‘Mac and Cheese’
A long, long time ago, in a valley far, far away, a coworker of mine recommended I check out Flossie’s Southern Cuisine in Torrance. I listened, because the man spent his college years in Alabama, but didn’t ever expect to make it down to Torrance for a meal. Yet, somehow I found myself employed in that strange southern part of LA and made sure to track down Flossie’s.
Slater’s 50/50 first jumped on my radar when they released the ‘Merica Burger back in July. This burger was composed of an entire bacon patty, loaded up with even more bacon. But Slater’s, only existed in Orange County and San Diego, thus only serving these burgers down there. The opportunity for a ‘Merica passed me by, but just a couple weeks ago Slater’s opened their first outpost in LA County. Sure, it’s probably just as far away from me as Orange County, seeing as it’s in Pasadena, but I didn’t want to miss out on the place and met up with some fellow burger lovers for lunch.
In Sherman Oaks and a few other places in LA, there is a breakfasty-dinery type of restaurant called Jinky’s. But it is no ordinary breakfasty-dinery joint. I mean, sure, it has pancakes, eggs, burgers and sandwiches, but it also has something you don’t really see on too many menus – chili. Twenty different kinds of chili, in fact. Not every variety is available every day, but there is always some sort of chili and Jinky’s finds all sorts of ways to mix it into its extensive menu.
Until my most recent visit to Phoenix, the only Windsors in my mind were a Canadian city across the river from Detroit, a castle in England and way to tie a tie. But now I know better, because the Windsor in Phoenix that Heather and Albert brought me to rivals all of the other Windsors combined. Why? This Windsor has possibly the most productivity-annihilating happy hour I’ve ever experienced. From 11 am to 5 pm, Windsor offers wine, cocktails and mini beer pitchers for the low price of 5 bucks. In other words, lunch break becomes drunk break.
I like to think of myself as a simple man. My needs are simple and if you’ve noticed by my food blogging, I am often happier with a simple, well-executed meal that gourmet nonsense. Because of this, I was intrigued by Simplethings in Mid City despite the fact that they took a seemingly simplistic name and made it into one word. Simplethings bills itself as a sandwich and pie shop (restaurant), which both also seem simple, but not here.
Over the weekend, I was invited to the St. Felix in Hollywood for a free Bloody Mary brunch. Ordinarily, I would have dismissed such a notion. After all, Bloody Marys consist of many of the things I hate most in the world in drink form. But something caught my eye and pulled me in: Bacon Vodka. I figured if anything was going to get me to try a veggie-based drink, bacon would be it. Some say it makes everything better, and this would be quite the test.
In the movie, I Love You, Man, a pivotal scene occurs when the Paul Rudd character and Jason Segel character bond over fish tacos at a place called James’ Beach. Jason Segel’s character declares them “the best in the world,” which is quite a claim. Fortunately, James Beach is a real place in Venice and last weekend I took a bike ride with my lady and her lady to see just how great those fish tacos were. Jason Segel hadn’t led me wrong since Freaks and Geeks (except for Bad Teacher) and I hoped he wouldn’t this time.
So far, Inglewood has treated me quite nicely, but after a couple days down there I turned to Google for food suggestions. It is probably my least favorite way of finding new restaurants, as the top results are typically the restaurants with the best SEO instead of the best food. Nonetheless, I needed help for lunch and this led me to Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen, a stone’s throw from court and with promising reviews.
While the Century City food court is always a winner, there is another restaurant within that mall that has been intriguing me for a while. It’s called Obika and calls itself a mozzarella bar. While I love me some mozzarella, I think I’ve stayed away simply because I didn’t think mozzarella alone was cheese enough to sustain a bar. But now that Obika has been around for a while, it has proven its staying power and I knew it was worth checking out.
Up in North Hollywood, the prospect of a new restaurant is always exciting. And when the theme of that new restaurant is pie, the excitement is off the charts. So in honor of Pi Day (March 14th) I ventured out to Republic of Pie with a couple of coworkers to see what they were all about. Republic of Pie has a total coffee shop feel to it, with a few couches here and there, an exposed ceiling industrial look and an iPad in place of an old-fashioned register. The number of people sitting around on their MacBooks drinking tea really helps drive the point home. This is a good thing, because no one wants to feel like they are in North Hollywood and this feels much more like Seattle or Portland.