8:03AM EST September 27. 2012 – The scene: It’s harder to find a great breakfast place than it should be, so folks in the Bay Area are lucky they have Dottie’s — when they can actually get in. This perennial favorite also has a perennial line, and it tends to move fairly slowly. I showed up at the most off time I could think of, 10:30 a.m. on a weekday, after the real breakfast crowd and well before lunch, and there were still about six parties in front of me. It took 20 minutes and by the time I got in, the line was more like 40 deep. But if you don’t mind waiting, the food is worth it. Baked goods are a highlight here, and as you get near the front of the line, you are tempted by an array of oversized muffins, coffee cakes, scones, huge loaves of fresh baked breads and other tempting items on display just inside.

Dottie’s is a San Francisco institution, but recently relocated to a new spot on a busy corner in the Tenderloin neighborhood, just down the street from the famous Glide Memorial Church. The space has the feel of an old bank, with high vaulted ceilings, exposed-brick walls and lots of marble counter space. There is a large shared table near the door that looks like it came straight out of someone’s dining room and the rest are small bar-style high-tops. There is also a fair amount of counter seating, not like a diner, but rather high stools at a marble ledge with backsplash that runs around the perimeter of the open-but-obscured kitchen. The decor has a high kitsch level, with a collection of snow globes and antique desk fans, while tables are adorned with salt and pepper shakers out of roadside Americana souvenir stands (mine were saguaro cacti). Hot sauce, ketchup and mustard bottles look like they’re straight off supermarket shelves and are arranged haphazardly. All in all, the ambiance is a comfy cross between a European cafe and truck stop, and service is friendly and efficient.

Reason to visit: Pancakes, omelets, egg scrambles, breads and pastries, just about everything

The food: While Dottie’s does not serve dinner — it closes at 3 or 4 p.m. depending the day — it does have a lunch menu (weekdays only) of burgers, quesadillas and sandwiches. But San Francisco is flush with good burgers, so the reason to wait on line is breakfast. Dottie’s is all about the most important meal of the day, and the menu is comprehensive. There are traditional diner-style combo specials, like a choice of juices, eggs, meats, toast and home fries, with or without pancakes or French toast. You can get eggs any way you like, oatmeal, granola or fruit salad. But in my opinion as a breakfast lover, Dottie’s excels in four key areas: pancakes, omelets, pastries and signature specialties.

Dottie’s “Famous” pancakes are made with whole-wheat flour and buttermilk and spiced with cinnamon and ginger. They are huge, the size of a dinner plate, and light and fluffy. You don’t really taste the individual spices so much as malty sweetness and whole-wheat flavor, hearty without being heavy. Not everyone will love these pancakes, but most people will. They are served with real maple syrup, and oddly available only plain (you can get a topping of fresh fruit). One makes a huge side, two a breakfast, three I can’t imagine finishing.

What’s impressive about the omelets is the amazing range of options. There are combinations you do not usually see, such as Kalamata olives, roasted garlic, avocado and pesto, and even in the more typical offerings, the range is deep. There are half-a-dozen styles of sausage (chorizo, lamb merguez, mild Italian, andouille, smoked chicken-apple and smoked whiskey-fennel) and even more cheeses (feta, provolone, sharp cheddar, parmesan, bleu, gruyere, goat, and jack), plus every vegetable you could think of. Like the pancakes, omelets are big, hearty affairs, served with toast from a choice of Dottie’s delicious house-made loaves, and home fries. The home fries are big chunks of boiled skin-on new potatoes that look like they would be bland but are not, and one edge of each piece is well crisped so you get crunch in every bite, a great texture. Any plate at Dottie’s is a lot of food, and there is no need to add on the pastries –except that they taste so good. My friend ordered a “slice” of the cinnamon coffee cake and it was literally a small cake, enough to happily serve four people.

My favorite things were the unique house specialties, and in these Dottie’s has a definite Mexican influence. The chorizo, onion and cheddar scramble, topped with fresh pico de gallo and served with warm flour tortillas to roll yourself, was exceptional (also huge and served with hash browns). A similar scramble variation is pulled pork, roast onion and jack cheese with tortillas. The lamb merguez sausage, roasted garlic, tomato, spinach and goat cheese omelet was a brilliantly conceived combination of flavors, and comes paired with buttermilk dill toast, another unlikely but perfect match. Other notable specialties include Louisiana hot links with eggs any style and grilled chili-cheese cornbread or a twist on a breakfast staple, swapping the bagel for eggs in the smoked salmon, natural cream cheese, capers, scallions and tomato scramble. There is also a lengthy list of daily specials to further complicate matters. It is really tough to decide what to order at Dottie’s, but the good news is that everything on the menu is solid and you really cannot go wrong. Dottie’s recently opened a second location in Scottsdale, Ariz.

What regulars say: “I’d come here a lot more if it wasn’t for the line, the food is great and the combinations are really interesting,” said Robert Pedrero, a board member of the San Francisco Zoo.

Pilgrimage-worthy?: Yes — if you are visiting San Francisco and want to make a special event out of breakfast.

Rating: Yum! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)

Price: $-$$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)

Details: 28 Sixth Street, San Francisco; 415-885-2767; dotties.biz

Article source: http://beta.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/greatamericanbites/2012/09/27/dotties-san-francisco-bay-area-california/1596441/

Austin Allison grinned.

“This looks great; it’s a hip, high-tech vibe,” he said, snapping photos with his iPhone. “It’s open, collaborative space.”

Allison, 26, was seeking a San Francisco base for DotLoop, the technology company he founded in his hometown of Cincinnati three years ago.

He and his wife, Angela Allison, 28, who runs a decorative painting company, plan to relocate to the city this month with their Yorkshire terrier, Paris.

The couple’s move and their quest for living and work space epitomize a modern-day migration being played out continually in the city. San Francisco’s pull as a high-tech hub and cachet as a place to live is drawing growing numbers of entrepreneurs and technology workers who move here from as nearby as Mountain View or as far away as India.

“The Bay Area has one of the most educated and creative workforces anywhere on the planet,” said Gabriel Metcalf, president of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. “For companies trying to be innovative, the Bay Area is one of the best locations there is. This sets up a ‘virtuous cycle’: The more companies that locate here, the more talent wants to be here, which then improves the attractiveness to more companies.”

Since early 2010, San Francisco’s number of tech sector workers has grown by 13,000, hitting 44,000, according to an analysis of state Employment Development Department data, said Colin Yasukochi, director of research and analysis at CNRE, a commercial real estate firm.

Growing tech hub

In the same time frame, 150 tech firms have set up shop in the city, bringing the total number of such enterprises to 1,850.

Meanwhile, 18 firms from outside the city are seeking office space here.

“We’re seeing the office market explode with an influx of tech companies,” said Donnette Clarens of Cornish Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank, DotLoop’s broker.

The Allisons – high school sweethearts – did an initial foray in May, seeking a base for DotLoop and an apartment for themselves, and lost out on some places by not pouncing quickly enough. They returned for two whirlwind days of hunting in late June.

Austin Allison dropped out of his second year of law school in 2009 to found DotLoop, which automates paperwork for real estate agents. Launched with angel capital, the company became profitable in 17 months, he said. In May, to accelerate growth, it took $7 million in funding from Trinity Ventures.

San Francisco is the clear place for that expansion to happen, he said.

“San Francisco has a talent pool that is different and more robust than the talent pool that exists in the Midwest,” he said. “Our office here will become our bleeding-edge tech arm, but our internal operations will stay in Cincinnati.”

He wants to hire 10 to 20 people in San Francisco within the next year. Having an office that projects the right vibe – “fun, cool, energetic, with lots of natural light, high ceilings and an open floor plan” and near amenities and transit – is a key part of recruitment, he said. Another big consideration is flexibility: a space that can grow with the company, or a shorter lease period in case it needs to relocate.

Then there’s price. “We want to be scrappy and prudent, but we don’t want to scrimp by holing up in a cave,” he said.

Average rents

DotLoop wanted to pay in the mid-$40s per square foot per year. That’s on target with the city’s first-quarter average rent of $46.66 a square foot, as tracked by Jones Lang LaSalle, which notes that rates are up 39 percent from the market bottom in 2010. The firm needs about 2,000 square feet to start.

Austin Allison has a strong preference to be in SoMa, near other up-and-coming tech firms. SoMa’s vacancy rate is 3.8 percent, Jones Lang LaSalle said; it hasn’t been that low since the height of the dot-com boom in 2000.

While incubator spaces offer flexibility, he feels DotLoop is past the startup phase of working cheek by jowl with other nascent companies, just as people outgrow group houses after college.

“We are a real company with products, revenue and customers, not a three-person startup with an idea,” he said. “Our space should reflect that.”

Like other tech folks, he eschews the type of traditional offices inhabited by lawyers and accountants.

That’s spurred an odd trend downtown: Landlords rip out walls and ceilings so Class A offices will look more like old warehouses.

“They are exposing natural brick that’s been sheet-rocked up for years, opening up the ceilings, trying to maximize window lines to get great light,” Clarens said. “It’s all about making it more attractive to creative-user tenants.”

Austin Allison made offers on two offices: A space one floor above the open-floor-plan Second Street office and a cheaper sublet. After two weeks of negotiations, DotLoop signed for the Second Street space, agreeing to a two-year lease on 1,900 square feet in the low $40s. A big plus was a contiguous office that will be available in a year, offering room to grow.

Housing budget

On the housing front, the Allisons were in the lucky position of having a $4,000-a-month budget. At that price range, they didn’t have to deal with cattle-call open houses where dozens of hopefuls jostle for favor with a rental agent.

Still, it was competitive. In May, they were surprised when apartments they toured got snapped up within hours.

The couple’s apartment wish list mirrored that for DotLoop’s office space.

“We’re steeped in that world of lofts with high ceilings and an industrial feel,” Angela said. “Most San Francisco places are older in style; SoMa and South Beach are the only areas with robust modern architecture.”

They decided to boost their monthly budget to $6,000, because a second bedroom to host DotLoop’s Cincinnati employees was a must.

They looked at condos being sublet and apartments for rent in several high-end high-rises: The Infinity near the Ferry Building, the Paramount and the Metropolitan in SoMa.

Sticker shock

A converted loft in a smaller building in Mint Plaza appealed to both for its industrial aesthetic – but it had just one bedroom. At the Brannan in South Park, a stunning view of the bay and ATT Park was a draw, but the $6,000-a-month condo’s biggest pluses were that it came fully furnished in a sleek, modern style; had two bed/bath suites separated by the living/dining room; and was near Highway 101 for quick access to SFO.

They decided to go for it and signed a one-year lease.

Not surprisingly, the couple had some sticker shock.

“Our Cincinnati condo is about $350,000; it easily would be $1.5 million out here,” Austin said. “Our Cincinnati office is less than $10 a square foot. It’s extremely competitive out here; the landlord has more leverage to dictate how the game is played.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Tech-firms-seeks-perfect-space-in-S-F-3691082.php