the Grove - Fillmore

http://thegrovesf.com/


Place: the Grove - Fillmore

Location: 2016 Fillmore Street (between Pine and California Streets)

Hours: open Monday-Friday 7:00am, 
Saturday & Sunday 8:00am

Meal: Warm Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding ~ topped with classic vanilla icing, served with a side of fresh strawberries; a side of (as oxymoronic as it may sound) Crispy Golden Rosemary Hashbrowns; and a cuppa (well, actually, more like a small bowla) Verve Coffee Roasters - House Blend (I am not sure if this is a blend/roast made specifically for the Grove coffeehouses)

https://www.vervecoffee.com/

(As far as I can tell, there really is/are no juxtaselections between cinnamon roll bread pudding and Tom Waits [or Matilda ~ waltzing or not]; I just like the song[1].)


I went to the Fillmore Branch of the Grove (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, April 23rd, 2016) this morning. This location (opened back in 2002) was the second coffeehouse in their mini-chain; however, with the closure of their original shop on Chestnut Street a few years ago, this is now the oldest in their surviving mini-franchise. I have eaten at this location a few time before for lunch or dinner (or just for Coffee and snacks before or after a movie at the AMC Dine-In Kabuki 8), but this was my first breakfastary sojourn there. I have/had eaten breakfast at all of their other three joints already. There are currently just three coffeehouses, but a new one (which will be the existing fourth one, but their actual fifth one) is due to open later this year in the Design District/Showplace Square (South of Market Street). 

The Fillmore Street coffeehouse has a kind of a Western/Frontier theme going on: there is a rough, uneven wooden plank floor and it has a very tall, open-spaced ceiling (like you might have seen in an old Western/Frontier bar or saloon). There is lots of seating in various sized tables. I ended up siting in one of the bench-seat tables by the front windows (which were open this morning creating a nice breeze and fresh air). Plus, there are nine more tables for two on the sidewalk patio café.

As with their other two locations (and like most coffeehouses throughout the city), you order first at the front counter, pay for the meal, they give you a number to place at your table (mine was #22 this morning, but I was actually the third person/group to order for the morning), and then they will bring it out to you when it is ready (and not before, dammit!).

For "just a coffeehouse", they have a fairly decent breakfast menu and there are still some other ideas that I would like to try (maybe when the new space opens up later this year, I can make that an excuse to revisit and check out a different neighborhood ~ one where there is a dearth of  good places for breakfast currently):

Basil and Goat Cheese Scramble or Omelet ~ fresh torn basil and goat cheese, served with golden thick-sliced Semifreddi’s sweet batard toast and your choice of Crispy Golden Rosemary Hashbrowns or lightly dressed organic mixed greens (this meal would have been my choice if I wanted to go savoury instead of sweet this morning; I think this would be best as a scramble dish; and, as always, I would have opted for the potatoes over the silly rabbit food any day);

Spinach, Fontina and Tomato Scramble or Omelet ~ fresh spinach, Fontina and oven-roasted tomatoes, served with the same choices above (I also think this would be better as a scramble dish);

Seasonal Veggie (ugh!) Scramble or Omelet ~ seasonal roasted vegetables, served with the same choices above  (this one I would probably have gone as an omelette);

or

Veggie (ugh! again) Breakfast Sandwich ~ soft scrambled eggs, Fontina, oven-roasted zucchini, arugula, with a creamy spinach spread, served on a toasted Semifreddi’s brioche bun (they have a picture of this on their web-site and it looks very good; think Eggamuffin just with much more class and taste).

I don't know what I was expecting. Somehow, I figured this was just going to be served in a small(-ish) bowl. However, this came as a HUGE chunka bread pudding (I don't think you can truly gauge its size from the angle of my crummy photograph). It ended up being a lot of (good) food, but I ate it all anyway; I can always skip lunch today.

The side of hashbrowns was very good and this turned out to be a great idea to cut some of the (much expected) sweetness of the bread pudding.

For condimentary supplementation, the Grove only has Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce on every table, but they also have bottles of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce for use if requested. I used some of my own Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on half of the potatoes and some Dragon's Lair Extra Hot Cayenne & Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on the other half of the potatoes.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Warm Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding ~ 6.6

___________________

1. This particular cover of a Tom Waits song was introduced to me by my brother Kerry several years ago now. He had sent me a CD of interesting (and some very strange) Tom Waits covers ~ that he titled "Lite Waits" (I told him that he could also have called it "Tom Waits for No Man"). I happened to be listening to this particular (or this peculiar) CD on my way to and back from breakfast this morning.

Thanks, Kerry!

Kate's Kitchen

http://kates-kitchensf.com/


Place: Kate's Kitchen
Location: 471 Haight Street (between Fillmore and Webster Streets)
Hours: open Monday at 9:00am, Tuesday - Friday at 8:00am, Saturday and Sunday at 8:30am
Meal: Lauren Special ~ two eggs any style on a Kaiser roll[1] with sausage, cheese, tomato, red onion, avocado, and chipotle aioli, served with home fries; and a cuppa (and 1-1/2 refillas) San Francisco Coffee Company ~ N'Arlins-style blend (with roasted chicory)

As I have basically run out of any new breakfast joints to check out (now I am sure that there are others [and I am always on the look-out for different places], but after many years of eating breakfasts out on Saturday and Sunday, I can't really think of any just now to visit), I headed back to Kate's Kitchen (see last 'blog-entry from March 7th, 2015) this morning. This was really not that tough of a decision for me because I knew from many past visits there (spanning probably twenty years [and two millennia] or more now) that they are always good for a breakfastary repast.

Other ideas that I was also thinking about (and all off the Specials board): Eggs Benedict (with Prosciutto [which I would have skipped; however, those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying Italian dry-cured pork flesh may have enjoyed this as a change from the dead, decaying Canadian-style pork flesh], seared spinach, mushrooms, scallions, & Hollandaise sauce); Vegiscramble (avocado, roasted red bell peppers, roasted tomato, spicy onion, and cilantro all seared in a house-made [restaurant-made, whatever] Habanero salsa, and topped with Cotija cheese[2]; I would normally go with this choice, but it was pretty similar to the version that I had on my last visit); or (2 or 4) Cornmeal Buttermilk Pancakes (which come in a variety of varieties, and the two that I specifically was looking at were: Pear & Ginger or Oatmeal w/Banana & Almonds). The weekend Specials board also always offers a Meatomelette (which I like to pronounce as "Mee-ATO-melette"), but this weekend, in addition to the dead, decaying animal flesh in it, it also include "the vile weed", so it made no sense for me to even think about getting that one.

This was a very good breakfast sandwich and not your crazy Uncle McRonald's crummy ol' Eggamuffin™ (noch dein Onkel Wild Bill Käses Frühstückssandwich). Of course, I sechsundachtzig-ed die toten verfallenden Schweinefleisch. I went with the two eggs fried (as I figured, correctly, that this would be the best medium with which to eat them sandwich-style). The cheese in this was a grated/shredded Cheddar. The chipotle aioli was pretty tasty (I made sure to test it first before adding any superfluous condimentation to it), but I would have liked a little bit more of it on the top.

I always like their version of homefries, too. These come with nicely caramelised green bell peppers and white onions.

For condimentary supplementation, I only saw bottles of Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce on the tables (they have had other hot sauces in the past, but that was all I noticed this morning). I just used some (well, a good amount) of my own Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks agains, Amys and Brian!) on the homefries. I didn't want to mess with the flavour of the chipotle aioli that was on the sandwich so I left that untouched.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Lauren Special ~ 6.7

___________________

1. Warum Kaisersemmel?

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

2. http://cheese.com/cotija/

And I always just love that there is an actual web-site thing called "Cheese.com". Isn't the World Wild Web wonderful?

Cafe Golo ~ Boutique Cafe

"Then it is dark; it is a night where kings in golden suits ride elephants over the mountains." 
~ John Cheever, A Country Husband

http://cafegolo.com/

(I should mention here that this is their brand new/first web-site.)


Place: Cafe Golo ~ Boutique Cafe
Location: 1602 Lombard Street (at Gough Street)
Hours: open daily at 8:00am
Meal: Florentine Taters ~ country potatoes scrambled with spinach, sautéed onions, the vile weed, mushrooms, zucchini, (I would just like to point out that they actually included the Oxford comma there, and this place is nowhere near southern England) and cheese; and a Pear-Apple Tart to start (and I also bought a Blueberry-Mango Tart to take home for laters) 

(You are probably wondering "But, Brian, why are you playing Tom Waits songs on Single Losers Day? Aren't Tom Waits songs the traditional songs of tomorrow's holiday, Star Trek Day [aka the Fourth of May Be With You Day]?" It's close enough for gub'mint work; plus, you can only link "Lonesome Loser" by Little River Band so many times.)


Finishing up with the last of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, I went back to Cafe Golo ~ Boutique Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from January 18th, 2015). Early on a Sunday morning (even if it is a major National Holiday), it is always pretty easy finding a nearby parking spot, and I actually was able to park just a block away down Lombard Street.

I really do like the combination of regular potatoes and sweet potatoes in their country potatoes. There was plenty of other good stuff in it, too. They always have a decent amount of fresh spinach (hence the "Florentine" moniker). There was also a good amount of diced up tomatoes and red and green bell peppers that were not listed on the menu ingredients. Of course this morning, I remembered to order this without any of the vile weed.

For condimentary supplements, Cafe Golo has Crystal® Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce, Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce); Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce, and Huy Fong Foods, Inc. Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. I just used some of my own The Wiltshire Chilli Farm Winter chilli sauce and Mango hot chilli sauce (Thanks for both, Cindy & Greg!) on separate halves of the pile of potato mess. I am almost done with the entire bottle of Winter chilli sauce, there is probably just one more dose in it; that only took about four months to use up. 

I asked one of the waiter-server dudes if there was any word on when Grits was set to open (finally), and he told me that it has been pushed back yet still once again to sometime in the Summer now (it was originally supposed to open in April 2014). He did tell me that Jay is opening a new coffeeshop today over near the Civic Center; the new place is called Caffè Trinity (I don't really know if this is con l’accento grave [è], o no, I am just going with that spelling until I know better). It is supposed to be more of a traditional coffehouse/coffeeshop, but I will need to check it out one of these days.

And, as always, reservations are never needed at Cafe Golo, just a big appetite (and there is never even any attitude served on the side either).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Florentine Taters ~ 6.7; Pear-Apple Tart ~ 7.0

Pork Store Cafe

A Breakfastarian[1] "Plan 9 From Outer Space"?

http://www.porkstorecafe.com/


Place: Pork Store Cafe
Location: 1451 Haight Street (between Ashbury and Masonic)
Hours:  open at 7:00am Monday-Friday; open at (right on the nose, too) 8:00am Saturday-Sunday
Meal: Nadia's Vegetarian Scramble ~ Eggs, onions, mushrooms, fresh spinach, Jack cheese, fresh salsa & spices (served with Hash Browned [sic, and noted as two words] Potatoes or Grits, Biscuits or Toast or English Muffin); and a large glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice

My initial plan of attack this morning was to indagate a new/different place for breakfast; however, you know what that poet Robert Frost guy said: "The best-laid eggs o' mice an' Ed Wood gang agley in the afternoons." (or something like that, who could ever understand what the drunken Scotsman was ganging on about). I had originally planned on going to People's Cafe, Chairman Mao, but they do not have their own official web-site (or little red book) to find out what their actual hours of operation are, so I had to determine the hours that they opened from a few different on-line urban guides, and a few different sites had it opening at either 7:00am or 8:00am. I got over there about 7:45am and figured I could just kill some time on Haight Street with the rest of the indigenous streeties if they didn't open up until 8:00am. However, there were no signs on the building as to when they actually open and there were also no signs that they would be actually opening any time soon, either.

Oops! Looks like it was time for a whole 'nuther "Plan B", Bela. I knew that there is a "new" crêpe/breakfast joint, 1428 Haight, right across the street from People's Cafe. I write this as "new" as they are really just the same location that was once part of the whole Squat & Gobble Cafe & Crepery mini-chain of crêperies in San Francisco (see last 'blog-entry from July 26th, 2014; http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2014/07/squat-gobble-cafe-crepery.html); apparently there was a little (squat and) squabble amongst the partners, and one of them ended up with this location and changed the name to what it is now. And also three doors down from People's Cafe is Pork Store Cafe (see previous 'blog-entry from September 6th, 2010 ~ coincidentally enough, almost four years ago; http://breakfastatepiphany.blogspot.com/2010/09/pork-store-cafe.html). Both 1428 Haight and
Pork Store Cafe had signs stating that they open for breakfast at 8:00am (and both showed signs of doing so shortly), so I just left it up to whichever opened up first. Consider this a sort of temporal coin toss.

Pork Store Cafe is a rather small place, but it is very popular with the "Brunch" crowd. Their seating is just: two front window/alcove tables for four people; two tables for two; three more tables for four; and twelve to fourteen counter stools (and that is it; because of which, there is usually a long line and extended wait outside on the weekends). Luckily, there were only about six other people waiting to get inside when they first opened up. I ordered quickly and my meal was served in about five minutes; this would not be the case later in the day when they are very busy (after the stupid "Brunch"-sters have rolled out of bed around 10:00am or later).

Pork Store Cafe has a pretty substantial breakfast menu (and I am glad to see they actually call it "breakfast", not "Brunch" on their menus). There were a few other decent ideas that I was looking at: Green Benedict (Scrambled eggs with asparagus over fresh avocado on toasted sourdough bread, topped with Hollandaise, served with grits or hash browned potatoes ~ asparagus and avocado sounded like a winner to me); Pesto Feta Scramble (3 eggs scrambled with homemade pesto sundried tomato sauce [they make a point of noting on their menu: "pesto contains parsley and walnuts"; I think they have to legally state that for any of you with severe parsley allergies], "the vile weed" [it is always a foregone conclusion that I would have foregone this ingredient; and how come they never have a "the vile weed" allergy warning?], and Feta cheese, served with hash browned potatoes or grits, and choice of bread or biscuit); or The '49er (2 eggs any style with potatoes or grits, biscuits & sausage gravy or veggie gravy). There are even three to four Vegan options (I really didn't pay much attention to those specifically; next thing you know those damned Vegans will be requesting their own schools). And, as their name implies, they do offer many different dishes with the dead, decaying porcine flesh in them.

the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Interlude

After breakfast, on my way back to my car, I saw about four to five of the little winged noisemakers flying over the Panhandle. I am pretty sure a small pandemonium resides in some of the tall eucalyptus trees there.

This was all a nice cheesy, gooey mess. I liked it. For my breakfastary sides, I went with hashbrowns (natch') and (two) fresh-baked buttermilk biscuits (even I can "cook" toast and English muffins on my own). I ended up just adding the hashbrowns to the rest of the scrambled mess when I was about half-way done (or half-way started?), it was just easier that way (and it was all good).

For condimentary supplementation,
 Pork Store Cafe has a pretty decent selection: Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red); Tapatío®; Frank's® RedHot Original; and El Yucateco® XXX Hot Sauce Salsa Kutbil-ik® de Chile Habanero (I had even brought a bottle of my own of that very same hot sauce with me this morning). Even so, I still used some of my own Hula Girl Chipotle Habanero (Thanks, Jim! And that about killed the last of that bottle now.) on the potatoes and some Florida Gold Premium Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on the scramble mess.

I did notice that People's Cafe had finally opened by the time I finished eating (a little after 8:30am), so maybe I will give them another chance in a few weeks.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Nadia's Scramble ~ 6.5; homemade buttermilk biscuits ~ 6.6


1. A few years back, I had come up with the completely made-up word "breakfastary". I have even used it as the adverbial "breakfastarily" and a few other variations. I noticed during a recent Google search that not only is "breakfastary" referenced many times, but both "breakfastarian" and "breakfastarianism" are, too. I kind of like the idea of it being seen as not only a movement, but also in a pseudo-religiosity sense. 

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.

Citizen’s Band (and Pinkie’s Bakery)

"Life is like an onion; you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." ~ Carl Sandberg

http://citizensbandsf.com/

http://pinkiesbakerysf.com/

Place: Citizen's Band (and Pinkie's Bakery)

Location: 1198 Folsom Street (at 8th Street)

Hours: "Brunch" Saturday and Sunday 10am to 2pm (and sat-sun: 9am-3pm)

Meal: Hash & Eggs ~ potatoes, yam, butternut squash, onions, Brussels sprouts, and molasses[1] honey glaze; Pumpkin doughnut; and a cuppa Mr. Espresso® coffee 

(The first EweToob video's connection should be apparent from today's breakfastary destination; that is Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham on harmony vocals ~ they both had a bit of a career on their own, too. The second song ~ a great cover of a Tom Waits song, by the way ~ is just for the bleary of hearing.)

I had breakfast at another new (for me) place: Citizen's Band. They share a building with Pinkie's Bakery. I am not quite sure what the relationship is between the two joints, but it all works for me. There is only seating for a total of 30 people ~ with 18 table seats and an additional 12 diner-counter seats (which were these very cool black wrought-iron swivel stools). They state that there is seating for 40 total on their web-site (but who can sit on a web-site); however, they may be including some seating available next door at Pinkie's Bakery.

Citizen's Band only offers eight to nine different items on their "Brunch" menu, but there were a couple of nice choices even for stupid vegetarians. The Cornflake-encrusted French Toast sounded very interesting and may deserve a return trip one of these days, but potato-based dishes always win out with me.

You can get the two eggs on top of the hash any way you want them. I went with eggs over-medium (actually, they were a little "overly medium-well", but that beats not being cooked enough). I knew I was going to like this a lot with not only potatoes, yams, and butternut squash in it, but especially with Brussels sprouts in it, too. I don't care what a lot of people think; I happen to love Brussels sprouts (and these were fresh, not frozen). Brussels sprouts beat the vile weed any day. The only thing that might have made this dish even better would have been the inclusion of beets. This is easily the Best (as in "Most Interesting") New Breakfast (or "Brunch" even) Find of 2013 for me.

Mr. Espresso® is a local (Oakland-based) roastery and manufacturer of espresso machines. I have had it many times before. This was a good cuppa coffee (and I probably had 2-3 refills while there). I especially liked that it is served in all different kinds of mugs (shades of Eddie's Cafe).

(Sorry, for the quality of this photo. Like most of my photos, the entire picture encompasses a bit of bokeh[2] on purpose; well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I am blaming the over-lighting of the two restaurant fronts above on Mr. Sun, though.)

This was just a plain cake doughnut, but it was glazed with a great tasting pumpkin (and spices) flavoured frosting. Pinkie's Bakery offers about eight different doughnuts from which to choose daily. They are also a wholesale bakery and sell different types of bread along with many other fresh-baked specialties.

Citizen's Band has a pretty decent selection of condimentary supplementation; they offer the standard San Francisco Triumvirate ~ Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the original red), Tapatío®, and Cholula® Hot Sauce ~ as well as Crystal® Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce, and Huy Fong Foods Inc.® Sriracha. I still used some of my own Serious Food… Silly Prices Chunky Habanero (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on half of the pile and some Nando's® Extra Hot Peri-Peri Sauce (Thanks, Kerry!) on the other half of the pile; plus, just 4-6 drops of Big Papi En Fuego Hot Sauce Off The Wall Triple Hot (Thanks also, Kerry!) all over the mess. I didn't figure the doughnut needed any extra spicing up, though.

Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Hash & Eggs ~ 7.2; Pumpkin doughnut ~ 7.0

1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-culinaristic pointer of the day, número um:

"Molasses" (earlier "molassos") comes from Portuguese "melaços" (the plural of "melaço"), which comes from Late Latin "mellācium" ("half-boiled new wine"), for "mellāceum", neuter of "mallāceus" ("honeylike"), equivalent to "mell-", stem of "mel" ("honey") + "-āceus" ("-aceous").

2. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-photographical pointer of the day, number ni:

The term "Bokeh"* comes from the Japanese word "ぼけ", which means "blur" or "haze", Jimi. The term can also be used in the sense of a mental haze or senility. It is pronounced "boKEH", which is not to be confused with the similar sounding "ボケ", pronounced "BOkeh", which is Japanese for "Japanese quince". It is also not to be confused with the stupid vegetarian substitute Boca Burgers. They just taste a bit out of focus too those that eat the dead, decaying ground animal flesh.

*(See, Cassy, I figured I could work it into this stupid 'blog sooner or later.)

Cafe Lombard

Ath a dythlexic, lithping Luke Thkywalker onthe thaid: "The 4th of May be with you!"

(No official web-site.)

1424 Lombard Street (between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street)

phonicular contact: (415) 292-6300

(I couldn't think of any better way to celebrate National Star Trek Day than to link some Tom Waits songs here… because that makes about as much sense.)


I wanted to try a new place for breakfast this morning (well, new to me, not a new restaurant), so I ate at Cafe Lombard (which coincidentally enough is located right on Lombard Street). I was even lucky enough to park just a block away (legally) on Lombard Street (unfortunately, there was no parking to be had on Cafe Street). They open up at 7:30am daily and are mainly a tourista destination as it is surrounded by many hotels, inns, and motels in the neighborhood. (Overheard at one of the other tables: "I went to an 'Arabian'[1] restaurant once and there were a lot of 'Arabians' there speaking 'Arabian'…". She must have been at a horse show, or maybe these particular touristas were just from 'Canadia'…)

At first look, I thought this was a rather small place, as the inviting Victorian-décor front room only has seating for twenty-two (with just two tables for four and seven tables for two); however, as it filled up pretty quickly, they directed people to another larger back room (that has additional seating for twenty-two; with five tables for four and one table for two). Plus, there is also an outdoor patio area with tables and umbrellas that may or may not see action on busier warmer days.

Cafe Lombard offers all the breakfastary standards on their menu, plus many different "Omellettes" (sic). I am not really making fun of them for the mispeling (well, maybe just a bit). I just wonder how a menu can get printed now-a-days without the use of a spel-checkker. (I am constantly being reminded by the Spell-check Nazis at Microsoft on my many mistakes. I hope I drive them crazy, too. The fargin' bastages.)

Of course, I had to order the Lombard Special Omellette ~ w/ Sautéed Mushrooms, Onions, spinach & Parmesan. This is served with homefried potatoes and toast (I went with wholle whheat for my choicce). I also had a cuppa gourmmet coffee. (Am I going to make fun of that one mispeling here throughout this 'blog-entry? Probbablly.)

The omellette was made frittatta-style, served open-faced. It was made with lots of fresh (baby?) sppinach in it, and the Parmessan cheesse was the good shredded version, not that fake powdered junk. This was all very good. I especially liked their homefried potatoes, which had lots of caramelized diced-up onions in them.

I asked the server-lady what kind of condimentary supplementation they had, but misunderstanding me, she said that they could add some fresh Serrano[2] chillis in my omellette if I liked (which probably would have been a really been nice addition). I did notice that they had Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) on a few of the other tables. However, I just used some of my own Serious Food… Silly Prices Chunky Habanero Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on the potatoes and some Cholula® Hot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the omellette.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Lombbard Sppecial Ommellette ~ 6.8
(Okay, I promise that is the last time I make fun of their spelling, but only because this is the end of the 'blog-entry.)


1. While I don't wish to offend any of the anti-Semitic grammarians out there, I do understand that "Arabian" and "Arabic" can sometimes be used interchangeably pertaining to Arabia and its inhabitants; however, the language should be referenced as "Arabic". They don't speak "Soviet" in Russia either.

(Of course, now that I have stated that, I am sure I will more than likely be slammed by many cunning ex-MF linguists.)

2. Stupidd, uselless cunninng lingguist pointter del día, número uno:

(So I lied.)

"Serrano" means "highlander" or "from the mountains" in Spanish, which comes from the Spanish word "sierra".

Extra added bonus stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer del día, número dos:

The word "sierra" ("mountain range") comes from Spanish and literally means "saw" due to the jagged-tooth look of the peaks, and comes from the Latin word "serra" (also meaning "saw", see?).