Walking home from grocery shopping one Saturday earlier this month I noticed a brunch option in The Mission: Hog & Rocks. Better than this discovery was learning that they have high chairs.
By the time cubes and I have gotten ready on a weekend, we're usually smack in the middle of the brunch or lunch rush in The Mission. Or worse, we've just missed the end of brunch and face shuttered kitchens. Discovering a spot that offers charcuterie and oysters (two things that I couldn't eat during my pregnancy that I'm now devouring like the world is going to end) is amazing. (Another restaurant that we discovered this summer that's open between lunch and dinner in The Mission is Esperpento.)
With Gates we've found the best time to explore new restaurants (and for her new foods), is between rushes. As some of Gates favorite foods at Hog & Rocks are on the lunch menu, we try to time our meal between 1:30 and 1:45 pm so that we can order brunch items like their Corned Beef Hash, and Gates can order Autumn Pickles and French Fries. Hog & Rocks elevates the traditional Corned Beef Hash. The meat is tender and moist and shredded rather than cubed. The potatoes are also rough cut, making for more varied mouthfuls. I loved the slowed cooked egg in place of a poached egg. So far Gates has given thumbs up to pickled baby carrots (she loves the vinegar), pickled cauliflower, french fries, and the beer battered cod. She passed on the corned beef hash.
Hog & Rock's mastery of fried foods is exceptional. We had a salt and pepper Dungeness crab that had crunchy fried goodness with no hint of oil on the palette. Their fish and chips have a perfectly crisp battered covering with a light, flakey moist fillet inside. Gates passed on the batter, but sampled a few flakes of the cod, reaching for more when she finished her first bite.
There's at least one more Eden-friendly item on their brunch menu that I want to try: Fried Egg Sandwich.
Where's your favorite in between meals restaurant?
Bon Appetit!
Eden
