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.

So, This is Exciting

For April 7th, 2011...

Saigon Sandwich has a sign posted stating they will indeed be open tomorrow for business! Come one, come all, get your banh mi and check out the new digs.



Also, there's a new tree in my life...



Earlier in the week I saw a group of people planting some trees down the street, with my investigative powers at work, I've discovered this group of people are called, Friends of the Urban Forest. Okay, I have a confession to make, I found out by reading the note attached to the tree. Welcome to the neighborhood lil tree. You are already sprucing up the place, with your little pink blooms. Thanks, Friends of the Urban Forest. I wish I could call you like Captain Planet, with a ring, yours would be green!

HipsterBikeRack

They get rid of my tree (side note: There’s a cheetos wrapper offending on the graveyard of the spot to have formerly been the resting home of my tree (see previous post, My Tree)), and yesterday, there’s this hipster bike rack out front. And today, they spray painted a little white bike symbol underneath just in case people in the Tenderloin aren’t sure about what this thing is supposed to be used for. You put something like this up in the Mission and you would have had 20 bikes attached to it yesterday. In the Tenderloin, we need a little time to adjust to this type of gentrification. I knew it was coming, just not like this, in the form of hipsters. They come here to eat the Saigon Sandwiches (see previous post, Tummy Love part 1) but it’s a passing fancy, they’re in and out. They never linger. This bike rack indicates lingering.




Annnnnd, speaking of Saigon Sandwich...it'll be closed March 1st-March 31st for remodeling. Can't wait to see it!

Tummy Love part 1

A La Turca is on Geary and Larkin.




This is one of my favorite places to come when it’s rainy and cold. It’s always good to start with the hummus or lentil soup, or both. Their house specials always satisfy and this time it was ground lamb with potatoes and eggplant. I also ordered the spinach and cheese pide. Pides are house bread with your choice of filling. Sometimes I get cheese and potato, this time it was spinach with feta and mozzarella cheeses. It was warm and fluffy and delicious. I’m usually too full to order dessert, but it was rainy and cold, and it was about time I tried one, so I ordered the Kunefe, which was described as baked kadayif (didn’t know what that was) with sweet cheese. What arrived was warm, slightly gooey and seemed to be soaked in sugar water. It sort of reminded me of shredded wheat cereal. It was a little too sweet, but not bad. I had ordered a black tea and the dessert tasted better between sips. The total amounted to 30 with tax, pretty sweet deal!


Little Bird Café



Is on Geary between Larkin and Hyde. There’s already been a few café’s in this location that have come and gone. It’s difficult to be an upstart, even more so with many choices in close proximity. I have mixed emotions about this place. The loose-leaf tea and ritual coffee they serve are good. I tried the nightingale sandwich, fresh mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto with potato chips, which was really good. The service is nice enough, and the chairs by the window are comfy. However, this is a family run café. The few times I’ve stopped in, the owner was there with her two children, both under the age of five. There’s a little play set for them in the corner. The kids seemed to be fairly well behaved, but were running all over the place, as well as in and out the door, which was distracting me from the conversation I was having with a friend. If you’re the kind of person that wants to sit in the quiet abyss of all that is a café and drink your coffee in peace and quiet while whittling your day away, I mean, “working,” on your computer, this may not be the place for you.


Saigon Sandwich



Located on Larkin and Eddy, the best of the ubiquitous bahn mi sandwich shops. Yeah they’re good. But even better is the people watching while waiting in line. Everybody loves these things, which means you’ll have to wait for one. But while you wait, watch how the people grow antsy, waiting for a cheap sandwich on their lunch break. Watch how the fatties order more than one. Or watch the person, a.k.a bum, parked outside ask for change from everyone who walks by. I’ve seen a bum fight right out front too. As the fight erupted a customer demanded the sandwich ladies call the cops, and admirably they ignored her pleas and worked on. Who does she think she is, asking these ladies to stop making sandwiches and get involved; she must be deluded. I’m sure these ladies have seen this many a time over, and if they were to get involved, there most definitely would be a backlog of sandwiches for a very, very long time.