Father's Office, Los Angeles, CA

Touted as one of the best burgers around, I was looking forward to trying out Father's Office. Located in the Culver City neighborhood of LA this is a go to place. We got there very early having just flown in from New Jersey and starving, we arrived at 4pm. It was quiet at that point which let us grab a great picnic style table and benches outside while we ordered burgers, wine and microbrewed beers.

The place filled up rapidly starting at 5pm and was still packed when we eventually left at 9pm. Through the evening many different friends and co-workers of Alan and our host for the evening, Nick, arrived. Almost everyone ordered the burger even though there were about a dozen things on the menu including crab cakes, salads and even bone marrow.

The burger is the star here and the only choice really is how you want it cooked - opting for medium rare is the popular choice. The burger came on a French demi-baguette with carmelized onions, blue and gruyere cheeses and a heaping pile of arugula. This was served with shoestring potatoes and a garlic aioli dipping sauce.

The Father's Office policy is no condiments - no mustard, ketchup, mayo...nothing but the garlic sauce which was fantastic by the way. So once I knew that after making the mistake of asking (such a Yankee tourist), I bit in and sighed with happiness. It really was a fantastic burger. To start with - the baguette held up really well against the dripping juiciness of the meat and cheese. The combination of bite from the blue cheese, the tang from the arugula and the mellow creaminess of the Gruyere blended together to make for one damn good burger.

Zagat: 23-16-14
Jenn's Rating: 84
Rated Top 12 Burger's in America by Gourmet Magazine
4 out of 5 stars on Yelp.com

SAAM, chef's tasting room at Bazaar, Los Angeles

Alan and I have just returned from a week on the west coast. We split time between Los Angeles and San Diego and ate well in both places. One of our dinners was with a group of Alan's colleagues at SAAM, the chef's tasting room at Bazaar in the SLS Hotel, Beverly Hills.

We arrived early to the hotel to have drinks. If you haven't been to or experienced The Bazaar, its unlike anything I've ever seen before. With five different themed areas all bleeding into each other, it's a dizzying array of colors, sights and sounds. There's Bar Centro ~ literally a bar in the middle of the space ~ packed with decked out LA'ers in couture and tourists watching them. We sat at this long, raised bar table for a little over an hour having drinks and people watching.

Around us there was also two main dining rooms called Rojo Y Blanca decorated as you can imagine in red and whites serving ala carte and tapas.

There's a dessert room with an open kitchen called Patisserie which we were told is where you are "taken" after you finish dining to enjoy evening sweets. Then there's this odd store without walls tucked up in the front of the space called Regalo. And finally, there's SAAM; the private chef's tasting room in the back of the restaurant secluded away from the bustle of the other scenes. SAAM is where we ate dinner.

We had an 8pm reservation and eight people seated against the wall in a lovely, comfortable table with cushy seats and understated decor. The tasting menu consists of 22 small bites showcasing fresh ingredients and the chef's work with molecular gastronomy.

So here we go!
Course #1:  Kaviar Kir Royale; a champagne cocktail with "caviar" eggs made out of liqueur at the bottom of the glass. It didn't have nearly as much flavor as I was expecting.
Course #2:  Beet & Yogurt; a roll of soft beets and creamy yogurt encased in a flaky, simple pastry. Much lighter than expected but not a flavor combination I enjoyed.

Course #3:  Oyster & Jamon and Course #4:  Parmesan Macaron; served together, the oyster was a fresh little bite that went well with the salty ham. The Parmesan dish had herbs in it and both of these dishes complimented the sparkling wine (2008 Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc) we were having with the beginning of the meal.

Course #5:  Seabeans in Tempura; a fabulous preparation of a simple vegetable, the tempura was warm, crunchy and light with a natural saltiness. Seabean is actually Glasswort, a plant growing in Europe in salty marshes and sea coasts.

Course #6:  Jose's Combination; yep, that's prosciutto with caviar and it tasted as good as it looks.

Course #7:  Patatas Bravas (fried potatoes with allioli and chili sauce). I don't think I liked this course very much...it was a little spicy but otherwise pretty bland.

Course #8:  Chicken Skin & Cigala (langostine): this dish was AWESOME. But I mean, come on! It's fried chicken skin (think pork rind only with chicken) with a langostine over it and then a green cucumber foam. What's not to love?

Course #9:  Not Your Everyday Caprese: another knockout course. These mozzarella balls were extremely delicate and you needed to pop the entire thing in your mouth so it didn't break. Then when you did, with some of the tomato and fresh basil puree it was like an explosion of Caprese in a liquid happy bomb. Really amazing.

Course #10: Crispy Nigiri: no picture and can't remember anything about it.

Course #11: Uni & Eel: done like a risotto of eel with Uni on top this was crazy rich and decadent. It made me very happy though a bit heavy on the palate considering we were only halfway through. But loved this course.

Course #12: Chipirones (Northern Spanish style of cooking squid in it's own ink): I'm a pretty big fan of squid thanks mostly to Marea in NYC. This was a nice little course - the squid was pleasantly chewy, especially the body portion which so often is too tough. Nice one overall.

Course #13: Banh Mi (Vietnamese baguette sandwich): Not for me...I didn't like this sandwich at all. It was bland and filling and I didn't finish it. Could have skipped this course altogether.

Course #14: Carrots: Blue Hill at Stone Barns has taught me to never take a carrot for granted. Thank goodness I didn't dismiss this course before giving it a try (since I don't like raw carrots, was a possibility). Really superb. The sweet carrots and bitter edible flowers were simple and complimentary to each other.

Course #15: Mirugai (geoduck or large saltwater clam): I really thought this was some sort of white fish since the taste was rather mild and the texture delicate. To find out it was actually some creepy looking giant clam thing makes me even more impressed with this dish. Excellent taste.

Course #16: Wagyu & Mushroom Escabeche: Yummy! Is that enough of a review? And the broth was made of bone marrow so double yummy!!

Course #17: Mushroom & Duck Liver

Additional Course #17A: Wild Mushrooms & Black Truffles: this course was probably the hit of the evening for the rest of the table and I really, really, really wanted to eat it and love it. But I had hit the food wall to quote Adam Richman of Man vs. Food. I literally couldn't eat it - it was so rich and I was on the brink of total stomach shut down.

Course #18: Japanese Baby Peaches: no picture and I skipped this one too still reeling from food overload.

Course #19: Dragon's Breath Popcorn: no picture but honestly there wouldn't have been a way to capture the coolness of this course. We each popped a frozen piece of "popcorn" in our mouths and were told to breath out of our noses. The reaction was a stream of "smoke" looking like a fire breathing dragon exhaling. So very cool. The taste itself was not the highlight of this course. Watching each person in turn breath fire was frigging awesome.

Course #20: Frozen Apricot Timbale with Amaretto

Course #21: Desert Dessert
Course #22: Sexy Little Sweets

Summary: I really enjoyed this entire experience. Most of that had to do with the fun group of people and lively conversation. Most of the dishes were interesting enough or downright fabulous to overshadow the few misses they served. The service was attentive and fun and our head server dealt with this rambunctious crowd very well. I loved the intimate feeling of this private room and felt comfortable and not rushed. While I personally had a hard time handling this many courses (unusual for me, but it can happen), I do like it when high end restaurants do lots of little bites or plates. It's worth the trip and probably one of the better truly "foodie" experience to be had in Los Angeles. Final note - at $120 per person fixed cost this comes in as a moderate priced dinner (not nearly as scary as some of the NYC chef's tastings) with a pretty good wine list.

Zagat's Rating: 27-26-25
Jenn's Rating: 92

Addison, Grand Del Mar, California

For our last dinner in Del Mar we joined a vendor sponsored event at Addison, one of the top rated restaurants in the San Diego metro area. The dinner was hosted by CrossView, IBM and Sterling Commerce and Addison was on-property at the Grand Del Mar resort. It's located about 500 yards up the hill from the resort, adjacent to the golf pro shop and M Club.

We arrived promptly at 7pm to find a group already in the private dining room with attached outdoor veranda overlooking the 18th green and waterfalls. The bar was open but Alan spied a waiter in the process of decanting an older Cabernet (Pahlmeyer) and expertly navigated into place to be able to sample a glass for him and a glass for me. While we stood around outside chatting with one of our hosts amid the beautiful surroundings and the perfect temperature, I tried many of the h'ors deurves passing by. The ones I remember were a delightful, warm Gruyere pastry with an actual liquid cheese center and little spoons of crab, honey and tarragon that I loved and probably snatched half a dozen of. I'm having trouble recalling others but there were maybe five or six in total.

When called into the dining room, we took up places at a table near one of the fireplaces and close to the veranda glass doors. There were six people to a table and six tables in total. Each table consisted of at least one host (someone from IBM, CrossView or Sterling) and guests of the conference and their significant others. Our table had a most wonderful couple from Plano Texas (Teneka who works at JC Penney & her hilarious husband, Tom), Jason from Portland, Oregon and one other woman. The conversation was fast and funny, covering a wide range of topics. The chatter at the table was so engaging that I didn't pay as much attention to the food as I usually would, but remembered to snap a few pictures and grab one of the menus they had at each place setting.

Our first course was a salad of seasonal greens with shallot confit, glazed beets and Cabernet dressing. I thought the confit's sweetness was a wonderful compliment to the bitters of the greens and liked this rather simple dish a lot. The second course was a fennel risotto with cured lemon and Parmesan cheese. Knockout! I loved this...creamy and still a touch al dente with a fresh taste that's uncommon in usually heavy risotto dishes.

The next dish was the entree with a choice of either the braised beef short rib with smoked potato puree, port wine and prosciutto or the roast Atlantic sablefish with cremini mushrooms, rock shrimp and dashi. I choose the fish while Alan selected the short ribs.

I'll start with my dish...wonderful! Sablefish is a smooth, delicate white fish with a super silky texture that reminds me of the white tuna sushi I love. It was cooked perfectly, flaking easily with a fork. The light sauce it was in had a warmth to it (taste wise, as well as temperature) that added to the experience and it was salted enough to give the fish the support it needed to keep from being too bland. The cremini mushrooms were heavenly and the shrimp flavorful. Alan's short rib didn't quite live up to the expectation. After hearing that this was the signature dish of the chef, we were both hoping for something akin to Cook in St. Helena or Daniel's duo of beef short rib...but it wasn't.
It seemed to be overpowered by the port wine reduction and not as tender as one would hope for.

The dinner wrapped up with chocolate mousse with orange syrup and vanilla ice cream served with teas and coffee. A really nice evening with great company, fun conversation and pretty decent food overall. Not sure this restaurant can hold a candle to it's NYC and San Francisco counterparts, but a lovely experience all the way around.

Jenn's rating: 87
Zagat's rating: 27-28-28

Grand Del Mar, California: 2011

Alan and I are spending his pre-Birthday week in Del Mar, California at the absolutely gorgeous Grand Del Mar Resort & Spa. Located just north of San Diego in the cliffs and just a few miles in from the dark blue Pacific Ocean. I have no idea how expensive this resort is to stay at out-of-pocket, but when on a business paid conference trip, it's just the perfect location.

Our room is on the third floor and our balcony looks over one of the courtyards as well as the third hole of the on-property golf course. The room itself is one of my favorites of any resort - very spacious with a monstrous king size bed, a wonderfully comfy L-shaped sofa with ottoman, two desks and a huge bathroom featuring a walk in dressing room & closet. It's also got one of the most important aspects to a truly wonderful hotel room - a beautiful, large, glass enclosed shower with the most fabulous water pressure. Powerful, streaming a nonstop flow of hot, hot water. So nice after a long plane ride or a brutal round of golf. As we sit here once again after hitting the links, with our balcony doors wide open watching the Yankees play the Reds we hear the not infrequent sound of navy F-15 fighter jets flying overhead....and for the second time in one day, a little sparrow flies into our room, hops around as Alan gently shoo-shoos it back out the balcony doors. I wanted to feed it but Alan said no, sternly. He doesn't want a repeat of the banded mongoose fiasco of 2002.

But this post is about food...and hopefully wine since I'm thinking Alan will add an addendum to talk about the five bottles packing snugly in our luggage that made the trip out here with us on Continental from Newark.

Our first on resort food experience was the California sandwich they made at the Cafe. Really, really great chicken breast sandwich. Big (enough for two of us to share), warm (heated in a panini press), wet with an olive oil mayo and perfectly accompanied with fresh tomato, bacon and avocado. The bread was a french style baguette, fresh and doughy. Served with crunchy pickles.

Second taste was breakfast from the same Cafe to take To Go out to Torrey Pines with us. We get two toasted bagels - mine plain with cream cheese and Alan's a cinnamon-raisin with butter. They added little fruit cups into our To Go boxes that was a welcome surprise. The bagels were what they should be.

The next dining experience is a last minute trip down to the in hotel restaurant, Amaya. It's a combination of indoor and outdoor seating overlooking the lovely Aria lawn. This is a wide expanse of perfectly manicured lawn surrounded by blooming flora and a large Italian style, open aired pavilion that I know from the Travel Channel is a favorite wedding location. What it means when we're there, a place for every child in the place to run about screaming...interestingly in this case, the kids don't both me or anyone else and are even a bit amusing to watch them chase, tag and tumble all over each other.

I ordered a Caesar salad to start that was nicely prepared with that heavy anchovy taste that I'm particularly fond of. Alan had the short rib cannelloni with beech mushroom ragout and I ordered the crab & lobster pappardelle with tarragon, mushrooms and Parmesan. Alan liked his cannelloni quite a bit. I very much liked the flavor of my dish but between the bottle and a half we already drank and my overall exhaustion after walking the course at Torrey Pines, I ran out of steam after eating only a quarter of my dish.

The next morning (today, actually as I post this), we decide to go for a sit down breakfast since we're not teeing off until 12:30pm in a shot gun start. Back to Amaya we go. Once again sitting outside and once again treated to children running nonstop on the grand Aria lawn. It's a most beautiful morning.

A nice menu, we opt for a mixed seasonal fruit plate to share plus I get the egg white frittata with spinach, tomato and goat cheese served with toast and Alan's breakfast burrito with Parmesan cheese, prosciutto and carameliz onion served with breakfast potatoes. Oh, joy!! My frittata is wonderful - the goat cheese adding that twang of flavor to jazz up the eggs and blend so nicely with the freshness of spinach and tomato. Alan's burrito was good but could have used more meat and less tomato and needed a little salt. The fresh fruit was perfect.

Next up for food - a boxed lunch provided on our golf carts for the tournament. A big box, it held a giant turkey, tomato & lettuce combination in sun dried tomato wrap with a seasoned ranch dressing, a bag of jalapeno chips, chocolate brownie and cold pasta salad.YUMMY. Matched up with unlimited drinks, it made for a perfect golf day lunch! So far, so good!! Hope to be able to post good things about our dinner tomorrow night at Addison.

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Market Restaurant, Del Mar, CA: June 2011

When Alan and I are going to be heading off together, vacation or work / play combination, I usually research restaurants in the area and make reservations - often picking places we haven't tried. San Diego is no exception. Using a combination of friend's recommendations, Zagat, Yelp, Michelin's guides (if an option) and Opentable.com, I put an eating itinerary together.

This trip I knew we'd already be eating at Addison, the top rated restaurant in the San Diego / Del Mar / La Jolla area. It's not going to be a perfect representation of Addison since we're doing a vendor sponsored, large group format...but nonetheless, no reason to repeat. The next top choice was a place called Market Restaurant - just a few miles from our hotel. Using the common formula of fresh ingredients and a farm to table mantra, we were hoping for the best.

We had 6pm reservations - early but I thought since it was the day we arrived in California, we'd be hungry early due to the time change. I didn't factor in being STARVING by 4pm and having to grab something to tie us over. Plug here for the little cafe in the Grand Del Mar...they made us a chicken breast, avocado & bacon on a french baguette, pressed and served warm with pickles. Holy Awesome Sandwich, Batman!!! Back to Market...

After our fabulous gourmet sandwich, we weren't all that ready to rush off to dinner. I called Market and asked if they could accommodate moving our reservation back by an hour or so. They have good news! If we're willing to be seated in their "red room", an enclosed atrium off the main dining room that they described as intimate, we can have a 7pm slot. Excellent - that's the new plan!! Getting there was easy enough thanks to my super cool Navigation app on the Droid.

We are promptly lead to the small red room which turns out to be an enclosed porch that they have draped the three exterior windowed walls with thick, lustrous red curtains creating a dark and almost romantic feel. Taking away from the ambiance is the fourth wall which is all glass looking into the main dining room. Being only a pane of glass away from main room diners staring back at you is a little odd.

Alan orders a bottle of champagne for us and we peruse the menu...which looks fantastic. Small but every choice looks as incredible as the last. Our hopes are high now!!!! I opt for the soft shell crab tempura with greens and mango. Alan had the poached egg, mushrooms and thick cut bacon. My crab was nicely prepared but as I pointed out to Alan, the flavors of my dish were nice by themselves but didn't blend well when put on the fork together. The meld wasn't happening. Alan's was better - the bacon was tender, chewy and a bit like a pork belly - the egg was wonderful.

For entree, I ordered the duo of beef shown below...a fillet served with french beans and a type of light hollandaise sauce and a red wine infused, slow booked short rib with onion whipped potatoes. Alan had the day boat scallops with dungeness crab stuffed, butterflied prawn. Alan's course was too sweet, favors didn't meld and was a disappointment. Mine was really good. Alan said the short rib was a top three and I loved the rich flavor of the fillet.

Overall, service pleasant and attentive, ambiance a bit odd and the food was hit or miss. If you hit, wonderful, if you missed it was a lackluster showing of what could have been brilliant.

Jenn's rating: 85
Zagat: 29-22-26

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