Author Archives: Brian

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by | September 15, 2009 · 1:53 pm

What the heck is a California burrito, anyway?

by Brian

Hey everybody,

Mikey’s been giving me the business about being a douchebag lately.  I know I haven’t been posting on the regular, and I plan on doing better over the next couple weeks.  I only have a few minutes to spend before getting back to work, but I wanted to give the peeps back home a little introduction to a dish that is unique to San Diego: The California Burrito.

Basically, you can only get California burritos in San Diego, which is retarded.  Shouldn’t they at least be called San Diego burritos?  Anyway, despite the misnomer, they are incredibly delicious.  The other great thing is that you can get them almost anywhere.  I haven’t verified this yet, but I’m pretty sure you can even get them at the local chinese food joint.

Since you can get a Cali burrito anywhere and it’ll taste great, my main priority in choosing a place to get one is proximity to my apartment.  Now, I have about 20 mexican food places within a short drive of my place, but since I live downtown, I rarely drive anymore.  Instead, I walk one block south and two blocks west, right into the front door of… Continue reading →

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by | August 31, 2009 · 11:24 pm

Turf Supper Club and new beginnings…

by Brian

Hey everyone,  I’m sure at least a few of you have noticed that I haven’t posted in almost three weeks.  For those of you who haven’t, you must just visit the site because of Mikey’s unwavering dedication.  The reason that I haven’t been posting is that I’ve been pretty busy lately.  I moved to San Diego and started law school.  Today was actually my first day of real classes, and I just got done with my reading, so I figured I’d give you guys my first San Diego food review as a local.  Here we go…

Turf Supper Club – Golden Hill

Turf is your traditional dive bar.  That’s not to say that it is dirty or slum-like in any way; it’s very dark and just conveys that old-school vibe that you would associate with a dive.  The aforementioned lighting, red booths and old movies playing on the TV discourage the yuppie crowd from putting in an appearance and the resulting group is a blend of locals with a slight influx of hipster.

photo 3

I found this place through my friend Alexis, who lives in (or on?) Golden Hill.  She conned me into helping her unload her moving van this past weekend by offering free food and beer.  What starving college student can say no to that? Continue reading →

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by | August 11, 2009 · 7:27 pm

Taverna Tony – The Man, The Myth, The Restaurant

by Brian

I don’t have a ton of experience with Greek food.  But I can honestly say that Taverna Tony is the best Greek restaurant that I’ve eaten at, so far.  I mean no disrespect to the Greek at the Harbor.  You guys are great and make us feel welcome whenever we drop in, but the meal I had the other night absolutely knocked my socks off.

Taverna Tony – Just off PCH south of Pepperdine, in Malibu.

The location of this restaurant is great.  It’s in a cute little shopping center, full of metaphysical bookshops and boutique clothing stores.  It’s quintessential Malibu.  Plus it’s just across the street from one of my favorite bookstores and the infamous Malibu Starbucks.  It’s down a sidestreet though, so it’s not as susceptible to the noise of PCH traffic.  It’s also a fairly large restaurant, with a nice little patio for evening dining.

The best thing about the restaurant, besides the delicious food, is Tony, himself.  I’ve never been to a restaurant which said so much about the character and charisma of one man, like this one did.  I got the opportunity to meet the man and find out a little bit about what makes Taverna Tony such a special place.  One of the first things that I found out was that much of the decor had been hand-picked and imported directly from Greece.  This includes the rustic tables and chairs which give the restaurant and authentic, yet comfortable, feel.   Continue reading →

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by | August 10, 2009 · 3:30 pm

Food and Fun at the 2009 Ventura County Fair

by Brian

Last weekend, Mikey and I had the opportunity to pay a visit to the Ventura County Fair.  It was my first time at the fair and I had no idea how big it was going to be.  Even more importantly, I had no idea how much food they would have to offer.  As it turns out, Mikey and I barely scratched the surface of what they had, before reaching our agreed upon calorie limit of 5000.

2009 Ventura County Fair – Seaside Park off California St., Ventura

The fair is right down by the beach, at Seaside Park.  It’s gorgeous, right up until the time when you have to walk back to your car, downwind from that horrid sewage smell that sometimes wafts its way along the beach.  Other than that, it’s the perfect location.  Parking isn’t too bad and if you’re willing to park in the nearby structure and walk, you’ll get a little exercise before gorging yourself on all the great food.

Obviously there is more to the fair than food.  But food was our main reason for attending.  They have tons of rides and carnival games, along with local vendors selling their wares.  There are also several exhibition halls with everything from local flora to collections of Harry Potter memorabilia.  Mikey and I spent 20 bucks each at the carnival and walked away with 3 stuffed animals and a sense of manly pride that only comes from showing a carny what’s what.

But first and foremost we were there to eat.  We didn’t really do too much sharing, instead opting to go head to head with our food choices.  Round 1 was Mikey’s Tri-tip sandwich vs. my Cajun corndog. Continue reading →

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by | August 5, 2009 · 11:31 pm

Toi on Sunset – Rockin’ Thai

by Brian

It had been a while since I’d had some good Asian food, and since my Asian food guru, Adam, has been busy lately, I decided to hit a really cool Thai spot on sunset that a couple of my coworkers had suggested.  Actually, they came with me and it was awesome.  Also, it’s been quite a while since I wrote about a restaurant on the night I went, so maybe this post will be better than most because everything is still pretty fresh in my mind.  Maybe I’ll even eat the leftovers while I write…

Toi on Sunset – On Sunset Blvd., west of Vine in Hollywood.

TOI

There was so much to like about this place that I hardly know where to begin.  The last Thai place I reviewed was the perfect spot if you’re coming over the hill from Hollywood.  This place is the place you go when you’re too drunk to drive over that hill. Continue reading →

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by | August 3, 2009 · 11:22 pm

Urth Caffe – The Center of the Coffee Universe

by Brian

All this bad eating has been catching up with me lately.  All the ribs, burritos and desserts have left me in a food coma that has pretty much taken away my will to write.  But still, we soldier on, because there are so many more places that we need to try and places that you need to know about.

In the next month, I will be moving to San Diego and hopefully giving you guys some great insights into the food down there.  Mikey will continue to hold it down in the Ventura/L.A. areas and we may even be looking to add on some freelancers.  I’ll leave that last part up to Mikey, since he’s the brains of the operation.  Instead, I’ll just tell you about a little coffee shop I visited last weekend in Santa Monica.

Urth Caffe – On Main St. in Santa Monica

I think there are a few of these around, but it’s not a big chain so I figured I could review it for the site.  This place is like a bar, except instead of booze and drunken wannabes it has organic coffees and caffeinated wannabes.  It’s actually a pretty cool place and I stopped in with some friends to grab a coffee and some dessert.

This is in Santa Monica, right on main, so it’s a trendy spot.  They even have a valet to park your car for you.  I really wish Mikey and I had pulled up in his fly hoopty instead of showing up in my buddy’s tricked out truck.  But maybe it was better that way.  I felt like we only got into the place due to the coolness of my friend’s ride. (Thanks, J)

This place is hipster central.  It’s swarming with emo kids and their Risky Business Ray Bans and cute girls meeting their “producer” boyfriends.  But if you can get past all that, I think it’s worth a visit.  First off, their coffee and teas are excellent, but the main reason I’d go is just to eat some more of their awesome desserts.

urthdesserts Continue reading →

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by | July 30, 2009 · 11:17 pm

Galletto – The Last Supper

by Brian

Today was a momentous day for me.  For the first time, a woman actually took me to lunch.  Sure, it was my boss.  And sure, she was only doing it because she was so happy to be getting rid of me.  But still, I must say, it felt nice.

We decided on a little place in Westlake that I’d always wanted to try, but had never seemed to make room for.  It’s called Galletto and its specialty is Brazilian food.  Which is a lot of meat.  Think BBQ meets Italian with some Latin flavor thrown in.

Galleto – Next to Natural Café at the intersection of Townsgate and Westlake Blvd, in Westlake Village

galletto

We arrived around 11:30am for an early lunch.  They were just opening and there were only a couple other tables that were occupied.  It was a nice day so we decided to sit out on the patio.  The first thing I noticed was that the chairs were very awkward.  Instead of allowing you to sit back, the high backed chairs forced you forward toward the table.  This was fine once the food arrived, but it deprived me of one of my favorite things while dining out: sitting back and enjoying a little conversation.

While looking over the menu, I asked my boss what she had eaten here previously.  She let me know that the Brazilian chicken was excellent and that ended up being the dish she ordered.  I kept flipping through the menu and was stopped by the sandwich section.  They have a sandwich called the Braziribs sandwich, which they claim was voted one of the Top 5 sandwiches in L.A. by Los Angeles Magazine.  Talk about a “you had me at hello” moment.  From then on it was all I could think about. Continue reading →

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