The Unvegan

Thanksgiving Come Early at Capriotti’s

May 28th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Only half the story.

It isn’t too often that my buddy, Joel, repeatedly requests that I go to a restaurant with him, so when he does I try to listen. After asking me to go to Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop in Beverly Hills with him a couple times, I gave in and went. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I walked in, but the place kind of had the air of an upscale Subway. But aside from that and the general shape of the sandwiches they served, to compare this place to Subway would be a severe disservice. Continue Reading»

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American, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, restaurants, Sandwiches, thanksgiving, turkey

More Than Ice Cream at Al Gelato

May 14th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Leaf!

With a name like Al Gelato, you kind of expect to be walking into a gelato shop. This is not the case with Al Gelato in Beverly Hills. Sure, the place has gelato, but it is also a full-on Italian restaurant. Aside from realizing that it wasn’t just a gelato place, I also found that Al Gelato didn’t carry a lot of the pretension that Italian restaurants seem to have. There was no mood lighting, no fancy table cloths and no people with strange accents that weren’t quite Italian. Despite this, I found that the prices still fell into what you would expect in Beverly Hills, with very little under 10 bucks and pasta prices jumping up to 15 if you wanted any meat. Continue Reading»

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Beverly Hills, gnocchi, Italian, Los Angeles, meat, meatballs, restaurants

Loading up on Dough at CPK

January 28th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Bread!

A long time ago, I tried out the BBQ Chicken Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen (CPK). By this time, the restaurant was in Michigan everyone had been raving about it. I tasted it was really disappointed. Using BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce disturbed me, and the onions hidden in the cheese made it even worse. Later on, I tried many different pizzas from CPK and was pleased. Yet, since moving to California, I have had very little, if any contact with CPK. Recently, though, I had the chance for a revisit to their Beverly Hills location and decided to once again try out their BBQ Chicken Pizza. But this time, I was prepared. Continue Reading»

5 Comments

Bacon, BBQ, Beverly Hills, California Pizza Kitchen, Chains, Chicken, CPK, Italian, Los Angeles, Pizza, restaurants

A Waste of a Meal at Greenleaf

July 15th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

At least it is displayed well.

As I was getting dragged to Greenleaf in Beverly Hills, I knew my meal that night wasn’t going to end well. You don’t call a place Greenleaf without getting a reputation for having a lot of leafy green items, also known as vegetables. Fortunately, I was told they had burgers, or else I wouldn’t have gone within 100 feet of the place (court ordered).

I arrived ready to grab a burger, only to find they were all out. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place that has actually run out of the ingredients for a burger, but a place called Greenleaf is as good of a place as any to have my first. I scoured the menu in an attempt to make sense of the plethora of vegetables and finally decided on the BBQ Chicken Sandwich. The only problem was that it came with onions, so I ordered it without. Apparently they couldn’t do this, since the BBQ Chicken ingredients were pre-mixed. I guess the “made to order” concept doesn’t apply to leafy restaurants. Continue Reading»

One Comment

Beverly Hills, food, greenleaf, grilled cheese, Los Angeles, restaurants, vegetarians

Silk Thai Cuisine

February 11th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

In the Hills of Beverly, there lies a restaurant called Silk Thai Cuisine. A friend of mine recommended it, so I went with a couple friends of mine. Despite the initial trauma of trying to find the restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard when there are somehow two Santa Monica Boulevards, we arrived in one piece.

You know it's good curry when it's orange.

The menu was littered with all sort of Thai goodies, and my eyes immediately went to the Panang Curry, which is Thai curry mixed with coconut milk, peanuts, basil and kaffir leaves. There was also a choice of vegetables, tofu, chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, calamari, salmon, seafood or scallop. Despite the initial setback of vegetables and tofu, they offered a nice array of unvegan additions. I decided to keep it simple and went with the beef. Because we were in a group, though, we decided to get our food “family style,” so we each ordered a dish to split. This was unfortunate for my lifestyle, because I have no other friends with a diet that excludes vegetables. My “friends” chose to order the Pad Thai with Chicken and Basil Chicken. On top of that, we each got our own little bowls of rice. Continue Reading»

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Beverly Hills, Delivery, food, meat, restaurants, Thai

Rants and Raves

Meat Hall of Fame

August 11th, 2009

Just when I thought hall of fames were becoming a tired concept (there’s a Robot Hall of Fame?!), I discovered the Meat Industry Hall of Fame. At first, I hoped this might be a place to showcase the best and most famous meats. Inductees could be the porterhouse steak or buffalo wings. But then I got scared. If this is anything like sports hall of fames, the meats would have to be retired and I would be stuck watching reruns of their greatest hits on Food Network Classic, rather than enjoying them on my plate. Fortunately for unvegans of the world, our favorite meats are safe. The Meat Industry Hall of Fame isn’t around to thank meats for feeding us, but to thank the people that help to bring those meats to our plates.

Beer Me Some Breckenridge Agave Wheat

The taste of skiing?

Colorado is definitely a beer state, and not just because Coors comes from the Rocky Mountain State. No, it is also home to New Belgium (of Fat Tire fame) and seemingly countless other micro and craft breweries. While in Breckenridge for a ski weekend, I decided I had to at least try one of these, and because it turned out to be the only one available at dinner, my choice happened to come from the creatively named Breckenridge Brewery. The brewery, by the way, is actually no longer in Breckenridge, having expanded and moved to Denver in 1992.