Stock in Trade

photo - stockintradesf.com

Stock in Trade, Marina, Brunch
April 2, 2016

P:
Biscuits n' Gravy
Buttermilk Biscuit, Bacon Gravy, Two Fried Eggs, Potatoes

J:
Wakin’ Bacon Sando
Crispy Bacon, American Cheese, Two Fried Eggs, House-Made Pain de Mie, Sriracha Aioli, Crispy Fries


Notes:
We ended up at Stock and Trade to meet a group of friends for a birthday brunch.  We hadn't heard of this restaurant before, but they have bottomless mimosas on the menu; there might have been a correlation.

The place was ridiculously loud with speakers blaring mediocre Top-40 rap from all directions.  Clearly, their intent was to create that "party" atmosphere by forcing us to yell at one another.  (Woo, party.)  So that plus bottomless mimosas equals not very high hopes for the food.  But I was wrong, in part.

My breakfast sandwich was pretty damn good.  Proper eggs (runny), perfect bacon (thin and crispy), on a well-made, toasted pain de mie bun (bravo!).  American cheese and Sriracha aioli (= spicy mayonnaise) sealed the deal on this winner.  Oh, and damn good french fries came with that damn good sammich.

Patrick was a little less fortunate.  When he ordered the Biscuits and Gravy, the server kindly proceeded to warn him of it; it was not a terribly successful take on the dish, in her view (which was, of course, guided mostly by the views of all those who ordered the dish before him).  I have mixed feelings about this approach.  While it's nice to be advised that a dish may not live up to expectations, it's not nice to know that the restaurant continues to serve something that everyone complains about, AND any chance of loving that [failure of a] dish has now been thwarted - the seeds of contempt have been planted!  So, yeah.  He thought it was just okay.  The biscuits were heavy and the gravy didn't have much flavor, save for a hint of bacon hidden under the taste of raw flour.  Crammed into the cast iron dish with everything else was a larger than necessary pile of mashy/chunky curry-spiced(?) potatoes.  I think I've commented before that you can't really ruin a potato, but these guys tried.

The bottomless bellinis (peach juice with sparking wine) and mimosas (orange juice with sparkling wine) were surprisingly good, until they turned into a giant headache, which came as no surprise.

We probably wouldn't go back unless it was once again chosen as a birthday brunch destination or some such thing - not really our kind of place.