Home Plate

https://www.homeplatesf.net/


Place: Home Plate

Location: 2150 Lombard Street 
(between Fillmore and Steiner Streets)

Hours: open at 7:00am every d*mn day of the week

Meal: Dulce de Leche Pancakes ~ banana, caramel, sliced almond and whipped cream; a side-starter of Brussel[ sic ][1] Sprouts ~ fried Brussel[ sic ] sprouts, orange, grapefruit, honey citrus vinaigrette; as always, the meal starts out with a complimentary mini-scone (usually of the raisined variety) and some of their Home(Plate)-made jam (today's edition was strawberry); and, to drink, a large glassa fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice

(Yeah, I really have no idea what they are saying in this song. I am pretty sure that it has something to do with either Brussel[ sic ] sprouts or bananas.)


I generally like to start out any new 
Ⓑⓐⓢⓔⓑⓐⓛⓛ Season (Go RED SOX!!!) with a return visit to Home Plate (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, May 6th, 2018). I have been going to this great little (well, it has expanded in size by at least twofold from their former location just a few blocks down along Lombard Street) family-owned restaurant for over twenty years now. The food is always interesting and very tasty. If it were not located "all the way over" in the Marina, it would easily be in my Breakfastary Starting Rotation and I would go there more than just once or twice a year. 

Plus, I like a place that opens up much earlier than anything else in the neighborhood. Because of this, they get a lot of the early tourista crowds from the surrounding motels along Lombard Street. I arrived there a little before 8:00am and they were already about three-quarters full (I do not know what a pessimist would say about that). The couple at the next table told me they were from Atlanta and staying at a motel across the street. ("But, Brian, why are you bothering complete strangers when they are just trying to enjoy their breakfastary repast?!" Well, first off, they started a conversation with me when they saw me taking a photo of my pancakes. The wife thought it looked good enough to share, too, and took a photo of my Plate [Oh, wow! I just got that whole "Home Plate" thing now... it is a reference to both Ⓑⓐⓢⓔⓑⓐⓛⓛ and where "Plate" could double as a meaning for a food serving dish. That is clever.] to show her daughter back home. Secondly, why would I start a conversation with any incomplete strangers?)

Even after many trips there over the years, there are still a few (new?) menu items that I would like to try:

Eggs Florentine ~ two poached eggs, spinach, broccolini; served on English muffin, Hollandaise sauce, with salad and potato medley or potato latkes (spinach and broccolini?! this will probably have to be my order the next time that I go there);

Special Crispy French Toast (where they even have the "Special" in red lettering to distinguish it as such) ~ fresh mixed berries, nuts with Mascarpone mousse (this one also sounds intriguing for the next time that I want a sweet dish);

or maybe even

Huevos Ranchero[ sic (I really do not know what they have against all these missing "s"s) ] ~ two eggs over easy, black beans, avocado, tomatillo sauce, salsa, Jack cheese on a handmade corn tortilla.

This is not to mention Greek Frittata ~ spinach, tomatoes, Calamata[ sic (however, because they do use authentic Kalamata olives in this one, I will let that mispelink slide) ] olives, Feta cheese; which I have had on several previous visits and really liked and would never be averse to reordering.

Fear not, those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying aquatic insects, they also offer a few dishes with shrimps[ sic ] in them (Hmmm?! Now I think that I know where all the mising "s"s from Brussel[ sic ] sprouts and Huevos Ranchero[ sic ] went.):

Special Bangkok Frittata ~ shrimps[ sic], tomato, mushrooms, scallion, herbs; three-egg pancake-style omelettes served with potato medley or potato latkes, sourdough toast;

or the more intriguing-sounding

Angry Benedict ~ shrimps[ sic ], spinach, jalapeño, Cajun Hollandaise sauce (I even ordered this dish sans any shrimps[ sic ] two visits previous to check out this version of Hollandaise sauce).

Sadly, they no longer offer the Marco Polo Benedict ~ two poached eggs, turkey, tomatoes, avocado, served on English muffin, Hollandaise sauce with salad and potato medley or potato latkes. I was thinking of getting that one this morning if it were still available. Maybe too many people (wiseacre-types for sure) commented on it being neither Italiano- or Asian-related (see, turkey, tomatoes, and avocados are all New World items and would not have been available anywhere in either Europe or Asia in the 13th Century).

These might not prove to be the Best Pancakes that I might have in 2019, but they were definitely the Best Pancakes that I have had thus far in 2019! (insert drooling-emoji here) I suppose this dish could also easily have been called "Bananas Foster Pancakes" (Sorry, Gretchen! [For some reason, I think she really hates caramel.]). There was at least one whole banana sliced and fanned out on top of the pancakes. While the banana itself was not actually flambéd or brûléed, it is the idea that counts, Chef Blangé. (Maybe I shoulda asked for a shot of Rum on the side.) This came as two medium-sized pancakes, but do not let that wording fool you; these were extra thick and fluffy and two were about my limit this morning, anyway.

I would normally get a potato-based side dish (they offer hashbrowns, homefries, and sweet potato tots), but I saw the fried Brussel[ sic ] sprouts dish on the breakfast menu and had to get it. "But, Brian... Brussel[ sic ] sprouts for breakfast?!" Jazeker! Zur Hölle, ja! Enfer, ouais! (Take your pick from any of the languages that they may speak in the town of Brussel
[ sic ], Belgiums.) Besides, there were sections of orange and grapefruit throughout, and that spells "breakfat" (with or without any d*rn "s") to me. As it turned out, the Brussel[ sic ] sprouts starter was the perfect way to go; this made the meal savoury-sweet in its entirety. The Brussel[ sic ] sprouts were excellent and extra crispy (read: burnt just how I likes 'em).

Home Plate offered both Tabasco® Brand 
Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original) for use as condimentary supplements. I had come prepared with a few of my own hot sauces, too, but due to the meal ordered this morning, none were needed or used, anyway.

Now if they had only drizzled some of that caramel sauce on top of my Brussel[ sic ] sprouts, I bet that would have made them even more awesome.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Dulce de Leche Pancakes ~ 7.0;
Brussel[ sic ] Sprouts ~ 7.3

___________________

1. "Hey, Brian, why do you always feel the Grammar Nazi need to point out when a restaurant mispels 'Brussels sprouts'?"

First off, I prefer the more PC-term: "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei Grammatician". 

Secondly, I am sure that their computers also have a "spell-checkering" function-thing that would inform them of any missing "s"s before they print their menus.

Thirdly, you must be one of them d*mn linguistic prescription-hating Jews!

(Actually, I am getting pretty [ sic ] and tired of all these places manglising owr hilee vonted 'merican langwidge!)

Home Plate

♪ "Home (Plate) is where I want to be...

Never for money, always for love..." ♫ 

https://www.homeplatesf.net/

(New location, new web-site.)


Place: Home Plate

(new) Location:  2150 Lombard Street 
(between Fillmore and Steiner Streets)

Hours: open for breakfast Monday - Friday at 7:00am, and Sunday - Saturday at 7:00am 

Meal: Garden Omelette ~ mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, scallion, bell peppers, spinach, avocado, Cheddar cheese, served with salad (read: your basic bo-ring rabbit-food mixed lettuce-stuff) and potato medley or potato latkes (add $2.00 for fresh fruit instead of potatoes ~ which only an idiot would ever do), sourdough toast; plus, all breakfasts still come with a complimentary mini-scone with two different homemade (well, Home Plate-made) jams (I think today's tasty offerings were mango and strawberry); and a larga glassa (Honeydew) Melon juice/drink

(You only wish that you were cool enough to wear an over-sized suit-coat and dance with a floor-lamp!)[1]


Normally I try to get back to Home Plate (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, February 26th, 2017) at least once a year before the Baseball Season has begun and that has generally been in mid-late February. Luckily for me, I waited a few extra months as I probably would have gone over there during their recent relocation when they were closed.

Home Plate has moved one block eastward on Lombard Street. You would be surprised how much difference one block can make. This is such a better location business-wise. It is a much larger space, too. I am sure they will double their already busy business. They have been relocated now since Presidents Day Weekend in the space that used to house Bay Watch Restaurant (and formerly First Watch Restaurant) for many years (and directly across the street from one of the Mel's drive-ins). They have completely refurbished the interior and it has a much more "upscaley" décor now. I kinda liked their old more "Homey (Plate)" feeling better. At least, they still have old photos of Baseball players on the walls (even if some of them are of old Y*nkees players).

I have enjoyed going to this little Thai-family-owned restaurant for many years now and am glad to see that they did not close shop. 

Some other interesting ideas that I was idea-ing:

Dulce de Leche Pancakes ~ banana, caramel, sliced almond[ sic ] and whipped cream (I do want to try this dish one of these days; however, I really was not in the mood for a "sweet" breakfast; plus, I just [sorta] had "pancakes" for breakfast yesterday);

Marco Polo (Benedict) ~ two poached eggs, turkey, tomatoes, avocado, served on English muffin, Hollandaise sauce with salad and potato medley or potato latkes (add $2.00 for fresh fruit instead of potatoes ~ "NO!") (of course, if I were to order this one, it would be without the dead, decaying barnyard-foul-fowl; I am trying to figure out why they named this dish after an Italian explorer of the Orient ~ all of the special ingredients are New World items and none would have been available anywhere in either Europe or Asia in the 13th Century);

Spinach Frittata ~ spinach, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, served with potato medley or potato latkes (add $2.00 for Fresh fruit instead of potatoes ~ still "NO!"), sourdough toast (I have had this a few time before, but it bears repeating, Yogi);

or 

Greek Frittata ~ spinach, tomatoes, Calamata
[ sic ] olives, Feta cheese (I have also had this a few time before, but it is so good that it doubly-bears repeating, Boo-Boo).

And for those of you that partake of the dead, decaying aquatic insects, there is also the Bangkok Frittata ~ shrimps[ sics ; now why the have "shrimps" in the plural and "almond" only singular... immano! ], tomato, mushrooms, scallion, herbs.

(This was ~ well, it still is ~ located directly across the street from Home Plate's old location.)


Oh, no! My closest local IHOP® Restaurant in San Francisco has closed?! Now where the h*ck am I supposed to get my freebie Rudy-Tudy-Fresh-and-Frudy Birthday Breakfast?!? (There is actually another remaining location on Beach Street in the Fisherman's Wharf area; however, that would mean dealing with even harder parking and even more touristas.) 

(And good luck trying to lease out this large space and building with its iconic Swiss château-style peaks. At least it does come with its own adjacent parking lot.)

I liked this omelette and its ingredients combination. 'nuff said, McGreevy! This was one HUGE omelette! 
I just managed to finish it all... well, except for a bite or three...

They are now serving a medley of rainbow potatos 
(Yeah, I am well-aware it should be "potatoes", James Danforth, but it looks so much nicer with seven letters and rainbow-colouring) as their breakfast side; it included Yukon gold potatos, purple/blue potatos, red potatos, and sweet potatos. Checking my past few 'blog-entries at this place, this is a new addition. They used to offer hashbrowns and not this current version of homefries/roasted potatoes (or potatos). These were very good, but I will probably opt for their option of potato latkes in future visits ~ those are extremely tasty!

Home Plate offers both Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original) for use as condimentary supplements. I am still trying to get to the bottom of my bottle of Palo Alto Fire Fighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!), so I used a little more of it on the rainbow potatos. (Sheesh! This bottle must be a corn-u-cope-ee-ya! It is taking me forever to use it up.) I also used a light dusting of Charlie's Chili Stuff (Thanks, Sharon! ~ Charlie may not surf, but he sure knows his chilli-powder!) on top of the omelette.

New location, new (old?) web-site (again, finally), new potatos medley; same great old food!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Garden Omelette ~ 7.1;
complimentary mini-scone with jams ~ 7.3

___________________

1. Yeah, I probably have used this song ~ and this exact video ~ (several times?) before, but it is not only my favourite Talking Heads song, it is also one of my 
All-Time Favourite Songs of All-Time. So deal with it!

Cafe GoLo

There was nuthin' crooked 'bout this breakfast!

(No official web-site thing.)


Place: Cafe GoLo ~ Boutique Cafe

Location: 1602 Lombard Street (at Gough Street[1]); 
phonicular contact: (415) 673-4656

Hours: open every day of the week at 8:00am

Meal: Florentine Taters ~ country potatoes scrambled with spinach, sautéed onion, "the vile weed", mushrooms, zucchini, and cheese, with one over-medium egg laid (that is "placed"; I don't think they have any actual chickens ovulating in their kitchen) on top; a mixed fruit tart for breakfastary openers (I made sure to get a pear-apple tart and a sweet potato tart to Go(Lo), too); and a glassa orange juice

So, I decided to Go(Lo) back to Cafe GoLo ~ 
Boutique Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, January 21st, 2017) for breakfast again this morning. There was no sign of Miss PeeBee there this morning, but I did say "Hello!" to Jay (though, I did manage to refrain from bringing up the sore subject of exactly when Grits might finally be opening; at this point, I think there is a better chance of the 49ers facing the Brownies in the Super Bowl next year than Grits opening any time soon in the near ~ or far ~ future).

Much like yesterday's predecided choice of meal, I knew well in advance that I would be ordering this meal. (I just had the GoLo Ranchero on my last visit earlier in the year, or, otherwise, I would have ordered that again.) This happened to be the first meal that I had ever ordered when I "discovered" Cafe GoLo about five years aGo(Lo) now; however, they used to call it "Veggie" Tater Scramble (and I very am happy for this name change nel modo di Firenze, Ms. Nightingale). I had originally enjoyed this dish so much so that I made myself an insane annotation to return again some day soon; that "some day" turned out to be exactly a month later that year and I have been returning again and again and again ever since. What makes this particularly "special" is that they use both regular potatoes and sweet potatoes in the scramble mixture. Even with "the vile weed" as an ingredient in it (and, yes, I could have requested them to omit "the vile weed", but would you have told Michelangelo to tell Mona Lisa to try smiling just a bit more for her sitting?!), this is still a great tasting dish!

For condimentary supplements, Cafe GoLo has at least Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) and a few other hot sauces. I used some of my own Dat'l Do-it® Zesty Chipotle Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on one half of the potato mess and Lucky Dog Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian! [There is just about one dosage left in the bottle; however, this does not mean that anyone should think about sending me three-to-five replacement hot sauces when it is used up!]) on the other half of the potato pile.


Up next (and hopefully a few different places):

Whatever breakfastary outlets might be available while vacationing next week in Wareham, Massachusetts (or on Cape Cod, even).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Florentine Taters ~ 7.1;
mixed fruit tart ~ 7.0

___________________

1. I wonder if they had initially found a different location along Lombard Street at the corner of Hyde, Lyon, or Polk Streets, if they would have called the place "Cafe HyLo", "Cafe LyLo", or "Cafe PoLo", Marco.

Home Plate

"People ask me what I do in Winter when there's no Baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for Spring." ~ Rogers Hornsby 

(No official web-site. They used to have one, though.)


Place: Home Plate
Location: 2274 Lombard Street (between Pierce and Steiner Streets); phonicular contact: (415) 922-4663
Hours: open every day at 7:00am
Meal: Angry Benedict ~ two poached eggs, shrimps 
[ sic ], spinach, jalapeños, with Cajun Hollandaise sauce, served with two potato-carrot pancakes or hashbrowns; and a large glassa orange juice (I really wanted to order a large glassa their "fresh-squeezed" cantaloupe juice, but I was told that the guy that makes their juices had not come in yet that morning... They have a special guy that just makes their juices? Really?! Even I think that I could manage a blender/juice-maker.)


Woo-HOO!!! It is Baseball (Spring Training-version) Season again!

So, I figured it was time to step up to Home Plate (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, February 21st, 2016 ~ almost exactly a year ago) again. I sat at a "new" (at least since my visit last year) sheet metal-topped counter-table where there are four stools.

They have both a printed "Special" [ sic, in the singularity] menu insert and a weekend specials blackboard (well, it is actually a dry-erase "whiteboard", but those matter, too). My meal came off the weekend specials board (whether it be black or white).

A few other possible ideas this morning that I was looking at off the printed "Special" menu:

Dulce de Leche[1] Pancakes ~ 2 pancakes filled with dulce de leche and topped with caramel, sliced almond [ sic, also in the singular, but I bet they use more than one almond] and whipped cream

or

Bangkok Frittata ~ shrimps [ sic ~ again; now if they had only used this superfluous "s" for "Specials" or "almonds"...], mushroom, tomato, green onion, cilantro, jalapeños, kaffir lime leaves, galangal[2], served with 2 potato-carrot pancakes or hashbrowns and toast (of course, I would have ordered this dish without the dead, decaying aquatic insects, much like I did with my Benedict this morning; 555!).

Plus, there are many other great selections off their standard printed menu. I have had most of the items that are stupid vegetarian-friendly, but would not mind reordering any of them.

Like yesterday morning's meal, this was another very good take on your standard Eggs Benedict dish. I particularly liked that they used slices of fresh jalapeños and not the pickled version; and they used a good amount, too ~ so, this was not for the Gringo at heart. The Cajun Hollandaise sauce was also very good; it really wasn't that hot, but with the added jalapeños under the eggs, it all ended up being pretty picante.

I went with the side choice of two potato-carrot pancakes (which are not really "pancakes" in the 'merican sense of the word, but are really German-style Kartoffelpuffer). There is nothing wrong with their hashbrowns, I just think that this other potatoey option is very good.

As always, every breakfast starts with a complimentary (and complementary) homemade (well, Home Plate-made) mini-scone with two of their homemade (again, Home Plate-made) jams. Today's jams were: strawberry and mango. I used the surplus on top of one of the potato-carrot pancakes. (I am just glad that their mini-scone baker and jam-maker were not late into work this morning.)

For condimentary supplements, Home Plate offers Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce), Cholula® Hot Sauce (Original), and Huy Fong Foods, Inc. Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. I had brought a few of my own hot sauces with me, but did not feel it necessary to use any.

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

While crossing Lombard Street to get to the restaurant this morning, I saw (which I heard overhead first) a pair (a mini-pandemonium?) of the colourful chatter-birds flying westward, probably heading back home to their roost in one of the Eucalyptus trees in the Presidio.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Angry Benedict ~ 7.1 (this is factoring in their great Kartoffelpuffer, too);
homemade (well, Home Plate-made) mini-scone and jams ~ 7.3;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5

___________________

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

"Dulce de leche" literally translates from Spanish as "sweet from milk". It is a type of caramel pudding made from  slowly heating sweetened milk.

2. Huh?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galangal

Cafe GoLo

You know, my GoLo Ranchero did start this mornin'...

(Still no official web-site type-thing any more... or any less.)


Place: Cafe GoLo ~ Boutique Cafe
Location: 1602 Lombard Street (at Gough Street); phonicular contact: (415) 673-4656
Hours: open every day of the week at 8:00am
Meal: (to start) a raspberry-mango tart/pastry-thing; (for the main meal) GoLo Ranchero ~ corn tortillas topped with eggs, (black) beans, cheese, spicy salsa verde, served with sour cream and avocado (and some of their tasty tomato-corn salsa/relish thing); and (to drink) just a glassa orange juice (I am still fighting a cold from earlier in the week ~ this is about Round 13 and the judges have it scored 7-6 in my favour so far ~ and need all the extra Vitamin C that I can consume)

(There really is/are no EweToobular juxtaselection/s between this morning's breakfastary destination and Lightnin' Hopkins' Texas Blues. I had just posted some of ol' Sam's songs the last time that I visited Cafe GoLo
and felt like it once again.)


In concluding the pre-Season work-out of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, I finished up back at Cafe GoLo ~ Boutique Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 2nd, 2016).

I got a chance to finally question Miss PeeBee why there is no mention of their great baked goods anywhere on their menu. She told me that they are printing new menus very soon and that omission will be addressed (or no longer omitted, I suppose). They have really been missing out on these not being on the menu and relying solely upon stupid tourista-types to notice that they even have a large glass bakery shelf display in the back of the restaurant. As I have said this many times before in the past (because "before in the future" makes no sense, what-so-ever, even if you do own a hover-board), "These pastries are really worth a visit all for their-d*mn-selves!"

This dish is easily the best breakfast along Lombard 
Street (not that there are really that many places from which to choose for breakfast directly on Lombard 
Street, but still), and, if not for the most excellent 
Pain Perdu at Baker Street Bistro, I might even go as far to say, that this is the best breakfast in the entire Marina District/Cow Hollow area, too. I like that they give you an option of how you would like your eggs on top of the pile (and smothered under a great amount of spicy salsa verde ~ which is really the killer key to this entire dish); I went with my eggs "over-medium" this morning. I also love the amount of black beans that this sits atop. This would probably not be a good dish for any of you legumophobes (So, it's not a real word. Start your own d*mn 'blog-thing then.); however, black beans/black turtle beans[1] have been a favourite of mine since I first tried them wayyyyy back in 1983 at a Cuban restaurant in Miami, Ef-el-ay. (Thanks, Jordie & Pamela!) Don't worry, for those of you that do like to partake of the dead, decaying animal flesh (well, in this case, the dead decaying paltry poultry flesh), this meal can also have chicken added to it (Sorry, Mr. Hunt.). (So, which would come first? The "over-medium" eggs in the GoLo Ranchero or the chicken in the GoLo Ranchero?)

Having predetermined that I was going to be ordering the GoLo Ranchero before I had even left my apartment this morning, I did not bother schlepping
any of my own hot sauces with me (for which Miss PeeBee did notice and mentioned to me). After all, only a true heathen (or true alcoholic) would bring their own Brown Ale to Newcastle upon Tyne!

Because I could (and because they were seasonably available), I made sure to get an extra mixed-fruit tart/pastry-thing and a sweet potato tart/pastry-thing to take home with, to enjoy later this afternoon (or tomorrow while watching the NFL Conference Championship games ~ Go Patriots! Go Packers!).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
GoLo Ranchero ~ 7.4;
raspberry-mango tart/pastry-thing ~ 7.2

___________________

1. An entire web-site dedicated to black beans?! Just what can't you find on these World Wild Webs?

http://blackbeans.me/

Cafe GoLo

Meet you at the sweet potato, kiwi-cranberry, and blackberry-mango tarts and pastry-thing bakery-shack...

(No official-type web-site thing any longer... 
that I know of.)


Place: Cafe GoLo ~ Boutique Cafe
Location: 1602 Lombard Street (at Gough Street); phonicular contact: (415) 673-4656
Hours: open every day of the week at 8:00am
Meal: (to start) a blackberry-mango pastry-thing; (for the main meal) Florentine Omelet ~ eggs, with spinach, mushrooms, Feta and Mozzarella cheese, served with (country) potatoes and toast; and (to drink) a cuppa (and two refillas) whatever is their house Coffee

(There is no EweToobular juxtaselection between 
Cafe GoLo and Lightnin' Hopkins[1], I just felt like introducing some o' you folk to this great Blues artist. I, myself, was only introduced to his music less than twenty years ago now. [Thanks, Skip!])


One last stop for my Breakfastary Starting Rotation workout for this season/year. I headed back to 
Cafe GoLo (see last 'blog-entry from Friday, April 22nd, 2016 ~ Friday?! I am trying to figure out just why-the-heck I was off on a Friday that week.) for breakfast (and pastry-things) this morning. 

As with Eats yesterday, I think that I have now tried just about all of the stupid vegetarian-friendly items on their menu. This doesn't mean that I will not be ordering either GoLo Ranchero (corn tortillas topped with eggs, beans, cheese, spicy salsa verde, served with sour cream and avocado) or Florentine Taters (country potatoes scrambled with spinach, sautéed onions, the vile weed, mushrooms, zucchini, and cheese ~ this is an eggless dish, but you can get them to lay [as in "place on top"; I don't think they have any live chickens, Mr. Hopkins, working in their kitchen] one or two eggs on top o' the pile if you want) on any subsequent visits, as both of those are truly stellar, Mrs. Kowalski.

(Sorry. This photo does not do the pastry-thing justice at all. I would fire the bastage photographer, but we are related ~ plus, he only works for leftover food.)


I went with the opening choice of a blackberry-mango pastry-thing mainly because blackberries are in season right now and Cafe GoLo always likes to highlight fresh seasonal fruits in their baked goods. Of course, it was very tasty. I also made sure to get a couple more tarts (pastry-things?) to Go: one sweet potato and one kiwi-cranberry. I will be sure to enjoy those at home later today/tonight while watching some Football (Go 49ers! Go Patriots!) and Baseball (Go Red Sox!!! Go Giants!). 

If there is just one marketing pointer that I would like to impart to Cafe GoLo: instead of just giving people a small taste-teaser of their fresh-baked goods when you sit down, they really need to list some of these on their menu, or at least make sure that people are aware that these are available and maybe suggest adding one (or more) to your meal when they take your order. These pastries are really worth a visit all for their-d*mn-selves!

This was an ab-so-lyoot-lee HUGE omelette, I could not finish it entirely; I did make sure to scrape out the last of the fillings and finish all of that, at least. This was made with lots of sautéed fresh spinach. I was not quite sure how the combination of Mozzarella and Feta might work, but I was very impressed with the outcome. The Mozzarella made for the melty, chewy filling and the Feta adhered to everything much better that way. Who knew? (or Chi lo sapeva? or Οι οποίοι γνώριζαν;)

I chose the sourdough toast and had a side of their really good country potatoes (the "Country" in this case happens to be Sweet-Potato-and-Regular-Potato-sylvania).

For condimentary supplements, I simply went with some of my own hot sauces. I used a little 
Florida Gold Premium Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on top of the omelette, and some 
★ Pope's ★ Whiskey River Full Flavor Hot Sauce (Thanks, Amy and Chef Joe!) all over the country potatoes.

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

Just before entering the restaurant this morning, I saw a single pair ("A 'single pair'?" Is there even a term for a "small pandemonium"?) of the chattering feather-brains gambolling overhead along Lombard Street.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: 
Florentine Omelet ~ 6.7;
baked goods ~ 7.0-7.6;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5
___________________

1. Anyone that likes the Blues really should check out more of ol' Sam's music:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightnin%27_Hopkins