The Unvegan

A little birdie named my girlfriend told me Rush Street in Culver City had a swanky brunch, so we went on a grand Sunday morning to experience this middle meal with a friend of hers. Now you might think that Rush Street is named for the street it is on, but you would be wrong, since it lies on Washington Boulevard. Being a smart Midwesterner, though, I quickly realized that this restaurant must be named for Rush Street in Chicago, one of their big roads. I was right, as the owners are from Chicago. The place is supposed to give off a Chicago sort of vibe (but don’t tell my girlfriend that, since she loves Rush Street and somehow hates Chicago). Anyway, back to brunch.

There were a few burgers offered and some food you would expect from a brunch like breakfast burritos. I zoned in on one burger in particular, their Blackened Red-Eye Burger. This was a burger made for breakfast, featuring bacon, cheddar, carmelized onions, arugula, fried egg and hollandaise. And rather than fries, it came with tater tots and melon slices. I ordered mine without the onions and arugula, of course, then waited for my breakfast burger.

When it came, I was shocked to see that it came with fries. I pointed this out to my waitress, who left the burger and fries with me and went to get me a big basket of tater tots to make up for it. Meanwhile, I was happy to munch on some fries and take a bite out of my burger. This was one massive bite, too, as there was nothing skimpy about this burger. The bun was glistening with butter and was soft to bite into. Unfortunately, even with the hollandaise, I found the burger pretty dry. This had nothing to do with being overcooked, as it was done medium, just the way I like it. Instead, they must have used some sort of lean beef to cook the patty, so I started adding ketchup, not for the taste, but for moisture.

At least the tater tots were pretty good. They had some sort of seasoning on them, which I liked, much to the chagrin of my eating companions. When I was almost done with my burger, I realized that my melons had been forgotten initially, along with the tater tots. I told the waitress, who apologized for the kitchen’s mistakes and ran back to grab me my melons. This was only two slices, but they were a nice, juicy way to finish a pretty dry meal.

The sad part was that all of the components of a good breakfast meal were there except for the centerpiece of the meal, the beef. Forgetting my tater tots and melons were probably an isolated incident that any restaurant can have, and since they didn’t accidentally give me any vegetables or anything terrible like that, the mistake was fine in my book. Now if they could just get some better beef, Rush Street would be an awesome place for burgers.