Father's Office, Santa Monica

It’s hip, it’s happening, it’s loud, it’s chaotic, and it’s totally packed dude, like bodasciously mega-packed. I’ve heard about Father’s Office when I was living in LA. “Go for the burger dude.” Thanks Johnny Utah for the advice. 

I was talking with another foodie, James Collier, who was down in LA for a food bloggers conference and the Father’s Office Burger came up. I recall hearing that it was good, but not earthshattering good.

With all these recommendations, it took simply the suggestion from a former analyst and friend of mine, Monica to get me to go. I trusted her as an analyst; so why not trust her foodie senses?

As we walked in, I get carded. Really. This automatically makes me think we’re going to a bar that serves food, rather than a restaurant that serves drinks. All seating is first come, first serve, like a bar. All orders and drinks are taken at the bar. There are no waiters, only expeditors and bussers. The place is a 1200 square foot space with a narrow space in between tables.

The food was above average across the board, but unbalanced. To their credit, our food came out fast, hot, and generally well prepared.

We started with a smoked eel, slivered onions, and coddled egg. The four pieces of smoked eel was outstanding and delicate. I wish I could have had 4 more pieces of eel. However, the softball sized amount of slivered red onion that accompanied the eel was way too much. Talk about onion breath! The coddled egg, while wonderfully cooked, served almost no purpose since there wasn’t a starch on the plate or the table to mop up all that yolky goodness.

We also ordered the sobresada. It was good, but not over the top. The bread was crispy around the edges and not uniformly crispy, which bugged me. I know, I’m being picky. I think I used some of the bread to sop up the egg yolk from the eel dish and the egg, bread, and meat combo worked for me.

As I mentioned, Father’s Office is known for its burgers and the burger didn’t disappoint. I don’t think it was the best burger I’ve ever had, but it was well seasoned and prepared. I ate the burger through our entire meal. Lots of arugula, caramelized onions with balsamic, and medium rare beef all good. I think I might have even dipped my burger into the egg yolk from the eel dish as well. I can’t let quality egg yolk go to waste; I needed bread damn it.

One outstanding, yet simple item were the sautéed mushrooms. I loved these. In fact, I was using my fork and burger to scoop up the mushrooms and sauce (read butter) just so I wouldn’t waste anything. Probably the least technical item of the night, but the simplicity spoke to me.

Lastly, the sweet potato fries were good, but the ubiquitous alternative menu item to the humble,  regular potato fries, I’m tired of. I think I was tired of them 3 years ago. There’s nothing more healthy about a deep fried sweet potato than a regular spud. They’re Deep Fried. And ranch is less healthy than ketchup.

I’d say Father’s Office is an experience. The food is good. The beer is good. A busy crowd is good. As someone who has eaten many a meal alone because of work, I wouldn’t come here alone. I wouldn’t make this my regular stop if I were local either. It’s not an alone type of place. It’s a social place to be quickly served, well fed, and well imbibed. I still believe that it’s a bar, that happens to serve good food. Just not a bar I’d go to alone for a quiet drink and a burger.

Sonic Burger, Ripon

Welcome to Freshville? Really?

I have never been to Sonic Burger, but here’s my basic impression. If the legendary King (Burger King) and the iconic McDonald’s had a mythical burger-child, this is what it would look like. A thin greyish patty and spongy bun were obviously from its Mother, McD. The pickles, onion, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese with mayo, mustard, and ketchup, from The King. Wrap it all up and you’ve got a burger that was good enough to eat at a gas station during a hypoglycemic episode and cheap fill-up. Oh, the coffee at the Love’s Gas Station next door at Jack Tone Road is only 0.99 cents when you bring in your own cup. The burger was $3.55.

Toulouse Petit, Seattle WA

I was a bit concerned when I browsed the menu. Tons of items and 3 full services, breakfast, lunch and dinner. My strategy, get one of the basics, a burger or French/Creole classic. If they can’t do a classic right, the rest of the menu probably stinks anyway.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I started with a fabulous in-house Creole Bloody Mary. The salted and spiced rim of the glass was a nice touch. But the flavor of the Bloody was something I couldn’t get enough of. Spicy, savory, hot around the lips, a bit of horseradish sinus sting, acid notes from the tomato and curing liquid from the olives was perfect. Damn good.

Sticking with my “basics” philosophy, I ordered a lamb burger. My sandwich, a North African spiced lamb sirloin burger on brioche was no slouch. My only complaint, I found four pieces of gristle in my lamb, tough enough for me to spit out. While this gristle problem was easily fixed by me, I think four pieces is a little high in one burger. They cooked my burger medium-rare as requested. Not to go unnoticed, the fries were crispy and well seasoned and I ate nearly all of them (which I rarely do). It was probably the side of mayo they gave me. I love fries with mayo.

Tipsy Pig, San Francisco

Awfully trendy for a while on Chestnut Street, I avoided this place. Too much noise, testosterone and way-cool people are generally not my hangouts anymore or ever really. Well, on a Wednesday night at 5:30, I really liked this place. I sat with a buddy at the bar and powered down some food before a late flight to PDX.

We started with the hush puppies in a picante butter. I’m realizing I don’t like dense hush puppies. I like corn bread. I like fried things. I like savory. I don’t care for hush puppies. However, I do care for the picante butter Tipsy serves their puppies with. This compound butter is damn good. I’d put this butter on a steak or a baked potato or even cornbread. Butter good. Hush Puppies? Not my favorite.

Next up, Sloppy Joe Sliders. The Sloppy Joe Sliders were over the top large. Pulled beef , well soaked in sauce, was tender, juicy and outright delicious. The addition of coleslaw was a textural bonus and additive because of the acidic component. The min-bun was also up to the challenge and stayed together during all four bites it took to completely devour this massive meat burger.

Finally, because I needed some fiber, I had a salad. The Wedge Salad, right up there with the Caesar and spinach salad are my touchstone salads, a consistent way to evaluate  how the kitchen knocks out cold dressed roughage. Whole cluster lettuce Caesar was well done by Tipsy; with a wonderful creamy bleu dressing, crispy bacon and onions. Don’t get me wrong, I still like a stone cold, circa 1970s iceberg lettuce wedge at a steakhouse; it’s actually what I expected, but was happily surprised. Tipsy elevates the nostalgic classic.

I was happy with the Tipsy Pig, despite my preconceived notions of trendy Marina eatery, the food was really good. Call it modern gastropub, comfort food, or reworked nostalgia food; The Tipsy Pig serves up quality grub.

Boon Eat + Drink, Guerneville

When a restaurant decides to make their own ketchup and aioli, use Gleason Ranch beef from 5^th generation rancher Nancy Prebilich, hand cut local potatoes, and serve only local beer we’re not talking just any burger, fries, and a beer, we’re talking real attention to detail, local ingredients, and scratch cooking.

 

Additionally, cauliflower flash fried with pine nuts, golden raisins, and arugula with fresh lemon was delicious, well salted, and a perfect appetizer. The lovely tomato soup with freshly toasted baguette; another winner.  

 

However, service was awfully confused during my second visit. A busy lunch service with a 30 minute wait on my appetizer and then a cold mac and cheese for re-fire 10 minutes later. To their credit, they wrote off my beer and my mac and cheese. The chef and both staff members working the floor apologized to me personally for the foul ups. 

So I’m torn. The food, without the rush at lunch was quite good, but the service function combined with kitchen coordination was below average. It may be an issue of not accepting reservations and allowing any walk-up to simply check in with the server to see if there is an open table. There needs to be better communication with front and back of house as to the volume of patrons being seated and the expectations of being served in a timely manner.

Everyone wants a full restaurant, just not all at once. I have to wonder with the summer season coming up, if they get their game face on and execute better. I'll let you know.