Caffé Union

"I do all my writing in bed. Everyone knows I do my best work there." 
~ Mae West

(No official web-site.)


Place: Caffé[1] Uníón 
Location: 1830 Uníón Stréét (between Octavia and Laguna Streets)
Hours: Monday through Friday open at 8:30am; Saturday and Sunday open at 8:00am (or 8:00ám); phonicular contact: (415) 673-4119
Meal: Basil Pesto, Fresh Tomatoes, Mushrooms, and Parmesan Cheese Omelet[2] ~ served with red country potatoes or herb potato pancakes with choice of sourdough or whole wheat toast; and a cuppa America's Best Coffee

(I really couldn't find any good Caffè-, Caffé-, Union-, or Uníón-related EweToobular songs, so I just figured I'd go with a couple of old Blues classics this morning.[3])


Sono tornato al Caffé Union (see 'blog-entry from June 24th, 2012) per la colazione di questa mattina. They are a medium-sized place with seating of five tables for four people, seven tables for two (which could always be combined for more tables of four if necessary), and even two Dog-friendly sidewalk tables for three people each (or two people and one large, black Dog each, like there was outside this morning).

Caffé Union has a few other good breakfastary ideas: Eggs of Paradise (two poached eggs in fresh homemade Tomato sauce with grilled French bread ~ which I had on my initial visit there; these were very good and always worth a return taste); a few different decent-sounding omelettes (Roasted Red Pepper, Smoked Ham, and Green Onions; Spinach, Tomatoes, and Feta Cheese; or Black Bean, Avocado, Homemade Salsa and Sour Cream); or the weekend special, Chicken Apple Sausage, Zucchini, Sundried Tomato Pesto, Yellow Onions, & Fontina Cheese Scramble. 

This was an absolutely HUGE omelette. The Basil Pesto was added into the egg mixture making it all very verdantly Seussian  ~ just with no side of green ham, Sam. While I liked this all well enough, I would not recommend this to those of you that are faint of heart with regards to either mushrooms or tomatoes, as they were both very much in abundance inside the omelette. For my potatoed side dish, I chose the red country potatoes (which I was happy to see were not from the country of Россия); the potatoes were all very nicely blackened/burned and crispy just likes I likes 'em (and apparently this is how they are normally prepared in one of them thar red countries). I went with sourdough toast as my choice in that department. 

The first cuppa Coffee was really kinda weak. I have had America's Best Coffee before, and while their moniker may be a bit on the lofty aspirations side (based in Oakland, CA, I wouldn't really even say they are the Bay Area's Best Coffee), it is still usually a decent enough cuppa. I was happy to see that the subsequent refilla was much better. So, I will just put it down to someone making the first potta the day a bit crummy (plus, I added the orange rind from the garnish on my plate ~ I ate the orange sections first ~ to help flavour it a bit more).

For condimentary supplementation, Caffé Union offers the San Francisco Triumvirate of Hot Sauces® (Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce ~ the standard red; Cholula® Hot Sauce; and Tapatio®). I simply used some of my own Youk's Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the commie potatoes and some El Yucateco® XXXtra Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero (Thanks again, Brian!) on parts of the omelette.

The bill came with a Charms® Mini Pop (mine today was Cherry mania), which is always nice. (This actually served as my lunch today as I was still pretty sufficiently stuffed from breakfast.)

(speaking of "mini") stupid parklets mini-rant of the day

Nooooooooooo!!! Not only have these street-side abominations already invaded the Outer Richmond, they have now crept (as in "creepy") into my immediate neighborhood! There is a brand new one of these obstructions (and an extra large, 3-4 car space one at that) in front of Simple Pleasures Cafe (see initial 'blog entry from March 15th, 2010) and, because of which, unfortunately, Simple Pleasures Cafe has now joined my ever-growing list of places to be boycotted. And in case you think I am being overly critical here: Golden Gate Park is just TWO BLOCKS away, fercryinoutloud! This is really a shame, because I really liked the Coffee there and the Bagel with Hummus and Veggies was a very nice light breakfast option; plus, their location just four blocks away was very handy. All of these stupid parklets are anathema to both actual parks and parking alike!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Omelet ~ 6.5


1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist (and pseudo-spelling Nazi) pointer of the day, prima parte:

"Caffé" is how they have it printed on both the menu and on their signage. As I have stated many times in the past (and a few times in the past weeks even), the correct spelling of both "Coffee" and "coffeehouse" in Italiano is "Caffè" and "caffè", con l'accento grave, non l'accento acuto. 

I really don't know why businesses wanting to emphasize their Italiano-ness insist on using the incorrect accentuation. Jùst hów hãrd ís ît tø věrïfý thësę?

2. And just because it's been a few weeks since I last added any (and I am getting paid by the word here, after all), here are several Italiano words from today's meal. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer(s) of the day, seconda parte:

A. "basil" = "basilico"
B. "pesto" = "pesto" (yeah, sometimes this stuff ain't Scienza Missilistica)
C. "tomatoes" = "pomodori"
D. "mushrooms" = "funghi" 
E. "Parmesan" = "Parmigiano"
F. "cheese" = "formaggio"
G. "omelette" = "frittata" (o "omelette"; sometimes this stuff ain't Chirurgia del Cervello neither)

3. For those of you not familiar with either Jazz Gillum or Bukka White, here is some information from our friendly friends at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Gillum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukka_White

L’s Caffé

"To err is human, but it feels divine." 
~ Mae West

http://lscaffe.com/


Place: L's Caffé[1]
Location: 2871 24th Street (between Bryant & Florida Streets)
Hours: open Monday-Friday 6:30am, Saturday-Sunday 8:00am (per their printed menus; however, according to their web-site, Monday-Friday 6am, Saturday-Sunday 7am ~ I am going with the hours on their printed menus because they were just setting up this morning when I arrived at 8:00am)
Meal: Banana-caramel French Toast ~ Texas style bread dipped in the L's banana and spice batter, topped with fresh bananas and caramel; side of homefried potatoes; and a Medium size cuppa The Organic Coffee co.® French Roast

(You may ask yourself, "Why is Brian playing Tom Waits songs on Lonesome Losers Day?" Because Tom Waits music is the traditional music of Star Trek Day[2] ~ well, since I started the tradition last year. Of course, Star Trek Day fell on a Saturday last year, and Lonesome Losers Day is always on the first Sunday of May. Last year it just happened to coincide with Easter, Mothers Day, and Cinco de Mayo. 

As they say in Outer Space and at all the geek conventions: "Mae West and the fourth day in the fifth month be with you as you live long and prosper!" ~ or something close enough to that. )


L's Caffé is a very friendly little local joint en el Corazón de la Misión.  They were cranking out a bunch of 60's and 70's Rock-and/or-Roll and R&B hits the entire time I was there (Mr.'s Kipe and  Cabucio take note: they even played Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax" ~ aka "the Benny Hill chase theme"). They have been open since 2005, but this was my first time ever stopping in there; hopefully it won't be another nine years before I do so again. I even found a good parking spot right along 24th Street just a block away, too.

L's Caffé is mainly a coffeehouse with just bagels and sandwiches and such during the week, but they do offer some more traditional breakfastary items on their "Weekend Menue [sic]". For example: Garden Benedict (2 poached eggs, baby spinach, avocado, and Canadian bacon layered over a toasted English muffin, topped with a citrus Hollandaise sauce; served with potatoes and fresh fruit salad) or something called Mollletes (French baguette open face, spread with butter, refried beans, topped with Swiss cheese and served with freshly made pico de gallo salsa). I have never had Molletes before, but they sound pretty interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollete

This was served as two thick-cut (Texas toast-style) slices of bread and it had lots of bananas and a very thick caramel sauce; a very, ooey-gooey (meaning "very ood-good" to me) mess it was. I wasn't a diabetic when I walked in there in the morning, but they did offer a complimentary insulin injection with the bill. The only thing that might have made this just a little bit better (and it's not as if I could ever have done so myself) would have been if they sautéed the bananas first, but for being "just a coffeehouse", it really was exceptional.

They really don't offer a side of potatoes on their Weekend Menue, but were nice enough to make one for me ('cause I asked). See ~ stuff like that is what will keep people coming back and give you a great word of mouth (Sound of ears? Sight of eyes? Smell of noses?). They weren't actually red potatoes, though, but no points are ever deducted from the GBS Rating due to Achromatopsia. The side of potatoes ended up being a good idea on my part to cut all the sweetness of the main dish.

The cuppa Coffee was another nice find this morning. The Organic Coffee co.® is a local Northern California roastery, but I don't think I have ever had any of their Coffee before. Apparently L's Caffé usually has three different roasts/blends of fresh-ground Coffee available and I was given a French Roast this morning. It was rich, strong, and chock full o' body. 

http://www.organiccoffeecompany.com/

L's Caffé offers for condimentary supplements just Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) and Cholula® Hot Sauce, which is not that bad a choice for a coffeehouse, but being situated in the Mission, I was expecting a few others still. It didn't really matter as I had come well-equipped with a few of my own, and went with a little Dave's Gourmet® Ginger Peach Hot Sauce (Thanks, Jim!) and a little Born to Hula presents Devon Allman's All Natural Hot Sauce Chipotle Blues (Thanks, Kerry!) on various areas of the potatoes.

Not that I needed any additional sugar coursing through my veins (besides, it is a well-known scientific fact, when you convert sugar into caramel, it reduces the levels of "bad sugar" ~ well, that is my story and I am sticking with it), but whenever I am in the area, I like to stop by Dynamo Donut + Coffee for a breakfast dessert treat (I really need to come up with a good portmanteau for that one of these days; I am open to suggestions ~ sure, I may not like them, but I am always open). I had a Strawberry Earl Grey doughnut this morning ~ made with an Earl Grey tea glaze and lots of bits of fresh strawberries in the batter. Some other interesting flavours of the day: Caramel de Sel; Chocolate Rose; Ginger Orange; Chocolate Star Anise; Lemon Pistachio; Passion Fruit Milk Chocolate; Spiced Chocolate; Meyer Lemon Huckleberry; and (for those of you idiots that are enamoured with dead, decaying piggy bits) Maple Glazed Bacon Apple.

http://www.dynamodonut.com/

And I was very happy that for the dual-Holidays not one stupid parklet was to be seen anywhere in the entire neighborhood (or barrio, even).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Banana-caramel French Toast ~ 6.5;  The Organic Coffee co.® French Roast ~ 7.4; Dynamo Donut Strawberry Earl Grey ~ 7.3


1. Of course, they are free to call their restaurant whatever they like, but the correct spelling of "Coffee" (or "Coffeehouse") in Italiano is "Caffè" (o "Caffè")… con l'accento grave, non l'accento acuto. Again, no GBS Rating points are ever deducted for errori di ortografia, Miss Tori.

2. Sure, the melodic croonings of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, or Brent Spiner would have been much more sensible choices, but I couldn't find any Tom Waits covers by them.

KITCHEN Story

California Cuisine…
I am not exactly sure what they would call this in Minnesota or Oklahoma, though.

http://kitchenstorysf.com

(These two EweToob videos are for my nephew, Alan, who is a Dresden Dolls fan. Alan just completed his 6,000 mile/almost two-year long walking trek across the United States, from Seattle to Washington, D.C.

Nice work, Forrest Forrest!

"LGBT Equality is as LGBT Equality does."

You can read about his journey here if you like:

http://www.intothelightwalk.com/ )


I went to KITCHEN Story for breakfast this morning. They are a relatively new place and this was my first time eating there; they have only been open since November of last year. I don't know what the name of the restaurant is supposed to signify (maybe I should have asked one of the workers; maybe next time). KITCHEN Story is located in the spot that used to house Tangerine (insert sobs and sighs here), on the corner of 16th and Sanchez Streets. I was happy to see that they still have the large sidewalk seating area along Sanchez Street (which is mostly shaded by trees; this can be a good thing whenever the Sun might be out ~ like this morning, but it also can be pretty chilly when the Sun isn't out ~ like most of the time in the Summer). In keeping with my 2013 Breakfastary Resolution, they open up every day at 8:00am and their menu specifies the first meal of the day as "Breakfast"; however, don't let the wording fool you, this place is a completely brunchified place in both cuisine and atmosphere, but that didn't stop me from eating there.

Whenever I go to the Castro, I like to park over on Beaver Street. I can usually find a legal spot and there are no time-limit restrictions all week long, and it is just one block away from Market Street. Plus, I just love the irony of the name in that neighborhood. You can be sure that most of the residents will not be hunting out "Beaver" Street.

Just across the street from KITCHEN Story is a pretty neat mural along a fence called "Tonantsin Renace" by Collette Crutcher. I particularly like how the trees in the yard behind it form a sort of verdant hairdo for her.

http://mosaicartsource.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/mosaic-mural-mosaic-artist-colette-crutcher-san-francisco/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonantzin

KITCHEN Story calls their restaurant "California Cuisine", but it seems like "California Cuisine with a twist of Asian Fusion" to me. Their Breakfast menu offers a nice selection of Egg plates; Omelets, Scrambles, Etc.; Poached Eggs Entrees; Hotcakes and French toast; and Morning melts. If you are a fan of the dead, decaying cured pork-belly products, then you would probably enjoy one of their signature (if you could sign with pork-fat, that is) breakfastary side dishes called Millionaire's Bacon; it is two extra thick slices of bacon that have been cured in 100% maple syrup or some such thing. I was thinking about ordering the Athenian omelet ~  tomato, mushroom, arugula, Greek olives, mild goat cheese; this sounded pretty good to me, but I have had versions of Greek Omelettes many times in the past, and as Mae West always liked to say: "When choosing between two evils, I like to try the one I've never tried before." So I ordered Okonomiyaki[1] (modernyaki) egg pancake ~ cabbage, scallion, asparagus, carrots, mushroom, red onion. I also had a side of Rainbow Potatoes and a cuppa Resident(?) Coffee, French Roast.

There is a strong possibility that this place is owned by the same folks that own Sweet Maple (see last 'blog-entry from October 6th, 2012). They offer several of the same dishes: Athenian omelet ~ which is called Athenian Omelette (with the exact same ingredients) at Sweet Maple ~ and Millionaire's Bacon to name just a few.

You ask, "What is Okonomiyaki?", Daniel-san? Well, as best as I can figure, it's some kinda Japanese savoury pancake. I have never had one before in any of my times eating at Japanese restaurants and figured this was as good a time as any to try one. Now, I am not quite sure why this was served with several slices of orange and strawberries on top of it (there were too many of them to really be considered just a "garnish"), but I still ate all of them, anyway.

The Rainbow Potatoes included: white, red, blue (or purple), and sweet potatoes, and were pretty good.

The coffee was a very good, strong cup; where I felt it absolutely necessary to get two more refills. Not only do they serve a French Roast coffee, but my server knew that and also the brand of coffee that was served; you'd be surprised how many people would just say "some kind of coffee" and leave it at that. Now something may have been lost in the translation (my server was Asian, and I can only assume "ESL" doesn't mean "Electromagnetic Systems Laboratories" to him) and it sounded like he said "Resident Coffee“, I had him repeat it once and didn't want to seem like I was an INS Agent grilling him, so I left it at that. However, I can not find any links to a "Resident Coffee" or "President Coffee" or even any "Lesident Coffee" on the Intro-Nets.

KITCHEN Story has for condimentary supplementation just Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (both the standard red and the green Jalapeño); plus, the pancake came with it's own sauce (which may or may not have had some spice to it), which was kinda like a Thousand Islands, just with a bit more flavour. Once again, I used some of my own Spicymonkey Raspberry & chipotle ketchup (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the potatoes, and a little Serious Food… Silly Prices Chunky Habanero (Thanks again, Cindy & Greg!) on the pancake in conjunction with their own sauce to give it a little more kick.

This was good as a change of pace, but I wouldn't go back just for this dish. I mean, it was no Macaroni & Corn Pancakes (or even a Zucchini Latke), but I would still recommend it and would like to try some of their other dishes… 'cause like anyone, all I really want is that fickle little bitch, breakfast.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Okonomiyaki (modernyaki) egg pancake ~ 6.0; Resident(?) Coffee, French Roast ~ 6.8


1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo culinaristic pointer of the day:
 
"Okonomiyaki" derives from the Japanese words "okonomi", meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and "yaki", meaning "grilled" or "cooked".

Baker Street Bistro

Une fois de plus
















http://www.bakerstreetbistro.com/


I went to the most excellent Baker Street Bistro* again (see April 17th, 2010 and September 25th, 2010 entries). I know that "serendipity"** is not a French word, but it did describe my finding a parking space directly in front of the restaurant for a change. If it weren't for a slight (but steady) rain and a bit of a chill, I would have eaten outside on their sidewalk patio; they do have a retractable awning that covers the tables and also overhead gas heaters if you feel like eating out there.

The second photo above I have titled "A Self-portrait of the Artist as an Old Fool" (with all due respects to Jimmy Joyce).

I did not see any Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill this morning (it was pretty cloudy and overcast), but I did hear several of them somewhere in the neighborhood.

This place is another of those establishments that has a bathroom that is decorated nicer than my apartment. I like the touch of the old rotary phone (it's not hooked up, I checked) on the side table.



I did not "find" it necessary to go with the Pain Perdu (nor the Oeufs Baker Street Bistro, either) today. I wanted to try something different for a change (plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose?). So I had the Oeufs Florentine*** ~ Spinach, poached eggs, English Muffins, Hollandaise*** sauce; served with home fries and mixed greens. This is your basic Eggs Florentine (which is just Eggs Benedict sans jambon, mais avec des épinards); they make a very decent and creamy Hollandaise sauce. Now don't get me wrong, this was a great breakfast, but I can get Eggs Florentine at a lot of places. If I had never had their excellent Pain Perdu or Oeufs Baker Street Bistro, I would probably order this dish again; I will highly recommend it, though.

Once again, their home fries were very good, roasted with a nice mixture of (what I only assume was) herbes de Provence.**** The side of mixed greens was ~ yawn! ~ just a buncha fancy lettuces; which is fine, I am sure, if you are some kinda stupid vegetarian or something. ("Salads? We don' need no stinkin' salads!")



I had a very good, strong cuppa their house coffee (well, several refills, actually), which is from Moschetti, Inc. and despite the name, they are not an imported Italiano brand; they are actually a local company out of Vallejo. It took me a while to glean the name of the coffee company from the more-than friendly staff ("There are no dumb questions, just dumb questioners."):

Me: What kinda coffee do you serve?
Mexican busboy*****: Something French, I think.
(Sorry, Diane, I did not get his name.)

http://www.moschetti.com/

Not that it needed it, but I went with a little Roland® Piri-Piri with Lemon hot sauce on the home fries. I also brought with me the newest addition to my répertoire des condiments ~ McCormick® Black Peppercorn Grinder. This little portable pepper grinder has three settings; I went with the largest/coarsest setting for the best effect. (Thanks for the great idea, Dave!)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Oeufs Florentine ~ 7.0; Moschetti Coffee ~ 6.8


*(Useless cunning linguist pointer of the day #1:

As I had mentioned in my original post about Baker Street Bistro, the word "bistro" is of obscure origin and may either have come from the Russian word "быстро" ~ pronounced "BEE-stra" ~ meaning "quickly"; or it may have come from the word "bistraud", "a little shepherd", a word of the Poitou dialect, from "biste" meaning "goat"; or another version is that it is an abbreviation of "bistrouille", a French term for Brandy mixed with coffee.

However, why not go with the one that sounds the most fun? So it is the impatient Cossacks version for me.

"When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I have never tried before." ~ Mae West)

**(Useless cunning linguist pointer of the day #2:

"Serendipity" is actually an English word, coined by Horace Walpole in 1754 to describe the heroes of the Persian fairytale The Three Princes of Serendip, who "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.")

***(A veritable International egg dish, but do Firenze and Nederland even get along? What does the EEC think about all this? Will the profits from all sales of this dish go to help bail out Ireland, Greece, and Spain? And what about Naomi?)

****(The standard mixture of herbes de Provence typically contains savory, fennel, basil, and thyme flowers and other dried herbs.)

*****(Busboy? Or is it more PC to say "Municipal Transportation Person" now-a-days?)