Mirtille

A new café on McAllister between Leavenworth and 7th, in the Civic Center. Went in to check it out, cause hey, I like cafes! You can check them out here. What I’m looking for in a café is yummy food in a cozy place. First thing I see on the windows outside is words. Their concept, to be sure, explicitly written out, words like pure, simple, taste. I saw something like this recently, I wrote about it in my HipsterBikeRack post. In that case, they had spray painted a little bike symbol underneath said bike rack for the sole purpose of illustrating for us Tenderloinites exactly what this new foreign object is supposed to be used for. We might be new to up and coming trends entering our neighborhood, but we’re not that dumb! When I saw these words painted on the windows, I was reminded of our new bike rack… Duh, me live in Tenderloin, me not know what this is.

When you get inside all you see is purple, everywhere. Walls, seats, counter, all purple. It was purple overkill, and I like purple. The lamps are silver. It’s like they missed the boat for what’s modern. If they had opened in the late 90’s their décor might be considered modern. As for one of the criteria of a café being cozy, I didn't think it was.

On to the food...



I grabbed a ham and cheese sandwich. My sandwich was tiny, and almost non-existent. I paid 3.80 for it, and I got a tea. A tea, from a bag, which I‘m not opposed to, but they got it from Leland Tea Company, who actually sells loose-leaf tea. My total was up to around 10 bucks with tax. My sandwich was good, just pretty small for the price, when you can get a real life size sandwich at Saigon Sandwich for a little bit cheaper even. It’s not like I’m morbidly obese and need a crap load of food to fill up, but if you were actually hungry, I would try a salad instead. My friend joined me, she had a salmon and cream cheese sandwich, and when she got to the table, she had with her a chocolate souffle! Chocolate’s the way to my heart, and this dessert was yummy, and not tiny. Just the right size for the two of us to share.



The coziness level, and yummy food levels, weren’t that great for me, plus they aren’t open on weekends. The dessert was good, but the place didn't hit the spot. I’d rather head to Leland Tea Company, on Polk and Bush, to get their tea sandwiches and loose-leaf tea.