The Unvegan

Recent Posts

10 Years of Unvegan
A Quick Bite at Burrito Express
Serendipity at Northern Waters Smokehaus
Twerks and Burritos at Casa Amigos

‘Grilled Cheese’

Growing Up at Bottle Rock

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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.

More Soup than Dough at Doughboys

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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.

Grilled Cheese Night at Campanile (CLOSED)

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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.

Grill ‘Em All Makes a Behemoth (CLOSED)

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You are a Behemoth.

EDIT: While the truck is off the street, there is a Grill ‘Em All does have a brick and mortar spot in Alhambra these days.

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.

Eating Alone at Food Fair by Diego (CLOSED)

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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.

Keeping it Simple at The Foundry (CLOSED)

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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.

A Birthgay at Hamburger Mary’s

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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.

Swinging Low at Swinger’s

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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.

The First Melt at the Grilled Cheese Truck

So shiny and like-new
So shiny and like-new

The highly anticipated Grilled Cheese Truck finally rolled into town tonight and due to my frightening obsession with cheese, I made sure to greet the truck. In the tradition of other great ks before it, the unveiling took place at The Brig on Abbot Kinney. I arrived 15 minutes before the scheduled 8:00 start time and was shocked to find the parking lot at The Brig empty except for the shiny orange truck. Apparently, I was to be the first in line!

A Waste of a Meal at Greenleaf

At least it is displayed well.
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.

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