SOURCE...EATING VEGETARIAN IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

***UPDATE: ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST CITING SF LABOR LAWS, MINIMUM WAGE AND WHAT NOT, SOURCE HAS CEASED IT VEGETARIAN OPERATION***

Me and the SO are driving around SOMA towards Portero Hill area heading to a food event that I realize isn't till the following weekend--"oh well," I say, "I'm hungry so let's try that restaurant we passed back there." Turns out the place is called Source and it's a vegetarian (will make vegan on request) place, but we decide to try it anyway.

Well, at least it ain't industrial, kind of new fangled cafe/diner with a giant brick oven behind the counter. I stare intently at the menu determined to find something to eat since we stopped and parked and I don't want to get back in the car and hear it from the SO. I decided to try the bow wow with fries and slaw and we also settle on splitting a side of flavored fries and dipping sauces. 

                           

The fries were hot, crispy and fresh out of the fryer and we had chosen a smokey chipotle sea salt seasoning and a side of creamy Gilroy garlic sauce. The salt was more like a powder fine dusting and added a hint of extra flavoring. The sauce was a garlicy mayonnaise thing that was okay, probably could have upped the garlic quotient, but still decent. I liked how they kept the skin on the fries, overall they were tasty. 

The bow wow was a smoked apple sage field roast "sausage" with mushroom, onion and swiss on a homemade hearth baked bread with a side of unseasoned fries and cole slaw. Again, nice hot crispy fries and the cole slaw was vinegar based with a touch of sweetness mixed into the cabbage, carrots and red bell peppers. I liked it, though may have needed to drain off a bit of the vinegar as the cabbage started to be less crunchy the closer you got to the bottom of the container. The bread for the sandwich was very good, tasted fresh baked and reminded a bit of a croissant as far as texture, buttery and flakey, well worth eating by itself. The mushrooms and onions were nicely grilled and not oily and with the swiss I could have just eaten these three things on the bread alone. The sausage upon first bite has a surprisingly good flavor and pleasant grilled taste. After another few bites, however, the sage became overwhelming and the filling used to substitute for meat tasted mealy, thus it became easier just to ditch the "sausage" and content myself with the rest of the fixings on the bread. 

In the grand scheme of things I can see this place being relatively popular here in San Francisco. The menu has some interesting things to choose from and they do some worthwhile bread baking. If you are in the SOMA neighborhood near all the furniture and design places you could stop in and not feel too guilty about your eating choices, or if you are visiting Rainbow Grocery then this is the place for you. Otherwise, you can get pretty good fries at any number of places in town. 

As an addendum, the SO decided to go super healthy-ish and got a smoothie called banana monkey. It was made with living cashew milk sweetened with raw agave sugar, bananas and raw cacao nibs. The SO loved it and thought it was great. Me, ugh, tasted like a grainy, chunky bitter milkshake with all the sugar removed. I couldn't even taste the banana, still makes me shudder, but to each his own.