Dolores Park Cafe

While in San Francisco, I took a massive bike ride that took me to the Mission District at lunch time. My intention was to visit Cha-Ya Vegetarian Japanese Restaurant, and I was incredibly dissapointed to find I had arrived between lunch and dinner and the restaurant was closed. I knew I was in a hotbed of San Francisco's interesting restaurants, and wanderered around trying to find something else to meet my high and excited expectations. What I found was a ton of attractive, hip young people sipping wine and drinking beers from maison jars, eating crepes and charcuterie that exceeded what I had hoped to spend on lunch.

My bike ride had left me deliriously hungry, and after reading a handful of menus that didn't quite fit the bill I stumbled into the Dolores Park Cafe feeling as though I had settled on mundane sustenance and had failed in uncovering a good mission experience.

It turned out the Dolores Park Cafe actually made a darn good sandwich. I ordered a surprisingly satisfying caprese like sandwich with thick slices of fresh mozzarella, hearty ripe tomato slices, and a big helping of greens dressed in a homemade balsamic dressing. It came with some potato chips that I devoured, and unlimited water flavored with orange slices, which I also gulped with heavenly abandon. The environment was modern without pretense, and the clientele included both the hip and the matronly (and that lovely combination of the two).

I would still like to return to the mission with a better plan, but this decently priced and tasty sandwich certainly powered me through the rest of my ride like a champ and I enjoyed sitting at my outside table watching the people come and go.