Great Food, Prickly Service

This past weekend, we treated ourselves and our young friend Naomi to a trip out to Point Reyes Station to poke through the shops and to have brunch at the Pine Cone Diner . Their motto is "Great Food, Prickly Service."

Naomi was tired of studying and teaching (she's a doctoral student), we were tired of holiday traffic, we were all ready for a break from the Christmas rush and hungry, to boot. We like the Pine Cone - it's a little self-consciously diner-like and the prices can make you gasp, but the food is good and we enjoy the silly ambiance.

I had the fried oyster sandwich, which came with a bowl of soup. The soup was fresh tomato soup (not cream of) and was savory with herbs and a little acidic, playing well off the rich sandwich. The sandwich had four or five plump, oysters, crisp with batter and lusciously sea-scented inside, folded inside an uninspired hot dog shaped bun and topped with a helping of cole slaw and a gush of Russian dressing. It was pretty messy to eat - to avoid a sartorial accident, I finally resorted to simply opening the bun and eating the contents with a fork. I love well-made fried oysters and the cole slaw was a nice complement, so I enjoyed the sandwich very much.

We missed the prickly service, however. The wait staff prides itself on being surly and abrupt but our waitress was actually pretty nice and very patient with our gentle dithering over the menu.

After brunch, we stuck our heads into a few of the shops, stopped at Marin Sun Farms on the way home for fresh eggs, and drove through some of the prettiest countryside this area has to offer. We'd all go again in a heartbeat.