Address: Mission Street @ 4th, Across from Mel's Diner, SF
Cuisine: Coffee, sandwiches, pastries
Date Visited: April 26, 2007
I go to school in SoMa every weekday in the morning. I usually get here at around 6 or 7 a.m. to give myself time to relax, reflect and most importantly, get a bite to eat. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I really should follow that saying because I usually skip on it. I know. Sue me.
Every morning, I pass by a coffee shop that is run and supplied by the culinary students from City College of San Francisco. I never really went in there because I thought, “Organic. Must be expensive.” You do have to pay for quality after all. But this place is 4 doors down from my school. I neglected to pay it any attention
But one day, I didn’t really want to venture too far from school because it was freezing outside. I went in to find a casual coffee bar with a menu of the usual pastries, juices, quiches, coffee cocktails on the board behind the register. However, they did have unique array of empanadas and fruit trays in the display case.
On Wednesday, April 25, (yesterday) I ordered a bagel sandwich with lox (smoked salmon), cream cheese, red onion, tomato and capers. I must say that for $4.50 a sammie, I was incredibly satisfied because some other places would charge a lot more for it. I LOVE smoked salmon. Reminds me of the smoked salmon and bagel sammies I would make at the Club Lounge at the Ritz Carlton. I find smoked salmon to be a luxurious food. I don’t usually go for cooked salmon when I go out to eat. I like it either smoked or raw as in Alaskan or Philadelphia rolls. Why? I haven’t a clue.
The White Mocha I ordered had the right amount of bitterness from the coffee and seemed to have a lot more white chocolate than Starbucks. LOVED IT. I haven’t had any coffee products in a while. The last time was probably in the Philippines when I was there in early March. But that’s it. On my way home, I realized that I forgot to take a picture of my breakfast. Darn it!
Which brings us to today. I got to the City and left the car at around 6:45. Got to the shop to have another delicious lox sandwich, but was immediately disappointment to find that they did not receive their shipment of bagels yet. OMG. Was I sad!! I ended up ordering a ham, egg and cheese sandwich on white toasted bread. Since I didn’t have my first choice available, the barista took 40 cents off my order. Which brought it down from $4.00 to $3.60. How nice!!
I was reading my Examiner and tasted it. It was smeared with a little mayo and they used white American cheese. The egg looked pre-made and was a bit too eggy. Is that possible? It just didn’t look fresh. Like they had it pre-made and all they had to do was heat it up. It’s the type of omelet that looks like a sponge and even feels like a sponge. You know, like the eggs in McDonald’s sandwiches. That might sound bad, but really isn’t that bad. It did make it a filling sandwich.
Half of it is still in my backpack. Tomorrow they better have my bagel and lox!! This is a nice place to go to relax or study. They have a Community Aid Program that has provided their coffee workers' children with health care and education since 1994. So that’s a good thing.
I mean, when you come here, you are:
1) supporting children and their families from other countries
2) supporting San Francisco students by sampling their food
3) tasting quality products
It's a win-win situation here.
I have been attending this particular school for about a month and a half, and I always ignore this place. I shall not any longer!!!
