‘Fries’
When you’re in New York, it’s probably not the best idea to decide where you are eating based on the proximity to your hotel. Yet, when I walked by Black Iron Burger, right around the corner from my hotel in Chelsea I was immediately drawn in. The place claimed to have been voted as one of the best burgers in New York, and I was in no position to disagree.
As a good unvegan, I pretty much refuse to eat at True Food. I say that having paid them a visit before, and knowing nothing good could come of a repeat. Thus, when I found out we had lunch plans at True Food in Scottsdale Quarter I immediately made moves to incite a revolution and head to Zinburger instead. It was successful enough to get a buddy to join me and so it began.
Growing up in the Detroit area, it was pretty easy to take Greek food for granted. There is literally a Greektown in Detroit and Greek food can be found in every suburb. LA, however, is not so fortunate in this Mediterranean fare. Thus, I was pretty excited when I was invited out to the Good Greek Grill‘s new location in Hollywood for a free sampling of their food.
Sometimes life beats the crap out of you. Other times, it gives you exactly what you want. So when what I wanted was some good new food in Pasadena, Spudds suddenly appeared and fulfilled the latter. You see, Spudds specializes in poutine and I am a man who loves his fries with gravy and cheese curds. Plus, as far as I know, Spudds is the only original (unlike Smoke’s Poutinerie in Hollywood, which as you probably know from reading up here has a number of outposts in Canada) poutine spot in all of the LA area.
Oh the park at Echo Park. While it is unquestionably a Mecca for local Hispanic family picnics, it is also unquestionably working hard to attract the local hipsters. Hence, Square One at the Boathouse exists literally in the boathouse where people can rent paddle boats and serves up some good-looking if not exciting-looking food.
Mexican food and subs seems to be a combination prevalent in Buffalo. In trying to account for this, I’ve come to the conclusion that both are delicious after a few drinks. Still, a lot of things are delicious after tossing a few back, so I’m not quite sure how this combination formed. Nonetheless, the curiosity brought me to Elmwood Taco & Subs in Elmwood Village, where they have another surprise to throw in with the tacos and sandies.
Shortly after moving to Pittsburgh, my friend and site designer alerted me to the existence of a hot dog place called The Original Hot Dog Shop in Oakland that had been around since 1960, which may not be old for Pittsburgh, but is damn old having come from LA. I like hot dogs and originals, but unbeknownst to me until showing up for lunch was that The Original Hot Dog Shop (also known as the Dirty O) is more of a late-night haunt than a lunch stop. Nonetheless, I wanted a good hot dog and was happy to eat it in a dingy spot with great late-night character in the middle of the day.
Although traditionally a French-Canadian specialty, no trip to Canada can be complete without a trip to some sort of local poutinerie. Yes, a poutinerie is a place the dishes out poutine, that ingenious gravy, fry cheese curd concoction that was most likely devised as a way to survive the winter in the Great White North. And despite the beautiful weather, I made my way to Fritz European Fry House in downtown Vancouver to get poutine in me.
As you may recall, once upon a time I paid a visit to Plan Check for a Stussy event. Despite being limited to a strict menu, I left the place wanting more. Finally, with a long bike ride, that moment came and I seized it. Plan Check, by the way, was started by former Umami Burger chef Ernesto Uchimura. As Umami Burger still resonates within my tastebuds as one of my favorite burgers, it is clear that Plan Check has good pedigree.
The Corner Door is the most recent snazzy new restaurant to help make a once-strange corridor of Culver City one of LA’s best food hotspots. But with the likes of A-Frame, the Alibi Room and Waterloo & City, the competition is undoubtedly intense. To find out if The Corner Door could stand up to its competition, I had to check it out for myself and see if it could handle the unvegan.
The first thing I noticed was that the place was packed. But not packed with diners, rather it was full of people hanging out for an after work drink. I was a bit surprised, but despite all these people we were seated immediately. I also noticed that the acoustics weren’t especially good. As our awesome waiter told us, the space had previously been a law office, so the walls weren’t really made for drunken yuppies.