Croque Monsieur Grilled Sandwich at Café de la Presse in San Francisco, California by Ruth Paget
On a weekend trip to San Francisco, my husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I went to Café de la Presse in San Francisco, California for Parisian bistro lunch.
Laurent and Florence ordered a classic French lunch combination of French onion soup with cheese melted and browned on top of the soup followed by steak frites (steak with fries).
I was going to order another bistro classic combination of French onion soup with a croque monsieur, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with salad on the side.
Instead of soup, I ate a daily special of warm goat cheese salad before my main dish. The salad came with a large ball of fresh chèvre goat cheese on top that been warmed and sat on top of baby greens with a vinaigrette.
I mashed down the ball of chèvre and liked to think the cheese had arrived from an artisanal creamery in Sonoma County along with freshly picked greens in the wee hours of the morning.
For my main dish, I ate a grilled croquet monsieur sandwich made with béchamel sauce, a cooked creamy sauce made with flour, butter, and milk, that is spread on two thick slices of bread. Then, you add sliced ham and gruyère cheese, place the slices together, sprinkle Parmesan and gruyère on top of the top bread slice, and run the sandwich under the broiler until the cheese is toasted and bubbly.
This salty, delicious treat came with more baby greens on the side. I loved the crunchy melted cheese on the sandwich that was lightened up with bites of the baby greens.
For bigger appetites, you can add an over-easy egg on top of the sandwich, which would make it a croquet madame. This is a classic bistro dish as well.
There are two garages close to Café de la Presse. One is across the street on the corner of Grant Avenue and Bush Street. The other garage is about three blocks up the street on Powell Street.
Whether you come for a weekend trip or for a day, Café de la Presse offers French fare comparable to what you would eat in Paris, France at the gates of Chinatown, which is ideal for strolling and shopping after an espresso. Our family takes I-280 to Highway 101, which comes out near Tully Road south of Gilroy Outlet Malls on 101 back to Salinas, California.
There is always something good to eat at Café de la Presse in San Francisco, California, which is easier to get to than you would think.
Bon appétit!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
