(No official web-site currently available.) Place: {Bernal St*r} Location: 410 Cortland Avenue (between Andover and Bennington Streets); phonicular contact: (415) 695-8777 Hours: open for "Brunch" Monday - Friday at 10:00am, Saturday & Sunday at 9:00am Meal: Chilaquiles ~ two eggs, fried tortillas, guacamole, ranchero sauce, queso fresco, crema; to drink with the meal, a large glassa fresh squeezed orange juice; and, beforehand, for a pre-breakfast snack, a Blueberry-Pecan Tart and a small (12 oz) cuppa four barrel (a Medium Roast; I did not really catch which specific roast/blend it was, though) at Little Bee Baking
Once again, I sat outside in their backyard-patio seating area (which is located between the main restaurant and their "Cottage" seating area). This is really the way to go for breakfast (or "Brunch" even). The weather was comfortable enough and I had a coat on, but barely needed it, anyway. It looks like they have changed their "Brunch" menu somewhat since the last time I ate there. I noticed a few other good ideas if I ever get back that way again (let's see if I can do so before the year 2025): Eggs California ~ poached eggs, tomato, guacamole, Hollandaise, roasted potatoes (I can only figure that this is some version of Eggs Benedict; this dish was going to be my back-up plan if needed); Veggie Scramble~ spinach, portobello mushrooms, caramelized onion, Mozzarella, roasted potatoes; Eggs & Plantains~ guacamole, black beans, crema; or possibly Beignets ~ house-made French style doughnuts served w/ fresh fruit, housemade (not hyphenated here for some reason) jam (if I ordered this, I would probably have to have supplemented it with a side order of roasted potatoes, or maybe some of their fried Artichoke Hearts ~ which are Anchor Beer- battered). Additionally, for any of you meatetarians, they offer {Bernal St*r}Omelet ~ wild boar sausage, mushrooms, caramelized onions, spinach, Mozzarella, roasted potatoes.
They give you the option of how you would like your two eggs prepared. Most chilaquiles dishes that I have had (and I have had it many, many times over the years) usually just have the eggs scrambled in with the tortilla chips and sauce. So, for a change, I went with my eggs over-medium this morning. I liked their ranchero sauce; it was not very spicy, but had a nice flavour. They do not list it on the menu, but this also comes with black beans and some pico de gallo. About half-way through the meal, I just ended up mixing all the side junk in with everything else, anyway. For condimentary supplementation, {Bernal St*r} had both Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce. It really did not matter. I did not see the need to use any extra hot sauce with the meal. {Glen Bacon Scale Rating}: Blueberry-Pecan Tart ~ 7.0; four barrel - (whichever) Medium Roast ~ 6.9; Chilaquiles ~ 6.5
http://hillsidesupperclub.com/ Place: Hillside supperclub Location: 300 Precita Avenue (on the corner of Folsom Street at Precita Park) Hours: open Sunday and Saturday at 10:00am for "Brunch" Meal: Brown Rice Bowl ~ peas + carrots, ginger soy, sunny side egg, crunchy seeds, cilantro; a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice; and, before breakfast, a cuppa Philz Coffee™, Philharmonic blend/roast (at the original Philz™ location on the corner of 24th and Folsom Streets)
(Do I have to really explain today's EweToobular juxtaselections?)
I hate having to drive "all the way over" to Precita Park for breakfast (especially when that breakfast has the snooty-assed nomenclature of "Brunch"), but it was another great sunny morning today (sorry, all of you Northeasterners; it looks like it's going to be another 70°-ish day today here) which almost makes up for the trip. I had espied Hillside supperclub last year when I had breakfast (not "Brunch", mind you) at Precita Park Café (see previous 'blog-entry from June 15th, 2014) last year. I made a psychotic epistle to check them out one of these days; and today just happened to be one of these days.
For being one of those "Brunch" kinda places, Hillside supperclub turned out to be actually a pretty nice neighborhoody joint. They offer seating of: ten to twelve tables for two; five to six tables for four; two tables for six; one extra large table for ten-plus in the back in their upper-deck area; and seven bar-counter seats. I even had a great view of Precita Park from my seat, too.
One major drawback of being a "Brunch" place is that their menu had very limited options for stupid vegetarians. The only other item on the menu that I could have ordered was Brioche French Toast (strawberries, pure maple syrup, crème fraîche[1]); I would have ordered this with a side of roasted potatoes + sage. (I think I even saw several sage plants growing wild on one corner of Precita Park just across the street. I wonder if they steal their fresh sage from there.) The pickings for stupid meatetarians weren't really much better, but at least there were a few more interesting choices: Savory Bread Pudding (beet greens, house cured bacon, sunny side egg, white Cheddar); Croque Monsieur (ham, Gruyère, béchamel, chervil, market greens[???]; I suppose it all depends on if you are in the market for some greens); or Crispy Housemade Goetta[2] (market greens and avocado; I had absolutely no idea what the heck "Goetta" was and had to ask the waiter-server dude ~ he told me it is some kinda Cincinnati-style breakfast sausage product; I was picturing this to be some sorta porky-offal dish… or awful porky dish… like scrapple).
At first I thought the name of this dish meant that the rice was going to be served in a brown-coloured bowl, but the bowl ended up being white and the rice was brown. There is just something unnatural about "brown rice"; it is not as Uncle Ben had ever intended it! I was very happy to see that the "peas +" listed in the ingredients were snow peas; this was unexpected, but very welcomed. As best as I could tell, the "crunchy seeds" were pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds[3], sesame seeds, and probably a few other u/i seeds. I noticed that they offered "sous-vide[4] eggs" as a side choice on their "Brunch" menu; I bet that would have been even better on top of the mess than a plain ol' "sunny side egg". This was all actually rather good, but I just hate eating healthy for breakfast (even when it is called "Brunch"). The "fresh squeezed orange juice" was really fresh squeezed as could be seen from it being very pulpy and frothy. Philz Coffee™ is located about four to five blocks away from Hillside supperclub. As I had arrive about forty-five minutes before the "Brunch" joint was scheduled to open, I figured a cuppa their Philharmonic would be a great way to kill some time while walking around Precita Park and sitting around dog-watching. (This is a great Dog-park as well as People-park. I saw dogs of all sizes and makes running around and having a blast: little Chihuahuas and Pomeranians, medium-sized Pit-mixes, a large Doberman, Poodle, and Weimaraner, as well as various other sizes and breeds.) The Philharmonic is made with dried powdered cardamom added to the Coffee grounds before doing the one-cuppa pour-over thing, and then finished with a large sprig of fresh mint in it. This is really one of my favourite Coffees in San Francisco. On their menu-sign it is said to have the flavour of cinnamon and fresh plums, but it tasted like just Coffee, cardamom, and mint to me… (Just for the heck of it, I asked the waiter-server dude what kind of Coffee that they offer at Hillside supperclub and he told me that they serve Mr. Espresso®.) Hillside supperclub has a very interesting offering for its condimentary supplementation. They only have a hot sauce called Chicaoji. I had never heard of this brand of hot sauce before. Apparently, it is made with chipotle chillies (that would be the "Chi-” part of the name), cacao (that would be the "-cao-") and goji[5] berries (and that would be the "-ji" or "-oji" part of the name). It was pretty tasty. They even have bottles of this for sale; if I didn't already have about twenty bottles (or more) of hot sauces currently in my refrigerator, I would probably have bought a bottle of this stuff, too. http://www.chicaoji.com/ Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Brown Rice Bowl ~ 6.5; Philz Coffee™Philharmonic ~ 7.8; Chicaoji ~ 7.0 1. It never ceases to amaze me how Billy-boy and his spell-checkering Nazis at Microsoft have absolutely no problem with the spelling of "crème" (and even automatically add l'accent grave), but they can not discern another accepted Frenchy culinaristic term like "fraîche". Bâtards! 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetta 3. Just as strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are not botanically "berries", and walnuts, peanuts, and almonds are not botanically "nuts", sunflower "seeds" are also a misnomer and are actually the "fruit" of the sunflower plant. 4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day: "Sous-vide" literally means "under vacuum" in French. (Of course, der Füher-Billy and his band of brown-shirted spell-checkers do not recognize this modern culinaristic Frenchy term either.) 5. Goji berries (also called wolfberries) are a botanical berry. They are part of the Nightshade family, as are potatoes, eggplant (a botanical berry itself; really), chilli peppers, and tomatoes (both of which also happen to be botanical berries, of course).
"There is usually an easy solution to every human problem ~ neat, plausible, and wrong!" ~ H.L. Mencken
http://www.cafestjorge.com/ Place: Cafe St. Jorge[1] Location: 3438 Mission Street (on the corner of Kingston Street) Hours: open at 7:00am Monday to Saturday; open at 8:00am on Sunday (for what they call "Sunday Brunch") Meal: Baked Egg Breakfast Slider (gf/o) ~ organic, free-range baked egg topped with melted Portuguese cheese (Ilha Azul[2]) served on a Portuguese sweet roll; one Pastel de Nata[3]; and a bottomless cuppa Stumptown Coffee Roasters http://stumptowncoffee.com/
(Today's EweToobular juxtaselections are simply because the place is located on the corner of Kingston Street. Kingston, Jamaica/Reggae, get it? Good. Besides, I could not decide on the right Jorge Harrison songs to use.) I wanted to try a new place for a change and I had planned on going to Cafe St. Jorge last Sunday, anyway. They have been open for just over a year now (July 2013), and this was my first visit there (either breakfastary or otherwise). They are located way down on Mission Street right where Bernal Heights meets the Mission, so it is not exactly conducive for me to do a quick pop-in to. Cafe St. Jorge is mainly a coffeehouse joint. They do have some fresh-baked (on premise) items, but most of the baked goods items are from local Portuguese or French bakeries. I liked the large open space (high-ceilinged and uncrowded). There are fourteen tables for two (or seven tables for four); one table for three; a window-bench seating area for five to six people, but there is no table there; and some sidewalk seating ~ several seats and a bench, but just one table for two. Like most coffeehouses, you order at the front counter, pay first, they give you a number (I got "Lucky #7" this morning), and then they bring out the food to you when it is ready. Off the standard/printed menu, there really were only a couple of other items that looked good to me: Organic Quinoa Bowl (v/o, gf) (quinoa, steamed choice of milk, fresh fruit, walnuts, cinnamon, brown sugar, sea salt) or Orange Blossom Waffle (v) (which can have either fruit or granola/yoghurt added). They also had one weekend special on the board up front; it was some kinda fig jam toast, which did not sound too bad, either. Unfortunately, there were no side potato dishes on the menu that I could see.
I had to ask the front-counter guy (by that, I mean the guy working the front counter; he was neither a Communist, nor a transvestite from what I could tell; I wonder what a Communist transvestite looks like ~ do they have to wear red fishnet stockings with a sickle-and-hammer design on them?) what "free-range eggs" were. I mean, how far can one egg roll, anyway? I also had to ask the guy at the counter what "gf/o" meant; and, just in case you think like I do, it does not mean "Go f*ck-off!" (which after all the stupid, way-too-early morning questions I asked the poor guy, he must have been thinking), it simply means "gluten-free option". Not that I opted for anything "gluten-free", though. While there was really nothing exceptionally outstanding with the Baked Egg Breakfast Slider (gf/o), it was decent enough, and the Portuguese sweet roll made for a nice change. The slider (gf/o) also came with sliced tomatoes and lots of baby spinach in it, the "baked eggs" just seemed like scrambled eggs to me. I have no idea what Ilha Azulcheese is, but it worked well enough in the slider (gf/o); there is an actual Portuguese cheese called Queijo São Jorge, why it is not used here, eu não sei.
The whole point of eating breakfast (or "Sunday Brunch" even) at a Portuguese coffeehouse/bakery was to try something new for a change. The Pastel de Nata was the perfect item for that. It was basically an egg custard in a puff pastry shell. It was a very nice bite or two, too. Cafe St. Jorge does not serve any actual Portuguese brand of Coffee, but Stumptown Coffee Roasters (out of Portland ~ the one in Oregon, not the one in Maine or Portugal) is a very decent roastery. They only serve two different roasts/blends: Holler Mountain Blend (a dark roast) and Hair Bender (a lighter roast). I liked the Holler Mountain Blend better than the Hair Bender and had two cups of it as opposed to just one cup of the lighter blend. Cafe St. Jorge also offers 12 oz. bags of several different blends/roasts of Stumptown Coffee Roasters for sale at the front counter. http://buy.stumptowncoffee.com/holler-mountain-blend-1.html http://buy.stumptowncoffee.com/hair-bender-1.html I have no idea what Cafe St. Jorge offered in the way of condimentary supplements, I did not really see the need to ask. I used just a little of my own Florida GoldPremium Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) inside the slider. I have no idea what kind of hot sauces are available in Portugal, though. There really is not enough on their breakfast (or "Sunday Brunch") menu for me to make the long trek over there again, but I can recommend the place to anyone that happens to live nearby and I could see stopping in again if I am ever in the neighborhood… and besides… Here be Coffee! Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Baked Egg Breakfast Slider (gf/o) ~ 6.3; Pastel de Nata ~ 7.0; Holler Mountain Blend ~ 7.2; Hair Bender ~ 6.6 1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer(s) of the day, número um: (Parte A) "Café" (com o acento agudo) means basically the same thing in Portuguese as it does in French and Spanish; it has the dual meaning of both "Coffee" and "coffeehouse". (Parte B) There are several places in Portugal with this same name, but I am pretty sure this place is named for São Jorge (Island), Açores. I do not know why they used the English abbreviation for "street" in their name. The actual word for "Saint" in Portuguese is "São", and "São Jorge (Saint George)" is pronounced something like "San Zhorzhey". And here is the real interesting "Cliff Clavin Little Known Fact of the Day": In addition to being the Patron Saint of both England and Portugal (and being despised by all reptiles worldwide), Saint George/São Jorge is also the Patron Saint of Coffee and Coffee Roasting!* *(Nah, not really! But it sounded pretty believable, right? Besides, everyone knows the actual Patron Saint of Coffee and Coffee Roasting is São Maxwell da Casa.) 2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dois: "Ilha Azul" means "Blue Island" in Portuguese. Faial, another island in the Azores, which is neighboring São Jorge, is sometimes referred to as Ilha Azul. It has something to do with a bunch of stupid blue-flowering plants that bloom all over the island in the summer. 3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número três: "Pastel de nata" simply means "cream puff/tart" in Portuguese.
"You can lead a horse to water, but a <pencilDmust be lead." ~ Arthur Stanley Jefferson
http://www.precitaparkcafe.com/ Place: Precita Park Café Location: 500 Precita Avenue (on the corner of Alabama Street; and, coincidentally enough, right across the street from Precita Park[1]) Hours: open at 7:00am Monday through Saturday; open at 8:00am on Sunday Meal: Veggies Scramble ~ Spinach, mushroom, onion, and cheese (served with choice of homefries or fruit, and toast); and a cuppa Equator Coffee & Teas™ http://www.equatorcoffees.com/
(There is no connection between today's EweToobular juxtaselection and breakfast this morning that I can really tell, but you never know with the "Six Degrees of Glen Bacon" and such. Sure, the D*mn Y*nkees may have 27 World Series Championships to their name, but just how many cool Rock-and/or-Roll songs do they have about or associated with them? GO RED SOX!!!) While yesterday morning was a nice bright and sunny day, today was a bit more chilly and overcast ~ not quite hyperborean, but still cold enough to require wearing a sweatshirt or coat while outside. I only mention this because my breakfastary destination was Precita Park Café and I planned it so that I would get there about half an hour before they opened so that I could walk around Precita Park itself as I had never really been there before. Precita Park Café is the last of the "Park Café Trilogy" that I had not been to yet (see last 'blog-entry from Dolores Park Café on December 21st, 2013). Of the three locations, I think I like this space the best ~ it is very open-aired and non-crowded. Of course, Precita Park is much more off the beaten track than the other two cafés, so it is not anywhere near as busy, but it is also the hardest/furthest one to get to from my apartment.
(Even park benches in San Francisco can be works of art.) Precita Park Café has a large open space with seating for probably 40-50 people comfortably inside and an additional six tables for two outside on the sidewalk. Like most coffeehouses, you order at the counter, pay for your meal, get a number, and then they bring it out to your table when it is ready (the food that is, not the number; you get to carry the number to your own table so that they can locate you later with the food). There is only a limited breakfast menu and a couple of other breakfast items caught my eye (well, both of my eyes): Precita Egg Sandwich (Cheddar[2], tomato, pancetta on pain de mie or Leadbetter English muffin with black pepper and garlic aioli) or Breakfast Tacos (3) (Scrambled eggs, bacon, salsa, and Cheddar on corn tortillas, served with fruit). I was a little bit disappointed because they list a few other items on their on-line Weekend "Brunch" Specials menu; however, these didn't seem to be available on either the printed menu or on the large menu board at the back of the coffeehouse. Both the Vegan Scramble (Tofu, quinoa, seasonal veggies, fennel, Vegan Hollandaise) and Spring Benedict (2 poached eggs and Spring veggies on an English muffin) sounded worth trying.
This was basically the same meal that I had previously at Dolores Park Café in December; however, they call it Veggie (singular) Scramble and add tomatoes to the mix there. There was a lot of fresh (baby?) spinach in today's mess and possibly two types of mushrooms used. I figure that the cheese was either Cheddar or Monterey Jack. The toast was actually grilled bread of some sort, which is always nice. As I had gotten there just as they were opening, the potatoes were not ready yet and they offered to give me a side of fruit instead, but I told them that I could wait for the good stuff ~ it was only an extra ten-minute wait or so, besides, they had to make my scramble, anyway, so it was really only a five-minute extra wait. Like I would ever choose plain ol' fruit over potatoes, and their version of homefries was very good, too. (Good) potatoes are always worth waiting for (and, yes, I know that a sentence with a preposition should never end, which is why I added this parenthetical statement). I don't know what roast/blend of Coffee (I forgot to ask) they were serving this morning, but it was a dark roast of some kind; the order-taking lady behind the counter told me so. She also said that they offer a lighter roast from Sightglass Coffee. They are both good local roasteries. On the front counter they have four pitchers of ice water from which to choose: plain, with cucumber slices, with orange slices, and with lemon slices. This is a simple enough idea, but it is a very good one and nice to have the choices. I went with a 75% cucumber water and 25% orange water combination; it was very nice and refreshing I didn't ask what Precita Park Café has for condimentary supplements, but I know that they only had Tapatío® at both Dolores Park Café and Duboce Park Café. It really didn't matter what they had, as I was planning on testing out the last of my newest bottles of hot sauces, anyway: Fat Cat®Chairman Meow's Revenge (Scorpion Pepper Sauce) (Thanks once again, Cindy & Greg!). I used a little (and I truly mean "a little"; just 6-8 drops initially) on the scramble mess and a good amount of Youk's Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the potatoes (I was not afraid to use as much of this one as I liked). I was more than wary with using too much of Chairman Meow's Revenge and with just cause, too. ("Was you ever bit by a dead bee?") It states right on the label: "This blast-worthy blend gets its bodacious bite from the superhot scorpion pepper - one of the spiciest chilies on earth. We've paired it with some extreme aromatics, including garlic, cilantro and lime juice, to craft a strong and savory sauce that stings with serious flavor and heat." Plus, "Heat Level: 10+ (out of 10)". Ingredients: Vinegar, onions, roasted red peppers (roasted peppers, water, salt, citric acid), garlic, lime juice, habanero peppers, cilantro, mustard (vinegar, #1 mustard seeds, salt, turmeric, spices), scorpion peppers, sea salt, paprika. Okay, after all the trepidation that I had with using Chairman Meow's Revenge, it really wasn't quite as bad as I had feared and it turned out to be not anywhere as bad as some of the other really hot hot sauces that I have in my collection. It has a pretty decent flavour, too. Now don't get me wrong, it is still very, very hot, but I think I can live with this one. It is still much hotter than most standard hot sauces and really should be metered out carefully. Plus, I didn't incur a five-minute sneezing-jag like I did when I had first tried it last week. I was even brave enough to add an additional five to six more drops later on. I think it must be tempered a bit by the Habaneros… http://fatcatfoods.com/our-products/ Not that I was still hungry after breakfast, but I noticed that they also serve Mitchell's Ice Cream there. They offer eight different flavours (which I can only guess change seasonally or such). Today's choices were: Buko, Mango, Grasshopper Pie, Toasted Almond, Black and White, Butterscotch Marble, Chocolate, and French Custard Vanilla. http://www.mitchellsicecream.com/ Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggies Scramble ~ 6.2 (with the potatoes figured in; otherwise, it would probably just be a 6.0 with a side of fruit); Fat Cat® Chairman Meow's Revenge (Scorpion Pepper Sauce) ~ 7.3 1. Precita Park is a one-block wide by three-block long city park that is right on the border of the Mission and Bernal Heights neighborhoods. It has a nice kids playground on one end and a nice dog (off-leash) run area, too. 2. They didn't specify if this was "Cheddar cheese" or not, but I just assumed that it must mean that and not one of those many other items for which the Somerset village is famous.
"Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today…" ~ John Lennon, "Imagine", 1971
(No official web-site.) Place: Moonlight Cafe & Crepe House Location: 634 Cortland Avenue (phonicular contact: 415-647-6448) Hours: Saturday open at 7:00am; Sunday open at 8:00am Meal: Bernal Hill Omelet (with Feta cheese, black olives, spinach, and pine nuts; served with homefried potatoes and toast); and a large glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice
(Today is the 33rd anniversary of John Lennon's murder. I couldn't think of any related "Moonlight" or "Moon" songs of his, so these two will have to suffice. However, the second EweToob link may have subconsciously been influenced by John's death; even Mike Oldfield doesn't really know for sure.) A few months ago when I ate at the Liberty Café and Bakery (see 'blog-entry from October 19th, 2013), I noticed a place in the neighborhood that I hadn't eaten at yet and I made a mental note to return again to try it one of these days. Unfortunately it isn't always the easiest trek over to Bernal Heights and I finally got around to trying Moonlight Cafe & Crepe House (just to point out, neither "Café" nor "Crêpe" were spelled with any accent marks) this morning for breakfast. As their name states, they are a small coffeehouse and crêperie, and they also offer many other items on their menu for breakfast. There are thirteen tables that seat two each inside and two tables for two on the sidewalk out front; however, it was way too chilly to sit outside this morning (this was one of those rare mornings when there was actually frost on my car and I had to scrounge around in my trunk to find an ice-scraper thingy). There looked like there was plenty of space indoors that they could have fit several extra tables if they needed, but this is Bernal Heights, after all, and I doubt any extra seating is really required. Like most Bay Area crêpe houses, you first order and pay at the counter, get a number to place on your table, and then they bring out your meal when it is done (if they brought it out before it was done, that would kinda suck). Other than several savoury or sweet crêpes, they had a few other interesting breakfastary choices that I thought about getting: Mediterranean Omelet (with Feta cheese, artichokes, mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, and onions); Sausalito Scramble (Two scrambled eggs with grilled eggplant, roasted red peppers, pesto, tomatoes, and Mozzarella cheese ~ which was pretty similar to what I had yesterday for "Brunch", just with grilled eggplant instead of sautéed spinach and no mushrooms, and Feta cheese in place of goat cheese, and a scrambled egg dish versus an omelette ~ okay, so maybe they really weren't that similar); or Breakfast in a Pocket (Pita bread pocket stuffed with eggs, cheese, and bacon or sausage).
The omelette was made with lots of fresh spinach (again, like yesterday) and Feta (which is mainly why I ordered it). The pine nuts were a nice addition, too. My only minor complaint would be that there weren't enough black olives and that they were just the canned, sliced variety ~ as always, authentic Kalamata olives would be sooo much better and probably would have added a few GBS Rating points, too.
The homefries were made with red potatoes, which is always a nice, tasty touch.
I know that the fresh-squeezed orange juice really was fresh-squeezed as it was very frothy and pulpy when they brought it out.
As I had skipped a cuppa coffee with breakfast this morning, I prepared a cuppa Tchibo Gold at home while writing this 'blog-entry. Tchibo is one of the largest brands of coffee (oder Kaffee) in Deutschland; they are not only a coffee retailer, but they have many coffeehouses throughout Europe. When I lived in Berlin, I regularly went to either Tchibo or Eduscho coffeehouses. At one time Eduscho was a major rival company, but has since been bought by Tchibo (maybe Tchibo should be known as Sternbocks). My local russkaya bodega carries a few different roasts/blends of already-ground packs of Tchibo. (Believe me, you do not want to order a pound of this stuff and not understand the German lady behind the counter when she asks whether you want that as whole beans or ground beans. Right, Dave?[1])
For condimentary supplements, Moonlight Cafe has Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (both the standard red and the green jalapeño) and Tapatío®. I used some of my own Dave's Gourmet®Ginger Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks, Jim!) on the potatoes and Serious Food…Silly PricesChunky Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the omelette.
1. Not that I really know anyone named "Dave" that would ever have done that by accident and not noticed this blunder until he had gotten to work and tried to make coffee for the rest of his crew (who we won't call "Dawg Flite" to keep "Dave"s anonymity). "Dave" may have then been forced to try and grind up some of the whole beans as best he could with just a hammer and some paper towels.
I am sure that would never have worked well, but this would never really happen, anyway.
"Hope makes a good breakfast. Eat plenty of it." ~ Ian Fleming, From Russia With Love
http://www.thelibertycafe.com/ Place: The Liberty Café and Bakery Location: 410 Cortland Avenue Hours: "Brunch" ~ 9am - 3pm, Saturday-Sunday Meal: Veggie[1]Frittata ~ portabello, arugala (sic), Sun dried tomato, mozz. (which I hoped was a reference to Mozzarella cheese and not some kinda choral mozzetta, which always makes for a very stringy breakfast dish) with mixed greens; a side order of Country Potatoes (I assumed the country was either Peru or Bolivia); and a cuppa America's Best Coffee
(Man. That Keanu Reeves dude can surely act. I really bought it that he was that Dr. Huxtable guy. And Phylicia Rashād never looked better as Catherine Earnshaw, too.) I made a return trip to the Liberty Café and Bakery (see last 'blog-entry from August 21st, 2010) way over in Bernal Heights[2], Heathcliff. This is a really good place for breakfast (which they unfortunately call "Brunch"), but it's always a bit of a trek getting there. For the rest of this 'blog-entry, I will be shortening their name to the Liberty Café, which they alternately have written as "Café" (avec accent aigu) in some places on their web-site and as "Cafe" (sans accent aigu) on their signage and menu. There really aren't that many places from which to choose breakfast (or "Brunch") on "Main Street" (Cortland Avenue), Bernal Heights. I sat outside again in the open-air patio area between the main restaurant (house) and the cottage-bakery out back. It was still a bit chilly this morning (and the Sun hadn't quite reached the enclosed patio area yet) and they offered to turn on those overhead gas heater thingys, but I declined. I had a jacket on and was fine; besides, if I wanted to sit inside where it was warmer, I could easily have done so. What is the point of eating outside otherwise? I found this pretty cool. They even show movies on Friday and Saturday nights in the patio area now on one of the blank walls. Tonight they are showing both "My Neighbor Totoro"[3] and "High Fidelity"[4].
stupid parklet mini-rant of the day Seriously?! The entire business area of Cortland Avenue is barely 6-7 blocks long and there is one of these stupid urban wastelets there. Luckily, it is just one of the two-parking space obstructions, but it is still a completely useless blight. I guess having to walk "all the way" to either Bernal Heights Park (which is THREE blocks away, of course) or Holly Park (well, I can see how SIX blocks might be just too far away for most people to walk while trying to balance their Decaf Mocha Double Latte with soymilk and a twist with their mobular device pressed to their empty heads). This one happens to be located in front of some place called Kinfolk; yet still another place to make my "List". Hmmm?! Maybe the city should turn both Bernal Heights Park and Holly Park into parking garages and rename the neighborhood "Stupid Parklet Heights".
(Back to breakfast or "Brunch".) The Liberty Café has several good things from which to choose on their standard breakfastary (well, "Weekend Brunch") menu. Plus, they offer a few different frittata specials on the weekend (one for stupid vegetarians and another for dead, decaying animal flesh-eaters).
The frittata was very good. It was served as a thick, huge slice, sort of quiche-style. It had lots of portobello (or portabello or portobella, take your pick) and sun-dried (or Sun dried, again, your choice) tomatoes. These were also very good homefries; simple enough, but nice and large crispy chunks. "Mixed greens" is always just a euphemism for lettucey-salad junk minus any cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, etc. I ate some of those, but focused mostly on the frittata and potatoes. I just have one minor criticism: with "Bakery" as part of their name, I would liked to have seen some kinda complimentary fresh-baked goods come with the meal.
I have had America's Best Coffeemany times before, and it is always a pretty decent cuppa. However, their claim to being the "Best Coffee" in 'merica might be a little lofty. I would have no problem with them calling themselves "America's Very Good Coffee", at least.
The Liberty Café only has for condimentary supplementation Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the original red) and Tapatío®. Once again I took the liberty to use some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters XX Habanero Pepper Sauce (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) on the homefries and some Dave's Gourmet®Ginger PeachHot Sauce (Thanks, Jim!) on the frittata. Okay, I completely forgot to bring some Big Papi En Fuego Hot Sauce with me this morning, but, just to make sure, for some extra added Boston Red Sox mojo, I just did a Русский СтандартPlatinum Vodka[5] (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) shooter with 4 drops of Off The Wall Triple (Thanks, Kerry!) in it. Kids, I would not recommend that you try this at home, or if you do, skip the hot sauce in your Vodka, that stuff can kill ya. I also had a shot of pickle juice chaser with it ~ don't ask, it's a Russkij thing.
This is just a small pet peeve with me. I have always hated it when places call their vegetarian or vegetable specials "Veggie". Would they call their dead, decaying animal flesh specials "Carnie" or "Meatie"?
Also:
It's Boston, not "Beantown".
It's New York City, not "the Big Apple" (and in case you were wondering ~ and even if you weren't ~ why I chose the colour green instead of red for my "apple", I like Granny Smith apples the best, Mr. Chapman*).
And, lastly, but not leastly:
It's San Francisco, never ever "Frisco"… EVAH!
*(Who was himself a stupid "Veggie", by the way.)
2. Here is some extra added Bernal Heights information courtesy of our friendly friends at Wikipedia:
I wonder what José Cornelio would have to say about all these stupid parklets popping up around the city; to say nothing of what poor ol' Nanny Goat might feel.
3. "My Neighbor Totoro" is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film. Despite what I thought, it wasn't an Italian sequel to "The Wizard of Oz".
4. "High Fidelity" is a 2000 American comedy-drama film starring John Cusack. It is based on the 1995 British novel of the same name by Nick Hornby (meaning the novel was also called "High Fidelity", not "Nick Hornby"). I liked the movie a lot, but, as always, the book was much better.
5. Русский Стандарт (which is just standard Russkij for "Russian Standard") Vodka is a brand of high-end Russian Vodka. The Platinum happens to be one of their best variants and is one of the best Vodkas that I have ever had; this is a sipping/shots only Vodka, not to be wasted in crummy mixed drinks ~ use your Absolut® or Stolichnaya® for that. I was given a bottle of this a few years ago as a gift and still have some left that I like to use for special occasions. (Yeah, so, maybe I'm not as big a drunk as a lot of people think that I am.)
