Synapse: Current Issue

It’s probably true, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Even Jack-in-the-Box, not known for its sensitivity towards gastric wellbeing, recognizes this with their latest advertising campaign. There’s certainly a kind of salutary effect to eating a good hot breakfast: it’s the proper way to let your body know that the day has started, provides an internal rhythm with which to measure the rest of your waking hours, and that once finished, you may arrive at a sublime thought of feeling in control of your world.

But where do you go to get this wonderful meal? Through our own neglectful and self-abusing natures, there are far too few places in the City to sit down with your compatriots or loved ones and share a meal of finely crafted eggs and potatoes. As a public service announcement, I am here to inform you that yes, you can achieve a sense of serene individual morning pleasure by venturing to Squat and Gobble at one of five locations. Verily, you may act as if it is morning anytime, because they serve breakfast (along with very reasonably priced soups, sandwiches and pastas) all day.

There are two keys to dining at Squat and Gobble. First, you would be remiss if you did not order a breakfast crepe. Crepes are their specialty, they have many kinds for all palates, and along with the crepe (which you will enjoy immensely for its high quality ingredients), you get their signature rosemary potatoes, which are basically as well attended to as the crepe and are really the most filling aspect of your meal. Besides breakfast crepes and potatoes, they also offer other breakfast specials I heartily recommend, like their stomach-satiating 3-egg omelettes and the eggs benedict (hollandaise sauce over 2 eggs and ham over an English muffin). For those not eating breakfast, they sell delectable-looking dessert crepes (can’t fully endorse what I’ve never eaten). But look at their website and tell me you’re not a little hungry afterwards.

Second, pay as much attention to the food as you do to yourself and others around you. One of the great things about Squat and Gobble is that it holds true to its name. It’s a great place to talk with friends, to people-watch, and to just be out and about, eating breakfast. It’s rather like the venerated dim sum traditions in Chinatown or Hong Kong, for those that may be familiar with Cantonese customs, except one is substituting crepes for congee and hash browns for har gow.

Of their five branches, I have been to the Upper Haight and West Portal locations. The Upper Haight (On Haight between Ashbury and Masonic) is well within walking distance of the Parnassus campus. It’s a great place to go if you need a break from all the retro-psychedelic imagery, halloween kitsch or borderline haute couture boutique shopping. But if you have a car or don’t mind a little Muni Metro shuffle, I would encourage you to visit the West Portal spot, right next to the metro station for K, L, M and T. Afterwards, you can check out the burgeoning little hamlet of shops and restaurants around there (to plan your next fine dining jaunt), or give a little patronage to the adjacent and newly renovated Public Library branch, a neighborhood gem replete with an entire wing devoted to Children’s books.

James Ho is a second-year medical student.

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