The Organic Coop

Organic, healthy, fast food.  That is the market that The Organic Coop ambitiously set out to conquer, and, claims to be the first.  They have been fairly successful, with locations throughout the Bay Area, and even a few in Seattle.

"We are the 1st USDA Certified Organic fast food restaurant in America. What does that mean?  All of our food & beverages are certified organic by the USDA."

Organics aren't my highest priority, but it is never a bad thing to have some confidence in the sourcing of the ingredient that go into the food you put into your body, particularly for fast food.

I've walked by the San Francisco locations, many times, and even tried samples (when they first opened, they often were giving out samples of salads on the sidewalk), but it has taken a while for me to stop in, mostly, well, because the place specializes in ... chicken.  And you know how I feel about chicken.

Setting

When I did finally visit, I opted for the Rincon Center location, although they have/had others around downtown.

Courtyard Seating.

The storefront itself is fairly small, but high table seating (with umbrellas) is available right out front dedicated to their store, and the larger courtyard is filled with communal tables too.  On a nice day, it can be a lovely place to dine, sheltered from the SF wind by surrounding buildings.

Counter Seating.

Inside is mostly just the ordering/pickup station, but there are a couple counter seats for those who manage to score them.

Food

The menu at The Organic Coop focuses around chicken, sadly, not my thing ... at all.  But if you do eat chicken, it is organic, air chilled, yadda yadda.  

The chicken is used as the base for chicken sandwiches ( the chicken is soaked in buttermilk, coated in panko/cayenne/etc, and fried in coconut oil, or just simply grilled, served on artisan brioche buns), wraps (grilled or fried, served in healthy whole wheat/chia/oat/flax), or salads (chopped grilled chicken on top of veggies grown with no pesticides, etc).  And that ... is basically it.  They do make a veggie wrap, but, its literally just slaw in a wrap.  A token item, on the menu because they needed to?  You can get the basic salads without chicken, but no other protein sources exist.  You can opt for chicken tenders as well.

There is only one side dish available - tots!  No desserts.  

They are also open for breakfast in some locations, with a simple scrambled egg bowl topped with tots, or the same things in a wrap, and, randomly, an acai bowl.  They offer coffee, but regular only, no decaf.

Tots (+garlic) & Sauces!

"Certified organic crispy potatoes – Original or Garlic – cooked to perfection and served with your choice of sauce. So delicious they are banned in seven countries."

Since I didn't want chicken, I really had one choice: tots!  (I mean, yes, I could get a chickenless kinda sad salad, or a veggie wrap, but please).

They were handed over quickly, and came with my choice of sauce, which perhaps was the part I was most excited about.

Sauce choices were the same as the dressing they have for the salads/dipping sauce for chicken fingers/spreads for sandwiches: sesame ginger, caesar, mustard vinaigrette, ranch, spicy bbq ranch, or, ketchup.  I, of course, wanted to try more than one, which was easily accommodated.

I opted to "upgrade" my tots to garlic tots, for $0.50 more.

Tots + Garlic. $3.50 + $0.50.

"Certified organic crispy potatoes topped with garlic and served with your choice of sauce."

The tots were better than average, although not without flaws.

They were inconsistently cooked, some super crispy (yes!), but some rather mushy.  They did have good potato flavor, if that makes sense.  Real bits of potato formed the base.  Solid tots, really.

The garlic upgrade was also inconsistent.  There were 2-3 tots absolutely coated in the garlic.  So intense.  And the rest?  Some had a reasonable amount of garlic, but many were totally neglected.  The garlic was good though.  Like I said, intense when you got a lot.

I liked these, but I can't say I'd go out of my way for them again.  ***.

Caesar Dressing.

For a sauce, I first selected Caesar.  When I opted for the Caesar, I was thinking of it as a Caesar dip, the thick style, mayo forward, kind.  This explains a bit why the server said, "Tots, with ... the Ceasar?"  Instead, it was the thinner, vinaigrette style Caesar, for use as a dressing, the style that I never like with my Caesar salad, let alone my tots!

It did have a decent cheesiness from parmesan, and really a lot of ingredients ... Worchestershire & molasses, ginger puree & tamarind paste, garlic/chile pepper/onion/etc, and even buttermilk, so it had some flavor, but ... just not my thing.

**.

Spicy BBQ Ranch.

I was glad they gave me a second sauce, free of charge, and for that one, I selected one that made far more sense: Spicy BBQ Ranch.  Maybe the spicy BBQ wasn't needed to pair with the garlic, but at least this was a thicker, dipping sauce style.

It was ... well, BBQ ranch.  I think probably awesome with the chicken fingers, and best on a salad.  It kinda worked with tots, but I found it not to be the best match.  It was good, very BBQ forward, and made me wish I liked chicken fingers.

**+.

Hot Sauce.

And finally, I grabbed a hot sauce and ketchup from the condiment station, just to try them.

The hot sauce was fine, although definitely not the pairing I was looking for with the garlic tots. ***.

The ketchup turned out to be a surprise hit, or at least, a surprise pairing.  I ended up preferring it over everything else with my tots, which is funny, as I'm rarely a ketchup girl (for fries, for anything, I always go for more exciting dips).  It just ... worked well.

I'm not sure if this ketchup was anything special, it likely was just (organic) Heinz or something, but ... I liked it. ***.

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