LaLe

No actual Nederlandse kindjes were harmed during the writing of this 'blog-thing.

https://www.lalesf.com/


Place: LaLe

Location:  731 Irving Street 
(between 8th and 9th Avenues)

Hours: "Brunch" is served at 9:00am during the week and at 8:00am on Saturday and Sunday

Meal: Dutch Baby Pancake ~ w/ caramelized apples & housemade (restaurant-made, whatever) whipped cream; a side order of homefries; and a cuppa (and one refilla; I drank a whole cuppa while waiting the 15-20 minutes for the pancake to be baked; they warn you ahead of time that it can take a while to prepare this dish) Sightglass Coffee (I forgot to ask which roast/blend they serve, though)

https://sightglasscoffee.com/

(There were not meant to be any EweToobular juxtaselections with the above two songs/videos. 
These two songs were played [back-to-back] on the house [restaurant, whatever] stereo while I was eating my meal. However, I bet that Sir George Ivan and those the Four Tops fellows would all enjoy a good Dutch Baby Pancake. I mean, who wouldn't?)


As I have been double-heading all of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation for visits this month, it was back to LaLe (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, October 26th, 2019... so, basically, yesterday) once again this morning.

Even before I had left my apartment this morning, I had already known exactly what I was going to order for breakfast ("Brunch", whatever). However, I really do need to try their new(-ish?) frittatas that are now offered. I think earlier this year was when I first saw the new items on their printed menu (their web-site does not even show these yet). There are three different frittatas (served with salad and fruit; where I would probably request a substitution of their very good homefries), thusly:

Paris ~ leeks, bacon (sorry, Glen, but you would have to be nixed), peas, goat cheese;

Seattle ~ asparagus, peppers, chicken-apple sausage (which would have to go the way of poor Glen above), Cheddar (this would most likely be my first choice of frittata);

and 

Milan (v) ~ spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, Cheddar.

See? No tulips in the vase on my table again this morning. Just some (if not a bit on the wilting side) roses and such. There were various colours of roses 
on all of the other tables, too.

This was so good! This dish is probably my second favourite breakfast ("Brunch", whatever) meal that they offer. Dutch Baby Pancakes are only offered during weekend "Brunch", though. It can also be ordered with bacon or strawberries; I just prefer the caramelized apples version. I am not sure exactly what kind of flower petals (they were quite possibly tulip petals, but never having eaten a tulip before, I could not tell you for certain) were used as a garnish on top of the whipped cream. I hope they were edible... 'cause I done edibled them both. I bet these pancakes would be extremely good with fresh rosemary sprigs on top of the whipped cream, too.

For condimentary supplementation, LaLe had... same as yesterday. I used some of my own H*ll's Kitchen® Chipotle Chocolate Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) all over the side order of potatoes... and even a skosh on a small part of the pancake. ("No, you did 'nt, Brian!" Do not judge my culinary quirks!) I also used some grinds of The Spice & Tea Exchange® Pirate's Bite Spice Blend (Thanks, Cindy!) on the homefries. (Relax. I did not sprinkle any on top of the pancake, because that would just be silly.)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Dutch Baby Pancake ~ 7.5;
Sightglass Coffee ~ 7.2

café bean

♪
"Sunny, sunny morn...
Paint your omelette green and gold 
(and red bell peppers)... "
♫ 

(No official-type web-site thing.)


Place: café bean

Location: 800 Sutter Street (on the corner of Jones Street); phonicular contact: (415) 928-0888

Hours: at this point, I really have no idea; at least they were open after 8:30am or so when I arrived this morning, which was good enough for me

Meal: Van Gogh Omelette ~ bell pepper, onion, avocado, and cream cheese, served with whole wheat toast; and, to drink, a medium (16 oz) cuppa de Huiskoffie ~ Chester's[1] Dark French[2]

(I know you must be a-wonderin' just what exactly is the juxtaselection with today's EweToobular video/song. Well, I will bet that you were not aware that Donald McLean III is a big fan of cream cheese and avocado in his omelettes, too.)


Eindelijk, ik ging terug naar café bean (see last 'blog-entry from Zaterdag 21 november, 2015) after many failed attempts over the past several months. Possibly their current opening time is 8:00am. The times are not listed/posted anywhere, but their "OPEN" sign on the door had a little clock-thing that was set to 8:00 (whether that meant ante or post the meridiem, I have no idea). However, just in case ("fool me five or six times... "), I did have a back-up plan planned, Stan: I would have just walked the two blocks over to 
Honey Honey ~ Cafe & Crepery instead (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, November 21st, 2015).

Chester (who I am pretty sure is the owner/manager-guy) works the till and makes any Coffee-drinks that are ordered. Mrs. Chester (who I am pretty sure is de echte baas) does all the cooking/food preparing in the back kitchen-space. I am not exactly sure what their kitchen set-up is like, but for a neighborhoody corner coffeehouse joint, they do a pretty good job with their breakfastary dishes. 

Even if I only get over there every two to three (or more) years, there are still some other ideas that I would like to try (that is, if they happen to be open again when I do stop by):

De Vries Omelette ~ egg white, tofu, bell pepper, onion, and tomato;

Michelangelo Omelette ~ egg omelette with tomato, pesto, cheese, spinach (I was not aware that Mamma Buonarroti's little bambino was actually from Olanda... );

Daniel's Omelette ~ onion, mushroom, spinach, artichoke, olive tapenade (now this "Daniel" guy may or may not be Dutch himself); 

or

Hot "Veggie" (How do you say "uggh!" in Dutch?) Breakfast Burrito ~ onion, bell pepper, chilies, tomato, cheese, spinach.

Plus, their Cinnamon Apple Dutch Pancake (which I had on my initial visit there) is always worth reordering. 

(When ordering this particular omelette, be sure to speak loudly and clearly into Chester's left ear... )


This omelette was made with three different coloured bell peppers: red, green, and gold (which, coincidentally enough, are the colours of the Dutch National flag). Now, I am not normally a fan of cream cheese in an omelette, but with the addition of the avocado, this actually worked for me this morning (I am not so sure what ol' Vinnie the V would know about avocados, though).

I did not bother to ask Chester what they might have had to offer in the way of any hot sauce condimentary supplementation. As per the norm, Mr. Peterson, I had come prepared with a few of my own bottles of hot sauce, anyway. I used some Chili in Hawai'i Habanero Garlic Hot Sauce (Thanks, Greg & Cindy!) on top of the omelette (just about ten drops or so only).

Overall pluses: they offer a good, robust Coffee; and it is a very friendly little joint
Underall minuses: unfortunately, they do not offer any potato side-dishes (probably due to their limited kitchen restrictions); and not knowing exactly when/if they will be open in the mornings


the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

Now this was a very strange sighting. On my way home, while waiting at the bus stop on the corner of Arguello Avenue and Geary Boulevard, I first heard ('cause that is how these flying chatterboxes are usually spotted), then looked up and saw a pretty large pandemonium (easily thirty or more of the colourful feather-brains) flying overhead heading southwest towards Golden Gate Park. You do not normally see them this far westward (ho!) in the city. I really had to wonder just where the h*ck were they heading to? (And, yes, I am well aware that grammatically the sentence should read: "... where the H*ll were they heading to, *sshole?")


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Van Gogh Omelette ~ 6.5;
Chester's Donker Nederlands ~ 7.0;
the Wild Parrots of San Francisco ~ 8.5

___________________

1. I can only assume that the owner/counter-guy's name is "Chester". Several other regular-customer-type persons greeted him by that name when they came in (either that, or he was just too polite to correct de domme Amerikanen). 

2. I did make sure to ask Chester why this was not called "Donker Nederlands". However, he did not have a good answer for that zinloze vraag.

LaLe

Kids, be nice to your Mother (Earth)...
I am told she is the only one we have (and no one wants to be an interplanetary orphan).

http://www.lalesf.com/


Place: LaLe

Location:  731 Irving Street 
(between 8th and 9th Avenues)

Hours: breakfast and/or "Brunch" are served daily at 8:00am

Meal: Dutch Baby Pancake (just one, but it was an extra large pancake) ~ w/ caramelized apples & housemade (restaurant-made, whatever) whipped cream; and to drink with the meal a glassa fresh strawberry-lemonade; and afterward a cuppa Snowbird Coffee - Zatara blend (pour-over/drip-method)

http://snowbirdcoffee.com/

("Old Man" Noel Yang does one h*ckofa great anthem for our Momma.)


To wrap up the early-Season workout of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, I went back to LaLe (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, January 21st, 2018)... which just leaves closing with some (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!) next weekend. LaLe has a brand-new (well, since-January-new) wooden-carved/lathed sign over the front door.

Still some other ideas yet to try:

Mexico City (Scrambler) ~ chorizo (which would get ochenta-y-seis-ed for me), green onions, mushrooms, guacamole, sour cream, cheese;

Napa (Scrambler) ~ goat cheese, mushrooms, bacon (also 86-time), bell peppers;

(Scramblers are served with home style potatoes and housemade [restaurant-made, whatever] English muffin)

Toronto (Benediction) ~ ham (no way, you hoser!), grilled tomato, spinach (housemade [restaurant-made, whatever] English muffin topped with poached eggs, Hollandaise sauce, served w/ potatoes);

or maybe

Fennel Cabbage Salad ~ green and purple cabbage, fresh fennel, apples, arugula (and I would probably have a couple of poached eggs placed on top).

Stuff like this is exactly why LaLe is currently in my Breakfastary Staring Rotation! This was very similar (and just as tasty) to the same kinda dish that I had at Outerlands (see 'blog-entry from Sunday, April 29th, 2012) several years ago (which reminds me, I really should plan a return visit there again soon, too). I think the apples that were used in today's meal were either Granny Smith or Golden Delicious (Who am I? John Fr*ggin' Chapman?). The housemade (restaurant-made, whatever) whipped cream was very good, too, and it was served as a very large dollop (more like a wallop).

LaLe has bottles of Tapatío® Salsa Picante 
Hot Sauce on all the tables for use as a condimentary supplement. Of course, none was needed or used again this morning... however... I did use a small dusting/grinding from my rainbow peppercorn grinder on top of the whipped cream as an extra-added flavour bonus.[1]

Strange Literary Interlude (sorry, Greg)

As I was expecting this meal to take 15-20 minutes for them to prepare (they even warn you about the wait on the menu), I had brought along my new Christopher Moore novel, "Noir", to read while killing time waiting for the food to arrive. However, as the restaurant was not very busy (and I was the second customer in the door to order breakfast this morning), it came out much sooner than I figured, and I had barely time to read a few pages. It was probably only a five-minute wait or just a bit more (or Moore).

https://www.chrismoore.com/

(not so) Strange Coffee Interlude (there-ya-go, Greg)

As I have been doing for the past few visits to LaLe, after breakfast, I headed around the corner to Snowbird Coffee for a mighty fine cuppa. Today, I once again went with their Zatara blend. In honour of Mommy Third-Rock-from-the-Sun Day, I enjoyed the cuppa while strolling through San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park. (Do not worry, I made sure to throw away the paper cup in the appropriately-marked recycle trash-bin.)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Dutch Baby Pancake ~ 7.5;
Snowbird Coffee - Zatara blend ~ 7.4;
Noir ~ 7.1

___________________

1. Do not judge me! I did not make up this very interesting flavour-combination.

When I lived in West Berlin (the one that used to be in the middle of Deutsche Demokratische Republik), I frequented this great Italian restaurant that was nearby Tempelhof Zentral Flughafen. One of the desserts that they had on the menu was a warm fig split open with a scoop of vaniller Ice Cream on top of it... they would then grind some fresh black peppercorns on top of the dessert. 

Hey, if it worked for Adolph on Ice Cream, it can (and did) work for me on whipped cream!

café bean

DE KOFFIE STAAT KLAAR![1]

(No official web-site*.)

*(Well, there might be one, but I can not seem to get it to work and it hadn't worked two years prior; so I am just saying that there isn't one.)


Place: café bean
Location: 800 Sutter Street (on the corner of Jones Street); phonicular contact: (415) 928-0888
Hours: (possibly?) open at 7:15am every day of the week (there was a sign with one of those little clock-deals on the front door that stated: "Will Return" and it was set at 7:15, which I am guessing meant "ante" not "post" midday; again, without being able to confirm or deny the actual hours of operation from their official web-site ~ or none, I am sticking with this time for now)
Meal: Rembrandt (Omelette) ~ ham (ham), mushrooms (paddestoelen), olive tapenade[2] (olijventapenade), and cheese (kaas), served with whole wheat toast (buttered; the front counter/
owner-guy actually asked me if I wanted this buttered); and a medium (medium) cuppa (koppa) 
New Guinea "Organic" (now as to the actual brand name of the Coffee that is served there, I really have no idea whatsoever; there is a sign on the Coffee-dispensing thermoses that states "Chester's"; however, the last time I was there, the lady at the counter [whom I assume is Mrs. Owner-guy], said that was not actually the name of the brand, but just what the owner-guy had named it)

("Listen up students, the correct way to prepare an olive tapenade is to always use the choicest bits from the spleen.")

(And, yes, I know that I could have linked a EweToobular juxtaselection of the Rembrandts one hit song, but haven't we all pretty much heard "I'll Be There for You" enough through reruns of "Friends"?)


Ik keerde terug naar café bean als ontbijt (see previous 'blog-entry from November 17th, 2013 ~ which was almost exactly two years ago, give or take four days; it is pretty funny, the owner-guy remembered me from my only other visit there and even remembered the seat at which I was sitting before; he said he remembered me because he saw me taking out my hot sauces and pepper grinder again today). I sat at the cool, corner booth area (which is cushioned and has large throw-pillows for back-supports) that can seat up to six or seven people comfortably. (Don't worry, I didn't hog ~ of varken ~ the space; there was only one other customer inside the entire time I was there, and she had the large table [which can seat about eight to twelve] in the center of the room all to herself, too.)

There are still a few other good ideas left to try on their menu and worth going back again again: 

• From the Omelettes section: 

Van Gogh (bell pepper, onion, avocado, and cream cheese); or
De Vries (egg white, tofu, bell pepper, onion, and tomato);

• Several different breakfast sandwiches (made with either whole wheat toast, croissants, or bagels);

• and they also had two other omelettes on the specials chalkboard:

Michelangelo (who I am pretty sure wasn't a Dutch-guy); and
Daniel's (who may or may not be/have been a Dutch-guy, Dame Elton). 
(Neither of which of these did I bother to copy down the actual ingredients, though.)

Of course, I ordered the omelette zonder dat de dood, rottende varken vlees. The cheese in/on the omelette was Cheddar, I am pretty sure. Why not a nice Edam or Gouda (or Limburger, even, Moe and Larry)? Ik weet het niet. Maybe Chester or Daniel would know the answer to that. I was very happy to see that the olive tapenade was made with real olives, too (quite possibly of the Kalamata variety). My one minor quibble (kleine klacht) would be that all of the ingredients seemed to have been incorporated into the scrambled egg-base and then just folded over into an omelette; I would rather have liked to have seen all the ingredients on the inside of the folded over stuff.

Additionally, there are still no potato (aardappel) side-dishes offered; even though they do have a working (mini-)kitchen ([mini-]keuken) area.

The Coffee (Koffie) was a very decent cuppa. In addition to the New Guinea "Organic" (whichever brand it is), they also had two other thermoses from which to choose: French Roast and Kona Mac Nut (blend). I tried a little of the Kona Mac Nut and it really wasn't half-bad (whether the cuppa was half-full or half-empty or not).

From what I could see (as I didn't really bother to ask), café bean had for condimentary supplementation just Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce. I went with some of my own Lucky Dog Medium Fire-Roasted Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the omelette.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Rembrandt (Omelette) ~ 6.3; "Chester's" New Guinea "Organic" ~ 6.8

___________________

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

This was a sign on the wall of the café (of koffiehuis). It simply means "The Coffee Is Ready!" in Dutch.

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, nombre deux:

"Tapenade" is a French word. It comes from the Provençal word for "capers", "tapenas". 

café bean

Bacon Warming?[1]

http://www.cafebeansf.com/

(That is supposed to be their official web-site, but I can't seem to get it to work. I suppose it is either a new one that hasn't been set up yet or an older one that is no longer valid. Whatever. Their phonicular contact is: 415-928-0888.)


Place: café bean
Location: 800 Sutter Street (on the corner of Jones Street)
Hours: (unconfirmed, but from a few other Intro-Net sources) open at 7:00am every day of the week (plus, they were just setting up the sidewalk tables when I had arrived there around 7:20am this morning)
Meal: Cinnamon Apple[2] Dutch Pancake[3] and two eggs over-medium; and a very decent cuppa coffee 

(The first EweToob video just goes to prove that back in 1979 Debbie Harry could even make a potato sack look good.)


Voor het ontbijt ik naar café bean. This is a little neighborhoody Dutch-style café located in lower Nob Hill or the upper Tenderloin (it all depends on your point of view, or how you like to point your nose). I like that they officially spell their name with "café" (avec accent aigu). But why is it not koffiehuis boon, though? Ik weet het niet.

In the middle of the space, there is just one main large, communal table that can seat eight people. There are four window-counter seats (where I chose to sit even though they were basically empty when I had arrived). There are two more tables in the corner window area with cushions that seat five people total. There are also four sidewalk two-seater tables when the weather allows it (today allowed it).

For being just a smallish, corner café (of koffiehuis), they actually have a pretty sufficient menu. They only offer the Dutch Pancakes on the weekends, but they have around fourteen different options (fourteen of the same options wouldn't really be much to speak about). There were several omelettes that looked good, too: Rembrandt (ham, mushroom, olive spread, and cheese); De Groot (pork sausage and spinach); Van Gogh (bell pepper, onion, avocado, and cream cheese); De Vries (egg white, tofu, bell pepper, onion, and tomato); and a few others. There were also several items on a daily/weekend specials chalkboard. The only thing that I can think to complain about is that there are no breakfastary potato side dishes of any kind on the menu.

This version of a Dutch Pancake was sort of a thicker crêpe batter and about the size of the entire plate. It had lots of cinnamon, sugar, and sliced apples on top. It was unlike the oven-baked version I had at Outerlands (see 'blog-entry from April 15th, 2012), but it was still very good. (Of course, café bean doesn't have any stupid parklets associated with it; so it all evens out in my book, of boek.) I wonder if this would be a good meal to order on a first date and you are a cheapskate and didn't plan on also paying for the woman's meal (I am sure you could also plan on not getting a second date with the woman).

I never found out what the actual brand of coffee was that they serve, but it was a Dark French Roast. It had the name "Chester's" on the thermos, but the lady behind the counter said that wasn't the name of the coffee roastery, it was just the name that the owner had given it. Who names their thermoses?!

As there were no potato side dishes, I didn't bother to ask what café bean had for condimentary supplementation. I did use some of my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian.) on the eggs. The pancake didn't really need any spicing up and I just used some of the maple syrup that was provided. (Okay. I confess. I did use just the smallest amount of my Youk's Hot Sauce ~ Thanks, Kevin! ~ on a portion of the pancake. And I am not ashamed to say, it really wasn't half-bad. Of course, I suppose, that just means it really wasn't half-good either.)


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Cinnamon Apple Dutch Pancake ~ 6.6


1. This is not a reference to Glen of the eponymous Scale Rating above. This (especially ironic for me) phrase came about when I awoke this morning at 3:00am and just couldn't get back to sleep. For some reason, the idea popped into my head to do anagrams of my name. Here are some (telling in places) examples:

"A Narcing Womb"
"Banan Cow Grim"
"Baring Cowman"
"Barman Cowing"
"Bang Warm Icon"
"Bowman Arcing"
"Brag Manic Now"
"Cab Warming On"
"Comb A Warning"
"Crab Win Mango"
"Macaw Born Gin"
"Manna Big Crow"
"Wanna Brim Cog"

If you would like to try with your own names, check out this web-site (Ain't the World Wild Webs fun?):

http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/

"I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long." ~ Mitch Hedberg

"I thought I had insomnia once; but then I woke up and realized it was just a bad dream... ironically, I could not get back to sleep for hours after that." ~ Steven Wright

"I am only truly awake when I am sleeping." ~ Mr. Bean

Of course, I'll probably be two hours off all day now. Maybe I shoulda got the Denver Omelette for breakfast to even it all out…

2. The stuff you learn when you are just minding your own business.

One time I was walking through the San Francisco Botanical Garden and happened to see the botanical name for a crab apple tree (they have a lot of the plants and trees labeled for all of the Latin botanist wannabes out there apparently). The crab apple is in the Genus: Malus and in the Family: Rosaceae. Rosaceae is just another name for "the rose family". I never knew that apples were in that same family. If you weren't aware of that simple fact either, now you have also learned something new today.

In addition to apples, the Family Rosaceae includes many other edible fruits, such as: pears, quinces, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries (which are not true botanical berries, by the way), strawberries (also not botanical berries), and raspberries (another not-botanical berry). Almonds are also in this same Family.

And just because I felt like it, here is stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, number one:

Albanian ~ "mollë"
Bosnian/Croatian ~ "jabuka"
Catalan ~ "poma"
Czech/Slovak ~ "jablko"
Danish ~ "æble"
Dutch ~ "appel"
Esperanto ~ "pomon"
Estonian ~ "õun"
Filipino ~ "mansanas" 
Finish ~ "omena"
French ~ "pomme"
German ~ "Apfel"
Greek ~ "μήλο"
Haitian Creole ~ "pòm"
Hungarian ~ "alma"
Icelandic ~ "epli"
Indonesian ~ "apel"
Irish ~ "úll"
Italian ~ "mela"
Latin ~ "malum" or "pomum"
Latvian ~ "ābols"
Lithuanian ~ "obuolys"
Norwegian ~ "eple"
Polish ~ "jabłko"
Portuguese ~ "maçã"
Russian ~ "яблоко"
Serbian ~ "јабука"
Slovenian ~ "jabolko"
Spanish ~ "manzana"
Swedish ~ "äpple"
Turkish ~ "elma"
Vietnamese ~ "táo"
Welsh ~ "afal"

"An apple by any other name would taste as tart…"

"So, how do you like them rose fruits?!"

3. Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day, nummer twee:

"Pancakes" in Dutch is either "pannenkoeken" or "pannekoeken". "Apple" is "appel" (see above), "cinnamon" is "kaneel", and "sugar" is "suiker".

Outerlands

"There is nothing wrong with your 'Brunch'. Do not attempt to adjust the menu… "



http://outerlandssf.com/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CtjhWhw2I8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaNt9-QkiHI


At the suggestion of a co-worker (Thanks, Lori!) I decided to check out a relatively new, but very popular and trendy (read: "hipster doofus chic") place way out in the "outer lands" of the Sunset District. The aptly-named Outerlands is right along the N-Judah Muni line and about five blocks from Ocean Beach. They only have eight tables (ranging from 2-5 persons seating) and three window-counter seats; plus, six "out(erland)side" tables on the sidewalk (weather permitting). Now I am the last person that can ever complain about long lines and waiting times as I do it often enough when I eat at Dottie's True blue café. This place is much the same, there was already a semi-full sign-in sheet and many people waiting patiently when I got there (twenty minutes before they opened); and I noticed that the sign-in sheet went to Page Two even before they had started seating the first group. Luckily, I was seated with the first wave of diners; I got one of the window-counter seats (one of the benefits of dining alone; no matter how "So Lonely" it may seem, Gordon).

The walls are just plain, unadorned wood. The interior is like you are eating at a cabin near the beach. They have this really cool Winnie-the-Pooh hole as their office space, which must be reached by climbing up a ladder and then parting a curtain; they have to sit on cushions on the floor, as the ceiling is not tall enough to stand up in or to accommodate a chair to sit on.




Their "Brunch" menu really doesn't have an awful lot of choices (just six or seven items); however, what they do offer all sounded great and most can be made for stupid vegetarians with the omission of the dead, decaying animal flesh. To start, I went with a Beet and Farro[1] Salad ~ arugula, Parmesan, sherry vinaigrette. For my main meal I had the Dutch Pancake ~ baked in a cast iron pan; sweet ~ topped with spiced apples (and a caramel sauce); with added house-made ricotta. I also ordered a glass of Lemon Ginger Apple Cider and a cuppa Sightglass Coffee, Americano style.

http://sightglasscoffee.com/





I knew from the ingredients that I was going to love the salad. I was correct, as the salad was excellent: beets ~ very good; farro ~ very good; arugula ~ good; lots of shaved Parmesan cheese ~ very good! I still contend 'mericans don't eat enough beets. I love 'em.

The Lemon Ginger Apple Cider (which can be ordered either hot or iced; I went with iced, as I had ordered the coffee for my hot drink) was very good, too. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but this was more cider-y than a lemonade-style drink.

Now as for the Dutch Pancakes ~ Wow! They are baked in the oven (I am not sure if it was a "Dutch Oven" or not, something smelled kinda funny... *sniff, sniff*) and were very fluffy/eggy; plus, the sliced green apples with the caramel sauce was perfect on top. This can be ordered as a "savoury" dish instead, which would have bacon in it for you porky-lovin' fools (I bet it would be very good with both the apples and caramel on top and the bacon inside). They warn you ahead of time that this dish can take up to twenty minutes to prepare, but I had barely finished my salad before the pancake was brought out, so the timing was perfect.

I really don't know what Outerlands offers as condimentary supplements as I didn't really order anything that required any; however, I had come prepared with a few of my own hot sauces just in case and thought about using some on the salad, but thought better of it after trying some of the salad. There was maple syrup provided to use on the pancake, though; I used a little bit, but the tasty caramel sauce really was enough.

The wait wasn't really as "out(er)landish" as I had expected and the food more than compensated for any time wasted. Would I go back there again, Mr. Sumner? Hell, yeah! And I really want to check out their dinner menu, too.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Beet and Farro Salad ~ 7.0; Dutch Pancake ~ 7.5; Lemon Ginger Apple Cider ~ 6.9


[1] Farro is simply whole wheat grains prepared with an Italiano twist:

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

Sorry, no stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer on this word, as there isn't even a definition for it in dictionary.com.

Of course, this word is not to be confused with the card game "Faro", Mr. Zamudio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHF558u6Q_8