Monday, February 14, 2011

Something A Little Different

This week -- partially motivated by my decision to try to score some used Venture Bros. at Dimple -- I decided to swing through Sacramento's "Chinatown," and pay a visit to Harry's Cafe.



Who doesn't need some Household Supple? I'd swung by Harry's before a little while back, and gotten some decent, but not exceptional, French Toast, realizing immediately after that what I should have done was order something off of the "Asian Breakfast" menu. One of the reasons Harry's was in my head recently was I overheard a customer talking about their bevy of vegetarian options. That being said, I was a little disappointed I didn't see more of this reflected on their breakfast menu. I ended up choosing the "Hawaiian #1," which had steamed rice, two slices of grilled spam, some Portuguese sausage and some sauteed onions and carrots, along with a tea. I sat outside to enjoy the glorious day, and read over the new ICUP scripts.


One of the most charming things about Harry's is, of course, Harry. He's always there, he takes your order, he makes sure everything is okay. And his wife owns the salon next door, which is pretty awesome. It definitely has a sort of small-town vibe which is very comforting and adorable. I drank my tea, in its awesome mug and little tea-bag dish (I feel a separate dish for the tea-bag is, bad tea-bag jokes aside, often overlooked), and enjoyed the view. The only other people outside were a couple of nice-enough brohaims. By the time my food arrived, I was interested about my first foray into the world of Spiced Ham.


As I'm sure most of my reader's know -- as I believe I am in the minority for having lived a completely spamless life until now -- spam is... salty. That's pretty much it. It's salt, with some texture. It's not bad, it's just not... good. The rest of the meal was really good; the sausage was awesome, and the veggies had a nice consistency. In my opinion, there could have been a little more of the veggies to mix more evenly, but it was good. It wasn't overly breakfast-y, and it wasn't stunning, but it was good.

Both times I've been in, I have a little bit of trouble figuring out if I should seat myself, order at the register, or... what. And the decor inside is nothing spectacular, very -- dare I say it? -- "Asian restaurant." Big mirrors, pastel pastorals, that kind of thing.


And for the record, no Venture Bros. for me. Boo, and also hiss.


Atmosphere: 4/13
Clean: 2/3
Structural: 0/3
Decor: 1/3
Signage 0/2
Service: 1/2

Menu: 6/8
Variety: 2/2
Size: 1/2
Beverages: 1/2
Prices: 2/2

Food: 5/9 pts
Presentation: 1/3
Portion: 2/3
Taste: 2/3

Bathroom: 2/5 pts.
Clean: 1/2
Structural: 0/1
Decor: 1/2

Overall: 16/35

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Waiting In The Garage

Ladies And Gentleman (I'm assuming there's only one one true gentleman reading this, at most), today is a special two-for-one. That's right, two reviews of the same place! And that place? Capitol Garage!


Why is this a twofer today? Well, partially just because I'm lazy. You see, last week a splitting headache (after a killer ICUP show) kept me in bed instead of journeying out to a tasty new destination on Saturday, so I went out on Sunday. I decided I'd return to a place I knew would be tasty, and since I thought I'd be travelling with posse, I chose Capitol Garage. So, obviously, full disclosure here; I like Capitol Garage. It's tasty, it has a huge menu, I have a dear friend who worked there, it has a (some might say controversial) Skinner painting on every goddamn wall. What's not to love? Also, it serves brunch until 2pm, which allows me to get my sleepy on a little longer. So there it is.

I made it down there last week at the heart of Brunchtime, and the place was superpacked. I sat at the bar, next to the Cambros of coffee and across the bar from a literal bucket of mimosa. And here's where the pros start to blur with the cons. They do offer a bottomless mimosa deal for about nine bucks, which is pretty tasty and definitely bottomless, and been particularly entertaining on many a grey Sunday. However, they're a little less appealing when you see them poured from a gigantic pre-mixed bucket. Also, (and perhaps this is the coffee-snob in me) the idea of all of the coffee coming from a cambro is a little disheartening, too. Now, honestly, the coffee isn't too bad, and it makes practical sense, given how busy they are. But still, a little less than ideal. Also less than ideal was that sitting next to the cash register and bartender, when the servers were places orders and ringing customers up allowed me to overhear some of their shit-talking the same customers. Now, granted, I don't expect this to not happen. But just because those PARTICULAR customers can't hear you doesn't mean that NONE of the customers can't hear you. For instance, your plucky breakfast protagonist.

Now, on this visit the bartender took my order, and I decided to nerd it up with Peter Parker's favorite breakfast dish, (Buck)Wheat (Pan)Cakes! As well as a green tea of some sort the bartender picked for me. The meal arrived, and was pretty damn delicious! It came with a small side of blueberries, which paired well with the wheat, but I remember explicitly thinking that there would not be enough blueberries to go with every bite, and that the cakes might get a little dry without them.


But then, to my delight, it turns out the cook had thought to mash blueberries into the bottom of every pancake! Which is pretty brilliant, if you ask me. Also, you can see there's a side of the Garage potatoes, which are far more delicious than that name would imply. What I like about these taters in particular is that they don't go the traditional route, and have a very unique flavor all their own (is it basil? Perhaps in a few months of gastronomy, I'll be able to tell). Although, for the record, I do prefer a garnish I can eat.

But, overall, it was a damn tasty meal. It was, honestly, a little awkward being by myself in such a bustling busy atmosphere (especially when the girl that dropped off my food may or may not have mocked me for reading during my wait). As I mentioned, Cap Gar has a pretty cool visual identity, and I love that they've imported their enormous sign from the last location. That being said, their bathrooms are really boring. The hallways leading to the bathroom have murals so cool I stopped traffic looking at them, but the bathrooms themselves could be mistaken for a rest stop.

And yes, I will explain why the structural design of the bathrooms is given its own point system. Just not now.

So, feeling that I ought to go back with some friends in tow to fully appreciate the experience, I conned some friends into joining me, not telling them about this blog until after we ordered, and mostly just so they wouldn't think I'm a huge freak when I started snapping photos of my food. But first;

We got there, requested a table for three, and asked if we'd like to sit inside or outside, all of which is completely reasonable and, y'know, normal. We said "outside" because it was a stunning, sunshiney morning. This is when it starts to get weird. I thought she responded with "I can only seat two of you outside," which seemed totally ridiculous, while one of my compatriots said she said "I can't seat you outside," and she claims the less-sensical "I can only seat you outside." Which is fine, because that's, y'know, what we requested. So we go out to wait, and see am empty table. When I go to point this out to her, she repeats herself/lies (whichever), and seats us. We order from a server that I've met roughly three dozen times, but never remembers me. Seriously, We've played shows together in basements and art galleries, I've been to his house on Halloween, and know a bunch of the same people. Not to mention me visiting his place of business about a dozen times. Anyway. My friends and I talk about literature for a while (including how Chuck Palahniuk should give up the ghost, and the merits of Piers Anthony, John Grisham, and China Mieville). We get our delicious little fruitplates (which I didn't get when I was at the bar. What gives?), and we talk about... other stuff. For a while. Eventually, we start talking about where the hell our food is. We joke that my presence is such a memory-eraser to our server he forgot we'd ordered. I stop drinking my Kahlua and Coffee so I can have some left in the increasingly unlikely seeming occurrence our food actually arrives. By the time we got it, (without apology), I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture until I was already digging in.


I ordered the Country Benedict (Which I'm categorizing under omelettes, because, c'mon people. Let's not get too picky). It was a damn tasty meal. Biscuits and gravy with poached eggs, Tillamook cheese, and chicken apple sausage. My friend who ordered the simple biscuits and gravy declared it a little too fancy for her tastes ("I'm a Denny's kind of girl,") but I love the Garage's strangely upscale breakfast menu. Their menu shifts at least seasonally, which means that sometimes your favorites won't be there (The Strawberries and Cream is ridiculous!), but there's time to find new favorites, right? Plenty of time. Between when you order and your food arrives. And while our unnamed-server (yes, I know his name) was very nice -- although he could have apologized for the wait -- who knows what he said about us at the register?

And now, an unrelated piece of grafitti;

Atmosphere: 7/13
Clean: 1/3
Structural: 2/3
Decor: 3/3
Signage 0/2
Service: 1/2

Menu: 7/8
Variety: 2/2
(bumped up a little because of the rotating menu)
Size: 2/2 (See above)
Beverages: 2/2
Prices: 1/2

Food: 7/9 pts
Presentation: 2/3
Portion: 2/3
Taste: 3/3

Bathroom: 1/5 pts.
Clean: 1/2
Structural: 0/1
Decor: 0/2

Overall: 22/35

Soul & Work




This Saturday I utilized my unfortunately early wake up to trot on down to Old Soul Coffee to try out their breakfast items. It was a gorgeous morning, and this whole "sunshine" thing that's been going on lately is really putting some fuel in my creative furnace.




'd been by before, but they were out of the french toast, which I really wanted to try. Old Soul is a coffee roaster as well as a bakery, supplying pastries and bread to a number of Sacramento locations, so I figured their french toast would be worth a taste.
I am, in general, an Old Soul fan. They have an awesome location; in the alley behind Crepeville and Bows and Arrows. My bike currently being out of commission (again!) I decided to pilot my Chucks down there, lug along my laptop, use their WiFi and see if I could get any work done.

The place was pretty busy, so after ordering my highly-anticipated French Toast and Bamboo Tea, plopped down in a comfy chair across the way from my poker-playing compatriot, Chris. We briefly discussed his burgeoning card game addiction, and then I moved to a larger community table once I got my food, to better facilitate simultaneous eating and internetting. My tea was delicious, and excellent selection from the superfriendly staff. The french toast was prepared as several small, relatively thin slices of french bread with a slightly cinnamon-y batter, a small to-go condiment tub of syrup. It came with house potatoes, and a similar little tub of ketchup.






And it was... alright. The bread was a little chewy, and hard to cut with the fork (the only untensil provided). The potatoes were unevenly cooked, ranging from a starchy, undercooked crispness, to a little mushy, with a couple pitch-perfect crispy-skin-and-buttery-insides mixed in. I was tempted to use the ketchup, which I am genrally loathe to do (breakfast potatoes should stand on their own, I say!). Overall; fairly disappointing.


The good news is, I got a lot of work done! The community table was a perfect place to pitch up the old toplap and sketchbook, and toy around with some costume designs for my Project Rooftop submission, as well as get my social networking done, and look up extraneous whatnots. So while I do highly recommend Old Soul as a coffee shop, feel free to sleep in a little and wait for lunch. If memory serves, their sandwiches are generally a little pricier than their breakfast fair, but worth it. I'll be sure to check out some other items, maybe french toast just isn't their bag?

But they definitely have a cool vibe. And questionably free art in the bathroom (irongreymammoth.com). And some sweet signage.



Atmosphere:  10/13 pts
Clean: 1/3
Structural: 2/3
Decor: 3/3
Signage 2/2
Service: 2/2

Menu: 5/8 pts
Variety: 1/2
Size: 1/2
Beverages: 2/2
Prices: 1/2

Food: 3/9 pts
Presentation: 1/3
Portion: 1/3
Taste:  1/3

Bathroom: 2/5 pts.
Clean: 1/2
Structural: 0/1
Decor: 1/2

20/36 pts