Debauve & Gallais - direct from Paris, France, a follow-up

I was lucky enough to have a friend going to Paris on vacation, and I specifically requested several bars of the 72% cacao plain bar from Debauve & Gallais. I also told her she should try some of the champignons. Happy to oblige, she tried the champignons, as well as some other confections. She returned recently, bars in hand, and we sat down to have a tasting.

Again, I must confess my great disappointment in the underwhelming taste. While the plain chocolate was an improvement over the ganache, it still had overtones of nut, rather than of vanilla. This is also clearly not a cooking chocolate. At $6/bar (in the U.S., more on the order of $7.50/bar), neither the price nor the taste warrants melting this down to mix with other ingredients.

I'm looking forward to my Halloween ghosts from L.A. Burdick, though.

Boogaloo's in SF, CA

A few weekends ago I met some friends at Boogaloo's for brunch. Boogaloo's is located at Valencia and 22nd Street in the heart of the Mission. It was hipster city. Lots of young, cool urbanites with tattoos and low-slung jeans. Grommet belts and chic shag haircuts abounded. The wait on a Sunday afternoon (around 1pm) was about 20 minutes for a party of four - honestly, not too terrible. Parking wasn't a problem for me, but I think I got lucky when I snagged a spot in front of the restaurant. Usually the Mission is a parking nightmare. Don't bring a nice car.

The waiter/host who took our names was extremely laid-back. Even though the restaurant has a policy of not seating parties if they are incomplete, one of our friends was late, but the host seated us anyway. It was an unexpectedly nice gesture.

The restaurant itself is a grubby, diner-esque affair with neat booths on the walls, and conventional tables in the middle. Try to get one of the booths, as they are definitely the prime real estate. Sitting outside also seemed desirable (by local standards), but the grime of the city, the homeless asking for handouts, and the hoard standing by the door waiting for to be seated really detracted from the outside ambiance. On the walls hung art by developmentally-delayed adults. One of my friends confessed that she had been to Boogaloo's the weekend before and had bought two of the paintings because they were so bizarre, she just couldn't resist. I was more interested in the food.

The menu was an odd twist on diner food with a Southern/Southwestern twist; think an interesting mix of New Orleans-style, Tex-Mex, and straight-up diner faves. I noted Huevos Rancheros, as well as Jambalaya, and chive biscuits. I had to go with my standard to see how it stacked up, so I got a plain egg-white omelette with cheddar cheese. I got a side of potatoes, and chose a biscuit instead of a corn muffin, or toast. The omelette was not notable, but was tasty. The potatoes were not terribly well-seasoned, but they had a great crust on them, which I love. The biscuit was superior in terms of size, butteriness, flakiness and overall taste, but suffered from the chives. Don't get it with gravy. It comes smothered, and I mean smothered in the creamy, viscous stuff.

One of my friends got the a polenta dish that came with a salsa sauce. Another friend got a scramble. The toast was especially delicious, largely due to the fact that some great raspberry preserves were served at the table. All the dishes were huge, so bring a hearty appetite.

I need to note that although one had to wait for a table, once seated, the service was extremely fast. Our waiter (a heavily-tattooed youth in stylish urban wear) was attentive (refilling our water glasses several times), and personable (coming back twice to see if we were ready to order). Once we ordered, the food came out in about five minutes. I'm not exaggerating. It's obvious how they keep the lines outside moving briskly. We didn't feel rushed, though. Once the check came, no one hovered to make us pay, and we spent an extra ten minutes talking.

If I lived in the Mission, I could see that coming here would be easy, but it was quite a haul for me. There are better places nearer to where I live, but I was meeting city friends. All in all, the restaurant was funky and fun, and had decent food. If the biscuit didn't have chives in it, I'd give this restaurant .5 points higher. I'd recommend it for brunch if one were in the area.


Boogaloo's
5/10

Alpine Inn Beer Garden in Portola Valley, CA

Wow! Given my fondness for complete dives, I can't believe I'd never been to the Alpine Inn Beer Garden until a couple of weeks ago. If you're interested in going to an honest-to-goodness roadhouse, this place is for you. In the middle of nowhere in sleepy Portola Valley, this place pops out like a beacon of light in the black night on the corner of Alpine and Arastradero. You have to enter on Arastradero, and MH and I ended up doubling back (dangerous in the pitch black on an unlit road) to get in.

The Alpine Inn, fka Rossatti's, or just "Zott's" is truly a restaurant from another era. A good article about it can be found here. The decor? Well, the decor is what you'd expect from a building built in 1852. It was originally founded as a gambling house by Felix Buelna (a former mayor of San Jose). The original fixtures remain, although the tables have been replaced and it has been redone as a restaurant. Huge wooden tables, a big wooden bar, and a skillet-topped stove, as well as a couple of TVs are what pass for decoration. There's also a big beer garden in back. One really doesn't go to a place like this for the decor, though.

The food? Greasy goodness. Rectangle-shaped burgers on ciabatta rolls, crispy fries (and lots of them if you get the "large"), Polish sausage, ham and cheese, peanuts-in-shells, and tons of beer. I had a double burger with fries, and MH had a double cheeseburger. My burger was awesome, meaty, and satisfying. The fries were decent, and could have used a bit more seasoning, but had a nice crunchy outside and a fragrant, fluffy inside.

The Alpine Inn has Fat Tire and Devil's Canyon (Bay Area fave) on tap, as well as some other non-noteworthy brands. There is also a huge selection of bottled beer from which to choose. We had both Fat Tire (a clean, ambery ale), and Devil's Canyon Full Boar Scotch Ale (a thick, viscous ale that wasn't really ale-like at all). Stick with the Fat Tire.

When we were there, celebrating BP's birthday, the clientele ran the gamut from Stanford students to grizzled bikers to yuppies. One customer with stringy hair and a manaical gaze watched us from the bar (think Bobcat Goldthwait). I have to say that I have a fondness in my heart for sketchy roadhouses in the middle of nowhere. This place was, for lack of a better word, awesome. I will definitely be returning.


The Alpine Inn Beer Garden
6.5/10