Café de Casa

♪ "Flat and tan(-nish) and fresh and tasty
The crêpe from Ipanema goes walking(???) and
When it passes, each one it passes goes 'Ahhhhh!'... " ♫ 

http://www.cafedecasa.com/


Place: Café de Casa

Location: 2701 Leavenworth Street 
(on the corner of North Point Street)

Hours: open Monday - Saturday at 7:30am

Meal: (starter) Pão de Queijo[1] ~ gluten-free cheese rolls, warm and chewy; Romeu & Julieta (Crêpe Brasileiro) ~ guava jelly and cheese (I am not really sure what kinda cheese they actually use in this one; I would assume it was Mozzarella [as they list that cheese on a few other crêpe-entries]; it was some kinda soft, melty cheese); and a medium cuppa (pour-over style) Coffee Magic Gold Rush

http://quickdrip.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=105

("Hit the crêpes, Percy"?!

I figured as long as I was already EweToobular juxtaselecting the first Bob song, anyway, I might as well link the second one from him, too.)


Now whatd'ya suppose are the chances of discovering three good "new" breakfast places in a year, let alone even one (and all that are within a few blocks of each other) on Fisherman's Wharf?! Having already gone back to both Surisan (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, October 14th, 2017) and eight am (see last 'blog entry from Saturday, November 11th, 2017), I figured (correctly) that it was time for a return visit to Café de Casa (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, April 29th, 2017).

I was the only (first?) customer in this morning when I had arrived around 7:45am, but the place started getting filled up quickly with a lot of walk-in tourista business by the time I had finished eating. I sat at the long window-counter overlooking the outside sidewalk-café seating area ~ which is where I really shoulda sat this morning, the weather was still a bit coolish, but Senhor Sol was up and shining already ~ at least I sat in front of one of the open windows to still get the full fresh-air experience, Ms. Gross.

There are still a few outras boas idéias para o café da manhã that I want to get back to try:

Omelette Crêpe ~ eggs, ham (which would get oitenta-e-seis-ed) and cheese;

Caprese (another savoury crêpe) ~ fresh Mozzarella, tomato and basil;

Cartola (a sweet crêpe) ~ Mozzarella cheese, banana & cinnamon;

or

Açaí[2] - Fruit[ sic ][3] e Granola[4] (served in a cup-size or a bowl-size) ~ traditional Brazilian treat, a cross between a sorbet & a pudding, made with guarana syrup, topped with granola, strawberries & banana (I saw another person order this one; it looked pretty good, but wayyyyy too healthy for my tastes; maybe one of these days).

On my next visit (and, trust me, there will be a "next" visit), I will have to decide between either the Caprese or Cartola crêpes. I was told by one of the worker-guys (well, after I had bugged the h*ck outta him with several other annoying questions already) that their South San Francisco location does not offer any of these tapioca flour crêpes for breakfast, they only have the fresh-made pastries and Coffee; so, I probably won't need to head south on a mini-roadtrip to check it out, too.

I really shoulda said something to the management. This pastry was served to me with a large bite already taken out of it. Luckily, it was good enough to finish, anyway.

This ain't une crêpe de ton père, Pierre!

I spoke with one of the worker-guys (unfortunately for him, it was the same worker-guy that I had pestered... er... asked questions of all morning) there and he told me that these tapioca flour crêpes are very popular in Brazil now-a-days. One of these days I would love to get down to Brazil myself... one of these days...

This idea of "gluten-free" crêpes made from tapioca flour is a great idea; it does make for a bit "chewier" experience, though, Han Solo. Even if you do not have gluten allergies or aren't following some kinda silly new-fangled (with olde-timey sounding names like "Paleo"[5] or "Neoprotero") diet, you can still enjoy this one.

"But... 'cheese'... and 'guava jelly', Brian?!" (and don't forget all the tasty caramel sauce drizzled across it that they do not even dare mention on the menu)... Hey, it works and I really liked it! Besides, how many of you negativists have ever had something called "cheesecake"?

I am not so sure what the connection is to "Romeu" and/or "Julieta"; perhaps ol' Wild Bill really liked his gauva fruits and Mozzarella cheeses mixed together, too. Hmmmm?! Does this mean that Romeu (or "Romeo" for you Montague purists) is the guava jelly and Julieta (or "Juliet" for you House of Capulet fans) is the cheese?!

It is a rare find, Mercutio, when you can get both an interesting breakfastary meal and good, local Coffee at the same joint. The Gold Rush Coffee that I had this morning was listed as a "Light" roast, but this was plenty dark enough for me still. In addition to the Coffee that I had today, they offer three other roasts/blends (all from Coffee Magic, too) that can be made single-cuppa pour-over style: Brazil Poço Fundo (a Dark Roast; which I had on my last visit and liked just a bit more than the one I had this morning); Foglifter (a Dark and Light blend); and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe (another Dark Roast; this is the one I will probably check out next time).

Pretty much knowing ahead of time that I was going to go the "Sweet-not-Savoury-Route" (which, by the way, Mr. Brandt, is an actual highway transversing New Mexico and Arizona), I did not bother bringing any of my own hot sauces with me this morning. I also knew from my last visit there that, if needed, Café de Casa 
has a bottled hot sauce of their own that ain't bad none neether. (And don't think that it didn't cross my mind to try juuuust a little of their hot sauce on a small part of my crêpe... )

Good food AND good Coffee?!? Maybe this place should be called "Casa de Café e Comida Muito Saborosa" instead.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Pão de Queijo ~ 6.8;
Romeu & Julieta ~ 7.1;
Coffee Magic Gold Rush ~ 7.0

___________________

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

"Pão de queijo" literally translates from Portuguese as "cheese-bread" (well, "bread of cheese").

2. While this fruit is commonly called an "açaí berry", it is as much a true botanical berry as is a strawberry. (However, as everyone knows, bananas are botanical berries.)

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dois:

This really should read as "Fruta" or "Frutas" in Portuguese.

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número tres:

Sorry, I could not locate the English translation for this word anywhere on the World Wild Webs.

5. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, νούμερο τέσσερα:

If anyone on this silly "Paleo" diet was wondering, the word "παλαιός" ("palaios") in Greek means "old"... and the word "ζωή" ("zoe")* means "stupid".

*(No offense, Dave and Patryce.)

Café de Casa

http://www.cafedecasa.com/


Place: Café de Casa[1]

Location: 2701 Leavenworth Street (on the corner of North Point Street)

Hours: open Monday - Saturday at 7:30am

Meal: Veggy [ sic ] (a Savory Crêpe) ~ eggplant[2a], tomato[2b], arugula[2c],  & fresh herbs[2d], made from tapioca flour, gluten free, served with seasonal fruit or salad; one Enroladinho de Queijo[3] (off the Salgados[4] section of the menu) ~ coconut[5] bread with Mozzarella cheese(?!?); and a medium cuppa (pour-over style) Coffee Magic Brazil Poço Fundo[6]

http://quickdrip.com/

(That is one horrible web-site, but it does give you some information on their available Coffees.)

(Both of these EweToobular songs are juxtaselections to my Coffee choice this morning. The second song is even based on a true story; I read it on the Intro-Net.)


Sim! Here is another great "discovery" and new (well, for me) place for breakfast in the usually breakfastary bereft Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood! This morning I went to Café de Casa para o meu café da manhã. They specialise in Brazilian Street Food. Now I wouldn't know authentic "Brazilian Street Food" from fake "Landing Strip Street Food" (Too "racy" with that stupid joke?), but I had walked by this place last month when I was checking out another new place for breakfast in Fisherman's Wharf and the idea sounded interesting to me.

They have two locations: this one in Fisherman's Wharf (open since December 2015) and their original location in South San Francisco (open since May 2007). Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure that I had eaten either lunch or dinner (that location doesn't serve breakfast) at their other restaurant back when I still worked in Brisbane (the town just south of San Francisco, not the much-less-known city in Queensland, Austria). If I kept a lunch or dinner 'blog-thing, maybe I would have remembered it sooner.

I am happy to point out that there are still many other good other ideas from which to choose for breakfast: 

Omelette Crepe (a Savory Crêpe) ~ eggs, ham and cheese (of which I would have oitenta-e-seis-ed the carne de porco morta em decomposição); 

Caprese (a Savory Crêpe) ~ fresh Mozzarella, tomato and basil; 

Moça[7] (a Sweet Crêpe) ~ coconut and sweetened condensed milk; 

Cartola[8] (a Sweet Crêpe) ~ Mozzarella cheese (Again with the Mozzarella cheese in a "sweet" pastry-thing?), banana & cinnamon; 

or 

Romeu & Julieta[9] (a Sweet Crêpe) ~ guava jelly and (probably Mozzarella) cheese (!!! Oh, h*ck yeah ~ this will definitely be my choice on my next trip over there; if I had seen it before ordering this morning, I probably woulda gone with this one).

Unfortunately for me, they only offer a few items on their Salgados section of the menu that are suitable for stupid vegetarians. I did see that they also offer Pão de Queijo, much like my recent "discovery" at Saltroot Café (see 'blog-entry from Monday, February 20th). I will have to be sure to try one of theirs on my next visit, too.

Now this was a very cool crêpe idea. It was made with tapioca/yuca/manioc flour in place of the standard eggy-batter; this did make it to be much chewier than their Frenchy counterparts. The eggplant was more of a mooshed mistura (kinda like baba ghanoush); which was okay, I was just expecting large chunks of eggplant instead (which can sometimes be a bit unwieldy inside of a crêpe, anyway). The tomatoes were halved cherry tomatoes ~ another nice touch; these added a nice fresh "Pop!" to the dish. This was served with a large spoon (you know, the flat-bottomed kind used in Chinese restaurants as a soup spoon) of olive oil; I was instructed to drizzle some over the top if I liked (I liked, and ended up using the entire spoonful).

Today's seasonal fruits[10a] (and I was glad to see the fruits in place of any silly ol' rabbit-food) were: grapes[10b], kiwi[10c], and honeydew melon[10d].

"Mozzarella cheese AND coconut, Brian? What are you crazy?!" Well, I would answer a resounding "H*ck, YES!!!" to both questions. (Catcha-22 be a-d*mned!) Don't mock me for my tastes. Besides, I didn't concoct this strange pastry (maybe I was um padeiro brasileiro in another life). This was really very good.

I also very much liked that they offered several different roasts/blends of Coffees from which to choose (see above photo for selections available). All can be prepared as a single (small, medium, or large) cuppa pour-over. I mainly went with my specific choice this morning because I figured "When in Rome, do as the Brazilians do!" This turned out to be another nice local roastery find.

For condimentary supplementation, Café de Casa had some of their own homemade (well, casa-made) hot sauce in plastic squeeze-bottles. I had brought some of my own hot sauces with me just in case, but I found their hot sauce to be very flavourful... and a little hotter than I was expecting (about as hot as a good habanero salsa). I went a little heavy-handed with it on the top of the crêpe before actually taste-testing it, but it was all good and it went nicely with all the other flavours. The additional spoonful of olive oil helped temper the heat a bit, too. They also sell bottles of their hot sauce (with the simply-enough named "Café de Casa Hot Sauce" on the labels) for use at home. If I did not already have (too) many bottles of hot sauce in my refrigerator, I would definitely have picked up a bottle for myself. Maybe by the next time I get back there I will have under twenty bottles left in my stock, and can pick one up then.

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude (or not)

I parked over on the end of Van Ness Avenue[11] under the tall Eucalyptus trees where I knew there was a large-ish pandemonium of the noisy chatter-heads. Unfortunately, I only heard some of them high up in the trees and did not really see neither beak nor feather of them this morning.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Veggy [ sic ] (a Savory Crêpe) ~ 6.5;
Enroladinho de Queijo ~ 7.2;
Café de Casa Hot Sauce ~ 7.5;
Coffee Magic Brazil Poço Fundo ~ 7.3;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5

___________________

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day (and get ready for a whole lotta* more of these today), número um:

Lucky for me, I know some Spanish so I can almost decipher what Café de Casa means in Português. My best 202-ing here is coming up with "Coffee on the House", but they made me pay for mine...

Now (as best as I can tell), they do not actually use the "é" anywhere in their name, but both "Coffee" and "Coffeehouse" in Portuguese are "Café". So I am going with that preferred spelling. Simples!**

*(How much is a "half-lotta more", do ya think?)
**(Hey, Cindy, I just figured out that Aleksandr Orlov must be from either República Portuguesa, República Federativa do Brasil, or Região Autónoma dos Açores. The word for "simple" in Portuguese is actually "simples".)

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dois:

(parte a)
Eggplant = Berinjela (pronounced something like "Berin-JELLA")

(parte b)
Tomato = Tomate (Sorry, I have absolutely no idea how they might pronounce this one; Sometimes I wonder just where the h*ck they come up with all these different names from our true 'merican words.)

(parte c)
Arugula = Rúcula (pronounced something like "ROO-kula")

(parte d)
Fresh Herbs = Ervas Frescas (pronounced something like "Magic Johnson")

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número tres:

"Enroladinho de Queijo" (pronounced something like "En-ROLL-a-djin-yo de KAY-joe") literally translates as "cheese curl", but this was no cheese-flavored, puffed cornmeal snack being hyped by any suave, sunglassioed cheetah.

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número quatro:

"Salgados" literally means "Salties" in Portuguese. However, in this case, Café de Casa was just listing any savoury or sweet baked goods/pastries under the same menu category.

5. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número cinco:

Coconut = Coco (here's another tough one that I can not figure out how to pronounce)

6. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número seis:

"Poço Fundo" (pronounced "Poso Foondo") means "Deep Well" in Portuguese. (Hopefully that will explain Song #2 above.)

7. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número sete:

"Moça" (pronounced something like "MOE-sa") translates from Portuguese as "girl/maid/lass".

8. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número oito:

"Cartola" (you can come up with your own d*mn pronunciation by now) translates from Portuguese as "top hat/topper".

9. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número nove:

Sorry. Try as I might, I could not come up with any good translations of this phrase. Who am I supposed to be? George Costanza?!

(I wonder if Wild Bill Shakespeare spoke any Portuguese.)

10. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dez:

(parte a)
Fruits = Frutas (yeah, sometimes this cunning linguist stuff ain't exactly cirurgia de foguete)

(parte b)
Grapes = Uvas (pronounced something like "O-vas")

(parte c)
Kiwi = Kiwi (sorry, again, no pronunciation could be located)

(parte d)
Honeydew Melon = Melão Melado (pronounced something like "MelON MelAHdo")

11. For a change, not a "stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day", but just a stupid, useless (but might actually be somewhat helpful) tourista pointer of the day:

At the end of Van Ness Avenue, where it dead-ends over at Aquatic Park Pier (between the back of Fort Mason and San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park), there are many (sixty to seventy, maybe more) free and legal parking spaces. You can park there for four hours at a time on Monday to Saturday between the hours of 8:00am to 6:00pm, and all day long on Sundays. Most people should be able to walk up and down Fisherman's Wharf ~ including stopping at Ghirardelli Square to sample free Chocolates, etc. ~ in well-under four hours (and still have time to take in lunch), anyway.

The parking spots do fill up quickly, but if you get there before 8:00am (like I did this morning), there are usually many empty spaces still available (less-so in the Summer, but only an idiot would visit San Francisco in the Summer). There were even still about fifteen to twenty empty spaces at 9:00am when I was leaving the area.

Saltroot Café

"Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside." ~ Sammy-boy Clemens

http://www.saltroot.com/

(They still have to update their current web-site to reference their actual brick-and-mortar shop, but at least it is already started.)


Place: Saltroot Café
Location: 2960 Clement Street (on the corner of 31st Avenue)
Hours: Now Open 8:30am Every Day
Meal: two Cheese Popups (one of which was um brinde with the cuppa Coffee ~ I like this idea muito); one Mushroom-Gorgonzola empanada; one Spinach-Feta empanada; and a cuppa ★ Intelligentsia Rayos del Sol Peru

https://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/rayos-del-sol-peru


Well, I must say (or type, or keyboard), this has been one great (three-day) weekend for new breakfastary finds! Just two blocks away from my apartment (luckily, for me, because the deluge is still on-going here in Northern California) there is a brand-new (as in brand-newly opened just one week ago on Saturday) café/bakery place named Saltroot Café. I happened to walk by it last weekend in the afternoon when they were open, but I was not hungry at the time, so I made a mental note (♪) (which always seems to be more of a "retarded rumination" in my case) to check them out in the future to see what I might be able to piece together for some kinda breakfast meal. Well, the future is today (just don't tell that to Buck Rogers) and there were more than enough interesting ideas for me to make a decent breakfast out of ("... out of which for me to make a decent breakfast" is probably grammatically correct, but grammar has nuthin' to do with eating good).

Saltroot Café is located in a space that has seen many incarnations over the past thirty years that I have lived in the neighborhood. This is not the busiest part of Clement Street (that would be about twenty-plus blocks to the East of there), so it is usually hard to maintain a good business in that location. There are only a few tables inside at which to sit and eat (I think I counted just two tables for two, one larger table for four, and three or four seats at a counter-table area), but I can see this being a "take-to-go-with" kinda place for locals. After eating there this morning, I really hope this place has a Vulcan salute-like existence in the Outer Richmond. 

The first question that I had for the owner guy-person (who was just opening up for the day when I arrived) was what the name of the restaurant meant. He explained it to me that "Saltroot" simply refers to the "root" of the cassava/manioc/yuca plant, because their Cheese Popups are not made with any wheat flour, but from cassava starch. The owner guy-person also told me that they were originally going to call the place "Cassava Café"; however, there is already a little Japanese bistro (for lack of a better term) in our neighborhood that is called "Cassava" (see 'silly-little 'blog-entry from Saturday, March 29th, 2014). Unless they started serving Sushi Popups at Cassava, I doubt that there would have been any confusion, though.

But "What exactly are 'Cheese Popups' (ou 'pão de queijo'[1], in Portuguese/Brazilian), Brian?", you might ask. (Of course, I doubt that you would be asking this with the inserted parenthetical Portuguese/Brazilian nomenclature and footnoted-number.) Instead of me trying to explain it (and, more than likely, badly), here is some information from the friendly folks at WikipediA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A3o_de_queijo 

Saltroot Café makes their version of Cheese Popups with Parmesan cheese. And, for any of you that like to pretend that you are still living in the Paleolithic Era, Cheese Popups are 100% gluten-free, and are also sugar-free if you get them in the original form. (However, I am pretty sure that ol' Caveman Joe did not know how to make any Parmesan cheese yet.) I mention "original form", because, while not yet available, they are working on offering a few variations of Cheese Popups: filled with Gorgonzola (Oh, yeah!), filled with guava puree (this is one that I know I will also like), and a few others that the owner guy-person told me, but I have already forgotten. (H*ck. He told me his name just before I left, but I have already forgotten that, too!)

They also have two other empanadas that they are currently offering: Sweet Potato (which is 100% Vegan, not that it mattered to me) and Vegetarian Breakfast (however, they were out of this type this morning, or I might have ordered that one instead of ~ or, more likely, in addition to ~ one of the empanadas that I did get). They do not bake their own empanadas, but get them from a local empanaderia (if that is such a thing) in the Mission. (The owner guy-person also told me the name of the bakery...  but please see the above paragraph's last parenthetical sentence.)

The poor owner guy-person had to put up with my inane conversation the entire time that I was eating there (there had been only one other walk-in customer during the half-hour that I was there, so it was not as if I was really bothering him that much... just a little). We talked about everything from "cassava" (and "manioc" and "yuca" and "tapioca") to "Coffee"[2]. (Hmmm?! Looking at it that way, we really only touched on the letter "C" from the dictionary. Looks like I need to get back twenty-five more times... and bone-up on a plethora of useless information for the letters "Q" and "X".)

One of the items of (enthralling) conversation that came up was that their front-counter cooler (See? "C"? Another "C"-word.)/refrigeration unit was purchased from one of the now-defunct La Boulange's surplus equipment (Thanks a lot, St*rbucks![3]).

The Cheese Popups turned out to be a great (and tasty) find! Not being quite sure what was the preferência tradicional brasileira for eating Cheese Popups, I asked the owner guy-person, and he said that you can eat them plain or with jam. They provide both a strawberry jam and mango jam to use. I went with some mango jam on one and ate the other one sem molestar. I really enjoyed how both went perfectly (a little sweet, a little salty) with the strong Coffee (unsweetened and unsalted, of course). I am looking forward to trying these filled with Gorgonzola and guava paste (well, each separately, but I bet the two flavours would be a great match-up... [see above Marky-Mark Twain quote]).

I liked both of the empanadas, too. Surprisingly, I liked the Mushroom-Gorgonzola better than the Spinach-Feta. This does not mean that Feta is not still my favourite of the cheesy comestibles. ("Everything's betta with Feta!"™, after all.)

I have had Coffee from ★ Intelligentsia before, but I am not sure if I have ever had this particular roast/blend. This was a very hearty and robust (or, more likely, Arabica ~ sorry, that is a little Coffee humour there) roast. Coffee was one of the topics with which I bored... er... discussed with the owner guy-person in depth. He said that he settled on providing 
★ Intelligentsia after trying a few other local roasteries. I think he made a good choice here. The owner guy-person told me that the beans that they use for their Espresso drinks is a Brazilian bean, but I did not get which specific one (I think ★ Intelligentsia 
offers three or four different types of beans of Brazilian-origin for their Espresso beans). Saltroot Café is not selling any of their Coffee in pre-packaged bags (... yet?). This seems like a no-brainer (even to someone like me with no brains), but the owner guy-person told me they are mainly focusing on marketing the Cheese Popups for now.

Not that it was needed any, but Saltroot Café does have bottles of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce 
(Original Red Sauce) for use as a condimentary supplementation. Not knowing exactly what they might be offering on their menu, I even came prepared with a few hot sauces of my own; however, I did not see fit to use any this morning.

Personal retarded rumination: I really need to get back there again (soon) for an afternoon snack.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Cheese Popups (Pão de Queijo) ~ 7.4 
(this was a tough one to rate, as I only had a small sample from which to decide, but I really liked the flavour and texture ~ it's a yuca thing, man[ioc]!);
Mushroom-Gorgonzola empanada ~ 7.0;
Spinach-Feta empanada ~ 6.9; 
★ Intelligentsia Rayos del Sol Peru ~ 7.3

___________________

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

"Pão de queijo" simply means "cheese-bread" in Portuguese. As best as I heard it from the owner guy-person, these are pronounced something like "pon de kay-joe". Not really knowing much Portuguese, I assumed (incorrectly) that the "j" was pronounced like an "h" as they do in Spanish. 

Sometimes I can be such a "herk" linguistically.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, número dois:

"Coffee" in Portuguese is simply "Café".

See? Sometimes this linguistic stuff really ain't cirurgia cerebral ou ciência de foguetes.

3. Long-story-short:

The bastages at St*rbucks saw fit to buy a small, local chain of French bakery/café-restaurants several years ago. Of course, once the bastages at St*rbucks (and just for simplicity purposes, I will refer to them from here on out in this mini-rant as "tb@S"; of course, with the time and words spent explaining that abbreviation, it would probably have been much simpler to just keep typing [keyboarding, whatever] "tb@S"... or you get the idea), had made their money exploiting these local restaurants, they decided to have the recipes disseminated throughout their ubiquitous cr*p-houses (not to be confused with actual coffeehouses; I am ashamed to even use the term "coffeehouses" in the same sentence as tb@S) and have since closed all of the locations now in the Bay Area. 

Yeah, these guys are such a great company!

The good news is that the original owner of La Boulange has since re-purchased some of the locations from tb@S and has renamed them La Boulangerie. From what the owner guy-person of Saltroot Café told me this morning, the original owner got them back for a song, too. Maybe now I can finally check out their restaurants (free of guilt from knowing that tb@S will not be profiting from me), but I will probably still give it some time before going to any of these cafés. (What is the half-life of contamination from tb@S, anyway?)