Place: Madhouse Coffee Location: 402 Visitacion Avenue, Brisbane, CA; phonicular contact: (415) 467-4003 Hours: open Monday - Friday at 5:30am, Saturday & Sunday at 6:30am Meal: Chile Verde Burrito ~ scrambled eggs, (some kinda) green chilies, and potatoes (there may have been another ingredient or two in it, but I did not remember to write them down); and, to drink, a medium (which really was more of a Large, if you ask me; and if I had ordered their Large, I may not have gotten any sleep the rest of the week) cuppa Madhouse CoffeePeru (Medium-Dark Roast), made in the single cuppa pour-over style https://www.mclaughlincoffee.com/collections/products/products/peru-organic
(Yeah, I know I coulda also used Madness' "Our House", but I always felt that one was a bit too poppish for my liking.) As crazy as it may sound, I used to stop by Madhouse Coffee at least once a week several years ago when I was still working in Brisbane proper (2005-2012), mostly just for a cuppa on my way to work, but every so often also for a quick breakfast before work.
The sleepy little hamlet of Bedlam... er... I mean, Brisbane is located immediately south of San Francisco along the western shore of the San Francisco Bay. It is just a stones-throw (or name-calling distance) from where the old Candlestick Park ballpark was once located. It has boundaries to its south with South San Francisco and to its west (over San Bruno Mountain [hill, really]) with Daly City.
One really cool thing about this small town is that, somewhere along the line, someone started painting some of the fire hydrants in town. There are several working fire hydrants that are now pieces of art. Additionally, there is one little corner park dedicated to several non-working plugs, too.
Madhouse Coffee is just your standard coffeehouse, but it is the main one in Brisbane. Seating-wise, inside there are eight small tables that can seat two to four people each. Now, outside, there is a much more spacious three-tiered garden seating area with another eight tables for two to four people, too. There really are not a lot of items that are offered in the way of breakfast. They do offer a number of sandwiches and the like throughout the day. A few other ideas for breakfast would be bagel breakfast sandwiches. They have a few different items that can be requested, like scrambled (well, nuked, actually) eggs and maybe a "veggie" sausage; plus, they have the requisite cream cheese and also hummus. (However, the bagels and pastries had not been delivered yet this morning when I had arrived a little after 7:30am; otherwise, I might have gone with an egg-"veggie" sausage-bagel sandwich combination. The delivery guys did finally show up just before I had finished eating, though.)
Like many small, family-owned coffeehouses, a lotta the food is already prepared (there were three or four different types of wrapped burritos from which to choose; I did not remember to get the local brand name, though) and displayed in a front counter refrigerated case, and only needs to be reheated. My burrito was tasty enough, even if it was not freshly made for me. The barista/counter-person guy told me that their Coffee is provided to them by McLaughlin Coffee Roasting Company (local guys outta Emeryville... well, for now, until they are either swallowed up by those bastages at St*rbucks or the almost equally greedy folks at JAB Holding Company/Peet's/Keurig Dr Pepper). They do offer two other pour-over options: Italian (Dark Roast) and Island (Medium Roast). I did not ask what they might have to offer in the way of any condimentary supplementation. Once again, I just used some more of my own Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) all over the burrito. I left my Coffee unscathed by any hot sauce, though.
(Here is a little Cliff Clavinistic fact: Paul Simon happens to be a HUGE doughnut fan, but Art Garfunkel can not stand them. There would normally be powdered sugar all over the recording studio and Art would occasionally storm out fuming. This was one of the main reasons that they parted ways in the early 70's. You can look it up yerd*mnself if'n you don't believe me!)
(not really such a) Strange Doughnut Interlude The newest and nearest Dunkin'Donuts® in the Bay Area (and, yeah, I am well-aware that their current corporate name is simply "Dunkin'®", but that just sounds rather silly to me) opened up in South San Francisco back in late January 2017. Today was my initial visit and it was totally a premeditated one. Knowing that I was going to be in the area, anyway, I finally was able to use a freebie $5.00 gift-card that I had received back during Christmas vacation while waiting in line for Cirque du Soleil in St. Petersburg (the one in Florida, not the lesser-known village in Russia). Using the entire $5.00-balance, I was able to purchase a small cuppa Original Blend (which is a bit of a [too] Light Roast for me) and three doughnuts: one Boston Kreme (which I ate there with the Coffee ~ I did not really need another cuppa that soon after breakfast, but it was "free", so I was not going to pass it by), one Jelly (good luck trying to determine exactly which fruit flavour is used in this one; is "red" a fruit?), and one Bavarian Kreme (the latter two I will eat later today/tonight). (Do I really need to provide an Intro-Net link to Dunkin'Donuts® web-site?!) Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chile Verde Burrito ~ 6.5; Madhouse CoffeePeru ~ 6.9; Dunkin'Donuts®Original Blend ~ 5.8 (and I am being very generous with this rating); Boston Kreme doughnut ~ 6.0 (just barely; I grew up on these "fat-pills" and still enjoy 'em whenever I am Back East, but they are really wayyyyy too sweet for me now) ___________________
1. The thriving megalopolis of Brisbane, California was actually named after the much smaller town in Queensland, Aussie-Aussie-Aussie-land. https://brisbaneca.org/ (hahaha! I find it very humourous that they actually call Brisbane "the 'City' of the Stars". How many "Cities" do you know that have a population under 5,000?!)
Breakfast on Geary (redux), Part 1C (or "The yolks on them!")
http://www.dailygrill.com/locations/daily-grill-san-francisco-california/ Place: Daily Grill® Location: 347 Geary Street (between Powell and Mason Streets) Hours: open for breakfast (however, they have it listed as "Brunch" in their on-line menu) at 7:00am Sunday - Saturday Meal: Egg WhiteOmelette~ mushrooms, tomato and scallions, served with avocado-tomato salsa and sliced tomato (where I had them substitute some Breakfast Potatoes ~ aka homefries ~ in place of the tomato slices; even I can slice my own tomatoes at home); and a large(-ish) glassa grapefruit juice
(I do not know if Katie Melua[1] is a fan of egg-white omelettes or not, they just happened to be playing one of her songs [not this one, though] on the house-stereo this morning during breakfast and I felt like sharing one here.) Because it is only a few blocks (well, many blocks ~ about six miles worth) straight down the road from my apartment, I went back to Daily Grill® (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, October 22nd, 2016) for breakfast this morning. I like that for a Union Square-area restaurant they open up pretty early every day of the week. There are still a few other ideas on their ("Brunch") menu that I would like to get back to try (in another two to three years, probably, at this rate): Texas French Toast ~ thick slices of bread, dipped in cinnamon batter, dusted with powdered sugar (however, I am not sure if there is really a town or city named "Texas" in France[2]); Three Egg Omelette~ additional items: bell peppers, mushrooms, ham (not for me, but for any of you dead, decaying meatetarians), onions, bacon (again... ), tomato, spinach, Cheddar, Bleu, Mozzarella, Swiss cheese, or avocado; served with Breakfast Potatoes, sliced tomatoes or fresh fruit; Eggs Benedict ~ two poached eggs on grilled Canadian bacon (which I would have 86-ed, of course, you hoser) and toasted English muffin, topped with homemade Hollandaise sauce; or Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes ~ three pancakes filled with blueberries, served with maple syrup, topped with powdered sugar.
I do not think that I have ever had an all egg-white omelette before (or, if I have, I do not remember when), so I do not have anything with which to compare this. I liked it well enough and enjoyed the inside-ingredients. It probably could have used some cheesy element inside, too, though. I figure Swiss cheese would have been a good complement. The best part of this dish was the avocado-tomato salsa; it was pretty simple, but very good. For some reason, I again received three halves of toast (I went with the whole wheat choice); it must be some kinda half-conspiracy against me. I really did not bother to ask what Daily Grill® might have to offer in the way of condimentary supplementation. Once again (in a seemingly never-ending effort to use up another bottle from my hot sauce collection ~ I probably have at least three to four more doses left in this one at this rate), I used some more of my own Hot Licks®SerranoHot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the homefries and some Old St. Augustine Snake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the omelette. Strange (Canine) Interlude On my way back to the bus stop after breakfast, I met a dog named "Flea" (I forgot to get his human partner's name, but I gave him a buck, anyway), which I thought was a very cool dog-name (not quite as cool as "Peeve" or "Front", but still... ). Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Egg White Omelette~ 6.4 (this is with adding 0.2 GBS points for their extremely tasty avocado-tomato salsa) ___________________
1. It is such a d*rn shame that Katie Melua is so unattractive... http://katiemelua.com/ 2. However, I was surprised to find that there is a town called Texas in Australia (the one "Down Under", not the one nach untenDeutschland, Marcus). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas,_Queensland
I happened to notice that this entry is my 100th post in this stupid li'l 'blog. So it seems fitting that I went to one of my favourite (and historical) places for breakfast this morning. This was my first visit to The Bistro Restaurant @ Cliff House for the year (see my last post from Saturday, December 11th, 2010). I really love their Popovers(!), but have to disagree with the whole name of "Bistro Restaurant"; that just seems kinda redundant to me, and it says the same thing all over again even. I sat at a table with a large picture window overlooking Ocean Beach. There was a great view as the Sun was out and the heavy fog that we have had for the past few days has decided to take a holiday to London; there were a few surfers out braving the waves and coldish weather on Ocean Beach this morning.
After breakfast I took a short hike down to Sutro Baths ruins (Jim, this was the same place we went to in July, where you got the cool video of the mother osprey teaching her young how to hunt/catch food). Sorry, Jim, this doesn't really count as a cross-'blog entry as it was less than a mile there and back, and I don't have one of those nifty hiking watches like you do. I am pretty sure the altitude went from sea level to a little above sea level. Per my standard watch, I am sure that the time was close to 10:20am, on a Saturday in January. I can't be any more specific than that as the calendar date part of my watch is not synched with the rest of the dials. I was given this really nice watch last year for Christmas by some friends (Thanks, Cindy and Greg!) which they had bought in Russia during a Volga River cruise. Unfortunately, all of the instructions are in Russian and are a bit confusing (and just in case you think I'm a terrible cunning linguist, it has been over twenty-four years since I last had to pretend to be a русский шпион; plus, I asked one of my native Russian neighbors for help, and he even said the instructions don't make much sense). Hey, I did get three out of four of the dials synchronized correctly; that is good enough for this дурак.
I was going to write a short history about Sutro Baths, but I am a bit lazy, and what good is the Intro-Net if you can’t "borrow" from it once in a while. This is from Wikipedia:
Now, the main reason I keep going back to the Bistro @ Cliff House (I have decided to forego the additional Restaurant part of their name here to save on typing… but, having just typed this parenthetical sentence, I guess it would have been easier to have included it after all) is for their most excellent Popovers(!). Their egg breakfasts are all very good, too, but I can get those at any other bistro-restaurants. They brought me a record five (5!!!) Popovers(!) today; three are always more than sufficient for me, but I did "force" myself to eat four of them. With the first one, as is my habit, I put some (well, a lot) of butter on it while it was still warm and fresh outta the oven and added large dollops of orange marmalade, Lady (sorry, no mocha chocolata ya-ya was available)... 'cause that is just how I Popover(!).
I ordered the Classic Eggs Benedict ~ it was decent enough, but nothing extraordinary (see my post from July 31st, 2010 for an excellent take on the Benedict family, Arnold). Of course, as I had it without the ham/Canadian bacon, it really couldn't be considered very classical. The fresh fruits with it today were watermelon*, cantaloupe*, honeydew melon*, pineapple*, and grapes*.
I went with some fresh, cracked black peppercorn (from my portable McCormick® grinder) on everything ~ and, yes, even on the melons (actually, especially on the melons, as this has a great flavour combination). And I did something new for a change instead of adding hot sauces on the eggs and potatoes. For Christmas I was given several bottles/jars of spices (Thanks again, Cindy and Greg!); however, if you know me and how much I hate to actually cook, this would be like giving Mel Gibson a non-alcoholic beer… or a copy of the Torah. Well, I brought a particularly interesting spice jar with me: DASH Slíce Chilli** Dukkah*** ~ "A slice of chilli crushed with premium nuts and spices giving a tasty tang to our Australian dukkah." This one was made of: Hazelnuts, Almonds, Cashews, Peanuts, Sesame seeds, Corriander**** seeds, Cummin***** seeds, Chilli, Turmeric, Papprika******, Salt & Pepper. I used this generously on top of the Hollandaise sauce on the poached eggs; the Hollandaise sauce was fine as it was, I suppose, but they never really have that much flavour, anyway.
On the wall next to/above my table today were these Hollywoodland photos (top to bottom, left to right):
Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom; ??? ???; ??? (possible name of June C…)
??? (w/dogs); ??? William Powell; Claudette Colbert
Leonard Franklin Slye; Mary Martin (Interestingly enough, this is one publicity photo of Roy Rogers without a cowboy hat on. They were pretty rare.) Marlene Dietrich; Wallace Beery ??? (possible initials "LV")
Most of the names/signatures were either too faded or too high up on the wall to read; someone at the restaurant-bistro really needs to chronicle this collection (I asked one of the older servers there for help and he could only identify Slapsie Maxie for me). Again, anyone that can help with identifying these "???" individuals will get my eternal gratitude and a free breakfast of your choice at Dottie's TRUE BLUE CAFE.
*(Useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: I knew that in Spanish watermelon is "sandía" and cantaloupe is "melón". One day, I was at a local taquería and they had a fresh honeydew melon juice drink. I asked the Mexican guy at the counter what is the word for "honeydew melon" in Spanish. He really didn't know; he said maybe it's just "melón verde", which simple means "green melon". Muchas gracias, dude.
By the way, the word for pineapple in Spanish is "piña", but a lot of people probably already know this.
I have no idea what the Spanish word for grape is; I never really order grape juice.)
**(This would be the Britishlander/Aussie-Aussie-Aussie spelling for chili pepper. This is not really a useless cunning linguist pointer as, technically, we all sorta speak the same language, mate.)
***(Useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, part too: A dukkah, or alternate spellings duqqa or dukka, is an Egyptian side dish consisting of a mixture or nuts, herbs, and spices. Dukkah in Arabic means "to pound", as that is how the mixture is usually prepared. This appetizer is usually served in a little plate or bowl along with some good olive oil and bread. The idea is to dip some bread in the oil and then in the dry mixture. It is really pretty tasty. There is a local Lebanese/Turkish place that I go to that has a great version made with sumac.)
****(sic. This was the actual spelling on the jar. I could not really locate this alternate spelling anywhere on-line, though. So, I am just assuming it's actually "coriander" and not some kinda Aussie-Aussie-Aussie aboriginal hallucinogenic herb.)
*****(sic. See above Aussie-Aussie-Aussie spelling explanation.
Hmmm? Maybe I ought to reconsider these as cunning linguist pointers after all.)
******(Okay, they really didn't spell it this way, but they had added the extra consonants to all the other words, Mr. Dundee.)
