Pork Store Cafe   

1451 Haight St
San Francisco, CA 94117
415-864-6981

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The line starts forming along Haight Street around 10AM on a typical weekend, with bleary-eyed people in line sipping coffee poured by the hostess. The Pork Store is the most popular morning destination in the Upper Haight, luring even the most hung over with the promise of hearty breakfasts. One thing this place gets right is a crunchy-crusted mess of hash browns, grated taters skillet-fried until brown on the outside, tender on the inside. You can order most dishes with a biscuit instead of toast, but once you've had a bite you'll wish you'd ordered the mountainous biscuit plate, which comes with savory sausage or veggie gravy. The grease factor is high here, but it's just the thing when you crave the kind of food to settle your stomach. Dire cases should check out the Pork Store special: two pork chops, two eggs, two biscuits and hash browns. If you're too groggy to converse, check out the photos from back when the place used to be a real butcher shop. Or just stare entranced at the cook, who single-handedly flips, stirs and plates the never-ceasing parade of eggs and potatoes. -- Julie Ross