Happy 2012!!

A Belated Happy Holidays from the Morning Constitution! I apologize for the lack of recent posts, but the last couple months have been incredibly busy in both the predictable, and some unpredictable ways.
I celebrated Christmas Eve at Tower Cafe with a good group of friends, enjoying their delicious, seasonal, Eggnog Pancakes. Yesterday I celebrated New Year's Eve at Orphan with some Nutella Pancakes! Both varieties were extra delicious.

I received two Christmas gifts which will directly contribute to the awesome ratio of this blog; a new camera with better.... everything, that actually focuses, and a notebook with two tigers on it (important!) to take notes during breakfastses. I'm excited about being able to make the blog more entertaining and far prettier due to both of those!
It's been a year already, and I'd like to offer a truly heartfelt thank you to all of you who have followed or otherwise enjoyed this blog. It's been a true pleasure, and I hope to continue it for a while to come.

Here are some fun facts from the first year of the Morning Constitution;

Two people found the blog by searching for "Stephanie Hyden" (thanks, Steffie!).
One person found it by searching for "person in the wolf suit!"
As of this moment, the page has been viewed 550 times! Twice in Latvia, five times in Ghana, and 43 times in Malaysia, certainly largely due to the fact that my last name translates to "Gecko" in Malaysian.
French Toast, Pancakes, and Omelettes tied for the most tagged food items this year.

Lots more to come in 2012; a new mini-Constitutional coming soon, new reviews, and lots more excitement! Thanks for sticking around!

Overheard

A brief intermission, as I'm readying my final Northwest journey post, on the fun "dinerant" I visited on my last morning in Portland. I have, of course, been breakfasting in the meantime, and TFO season has started, which means my weekends are full of zaniness and late nights.
For those of you not in the know, TFO is Sacramento's own Trash Film Orgy, a summer Midnight Movie festival that traditionally runs for six weeks, showing awesomely schlocky cult movies at midnight on Saturday, complete with lobby games, stage shows, and prizes. To kick off the season, last Saturday they organized Sacramento's Zombie Walk (an event they are credited with founding!). I appeared on Good Day Sacramento as a zombie, and then worked security during the walk and show. The TFO crew is a group of insanely talented people, full of love for each other and the event, and it's always a pleasure to be a part of it. This weekend supplied Sacramento's Inaugural Mermaid Parade, which I took part in as a tentacled creature with some very good friends. Keeping the nautical theme going, TFO presented Humanoids From The Deep, and the stage show was the musical "The Lusty Rampage Of The Raperfish." I played the titular character, which involved wearing blue tights and an enormous foam fish costume, complete with some fully functioning... equipment. Needless to say, after stalking around splay-legged on stage carrying a man-sized sexually aggressive fish on my back all night, I'm a little sore and tired this morning.
I tumbled down to Tower this morning to slake my hunger. Despite the fact I haven't gone regularly in months (and those times I have, of late, I haven't seen many faces I recognize) the hostess one of the servers recognized me and came up to say hello, a testament to the awesome service! As I was in line to make my reservation, I heard a couple behind me. The girl was advising the guy to never, ever get the Seasonal French Toast. As readers of this blog, and anyone who's ever been the Tower know, this is terrible, bass-ackwards advice. "They put this terrible 'fruit compost' stuff on it," she said, "it's all sticky, and soggy..." Fortunately, the guy could read and therefor could tell the difference between "compost" and "compote," and seemed unswayed by his ladyfriend's misguided advice.

I ordered a chai, in honor of being in the homestretch of reading Ian McDonald's River of Gods, a massive, sprawling, Mievillian novel set in India in 2047. It was a little difficult to get into, but has definitely proven worth it. It follows nine very disparate characters through a mystery that involves Gods and Artificial Intelligence. Having finished it between enacting and writing this post, I'm currently undergoing that mild grief that only finishing a 500+ page good book can bring.

I ordered the Sicilian Scramble, the day's special. It included Italian sausage, and was topped with fresh basil and some excellently crisp shredded parmesan. I was also treated to my neighboring table's amusing story of the woman's attempt to deal with her six-year-old stepdaughter, who has apparently recently discovered the joys of self-pleasure, and is apparently rather enthusiastic in pursuing them.
Unrelated; Tower has also recently expanded their waiting area, and this was my first chance to explore it. They've sacrificed some of their garden to create a pathway with copious seating, included some of their fantastic driftwood benches. There's enough foliage to maintain the "Secret Jungle" allusion, but it helps with the crowds that tend to clog the sidewalk on weekend mornings. All in all, a damn good way to start a day of recouping!

Cutthroats!

I had this Thursday off, so I sauntered down to Tower for a mid week breakfast. Their weekday breakfast menu isn't nearly as extensive as their weekend brunch menu, but it's still full of delicious selections; I tried a new Baja Crab Omelette that was really good. In all honesty, I wasn't in the best of moods, but sitting outside on the patio helped clear my head a little. After an unseasonably cold and rainy late Spring, it seems June is here with a vengeance!

Then last Saturday, I went back to Tower to fuel up for the Third Annual Hunt the Grid, bicycle-centric scavenger hunt put together by the Sacramento Bike Kitchen. My breakfast buddy John and I had compete its inaugural year, and had an insane amount of fun. We put together a lean, mean, bicyclin' team pulled from some of our compatriots at the CalStage Clubhouse, an improv workshop run by two of the most talented women in Sacramento.

Pirated up as the Calstage Clubhouse Cutthroats with Kevin and Jawara at our side, we made our way to the Bike Kitchen and prepared to Hunt! We were given a list of items to collect and a list of photos to take. We also received the first of four "Clue Sets" which contained clues to different businesses in town to visit, and a physical challenge for each area. We split up a lot to cover more area, an apparently controversial approach, since at least one team claimed that that was against the rules. Dear Haters; it was confirmed by the Bike Kitchen that it was, in fact, not against the rules. That's why certain pictures and the Clue Set hand-ins specifically mentioned all team members must be present. Sorry!

Well, actually, I'm not sorry. Because due to our hard pedallin', fast thinkin', and Grid knowledge, we came in Third Place! It was a lot of fun, and every team member definitely had their shining moment. We even ended with a twenty-block race against the clock at the end, but still came out ahead of most of the thirty other teams! We got a bunch of cool swag, but most importantly, had a ton of fun. It's an interested way to explore the city, and see it in ways you hadn't thought of before!

I'm planning a vacation at the end of the month, so I'll be taking it a little easy on breakfast the next couple of weeks to help save the scratch. So you can look forward to my notes on local coffeeshops as I grab some coffee, a pastry, and blog from the table!

And then; Morning Constitutional's first road trip!

Day After Christmas

Finding all of our friends sleeping through the scheduled brunch we'd intended on joining, my Santa Cruz compatriot Peter and I decided a little Tower Cafe breakfast was in order. We made our very cold way down 16th on foot, appreciating the graffiti on the way.

After a medium wait (which Peter spent pointing at passing cars and declaring, "And you get a puppy, and you get a puppy...") we were seated inside. One of the great pleasures of Tower Cafe is there is always something to look at, like a deranged Easter Bunny went through and hid candy skulls everywhere.

I ordered an apricot tea, and the Carnitas Rojas Con Huevos, which Dad ordered the last time we'd visited. Peter ordered a mimosa and the Fruit Crepe. The mimosa was tasty, but when you can get an equally tasty bottomless mimosa for about the same price elsewhere, it's tough to make the commitment. The tea had a surprisingly strong apricot flavor, which paired better than I expected with my breakfast. The carnitas come in a red tortilla cup, along with eggs, three tiny flour tortillas, and the Tower potatoes. The carnitas were excellent, and the little carnitas-and-egg soft tacos made with the tortillas definitely hit the spot; even the emptied tortilla cup was a good snack, soaked in delicious, salty meatjuice. Peter's crepe was a little different than he expected; it was a sweet cheese crepe, essentially surrounded by a fruitplate. I've found this indicative of most of the "fruit" related items on Tower's breakfast menu, that they don't seem to include the fruit so much as accessorize with it. Still, it seemed very enjoyable, and he ate the melon despite his allergic reaction to it.

Tower has a great atmosphere, and it was a great way to spend a relaxed day-after-Christmas, chatting and people watching. There formed quite an impressive restroom line on our way out, but -- and whether or not this is shrewd design or happy coincidence -- even the bathroom line benefits from the dense, eclectic design sense of the building, as multiple awards and articles line the hallway.

Order: Apricot Tea, Carnitas Rojas Con Huevos

Price: $11.95

Rating: ****

Post CIM

Good Morning and Welcome!

Tower Cafe is pretty much everything I like in a breakfast destination; a large and varied menu, including seasonal items, excellent (and generally attractive) service, and an awesome decor.
This morning felt like a Greek Omelette sorta day, paired with some Cinnamon Orange tea. The tea, while a little light on the orange, went very well with the tang of the feta and kalamata olives. The cheese also tasted excellent with Tower's specialty potatoes. The potatoes are the perfect mix of crispy skin and mushy insides, like a sunburned Twinkie. The tots can usually use a little more of the onions and bell peppers that are conservatively sprinkled throughout, as they add a nice counterpoint to the potato texture. The omelette was large enough to be completely filling alongside the potatoes and a small slice of cantaloupe.
My dad joined me, and we had just finished our annual tradition of calling mile times of the California International Marathon. He ordered the Carnitas Rojas, which he enjoyed. He mentioned that the carnitas were not too dry, as he often finds at other restaurants, and they were served in a bright-red tortilla cup. The plate also contained the potatoes, eggs, and small flour tortillas. He also sprang for a couple mudslide cookies; chocolate cookies filled with a gooey fudge. These also went very well with my cinnamon tea, although it is biologically imperative that I consume milk with anything that chocolatey. All in all, a very tastey and invigorating way to start the day!