Hollywood Cafe

Goodbye, dead, decaying porky-butt bits,
Though I never knew you at all...

https://www.hollywoodcafesf.com/


Place: Hollywood Cafe

Location: 530 North Point Street
(coincidentally enough, near the corner of 
Taylor Street)

Hours: open everyday[ sic ] at 7:00am

Meal: Asparagus Eggs Benedict ~ bacon (which was edited out, Mr. DeMille ), asparagus & tomato, two poached eggs on English muffin, topped with our own Hollandaise sauce, served with hash browns (which I had upgraded to Hollywood Hash Browns ~ hash browns topped with bacon [sorry, these also did not see the final cut], mushroom, onion, bell pepper, basil flakes & melted Cheddar cheese); and to drink a glassa 100% Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

(There is no EweToobular juxtaselection with these songs and today's breakfast destination. Well, there is this bit of Cliff Clavinistic Hollywoodland factoid: Marilyn Monroe was once "the Asparagus Queen of 1944".[1])


While Hollywood Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 29th, 2017) is not technically a part of the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain of restaurants, I think that it is owned by the brother of the owner of TSCS-etc. So, I figured to make it the Compleat Package Tour, I might as well head back to their "cousin-restaurant", too. 

Their online menu states that they have been open "Since 1989"; however, I am not sure if that is with the current ownership or just that a restaurant called "Hollywood Cafe" has been at this same location since then. As best as I can figure (from yet still another truly extensive-and-intensive Intro-Net search [read: checking out yelp* for the earliest reviews again]), this restaurant was open at least as far back as January 2008; whereas, the original Taylor Street Coffee Shop predates it by a few years, opened since at least March 2005.

I had arrived just a little after 7:00am and there were still several empty tables inside, which was good 'cause it was still too early, too overcast/foggy, and wayyyy too chilly to sit outside comfortably at one of their sidewalk tables. (Let all the st*pid touristas that get up after 7:30am occupy those tables!) I had arrived so early that I even scored a legal and free (well, until 9:00am, at least, 'cause, even on Sundays, the parking meters run in this part of the city to be sure to get every last penny outta the st*pid touristas) parking spot directly across the street this morning. 

This being only my fourth trip to Hollywood Cafe in about an eight-year span, there are still a few other viable ideas left for st*pid vegetarian types:

Rancheros (as in "Huevos... ") ~ two eggs over-medium with homemade (well, café-made) tomato spicy sauce, avocado, Mozzarella cheese (???; I think auténtico queso fresco mexicano would be more natural here), corn chip (listed in the singularity on the menu, mind you, but I am sure they give you more than one), lettuce, drizzled homemade (whatever) cream cheese (I think they probably meant some type of sour cream, though);

Hash Burrito ~ scrambled eggs with hash browns, avocado, ham & cheese (well, just "... & cheese" for me), our own wasabi cream sauce (this sounds intriguing), wrapped in tortilla;

Veggie Sandwich ~ grilled mushroom, tomato, onion, avocado, bell pepper, cherry pepper, sprouts & Swiss cheese on whole wheat bread;

Vanilla French Toast ~ with homemade (you know the drill) vanilla-banana sauce garnished with whipped cream and almonds;

or 

Dolce French Toast ~ topped with fried banana, mixed berries & candied walnut (once again, listed as a singular item on the menu, but I bet you get at least two whole walnut pieces) with whipped cream.

Additionally (and especially), for those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying porky-butt bits, they offer something similar to the Taylor Street Coffee Shop-family mini-chain's Millionaire's Bacon®, which they simply call Sweet Bacon (and do not feel the need to "®"-ise or "™"-ise it) ~ glazed with maple syrup, fresh orange juice, brown sugar & Grand Marnier®. I did not see it as a side dish on any of the neighboring tables, so I am not sure if it is the same thick-cut style. However, it is much cheaper ($6.99 for four slices) than the Millionaire's Bacon® (listed on their different menus from $7.50 to $9.00 for just two slices [yes, you read that correctly; hence the "Millionaire's" moniker]; smoked tofu ain't never cost that much).

They also have an interesting-sounding Korean breakfast/health drink listed that I have never heard of or tried before: Misugaru[2] Legume Latte ~ homemade (again, café-made) multigrain drink with steamed soymilk & honey. I wanted to keep it simple this morning, so I chickened-out (or, as is the case with being a st*pid vegetarian, I "Tofurky®-ed-out"). Next time, perhaps.

There was nothing extremely special about this version of ol' Benny's eggs on English muffins, but any time asparagus is included in a dish, it is a given that I will automatically like it. This was made with fresh, sautéed asparagus, not frozen, too. 

The Hollywood-ised hashbrowns was (were?) definitely the way to go. I probably coulda made a whole meal outta a side order of those with some toast and an egg over-medium atop the heap. Thankfully, I am not a fungophobe as there were more mushrooms than most of the other ingredients. (Can you imagine being a st*pid vegetarian that does not like mushrooms? That would be almost as bad as not liking br*ccoli... ) Now if they only had an option to also add some diced-up, fresh, sautéed asparagus to the mess, they could call it Millionaire's Hash Browns® and make a real killing...

Hollywood Cafe offered both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce and Greeñ Jalapeño Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce Original for use in the way of any condimentary supplements. I used some of my own H*ll's Kitchen Sriracha Chili Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) all over the hash-stuff and some Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on top of both poached eggs (I made sure to taste the Hollandaise sauce first; it was okay, but it didn't hurt any to have it spiced-up some). I also used some more sprinklings of my McCormick® Grill Mates® Smokehouse Maple Seasoning all over both the potato-mess and the egg-piles (the flavours might not exactly have been a match, but I bought the d*rn thing, so I am gonna use the d*rn thing).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Asparagus Eggs Benedict ~ 6.6;
Hollywood Hash Browns ~ 6.9

___________________

1. Nah, not really. But Marilyn Monroe was crowned "Artichoke Queen of 1948" in Castroville ("the Artichoke Heart of the World"), Callie-for-nee-ya.

https://artichokefestival.org/about-festival/

2. This is not some kinda unattainable training exercise for Starfleet Academy cadets. I asked.

https://mykoreankitchen.com/korean-multigrain-shakes-misutgaru/