‘Bacon’
One of the hardest parts of being an amateur food blogger is that when people are struggling to decide what to eat, they look to you. Never mind the fact that you don’t eat healthy, don’t like to spend too much money and are happier with a cheeseburger than foie gras. So even though I was with family in San Diego, the only place I knew to go to was Hodad’s in Ocean Beach, a divey surfer burger stand.
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.
Ever since beginning my meat blog, Fogo de Chao in Beverly Hills has been in my sights. I’ve eaten Brazilian food before, but I have been told over and over again that Fogo is the king of meatiness. But it’s expensive. Like a fixed price of $56.50 expensive. But when Restaurant Week comes to town, that ridicu-price drops down to a more reasonable $44 bucks, including dessert. So for my first Fogo experience, I made sure to go during Restaurant Week and was amazed with what that price bought me.
For my second meal in the Windy City, we went to a tapas place called Cafe Ba Ba Reeba. It’s a part of the Lettuce Entertain You group, which despite having a suspect name, runs some pretty swanky restaurants. Although this was a tapas place, it also had a special brunch menu that started at 11 when the place actually opened up. Arriving at opening time, we took our seats in the back, since the outdoor area couldn’t seat such a big group, then took a look at the menu.
For some breakfast in Manhattan Beach, I found myself at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House. Just like all breakfast joints in LA, the place as a huge line on weekends, but luckily my step-dad went a little early to put the name in, so by the time I got there, there was only a few minutes left to wait. We sat down at their outdoor area, which had a great view of the ocean.
The menu was huge, and to be truthful, I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted. Then, buried in the Waffles section, I found what had to be mine; the cheddar cheese and bacon waffle. I was filled with questions. Would the bacon and cheese be cooked into it or just on top? Could this be the new chicken and waffles? Or could this simply be the next step towards certain death? Either way, I was ready to find out.
Pizzeria Mozza (not Matzah) is one of those restaurants in LA that just kind of nags at you until you realize you just kind of have to go. For starters, the head chef is some guy from the Food Network or Top Chef or something like that. Then, because of that, you have to get a reservation at least 30 days in advance, so you really have to want to go this place and know your schedule for the next 30 days. Just such a time came up recently when the parents were in town (and I knew more than 30 days ahead), so off to Pizzeria Mozza we went to see what it was all about.
After a few days of burgers and wings, I decided I needed to have a meal kind of on the light side. To accomplish this, my buddy and I went to The Kitchen in Silverlake. The exterior of the place has a pretty cool mural and the interior has a nice vibe that is neither upscale, downscale or hipster. Basically, it’s the kind of place that should be in every neighborhood. At least by the looks. The menu was pretty simple and although their cheeseburger was tempting, I forced myself to order some chicken.
On of the big perks of running a meat blog is the number of restaurants people recommend to me. I always do my best to check these places out, but no restaurant has been recommended to me quite as voraciously as Animal Restaurant. But Animal is not the kind of restaurant you visit every day. It resides in that level of restaurants deemed “For Special Occasion Only.” But last week a special occasion rolled around: my birthday. And to celebrate the fact that I have remarkably survived on this planet for 26 years, my perfect girlfriend wanted to celebrate by taking me to dinner at Animal. Like I said, perfect.
Every once in a blue moon, a restaurant comes along that you just can’t pass up. Sometimes it’s Taco Bell, and sometimes it’s a place called Bacon in Scottsdale. Although clearly capitalizing on the current bacon trend, the name sounded great to me when the girlfriend’s family suggested it. Since it was Father’s Day, we expected a long line, so we called in advance and a table was ready for us by the time we got there.
Another great unvegan guest blog from @RGSpiegel.
A few weeks ago, I was watching a Cubs game on WGN and, being too lazy and preoccupied with whatever the internet had to offer to change the channel after the game (presumably, the Cubs lost), a special about the best places to eat brunch in Chicago came on. Featured first on this special was Nightwood, a restaurant in the Pilsen neighborhood on the South side of Chicago that served up brunch on Sundays. Although I am not one to typically seek out special places to eat breakfast or brunch (which is really just breakfast eaten later in the day because of being too hungover to move any earlier), I knew I had to try Nightwood when I saw that they served up a special unvegan treat: the bacon butterscotch doughnut. When I saw that this creation even existed, I immediately channeled my inner Homer Simpson.