed on top of the omelette: "There is more avocado inside... ". 

He was not lying. I peaked inside and there had to be a whole 'nother halfa avocado sliced/fanned-out inside.

I went with the side options of hashbrowns and sourdough toast. After ordering and receiving the meal, I think what I probably shoulda done was get the side of fruits and ordered an additional side of hashbrowns. It might have been a bit of an overkill for my appetite, but they usually do a good job on the fresh fruit junk. I really do miss their version of homefries, though; they were excellent and one of my favourites in the city.

Looking around, I saw that Cafe Mason now has the Standard San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces (Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce [Original Red Sauce], Cholula® Hot Sauce [Original], and Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce); however, Pily only offered me a bottle of the plain ol' Tabasco® 
stuff) for condimentary supplementation. None of which would really have mattered, as I had come fully prepared with a few from my own collection and used some Sunbelt Plantations Vidalia®Onion & Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy! [There is maybe one dosage left in that bottle now.]) on top of the omelette and some Dragon's Lair Extra Hot Cayenne & Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the potatoes.

(Another not so) Strange Coffee Interlude

After three years-plus of eating there, I finally asked which brand of Coffee they serve at Cafe Mason. 
Pily informed me that they serve Sunrise Coffee Company, Ltd - House Blend. I was not familiar with this Washington- (the State, not the D.C.) based Coffee company. I know that I have enjoyed several cuppas over the years, though. Even if I hadn't enjoyed the flavour of the Coffee, free refillas are still free Coffee!

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

On my way over to Cafe Mason from yet still another denied return-visit to cafe bean, when I was crossing Post Street at the corner of Mason Street, I heard a few of the cackling feather-brains, but when I looked up, I actually saw none. They must have been too high up atop one of the surrounding hotels.


... and, trust me, our Ms. कर्म ain't no tiny 
little Chameleon, she is a full-blown Tyrannosaurus Rex (or Regina, I suppose).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
California Omelette ~ 6.7;
Sunrise Coffee Company, Ltd - House Blend ~ 6.9;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5

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1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:

For those of you that still can not read Sanskrit, "कर्म" is transliterated into English-speak as "Karma".