Sunday, June 2, 2013

Higher Grounds

I spent my first night and day in my old neighborhood of Glen Park, where I grew up in San Francisco. After awakening at 5am and just lounging in bed for the next five hours, the crew (my brother, my niece and me) all headed down the hill to the 'village' to get breakfast. We went to my favorite breakfast spot when I was little, Higher Ground. Back in the day, I would just get a basic cheese omelette with a Mexican hot chocolate (you just add cinnamon), but these days I'm older and have a much more mature palette. So this time, I decided to actually try what Higher Grounds is known for: their savory crepes. I think the crepe I got was Alla Toscana? It has a large variety of cheeses, egg, and spinach. I rather enjoyed it. I also got a large fresh-squeezed orange juice that was only like $3, which I'm pretty sure is a good deal (or I'm still confused by Geneva prices)
I completely recommend Higher Grounds. Recently, Glen Park has been on the rise and the 'village' has gotten a bunch of snooty new restaurants and markets. But Higher Grounds has been around since I was little and Glen Park was still an area of the city people didn't know how to get to (no seriously, the amount of friends' parents that got lost dropping me off). So this isn't like those yuppie brunch spots that are littered around San Francisco (although don't get me wrong, I do love those). Instead, Higher Grounds is an authentic unpretentious family owned breakfast spot that will probably be around longer than all the new computer geeks who just moved into the neighborhood. What I should mention though is that because it's so authentic and unpretentious, They don't take credit cards and there's no wifi. So bring your cash and bring a book if you're planning on sticking around to enjoy the rustic ambiance.
After breakfast, we headed down a couple doors to pop into Chenery Park and say hi to the owner Joe. My brother automatically went to the bar and made us all some mimosas and we all chatted as they prepared for the graduation party that they were having that afternoon. Back in the day, Chenery Park used to be the fancy restaurant in the neighborhood. These days, it's pretty much at the same fancy level as every other restaurant in town besides the old chinese restaurant, mexican taqueria, and the diner. If I go back before I head back to the east coast, I'll snap some pics and tell you allll about it.


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