Directions | Web site | Overall Rating: 3

Moving is always seismic. Not only does it involve adjusting to a brand new physical space, but all the tangential aspects of everyday life shift too. New doctors, new places to run, new routes to work…

And when you write a diner blog, a new go-to neighborhood diner.

St. Francis Fountain was within walkable distance from my new house, in my new city in my newly car less world. Clearly it was only a matter of time.

The diner sits on the corner of York (a smaller street between Bryant/Potrero) and 24th on the edge of the Mission. People describe the neighborhood at large as an eclectic place with lots of different cuisines and people: Latin, Thai, Hipster. Surprisingly, St. Francis doesn’t officially get pegged with the latter on Yelp but word of mouth and the vintage-feeling exterior tells you otherwise.

Inside provides more of the same vibe but it’s charming and homey more than it’s ever pretentious or elitist. Old punk on the radio and the wait staff fashion are the only explicitly hipster entities. Everything else is old fashioned soda jerk and diner culture. There’s a combination of large booths and tables all in matching refinished wood, the countertop space is lengthy and all the art feeds into the space’s classic ambiance.   This great decor (combined with it being one of the few diners in the immediate neighborhood) makes for the potential to wait on weekends despite its size however.

Ultimately, proximity convenience and ambiance can only feed your diner decisions so much. Food would be the ultimate test and thankfully St. Francis provides lots of it. The menu is directly proportional to portion size which is always the magic formula for a diner (note: breakfast all day, specials, lunch offerings, vegeterian options, booze and Mitchell’s renowned ice cream).

I opted for a unique pancake offering – bacon, green onion and cheddar cakes with a special offering two eggs and homefries (yes, I had to take some home). Whoever came up with that pancake flavor palette deserves a pat on the back – cheese and onion with a pancake was new to me but combine with bacon/maple syrup it was surprisingly nice. They even hold up the day after because the ingredients aren’t as runny and moist as fruit-based cakes.  Eggs were cooked properly and the homefries are an early favorite for best in the area (spiced splendidly to the point where ketchup is a burden).

St. Francis Fountain presented a good first impression for a city that prides itself on culinary excellence (which sometimes gets lost in the high-end world and forgets to transcend down to diner culture).  While by no means perfect (the meal was close to $15 with coffee, the wait on weekends could be a detriment), it’s a neighborhood diner very worth of taking any visitors and guests to for glorious morning afters. Even with all the food choices the city seems to offer, St. Francis and I will meet again.

The Final Tab

Pros: Cool establishment, great tasting food, large portions and a varied menu

Cons: Higher prices than traditional diner, can be disproportionally packed on weekend

Overall:

Three Out Of Five (Basic combo | It’s OK – try it.)

Exhibit A: Foie Gras Ice Cream Sandwich, foie gras ice cream on Oh, Ginger Snap cookies.

That… isn’t found in Syracuse, N.Y.

For the better part of the last six years, I called Syracuse home. It lead me to start this endeavor in 2009 after wrapping up my undergrad years. The area provided fertile grounds for other cool food media like SyracuseDiners.com, ToTs coverage, the Dead Diner Project and Barcode Magazine. However, like even the best of meals, sadly it had to come to end.

(No, not this blog – my time based in Syracuse)

This morning I hit my first proper diner in my current home of San Francisco, Ca. (and their airport had one inside so the local total is two).  With that, Diners Without Frosted Tips officially moved too. No longer will my links focus primarily be on CNY, though I did save a few CNY diner reviews to post for posterity’s sake.  My  month of silence featured wrapping up loose ends with school/work, securing a new job, then working out the kinks for a west coast transition. Now that’s all behind me and it’s time to eat again. Review of St. Francis Fountain up soon, props to the Humphry Slocumbe ice cream folks in the meantime. I’m coming for Secret Breakfast sometime soon.

Things quieted down recently while work on Barcode Magazine took over.  In honor of that work, this edition of links all celebrate the beautiful combo of booze and breakfast.

• Culinary heartthrobs Alie & Georgia took this idea literally by discovering a way to use cereal (specifically its milk) in an original, killer cocktail.

• Oatmeal has never been our favorite, but when it’s infused with bourbon we’ll at least listen.

• If our recent bacon whiskey didn’t appeal, perhaps a Bacon Bloody Mary better suits your fancy.

• Finally, these bottles look like classic brews but they’re actually freshly brewed and iced.

Original recipe from PDT (and NY Mag) | Overall Rating: 4

Denny’s will tell you, every single culinary element in existence can be improved by adding bacon.  Liquor is no different with some companies specifically producing such items. If you don’t have a distributor offering such gems near you, there is hope and a simple recipe to follow.

Overall Ease: 4

The hardest part of this is making the cocktail (which, any novice bartender will admit, can be improved with practice).  Infusing the whiskey simply takes time but no unusual skills: cook the bacon (even poorly), save the fat, combine with whiskey, let it settle, strain away the fat.  Frankly the infusion is hard to mess up unless you drastically change the ratio of bacon fat to whiskey.  The cocktail even comes with specific instructions that leave you with a very serviceable base you can then alter to your specific tasting needs.

Common Ingredients/Tools Needed: 4

If you have bacon and whiskey in the house, you’re ingredients are taken care of. The infusion process will be significantly easier if you have access to a funnel, a strainer and some air-tight containers for 750mL (mason jar worked fine).

The cocktail again requires a little more. I opted for pure maple since it’s abundant in CNY. Bitters aren’t an every household item so it may require a special grocery trip (found it in a Wegmans, not a liquor store). All of the specialty tools (stirrer, glassware, etc.) are helpful but you can navigate it without.  Simply substitute a travel coffee mug, pour ingredients in, shake while covering the mouthpiece and then pour into your cocktail glass of choice.

Idiot-Proof Flavor: 4

First, you have to like whiskey. Second, you need to be OK with bacon flavor. It won’t be an overpowering sensation but certainly there is a slight aroma and the smokiness comes through clearly. The use of bitters and maple will certainly sweeten things up if you’re indifferent to the two star ingredients, but ultimately like any mixed drink, it might not be for everyone.

That said, if you’re OK with whiskey and bacon… this is delightful and becomes a regular occurrence until the whiskey bacon runs out.  Try a batch of your own to see for yourself.

• This week’s featured Kickstarter projects advertised some food court photography (it’s more about general malls + patrons) but they did have a charming food-related initiative with a children’s book about a burrito written by a mother/daughter team.

• So you can provide 360-degree coverage of Mothers’ Day ,the local paper has recipes from local mothers and Bon Appetit has recipes for your mother.

• My love for competitive eating is long documented, which is why the timing for this news couldn’t be worse. Joey Chestnut and other giants of the majors are coming through ‘Cuse to battle salt potatoes… over Syracuse University Commencement Weekend 2011. Maybe I can swing a preview at least.

• Lastly, at the above event, local rap icon ToTs is at least casually mentioning a campaign to perform. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, Jerk Magazine recently ran a quick Q&A.