Citizen brunch

I don’t know why I don’t go to Citizen Cake more often. It’s 4.5 blocks away from my house, so it’s within a more than reasonable walking distance. It has delicious food and even more delectable desserts, so the edibles alone would be worth the short journey. I think it might have something to do with the crowd who eats there. This afternoon, when I met Winnie for Saturday brunch (even though we had seen each other just two hours earlier), this seemed even more pronounced.

As we were waiting outside for our table, dozens of people wearing suits, crisply ironed shirts, and shiny pointed and heeled shoes were coming through the Citizen Cake doors. I was wearing my favorite pair of dirt-and-grease-stained jeans cuffed up at the bottom with a tank top and striped 80’s-looking polo shirt, and Winnie, who just came back from a run, was wearing some gaucho pants and a tank top. We both were feeling a little self-conscious.

But, we got seated amongst the older crowd who looked as if they were on their way to an afternoon at the symphony, and perused the menu. I decided on the shitake mushroom, Fontina cheese, and arugula omelet with a side of bacon (I don’t usually order bacon but I eyed the bacon heading toward the man next to us and it looked heavenly). And Winnie had the Dutch baby, which I didn’t now is a puffed up pancake.

My fluffy yellow crescent mound was topped with some leafy greens, and on a separate smaller plate came three strips of thick, crisp pig meat. The mushrooms of the omelet tasted very distinctly and strongly of shitake mushroom, which has a much more powerful flavor than that of the bland button, and I was surprised by its intensity. It, quite honestly, overpowered the other flavors of the Fontina and the arugula, which were both playing second fiddle to the shitake. And, though the egg was light and fluffy as a good omelet should be, the richness of all the butter that was used made the final few bits a challenge to eat.

My bacon, on the other hand, had no such problem going into my mouth. The strips on my plate tasted just as good as I thought them to be. They were crisp, meaty, and salty. And eating them with my bare fingers left just the slightest shine of grease on my tips. How I wished bacon didn’t have such a Midwestern obesity stigma to it.

And, the bit of Winnie’s Dutch baby that I had tasted like a warm apple pie, although Winnie assured my that there were no apples to speak of in her dish.

We left Citizen Cake delightfully full, but not so full as to pass up getting a scoop of plum sorbet on our way out, which was a refreshing finish to the heavy eggs and pork.

Oh, and Elizabeth Falker and her Citizen Cake cooking team will be battling Cat Cora on Iron Chef Sunday, October 29th. Go San Francisco!