My (little ditty) Breakfast with Jack and Diane (well, technically, with Steve and Lisa... but there is no EweToobular juxtaselection for their names)
http://m.sanjalisco.com/ Place: SanJalisco Location: 901 South Van Ness Street (on the corner of 20th Street) Hours: open at 8:00am(??? ~ ygiagam) every day of the week (their web-site still does not show their hours on it anywhere) Meal: (Little Johnny Cougar/me) Chilaquiles Verdes~ tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, nopales, onions, and green salsa(this was a tomatillo-based salsa); (Jack/Steve) Chorizo con huevo ~ Mexican-style pork sausage scrambled with two large eggs; (Diane/Lisa) Chilaquiles Remo ~ tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, onions, and red salsa, complemented with sauteed chicken and fresh Mexican-style sour cream; all breakfast entrees are served with home-made (well, restaurante-made) [¡¡¡]corn tortillas[!!!], Mexican rice, and your choice of refried pinto beans (frijoles refritos), whole pinto beans, or whole black beans (I think we all opted for the refritos beans); y beber, (Steve and Lisa) cuppas (and a refilla or two) Café de la casa, (me) a large glassa Tamarindo[1]
One of my favourite go-to spots (not named "Dottie's True blue café" or "Baker Street Bistro") to take out-of-towner-types for breakfast (or, in this case, desayuno) is SanJalisco (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, July 9th, 2016). It was a pretty sure bet that this would not be a typical Cornhusker or Mainer (ey-yah!) breakfast for either of them. All day long we were extremely lucky where the Parking Gods were with us and it started first thing in the morning when we found a great (legal) spot just a half-block down the street from the restaurant.[2]
(Creciendo se fue hasta el cielo, y como no fue violín, tuvo que ser violoncello. [Growing it reached the heavens, and since it wasn't a violin, it had to be a cello.]) There have been a few changes/upgrades since I last ate at SanJalisco. There are all new (colourful) tables and chairs. Each chair has an image from Lotería (basically Mexican Bingo) on the back of it; mine this morning was "El Violoncello" ("the Cello" ~ no stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer needed there). They have also printed new menus (and they have changed the wording a bit on many of the entries ~ probably to make them a bit more gringo-friendly) and these are also muy colorido. Thankfully, they still are serving the same ol' great food while providing extra-friendly service!
(I did not want to bother/embarrass Steve and Lisa by taking pictures of their meals. Besides, I would have had to be pretty quick to get a photo of Steve's dish, as it was gone before I was half-way through my own breakfast.) I have had this tasty take on chilaquiles once before (and it was the very last time that I had eaten breakfast there, too). I actually prefer the (más tradicional) salsa roja for chilaquiles, but it is nice to have a salsa verdeoption once in a while, too. I probably shoulda mixed it up and ordered Chilaquiles Veronica (which I think I have also had before, anyway) ~ tortilla bits scrambled with two large eggs, cheese, onions, and red salsa, complemented with chorizo (¡De ninguna manera José!), nopales, and fresh Mexican-style sour cream. There was so much food on my plate that (sadly) I only had room for two of their extremely-good homemade (well, restaurante-made) warm (as in hot off the grill) corn tortillas. SanJalisco only offers Tapatío®Salsa Picante Hot Sauce for bottled hot sauce condimentary supplement use, but those are ridículamente superfluo, redundante, y inútil, anyway. Their homemade (well, restaurante-made) salsa roja is always so much more fresca y sabrosa. We used up almost the entire small bowl that was on our table. (Like most Mexican places, this salsa is brought out almost immediately when you sit down and served with some corn tortilla chips as a pre-meal snack.) Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Chilaquiles Verdes~ 6.8 (once again, not wanting to really bother my breakfast guests any while they were eating, I did not poll them for their Glen Bacon Scale input); homemade (well, restaurante-made) warm corn tortillas ~ 7.5; San Francisco Giants ~ 6, PhiladelphiaPhillies ~ 1 ___________________
1. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/pseudo-horticultural pointer of the day: "Tamarindo" is simply the Spanish word for "tamarind"* (proving once again that this cunning linguist stuff ain't always necessarily ciencia del cerebro or cirugía de cohete even). This is typically made into a drink as an aguas frescas and served all day long. It is usually a bit on the sweet side for my liking, but it does go well with the espicy Mexican foods. *(¿Que qué, Brian?... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarind ) 2, The furthest away that we ended up parking all day long (and the only time that we had to actually pay for any parking, too) was three blocks away from AT&T Park when we went to the San Francisco Giants game later in the day.
https://thecavaliersf.com/ Place: the Cavalier Location: 360 Jessie Street (on the corner of 5th Street; about half-way between Market and Mission Streets) Hours: breakfast daily beginning at 7:00am Meal: Buttermilk Pancakes ~ Amaretto and brown butter golden syrup; and a cuppa (and a half-refilla) of Mr. Espresso® (once again, I forgot to ask which specific roast/blend they might be serving) https://mrespresso.com/
(Not that I am superstitious or nothing, but I did not want to jinx the Golden State Warriors tomorrow night by eating at this particularly-named establishment. So I am adding the first video as a reverse-kinda jinx, Pixie and Dixie. Besides, I could not decide on a decent EweToobular juxtaselection by Monsieur Maurice Chevalier ... [let us see how many people will get that silly cunning linguist-pun]) I trotted back over to the Cavalier (see previous 'blog-entry from Saturday, January 28th, 2017) for breakfast this morning. They do offer a later "Brunch"-thing, but I much prefer that they open up early for breakfast, anyway. Very early in the morning (I suppose until they get a little busier), they will seat you in the bar-dining area where there are twelve tables (for two). These are all along the back wall and, of which, the back seats of each table is along one long, continuous booth-thing. (I am sure that I am not describing it very well or doing it justice, but it was an interesting seating area.) There really is not an extensive breakfast menu, and the only remaining option for me would have been their Breakfast Sandwich ~ fried hen egg (and I love that they feel the need to specify which kinda fowl laid it), crispy bacon (however, they do not specify if this is swine-bacon or not), pepper cress, shallot, and mustard dressing. The next time I eat there, I will probably order this (86-ing the bacon-stuff ~ swinish or whatever) with a side of their excellent Crispy Potatoes.
These were really good pancakes; both fluffy and filling. I would have liked to have had more of the Amaretto and brown butter golden syrup; it was already poured over the top of the pancakes. I suppose that I probably coulda asked for a small additional serving of it. To me, that was truly the highlight of the meal, anyway. This came as three (medium-large) pancakes, so I did not have any room for their Crispy Potatoes. (I checked with my friendly waiter/server-person guy when ordering and he told me it probably would be too much food with the side of potatoes; trust me, it definitely would have been.) As it were, I barely had room to finish all three pancakes, anyway. After I had already finished eating (well, as much as I could finish), my waiter/server-person guy told me that I could have ordered just a side of (one) pancake (it does not list that on the menu anywhere, though). (not really so) Strange Coffee Interlude They no longer are serving the same brand of Coffee from last year. Now they exclusively serve Mr. Espresso® ~ which is very local and decent, and I have had it many times before at many other restaurants, anyway ~ but I think I liked last year's roast/blend just a little better. For condimentary supplementation, the Cavalier only offers Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce). I had also come prepared with a few of my own hot sauces, but, with this morning's pancake meal, none were needed or used, anyway. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Buttermilk Pancakes ~ 6.7; Amaretto and brown butter golden syrup (all on its ownsome) ~ 7.5
♪ "There's a lady who's sure All that glitters is gold... ... and she's building an omelette to Heaven... " ?!? ♫
(No official web-site thing [no matter what it has linked on their defacedbook page].) Place: Reverie Cafe Location: 848 Cole Street (between Carl and Frederick Streets ~ the streets in San Francisco, Callie-for-nee-ya, not the back-roads of Chautauqua County, New York[1]); phonicular contact: (415) 242-0200 Hours: open 6:30am Monday-Friday, 7:30am Saturday-Sunday (and apparently at 7:30am also on Monday holidays) Meal: Wild Mushroom (which I was assured they capture with only humane traps), Gruyere Cheese & Truffle Butter(Omelette) ~ served with house potatoes (that would be "homefries" to you tuber-impaired), toast, & fruit (which were just a superfluous slica orange and a slica watermelon); and a large cuppa (16 oz-er or so) their house-Coffee, which I was informed is Equator Coffees & Teas™ - Mocha Java Fair Trade Organic https://www.equatorcoffees.com/collections/coffees/products/mocha-java-fair-trade-organic-retail?variant=1759260606473
("Reverie"... "Reverberi"... whatever... close enough for a Holiday Weekend! There is no real EweToobular juxtaselection with the second song/video. I just like it. So deal with it.) Not really knowing what time that they might be open for the Monday holiday (I even checked their web-site before heading over, but for some reason it did not state what their hours were this morning... ), I blind-faithly drove over to Reverie Cafe (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, August 20th, 2016) and after finding a good (legal) parking spot just around the corner, I arrived there around 7:20am. When I walked up to the front door it was still locked, and I was gestured (two hands with five fingers each, by the lady behind the counter... I just hope that she wasn't Greek!) that they would be opening in another ten minutes or so (thankfully they were even opening for breakfast today; I really did not have a good back-up plan planned, otherwise). There normally would be a few weekend specials listed on the blackboard by the kitchen area, but maybe because I had arrived so early, they did not have anything on it yet. That really did not matter, as their standard breakfast menu still has a few items on it that I want to try one of these days; ferinstance: Breakfast Porridge ~ warm farro, apples, raisins, cinnamon, toasted almonds, fresh cream, & local honey (this will definitely be my choice next time if I am in a "sweet mood"; of course, I would probably order a side of their homefries with it, too); Wild Mushroom, Wilted Greens & Leeks Eggs Benedict ~ served with house potatoes (so there would be no need for me to order an extra side of homefries); Huevos Rancheros ~ tortillas, scrambled eggs, black beans, house salsa, avocado, cotija, crema, & cilantro; or Breakfast Burrito ~ scrambled eggs, black beans, Jack cheese, house salsa, cotija cheese, & cilantro (and for those of you that do partake of the dead, decaying swinish products, they also offer this with a pulled pork or Mexican chorizo option).
Once again, I sat outside in their spacious (it actually takes up one-and-a-half backyards) garden patio seating area and had the whole upper deck level to myself the entire time that I was eating (well, seeing as they had just opened when I arrived, there were only two other small families eating out back at the same time, anyway). As you can see in the above (way over-lit, sorry) photo, Mr. Sun was just getting up for the morning himself. Since the last time I ate there, they have upgraded with all new tables and chairs in the garden patio area, too.
"Truffles AND mushrooms, Brian?!" What can I say? I am just a fun(gi) kinda guy! This was another decent omelette; I have yet to have a bad breakfastary meal there. Additionally, they serve really good homefries, too ~ made with red and green bell peppers and white onions in them. For condimentary supplementation, Reverie Cafe had Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce), Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce, and Huy Fong Foods, Inc.Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. I used some of my own Hot Licks®SerranoHot Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the potatoes and a little Pepper PalaceGator Bite Hot Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg!) on top of the omelette (I think that it really complemented the earthy tones of the truffle and mushroom flavours). Strange Coffee Interlude This was a really nice cuppa Coffee. I have had many of Equator Coffees & Teas™ before. I like that they are very local (as in from San Rafael ~ the one in Marin County, Callie-for-nee-ya, not the much larger city in Chautauqua County, New York). When I was about half-way done (or "half-way undone", if you are of the pessimistic ilk) with the cuppa, I decided to put that slica orange on the side of my plate to good use and plopped it into the mug to make it a sorta Caffè Borgia. However, I did not drop the slica watermelon into it (because I have never heard of a Caffè Stymie). "Love me, light me, give me... " ... breakfast! Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Equator Coffees & Teas™ - Mocha Java Fair Trade Organic ~ 6.9; Wild Mushroom, Gruyere Cheese & Truffle Butter(Omelette) ~ 6.5; Colazione al fresco ~ 7.8 ___________________
1. Okay, to even start to get the stupid joking reference to that one, you would need to go onto their defacedbook page and click on the mysterious link to the web-site that they have posted there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua_County,_New_York
The article was written by Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona[1], U.S. Air Force (Retired). He originally wrote the article back in 2007 when he was a Military and Middle East analyst with MSNBC. He updates the article each year on his own 'blog and graciously allows me to re-post it here. The music video/song is sung by the Boston-based Irish Punk Rock band Dropkick Murphys[2]. While the song really isn't a Memorial Day song, it is written about WWI and individuals (sometimes forgotten and unknown) that fought in "the War to end all Wars" and paid the ultimate price of freedom (that would be mine and yours). Please take a moment and read the article and listen to the song, or read the article while listening to the song, or listen to the song while reading the article. Either way, take a moment to reflect on the meaning of this current three-day weekend; after all, it's not really about an extra day off, the start of Summer, parades, and barbecues. Have a safe and "rememorable" Memorial Day, everyone. ________________ 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Francona 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropkick_Murphys The song was originally written by Scottish Folk singer-songwriter Eric Bogle under the title "No Man's Land"*, and has been covered by many Rock-and/or-Roll bands, Folk bands, and other Traditional Celtic bands (e.g. Joss Stone with Jeff Beck; Peter, Paul and Mary; the Chieftains; Celtic Tenors; the Clancy Brothers; Donovan; and even some guy from Minnesota named Robert Allen Zimmerman). I just prefer this version by the Boyos from Boston (Quincy, whatever). *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Man%27s_Land_(Eric_Bogle_song)
https://www.strawsf.com/ Place: STRAW ~ Carnival Fare Location: 203 Octavia Boulevard (near the corner of Page Street) Hours: "Brunch" is featured under the Big Top Saturday & Sunday at 10:00am Meal: Seasonal Salad ~ roasted beets, mixed greens (aka your basic rabbit-food-stuff), goat cheese crumbles, candied pecans, honey dijon-apple cider vinaigrette, with two over-medium eggs laid (well, placed) on top; and a glassa (Mason jara, actually) Strawberry-Basil Lemonade
(Just a coupla "Carney"-related songs for today's breakfast destination, Art. [I am just sad that I could only include one P3 song, though.]) Because this weekend is the 40th AnniversaryCarnaval San Francisco, I thought it fitting to head back to STRAW ~ Carnival Fare (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, June 17th, 2017)... nah, actually, I was already planning on going back to this particular restaurant this weekend, anyway, and saw somewhere that San Francisco's Carnaval just happened to be this weekend also. I was lucky enough this morning and parked just around the corner (legally, even) on Page Street. Once again, I sat outside in one of the four two-seater sidewalk tables: 1) 'cause it was nice enough this morning to do so, and b) 'cause I could (I was the second person/group waiting in line). STRAW does not really have that many items from which to choose on their "Brunch" menu, and by now I have had each at least once. My back-up plan (in case I did not like the sound of the seasonal ingredients for the salad) was going to be a re-do of Hanky Panky ~ cornmeal Belgian waffle, two fried eggs, maple-glazed bacon (which would have been 86-ed again, of course), Cheddar & Jack potato croquettes. (not really such another) Strange Coffee Interlude This morning I made sure to get over to Hayes Valley about an hour before STRAW opened to get me another cuppa at Ritual Coffee (this time at their Quonset hut[1]-kinda shop across the street from Patricia's Green[2]). I just got what they were offering as their standard prepared Coffee, which happened to be La Soledad (another Guatemalan bean). Now, this was a good cuppa (as are alla their cuppas, and their Ethiopian roasts/blends are usually phenomenal, but they did not have any of those offered this morning), but I did not like it quite as much as yesterday's cuppa. While I was enjoying my cuppa, I saw several pupsters (with their human tag-a-longs) in the park and met one really cute little feisty girl (her humans told me that she was a Cairn Terrier-Schnauzer mix[3]... possibly... ). https://ritual.myshopify.com/collections/coffee-beans/products/soledad-guatemala
So, this was a salad with a coupla eggs on top. Not much to describe there. I would have rather had my eggs to have been poached, but I was told they do not prepare any poached eggs (no room in their kitchen in which to prepare them or something). The honey dijon-apple cider vinaigrette was really very good. One thing I might have done differently if I were making this salad myself (yeah, right), I think that pistachio seeds[4] in it would have been a much better flavour-combination and a bit more original (everyone always does salads with either beet-walnut or beet-pecan variations). STRAW only has Crystal®Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce for use as a condimentary supplement, which they have transferred into cruet-shaker-pourer things on each table (at least that was what they had in them the last time I ate there; I really did not bother to ask which hot sauce it might still be today). I just used some of my own Punch Drunk™Chocolate Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce (Thanks, Sean!) on top of the eggs. Surprisingly, this hot sauce mingled (mangled?) very nicely with their vinaigrette, too. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Ritual Coffee - La Soledad ~ 6.5; Seasonal Salad ~ 6.4 (I gave this an additional 0.2 GBS points each for the roasted beets, goat cheese, and very tasty vinaigrette; it was just a salad, after all) ___________________
1. a) How many of you were aware that these prefab-buildings were named after a U.S. Naval Station where they were first designed and built? http://varnumcontinentals.org/2016/04/the-quonset-hut-a-rhode-island-original/ b) Stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day: The place name/word "Quonset" is from a southern New England Algonquian language and perhaps means "small, long place". 2. This smallish local park (only two blocks long and about a quarter-block wide) is named Patricia's Greenfor Patricia Walkup, a local activist who volunteered her time for many years to fight neighborhood crime, and co-led a campaign to tear down the remaining part of the Central Freeway that once ran through Hayes Valley. http://sfrecpark.org/destination/patricias-green-in-hayes-valley/patricias-green-in-hayes-valley-picnic-area/ 3. Which got me to a-thinkin'... if a Cocker Spaniel-Poodle mix-breed is called a "Cockapoo", a Pekingese-Poodle hybrid is a "Peekapoo", and a Labrador Retriever-Poodle crossbreed is a "Labradoodle", what the heck would the AKC call this little muttster? I threw out "Cairauzer" and "Schnairn" to her human escorts, but they did not seem to cotton to (nor polyester to) any of my intelligent suggestions. (I was gonna say they "poo-poo-ed" my ideas, but that silly joke would have only made sense if this little girl had any Poodle in her.) 4. As I have mentioned many times before, you would have to be nuts to think that pistachios are true botanical nuts. They are actually the seeds of the plant. And here is an extra freebie pseudo-horticultural pointer of the day: the pistachio tree is a member of the cashew family (and cashew "nuts" are not botanical nuts none neither).
When one (restaurant) door closes (insert sad emoji-face here), another opens (insert happy emoji-face here)... ?![1]
https://boogaloossf.com/ Place: Boogaloos Location: (back to) 3296 22nd Street (on the corner of Valencia Street once again) Hours: open daily 8:00am Meal: Funky Scram (with red onion, Spanish olive, Jack cheese, and Vegan sausage) ~ 2 eggs scrambled with your favorite ingredients, served with homefries and choice of: sourdough, wheat, rye, English muffin, biscuit, corn muffin, OR blueberry Coffee cake; and a cuppa (and one refilla) Peerless Coffee & Tea® (like last weekend, I forgot to ask what their house-blend might be) http://www.peerlesscoffee.com/
(Yes, I know that should read "Open Every [space] Day". But who would be silly enough to add the extraneous "[space]" to their signage?!)
(And you thought that Batman only knew how to do the Batusi.)[2] I am very happy to report (or 'blog-about, even) that Boogaloos (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, September 16th, 2017) has finally reopened in its newly-renovated old-drugstore space that they originally had occupied since 1994. This location had been closed since May(-ish) 2016 due to a fire (and it seems some kinda long, re-negotiating with the owner for a fairer rental price, too) and just reopened early last month. They had been operating solely as a "Pop-up" at Parada 22 Comida Puertorriqueña on Haight Street for the past two years (for breakfasts only, though). One of the major renovations that I immediately noticed was that they now have a much higher ceiling, with a brand new skylight, and there are also several windows high up along both street-facing walls that had been covered or blocked entirely in the past. This gives the joint a much airier and open feel to it. (not really such a) Strange Coffee Interlude Because I had arrived (well, with this specific purpose) about a half-hour before Boogaloos was due to open for breakfast, I headed over to Ritual Coffee (their shop on Valencia Street, which was just a block down the street from breakfast, anyway), where I had a mighty fine cuppa their El Pajal (a Guatemalan bean). This was prepared in the pour-over/single-drip méthode. https://www.ritualroasters.com/
Now this was a very nice combination of ingredients and flavours (if I do say so myself ~ and I do say so myself!). I like that you can mix-n-match stuff off "the Playlist" for both Scrams and DJ's Omelets. There are lots of good items from which to choose even for stupid vegetarian-types (those smarmy Veganites do not seem to go in much for scrambled eggs for some reason). I went with a corn muffin as my bread/toast choice (otherwise, I was thinking of either the biscuit or blueberry Coffee cake; I can make plain ol' boring toast myself at home any day). Thankfully, even after a two-year long hiatus, I am ex-tremely ex-tatic that they still serve the same great homefries! As had become my tradition whenever eating breakfastarily at Boogaloos, I added some maple syrup in my Coffee (mainly because they have maple syrup pourer-jars on all the tables). For condimentary supplementation, Boogaloos only had Tapatío®Salsa PicanteHot Sauce now (before the fire, they used to have their own homemade ~ well, Boogaloos-made ~ bottles of a very tasty habanero hot sauce; hopefully, once they are back up and running for a bit, they will reinstate that hot sauce). I used some of my own Dixie CrossroadsHot Habañero[ sic ] Pepper Sauce (Thañks, Briañ!) on the potatoes and some Old St. AugustiñeSñake Bite Datil Pepper Sauce (Thañks, Greg & Ciñdy!) on the scrambled mess. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Ritual Coffee - El Pajal ~ 7.1; Funky Scram ~ 6.5 ___________________
1. Oh-no!* Sadly, last weekend while I was walking around along Clement Street, I discovered that grindz (see last 'blog-entry ~ and, by which, I mean "last 'blog-entry ever" now apparently ~ from Saturday, February 17th, 2018) has closed up shop (since April, possibly) and moved to some place called "Hawai'i". That sounds like a completely madeuppery place name to me... Oh, well. Six years in operation was a pretty decent run for San Francisco restaurant-joint standards. *(Okay, to get that silly pun, you would have to know that: 1) grindz was originally called "Ono Grindz" and 2) that "ono" is Hawai'ianese for "very tasty, braddah!" [You can consider that your "stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day"... or not.]) 2. ¿Qué es un "bugalú"? http://www.salsacrazy.com/salsaroots/boogalu.htm
♪ "Between the Omelette and the Deep Blue Sea... " ♫ ???
http://louissf.com/index.html/ Place: Louis' Location: 902 Point Lobos Avenue (somewhere between 48th Avenue and the Great Highway-ish) Hours: open 6:30am everyday[ sic ] Meal: "Build Your Own" Omelette (with Feta, spinach, and tomatoes) ~ three cage free eggs served with potatoes and English muffin; and a cuppa (and one refilla) Peerless Coffee & Tea® (I did not ask which blend/roast they serve, though) http://www.peerlesscoffee.com/
(What's with today's EweToobular juxtaselections? Simples! I have it under good authority [How come you never hear about anyone having it "under bad authority"?] that ol' Satchelmouth himself was a big Feta and spinach fan.) With today's running of another Bay-to-Beer "race" (since 1912) gumming-up my neighborhood streets, I thought it best to keep my breakfastary sojourn as local as possible, so I took a 38-Local all the way down the street (it beat walking the seventeen blocks to-and-fro; plus, it was pretty d*rn windy and chilly this morning to boot ~ which is usually the weather-norm for Bay-to-Beer "race"-days) to Louis' (see previous 'blog-entry from Sunday, October 2nd, 2011). https://www.baytobreakers.com/
As close as this place is to where I live, I do not think that I have eaten there but a handful of times in the 30-plus years that I have lived in San Francisco; and, probably, just two or three of those visits have been breakfastarily. This is no fault of the diner/restaurant-joint itself; there really is just not that much from which to choose on the menu for stupid vegetarians is all. This morning I sat at the mini/three-seater diner-counter area. I was offered any of the empty booths right along the window, but I didn't want to "steal" a booth if a larger group came in and needed/wanted one. However, as it turned out, I was in and out so early this morning there remained three booths still empty the entire time that I was there, so I could have had an entire booth to myself... oh, well. Usually by 9:00am, the (rather smallish) place will be full and there will be a line ~ out the door onto the sidewalk ~ waiting to get in.
Even if I did not have these views from where I was sitting, I only had to turn around or get up and go over to one of the windows to see the views. And there is never an extra charge for these Million Dollar Views. I even saw one whale ~ either a California Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus)[1] or a Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)[2] ~ unfortunatley, it breeched too quickly for me to really see which it might have been (like I could really tell the difference even if they were swimming side-by-each). It was just off the coast (less than a hundred yards really) past Seal Rocks[3]/Lands End[4]/Sutro Baths[5]. Strange Memory/Mind-losing Interlude This morning when I got up and before I was preparing to go out for breakfast, I could not locate some of my notes that I keep on these silly little breakfast visits. (Yes, I do actually keep notes on actual paper. I still refuse to go back to the future into the 21st Century and get me one of them new-fangled mobular devices with which to keep notes/information.) It took me about an hour (and, sadly, that is not an exaggeration) to finally discover where I had put them yesterday. I found them inside one of the reference books (and, yes, I do still use actual printed materials for reference sources; not everything can be found so quickly on these-here World Wild Webs-things) that I used yesterday to look up the information on "sheriff"[6]. While searching manically, I almost swore that I was the victim of a Little Green Men abduction (it is a well-known fact that those sneaky little bastages love a good omelette or crêpes) or an NSA subversive plot (you would be surprised at just how far our government is willing to go trying to keep us from enjoying our early-morning repasts).
As for the actual omelette-review part of this 'blog-thing, it was a simple-enough rendition and much better'n I could ever manage (luckily this was not a "Make Your Own" Omelette... ). It included lotsa spinach in it, but I felt that it coulda used a bit more Feta (this is my standard complaint with most places, anyway). Louis' has only Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce ~ Original Red Sauce for use as a condimentary supplement. No biggie, as I finally got to use up the last drops of my Palo Alto Firefighters XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian!) on the potatoes. (Now I am down to only thirty bottles of hot sauces on my refrigerator door shelves.) Additionally, I used a little of my own Great WallWasabi Hot Sauce (Thanks, Mom!) on half of the omelette. Glen Bacon Scale Rating: "BYO" Omelette ~ 6.0; Million Dollar Views ~ 8.2 (with tax and tip included) ___________________
