Dolores Park Café

Which used to be called "Mulva Outdoor Public Open Space Greenery Bistro", but it was too much of a mouthful for people to remember, Jerry. (It just didn't roll off the tongue well enough.)

http://www.doloresparkcafe.com/


Place: Dolores[1] Park Café 
Location: 501 Dolores Street (at 18th Street)
Hours: Open Monday-Saturday 7 AM; open Sunday at 8 AM
Meal: Veggie Scramble (tomato, mushroom, onion, spinach, Cheddar cheese; served with fruit or potatoes & organic 5-grain toast); and a large cuppa Sightglass Coffee, Finca[2] Alcatraz (Columbia)

(This EweToob video may or may not have anything to do with "Dolores", or "Park", or "Café". Who the hell can ever tell what Mr. Zimmerman is singing about, anyhow?)


I had breakfast this morning at Dolores Park Café. This is the original of three sister-coffeehouses in San Francisco; the other two being: Duboce Park Café (see last 'blog-entry from August 24th, 2013) and Precita Park Café (the newest of the three, which I have never been to yet). Dolores Park Café has been in the Mission neighborhood now since 1997. I have had coffee and eaten there a few times for lunch and dinner, but this was my first breakfastary outing there. In addition to a pretty decent indoor seating area, there is a large sidewalk-patio seating area with about seven tables that could seat 2-3 people each. I mention that fact as there is really no need for any stupid parklets here; thank you! Plus, they happen to be located right across the street from Dolores Park.

(This is a replica of Mexico's Liberty Bell ~ Campana de la Libertad de México ~ from 1810.)


As with most local coffeehouses, you pay at the counter first, get a number, and then they bring your meal out to you. Dolores Park Café offers a few other good breakfast choices/ideas: Breakfast Burrito (which I already had at Duboce Park Café); Dolores Egg Sandwich (pancetta, egg, tomato, arugula, Cheddar cheese, & garlic aioli); Bagel Deluxe (cream cheese, cucumber, tomato, red onion, avocado ~ but not to be confused with Bagel De Lox); or even French Toast (with seasonal fruit & organic maple syrup).

The scramble was good enough; tasty, but nothing really special. I am sure I could make a dish of similar quality… if I ever had all of the ingredients that it has in it. Of course I went with the potatoes as my side choice over the stupid fruit; and these were a decent enough homefries variety. The toast was actually served as three half-slices. Why?! I don't know…
Third Base! I wonder if I had received a half-slice of someone else's meal or did some other fargin' bastage get a half-slice of mine?!

The coffee was from a very good local roastery, Sightglass Coffee. The specific blend/roast this morning happened to be Finca Alcatraz (a Columbian bean roast). Since when did coffee start getting described like a pretentious wine? This is a direct quote from their web-site: "This vibrant coffee shines with notes of cara cara orange and red grape and a sweet, cherry cola finish." What do I know? It just tasted like roasted coffee beans to me, which is really all I ask for, anyway.

https://sightglasscoffee.com/

As far as I could see (I knew I should have brought my bifocals with me), Dolores Park Café only has Tapatío® as a condimentary supplementation. I went with some of my own Serious Food… Silly Prices Mango Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the scramble and a little Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce ~ XX Habanero (Thanks agains, Amys & Brian!) on the potatoes.

As they offer many standard coffeeshop pastries, such as croissants and other heterogeneous[3] baked goodies, I got a Lemon-Poppyseed doughnut for a breakfast dessert. (Seriously, does anyone have any suggestions for a new portmanteau for "breakfastary desserts"?) Sorry, I didn't bother to take a photo of this. It was topped with a thick lemon-poppyseed glaze… and round… with a hole in the middle… you know, a doughnut.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Veggie Scramble ~ 6.0; Lemon-Poppyseed doughnut ~ 6.4; Sightglass Coffee, Finca Alcatraz ~ 6.9


1. "Dolores" was not the name of the first wife of Junípero Serra.

Dolores Park (and also Dolores Street) gets its name from the small town of Dolores, Mexico, which played a major part in the Mexican War of Independence in 1810.

(Besides, everyone knows that Father Serra's first wife's name was Gipple, anyway.)

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

"Finca" simply means "estate" in Spanish. 

Now, perhaps, someone could tell me just what the heck "No Tango De Niro" means. Is Tango related to Robert and unwelcome in most places in the barrio? And just who the heck is this "Pablo Español" person they are always talking about in the Mission, too?

3. Despite the protestations of Papa Duck, this has nothing to do with going against certain laws of your Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) God.

Tartine Bakery & Cafe

"Never go against the family, Cold-one!"*




http://www.tartinebakery.com/


Tartine Bakery & Cafe is located in the Mission over on Guerrero and 18th, down the block from Dolores Park. I drove by there last month after having desayuno at Chava's and noticed a long line out the door and along the sidewalk. I figured that could only mean a new, good place for breakfast and made a mental note (with me that is really the only kind of note I know) to check it out in the future. After eating (for what seemed like) all day yesterday, it was kinda nice to have a simple breakfast of baked goods. This was not quite what I was expecting, but it was still a nice change of pace (or pastry).

I went with the Gaugére Croissant ~ with Gruyere cheese, black pepper, and fresh thyme ~ for a savory pastry; and a Frangipane Tart ~ light almond-cream filling, baked in a flaky pastry shell with seasonal fruit (plums? apricots?, not quite sure) ~ for a sweet choice. I also had a cappuccino from their coffee/espresso bar. I liked the croissant better than the tart; both were decent enough, though. The croissant was similar to a popover in texture and appearance. The cappuccino was just as good as the pastries.




I probably should have gotten a bowl of their brioche bread pudding; it looked pretty good. Otherwise, for breakfast alternatives, they really only offer quiches, sandwiches, and several different types of Croque Monsieurs. They do not really have a kitchen to speak of.

While I was there, they were playing the Kate Bush album "The Hounds of Love", one of my favourites of hers, which is always a plus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXmTvbw4kLw

They offer an interesting enough selection of baked goods; however, I am not so sure it merits the long lines ~ there was really nothing to write home about… or to write a 'blog entry about either, but that is already too late.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Frangipane Tart~ 6.5; Gaugére Croissant ~ 6.7; Kate Bush "The Hounds of Love" ~ 7.5


*(Stupid cunning linguist story for the day, Turnabout Is Fair Play Department:

Okay, just so "Greg" can feel a little better about himself ~ and so that I am assured a place to sleep this Christmas vacation ~ here is a similar story of the "art of miscommunication" by stupid 'mericans when traveling in Europe.

When I was a freshman in high school, I was fortunate enough to make a trip to Italia during the Easter/Spring vacation: Milano, Venezia, Firenze, Pisa, and Roma. One morning another student and myself ~ "Hi, Steve!" ~ ventured out on our own during some free time and felt like getting a refreshing, cold drink. We had learned that a lot of times when you order a soda in Italy, it is normally served at room temperature and you need to request ice with it.

We stopped into a corner store and wanted to make sure to ask for a "cold one". Unfortunately our Italiano was limited to a few basic sentences ~ we had learned to count to ten correctly, as there were ten of us total in our troop ~ and whatever Latin we had learned that year in Mr. O'Neil's Latin class. Not knowing the word for "cold", we just assumed you put an "a" or "o" on most English words and it would automatically become Italiano. So we ordered "Due 'colda' Coca-Colas." The lady behind the counter looked at us wide-eyed and said to us quite excitedly, "No! No 'colda' Coca-Cola!" So we answered back just as affirmatively, "Sì! 'Colda' Coca-Cola!" This went back and forth several times with neither party budging on their assertions. We finally just decided to get whatever they had and hope for the best. After she served us and we were walking away, we found the Cokes to be more than adequately chilled. So we looked at each other and said that old lady must have been crazy!

Less than a minute later, we were passing a pizza joint that sold slices on the street from its window counter. The sign read "Calda Pizza". We looked at each other and said, "Hey, they sell 'cold pizza' slices here." It took us a few more steps to figure out that "calda" actually means "hot" ~ as in the root of the English words ~ from Latin ~ "caldron", "scalding", etc. That poor old lady must have thought all American teenagers had a very strange sense of humour… or taste.

By the way, the word for "cold" in Italiano is "freddo"…)