For some reason the didn't get the quest to start the golden claw/bleak falls barrow quest from the shopkeeper when first I entered his shop and now there's no option to start it. Can someone flip me the console command to redo that?

Here:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:The_Golden_Claw

You should bookmark this site for future ref.

thanks!

It should be fine if you just go to Bleak Falls Barrow, right? Won't it start automatically?

I think you're right. IIRC, the first time I did this was during the Farengar quest and I killed the thief by mistake trying to free him and got a pop-up message after looting him.

Yup. This is one of those "we want to make sure NO ONE misses" things....

OK then. Because I was sure I had no idea about the Claw before I entered. Someone (inn keeper probably) sent me there on both characters, but I hadn't heard of the claw the first time I found it and even my 2nd character hadn't talked to the Riverwood Trader siblings before I went.

Well, it's dollars to doughnuts that if you head straight for the Jarl, you won't talk to the kids in the trader shop. So it does make sense that they put in a "fail safe" of sorts.

Yeah, since Riverwood is the starter zone I guess the cone of quest-granting is more broad.