Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Waffle Mania Truck Finds a Hole in the Wall

One of the popular trucks at some of the Bay Area’s farmers markets is Waffle Mania, selling crunchy-chewy Belgian-style waffles. I’d sometimes get them at the Saturday market in Oakland’s Grand Lake neighborhood.

Now if you’re in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, you can get one of these golden-brown treats from the newly opened Waffle Mania stand (or maybe it’s more of a kiosk). The one-man operation is right next door to Show Dogs, the gourmet hot dog eatery.

One weekend when I was walking from the Civic Center, I saw the stand and decided to get a waffle. They sell for about $3.50 and you can add 50 cents for toppings like nutella, powdered sugar, or cinnamon.

The waffle stand is run by the son of one of Waffle Mania’s partners. Right now it is slowly ramping up, so they don’t have very long hours, working maybe 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and shorter hours on Saturdays if he sells out.

It’s smart that they’re next door to Show Dogs because I can’t imagine many of the people walking in that area willing to pay that much for a waffle, although a few people gave me some stares as I walked down Market Street with my waffle smothered with Nutella. Or maybe it was because of all the Nutella smeared around the edge of my mouth.

Waffle Mania, 1022 Market St., San Francisco. Opened Tues. to Sat. 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cash only.

12 comments:

Carolyn Jung said...

I am sooooo dying to have one of those waffles. So are they the super crispy kind that have those chunks of sugar in the batter, too? Mmmmm!

Gubbjunkie said...

Those look good. I enjoy your blog but continue to be baffled at your willingness to eat stuff like that but not anything deep fried.

Unknown said...

buonissimo! very good.
nice to meet you from Italy!!

Anonymous said...

was your pre-made & just reheated? Mine was, not impressed & especially for $3.5! It's not crispy, it's chewy!

Single Guy Ben said...

Carolyn, they're not super crispy, nor were there chunks of sugar. Where are you eating those waffles???!

Gubbjunkie, I don't know why it's hard to understand: waffles aren't deep fried. I just don't like the idea of food totally submerged in oil and getting all that oil fat. But I agree, I am perplexing because I ON OCCASION will eat a donut. But I say OCCASIONALLY which to me is once a year.

foodhoe said...

I just love the image of the waffle slathered with nutella, which is my new obsession. Don't you think it might have needed a pile of fluffy whipped cream to lighten things up?

Single Guy Ben said...

Anonymous, yeah, mine was premade and reheated. I think it might have been better just to eat it without reheating because reheating picked up a bit more of the pan spray. I think he's having a hard time gauging the interest level at this early stage. At the farmers market, it was a shorter time span and bigger crowds.

Foodhoe, whipped cream would have totally been hard to eat while walking. But I agree would have been nice and light with it. ;-)

Mrs. L said...

Hmmm....waffles...next door to hot dogs....do I see a waffle dog in the future?

Carolyn Jung said...

I haven't had the waffles with the chunks of sugar, either. But my nieces went crazy for them when they were in Europe. Gads, someone needs to make THOSE kinds of waffles HERE. ;)

Single Guy Ben said...

Mrs. L! Brilliant! I want me some waffle dogs! ;-)

FiloSophietje said...

Hi Ben!
Love your blog! I'm sure I'll be coming round often to see what you are up to.

Nice to see you like our Belgian wafles so much. I'm from Belgium and yes, you do get them all over the place her. but $3.5 ... that's a lot of money for a wafle. I think here they are sold at about 1.5€
The best places don't reheat them, but just bake the batter while you are waiting :-)

Hmmmm now you got me wanting one :-)

Jenster said...

That waffle with the Nutella looks positively decadent! I haven't come across any of those types of stands in my area, which is probably a good thing because there's a chance it could be part of my daily consumption. LOL

Do you remember the waffle hot dogs from KC Drive-In? They even sold it in the UH cafeteria.