The Usual Suspects Cafe

Update: The original chefs at The Usual Suspects Cafe have resigned due to a hostile and threatening work environment. Please don't patronize this establishment!

Watch out, Herbivore, there's a new cafe in town, and they actually know how to cook!

450 Broadway St
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 434-4444

Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday
Lunch, 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Dinner, 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Plus, an early morning coffee bar, hours TBD (8 a.m.-ish)

This North Beach restaurant has just re-opened with a new organic, vegan/vegetarian menu featuring the dishes of Chefs Mark and Ted, culinary school friends who both interned at the famed Millennium Restaurant.



The menu features comfort classics like pizza, pasta, panini, wraps, and salads, dressed up with the freshest, organic produce, macadamia and cashew cheeses, homemade seitan, and coming soon, Teese. The owner has insisted that dairy cheese options be included, but hopefully people won't even feel the need to order them due to the variety of vegan choices available. Let's convince him we don't need cheese! It's great to see a menu where everything is served vegan by default and the asterisks denote non-vegan dishes.

Pressed taquitos (Amazing!)


Shawarma (Giant!)


Tofu panini with spinach, cashew cheese, and pesto


Fettucine


BBQ Tempeh


Dishes were incredibly generous (we all went home with leftovers) and were served with the option of salad (Ranch, Thousand Island, Cherry Balsamic - all vegan, of course!!) or house potatoes. Get the potatoes! You have not lived until you've eaten organic potatoes!

Desserts are courtesy of Melisser and Sugar Beat Sweets. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures, but we shared slices of a wonderfully moist chocolate-peanut butter cake and strawberry rhubarb cobbler (made with help by yours truly!) Once things get going, she'll have a full assortment of cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and specialty desserts available.

Please support these great folks!

Happy birthday, Shalon!

Our friend Shalon celebrated her 29th birthday with a party at an indoor "inflatable party zone" in Oakland that featured two rooms of bounce houses and obstacle courses. We took the place over with a large group of people probably far older and bigger than the structures were designed for. The staff of 17 year olds tried to play it cool as we promptly broke every rule in the orientation video.



Despite all of the bruises, scrapes, friction burns, and even Shalon's self-inflicted black eye, it was a ton of fun. It also made me feel incredibly out of shape; jumping and running around while trying to keep your balance and not get slammed in the face with over-sized boxing gloves and balls is a lot of work! All of the sweating was balanced out by a ridiculous amount of treats.

3-layer chocolate cake with peanut butter caramel and peanut butter buttercream, by Shaudi.


Strawberry cupcakes, by Shaudi.


Mini-funfetti and mocha cupcakes, featuring a super decadent chocolate frosting recipe that I'm working on. I think I overloaded the cocoa this time, so the texture was a little off, but it's getting closer!


Shaudi also made coffee cream filled cupcakes with ganache, and Molly and Krisi brought amazing chocolate chip cookies with oats and chewy snickerdoodles, that I enjoyed for breakfast the following day. I'm going to need to get those cookie recipes!

Donuts!

On account of traveling in Japan and a nasty cold that I think I caught on our last day (if an avian flu epidemic breaks out in North America, you can blame me), I haven't worked out in a while.

So what do I have to greet me at my first day back to the boxing gym after 3 weeks?


Glorious Ronald's donuts!!! Just what I need to get back in shape.

It's been several months since I've enjoyed one of the soft, sweet, as magical as purple unicorns donuts. They got a little smooshed in my gym bag, but after 15 seconds in the microwave, they're good as new. Thank you, Shaudi, for sharing, and Tammy, for flying them back!