The Unvegan

A Grand Grilled Cheese at Grand Lux

April 5th, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Mmm, grilled meat sandwich.

Sometimes you are so hungry you’ll eat anywhere. Well not just anywhere, but the place closest to you that seems to have good food. Such was the case when I found myself eating at the Grand Lux Cafe in Beverly Hills. This is not meant to knock the place, but simply to say that this place has never been on my to-eat list and I probably never would have sought it out. To tell you the truth, the name simply sounded like an overpriced fancy restaurant and not what it truly is – a Cheesecake Factory with a different name. Continue Reading»

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Beverly Hills, Chains, Grand Lux Cafe, grilled cheese, Los Angeles, restaurants, Sandwiches, short ribs, the cheesecake factory

Beer Belly for My Fearless Belly

January 6th, 2012 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

There are peas in my cheese!

Two of the things I love most in this world are beer and my belly. No, I don’t have a beer belly…much, but when a gastropub in Koreatown called Beer Belly opened up, I figured I had to try it out. I was meeting a group of people, and arrived to find the place packed. And this was not a big place. Like about 8 tables and a few bar stools big, and all of them were loaded. Plus, it was first come, first served, so we got to hang around the tables like vultures surrounded a wounded gazelle. It was the tail end of happy hour, though, so I ordered a beer and hoped a table would clear out soon. Fast forward thirty minutes and we’re still waiting when a woman working the place asks if we’re waiting for a table. Uh, no, lady, we’re just standing here awkwardly for the hell of it. She then proceeded to ask us if we wanted to be on the list. This “list” was new to us, and apparently also new to her, as she told us she had just started it. Well, at least we wouldn’t have to stand awkwardly any longer. Continue Reading»

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Bar Food, Beer, Beer Belly, duck, gastropubs, grilled cheese, Koreatown, Los Angeles, mac and cheese, meat

Growing Up at Bottle Rock

November 23rd, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Bottle Rock my socks off.

Right around when I first moved to LA, essentially broke, I made a trip to Bottle Rock. Having little to no disposable income, I wrote the place off as overpriced and didn’t return until this past weekend. What I found was a restaurant and wine bar that was not only well-priced, but also delicious. Was I wrong the first time I went? Have I become jaded by the prices of LA? Did Bottle Rock simply change things up? These answers may never be known, but what is known is my experience there. Let’s start from the beginning. Continue Reading»

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Bottle Rock, Culver City, grilled cheese, Los Angeles, prosciutto, restaurants, Sandwiches, wine bars

More Soup than Dough at Doughboys

January 28th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Yes that is a giant bowl of soup.

On a beautiful morning, I got a call from my buddy who wanted to grab some brunch. He suggested Dougboys over in Mid-City. From what I’ve heard of Doughboys, I expected there to be a huge line, so I wasn’t too into the idea, but we still decided check it out with the intention to go somewhere else if the line was long. Fortunately, we found a manageable line and the fact that there were only two of us made the wait just about 5 minutes. Continue Reading»

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Brunch, doughboys, grilled cheese, Los Angeles, Mid City, restaurants, Sandwiches

Grilled Cheese Night at Campanile

January 19th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Yes I would like some meat in my grilled cheese.

Every once in a while, my girlfriend likes to say how much she wants to go to Campanile for grilled cheese night. Of course, this night is only on Thursdays and whenever I ask what she wants to eat on a Thursday, she has no opinion. Finally, after talking about it so much, the two thought processes finally collided and we made our way to Campanile on an actual Thursday for their grilled cheese night. Continue Reading»

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Campanile, grilled cheese, Los Angeles, Mid City, miracle mile, restaurants, Sandwiches

Grill ‘Em All Makes a Behemoth

December 9th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

You are a Behemoth.

It seems like just yesterday that I was totally caught up in the craze of Gourmet Food Trucks. Within a few months of the launch of Kogi, it seemed like there was a new truck to try every week, serving everything you could imagine. I did my best to try all that I could, but although I predicted the fad would die out quickly, my desire to try every one of them died out even quicker. Some trucks failed, but new trucks kept coming out. And sadly, in the time that I was burned out on trucks, some pretty cool ones began to emerge. These were no longer trucks with one little idea out to make a quick buck to capitalize on the success of Kogi. No, instead, these were carefully crafted culinary machines. One of these was the Grill ‘Em All burger truck. Continue Reading»

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Burgers, food trucks, grill 'em all, grilled cheese, hamburgers, Los Angeles, Mobile, studio city

Eating Alone at Food Fair by Diego

October 25th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

It's a fair of gnocchi.

A long long time ago, the girlfriend and I went on a binge of buying up restaurant gift certificates. They would have specials like $20 for $10 and other such things that seemed like no-brainers. Fast forward to six months later and loads of these gift certificates are sitting around collecting dust. We could take it no more and decided to use one at a restaurant called Food Fair by Diego. It is in the strange area that is sort of West Hollywood or Beverly Hills or Melrose or something like that, so even though the name sounded like it would be a pretentious joint (how many typical restaurants put the chef’s name in the restaurant name, it actually turned out to be in a one of those corner strips and was kind of a hole in the wall. Continue Reading»

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Bacon, food fair by diego, gnocchi, grilled cheese, Italian, Los Angeles, meat, restaurants

Keeping it Simple at The Foundry

July 26th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

This stuff comes with the food.

I’ve been meaning to head to The Foundry on Melrose for a while. Not only have I heard good things about the food in general, but I also heard that once upon a time The Foundry challenged Father’s Office to a burger taste test. I’m not sure who ended up winning that particular taste test, but I was happy to know that someone had the balls to challenge the pretentious Father’s Office. Finally, a 30% coupon from Blackboard Eats pushed me over the edge to finally visit The Foundry. Continue Reading»

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Beef, Burgers, father's office, grilled cheese, hamburgers, Los Angeles, meat, melrose, restaurants, the foundry

A Birthgay at Hamburger Mary’s

June 11th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Care for a gay drink?

For her birthday, my roommate decided she wanted to turn one year older in a big, gay fashion. And what gayer place to go than to Hamburger Mary’s in West Hollywood? Unfortunately her day of birth didn’t fall on a Wednesday night for Drag Queen Bingo, so instead we settled for their Tuesday night all-you-can-eat Latino heat tacos. The prospect of unlimited tacos for eight bucks sounded great to me, but the place was called Hamburger Mary’s and I felt as though I needed some sort of burger. Continue Reading»

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Beef, Burgers, grilled cheese, hamburger mary's, hamburgers, Los Angeles, meat, restaurants, west hollywood

Swinging Low at Swinger’s

March 12th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Damn you hidden pickle!

After a vicious night of partying, nothing makes me happier than a grilled cheese with bacon. This desire has only increased as I have gotten older, so after my most recent mess of an evening, some friends and I made a Sunday run to Swinger’s in the Mid-City area. Swinger’s is like diner, but slightly better because they have grass-fed beef and all that jazz. After waiting about 15 minutes for a table, we were finally seated. I took a long look at the menu, which was possible because of the long wait for our waitress and only found Grilled Cheese with Bacon on one of their daily specials. Unfortunately, that day was not Sunday. Continue Reading»

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American, Bacon, diners, grilled cheese, Los Angeles, Mid City, restaurants, swinger's

Rants and Raves

Man-Made Meat

December 2nd, 2009

I think it went something like this...

This has been a big week in the world of meat-eating. Scientists in Holland or the Netherlands or whatever you call it have grown the first piece of in-vitro meat. In layman’s terms, they grew meat in a lab without killing any animals.

Going Global at Plan Check

Fries of the world.

A couple of weeks ago, The Backyard Bite invited me to The Burger Culture Clash, sponsored by Stussy (which apparently still exists) and Plan Check. Plan Check, by the way, is a sort of new (since February) restaurant in West LA with Chef Ernesto Uchimura of Umami Burger fame. As my love of burgers, especially those of the umami variety, I jumped at the opportunity.

Although I arrived alone, I was not the only lone eater. Just next to where I was seated, I met e*star LA and we decided to share a meal called loneliness, because it’s better than eating alone. We made quick friends over our respective blogs and Midwestern roots, then got to work at dissecting the special menu, which Plan Check will be featuring for the next month if anything tickles your fancy.

‘grilled cheese’

A Grand Grilled Cheese at Grand Lux

Beer Belly for My Fearless Belly

Growing Up at Bottle Rock

More Soup than Dough at Doughboys

Grilled Cheese Night at Campanile

Grill ‘Em All Makes a Behemoth

Eating Alone at Food Fair by Diego

Keeping it Simple at The Foundry

A Birthgay at Hamburger Mary’s

Swinging Low at Swinger’s

Rants and Raves

Man-Made Meat

Going Global at Plan Check

What is this?»

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