Lines x 3
This was a day full of lining up.
Living in Eindhoven and cooking every meal for myself, I came to really enjoy planning my menu for the week, shopping for groceries, and appreciating the health benefits of home cooking. (No matter how much you think you're indulging yourself at home, you're never going to put as much fat, sugar, and salt as a restaurant.)
Still, I was very much looking forward to trying new things to eat, at a reasonable price, and in that sense moving to San Francisco was like going to an oasis after a long trek in the desert.
One place that I had heard a lot about before coming to the city was Tartine bakery. I'm not sure how I first learned about it, but I just knew that it was supposed to be one of the city's best bakeries. I'd heard that there were lines, but at 11am on a Sunday ("who would wake up early enough to get here by 11?" I thought as I was coming) the line was already 45 minutes long. You can see from this picture that Tartine is too cool for any exterior signage. You just identify it by the line going out the door.
I had heard great things about their croissants, so I had decided on the pain au jambon early on. Then I read on some "top 100 things to eat in SF before you die" list about the morning bun, which is sort of like a sticky bun, just not sticky but with orange sugar dusting the top and insides.
I took my pain au jambon and morning roll to nearby Dolores Park to eat. I have to say I was rather disappointed. The morning bun was too burnt in some areas, making it crunchy, dry, and burnt tasting. The pain au jambon was much better. It was rich, with a crispy exterior that shatters in your mouth, and a thousand layers of pastry inside with a moist ham and cheese filling. The main problem though, was that it was far too rich, and the moistness seemed derived only through butter. I felt like the butter was oozing through my pores, and actually felt a bit nauseous afterwards. In my mind, the gold standard for a rich, decadent pastry is the sticky bun from Bouchon Bakery (which I wrote about here).
I realize that I've been pretty harsh, and in reality they're not bad pastries. It's just when you wait 45 minutes and then pay $8.50 for two pastries to go, the expectations are high. The pain au jambon would be better - it actually would have been great - if it were half the size.
I felt so weighed down and heavy after my two pastries that I walked to Noe Valley and then caught the metro to the Ferry Building. I proceed to walk along the water all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, and then back to the Marina - a distance of about 13 miles. I really needed the physical exercise and fresh ocean air.
By the end of the walk, I was getting hungry again and decided to go for an Ike's Place sandwich. I looked up "cheap eats" in San Francisco, and this one was mentioned quite a lot - and apparently got even more popular after it was featured on the Travel Channel. Now, for a sandwich, bottled water, and chips ("free chips!") I paid $14.36 including tax. Not so cheap. But they have a system where you can call ahead to place your order. I called (after about 8 tries with a busy signal, and then finally getting through and waiting through a minute of rings), and was told to come in an hour and a half to get my order! Here's a picture of the line, for those who did not call ahead.
Ike's Place has a huge, three page double-columned menu of vegan, vegetarian, and mean sandwiches. They're known for crazy sandwich names like [Name of girl I'm dating] - yes, including the brackets - and Backstabber. I got the M.I.L.F. sandwich, of chicken, hot sauce, ranch dressing, and jalapeno poppers (jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese, breaded and deep fried). Included is a bag of chips and a caramel apple lollipop. You get a choice of bread, and I chose the highly recommended Dutch Crunch. I'm not sure why it's called that, because it's neither Dutch nor Crunchy, but a plain hoagie roll.
The reviews online all said that this was the best sandwich ever. I can't say it's the best sandwich I ever had, but I do have to say it's the most "so wrong it's good" meal I've had. I mean, jalapeno poppers on a sandwich? I just wish it didn't get so soggy so fast. They made my sandwich to order, because I still had to wait a few minutes before my order was ready, and I ate it as soon as I was down the block. The bread was already very wet by then. Still, I give them extra points for friendly service. The guy who took my order on the phone still remembered who I was an hour and a half later.
In my original itinerary for the day, I was supposed to try Bi-Rite Creamery after Tartine, but because I was so full after Tartine I didn't consider ice cream until the evening. I was still unsure if I could fit it in my stomach, but upon seeing the line for Bi-Rite, I decided that lining up in another line would be a fitting end to the day's culinary adventures. (FYI, where the line goes into the store is where the red neon sign is on the right side.)
I must admit, at first I was highly skeptical of this ice cream. It has the strangest texture I've ever seen. It's brittle, like it's been freeze-dried. I saw the staff scooping the ice cream, and instead of coming together in a ball in one stroke, the ice cream sort of breaks into pieces and the staff needs to use the scoop to shape the pieces into a sphere. See how the spheres stack neatly on top of each other in the picture below? They stay that way even after 5 or 10 minutes. They don't melt.
But upon putting the ice cream in my mouth, I can really see what the hype is about. The mint chip had a clean, straightforward taste of mint. And the chips are my favorite kind in ice cream - small flakes, almost crispy. Not the big honkin' chunks of candy bar-sized chips like at Graeters. The coffee toffee was bitter with coffee. Then I realized why they taste so good - it's because they're much less sweet than most. Also the price of a "single serve" with two flavors is $3.75. Not too bad.
So, three lines, three hyped up restaurants. I would go to Tartine again if only it were my local neighborhood bakery where I could pop in and pop out in a matter of minutes, but not a place I would travel to and wait for 45 minutes. I would be willing to try another of Ike's sandwiches again. But there are so many things to try in this city, I'm not sure when the next opportunity is for Ike's. The one I am most likely to return to is Bi-Rite Creamery, to try even more flavors. In my mind, though, Jeni's Ice Cream in Columbus, OH is still my favorite in the world - clean, honest flavors, with creativity and creaminess to boot.
