THE SHACK & STRAWBERRY GELATO

THE SHACK

&

STRAWBERRY GELATO

Remember the days before Baskin Robbins and Ben & Jerry’s?  The days when ice cream stands and parlors dotted the American landscape?  No?  Well, I do.   I remember summers spent on a lake in rural Connecticut and my parents taking me for homemade peppermint ice cream at a little stand that was nothing more than a shack on an old country road.

Not far from my house in Bayside, Queens, Long Island, New York was another shack.  It sold newspapers and comic books, cigarettes, tall “2 cent” pretzels and loose (not hard) ice cream.  Everyone called it “The Shack.”  My dad bought his daily Herald Tribune there.  I bought my love comic books there.  And we all bought our ice cream there. Big scoops of soft creamy vanilla or rich chocolate, fresh peach or strawberry ice cream plopped on top a crunchy sugar cone then dipped in chocolate sprinkles.  No “store-bought” or “pre-packaged” ice cream has ever replicated the taste.

Not until a recent Sunday brunch.

Friends were dropping by on their way home to Ojai and we decided to ‘do’ a brunch.  Of course, we could have done lunch (maybe make fancy ‘Nancy Silverton’ grilled cheese sandwiches, or a grilled chicken Caesar salad), but since they were to arrive before noon, but after ten, we did brunch.

Richard planned his menu that started w/ a thick chunk of smoked salmon (not lox) w/ butter and crackers and bloody Marys.  Then came a baked bread, sausage, red pepper and asparagus egg strata, served w/ a chilled 2006 House of Nobilo Icon sauvignon blanc, followed by some French pressed coffee or tea and his homemade lavender cookies and homemade gelato.  I pulled out my 4 Limoge luncheon plates (bruncheon plates?), polished the sterling luncheon (bruncheon) silverware, put linen napkins in silver rings and set our old pine farm table.

Brunch was a hit – but nothing prepared us for just how delicious homemade strawberry gelato is.   The creaminess coupled w/ the amazing taste of fresh strawberries.  Not since I licked a strawberry cone at The Shack have strawberries tasted better.

STRAWBERRY GELATO

(From Italy’s Carpigiani Gelato University

as reported by Sherri Jennings in the LA Times)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups milk
2 T. skim milk powder
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
2 -3 cups cleaned strawberries
1 1/2 pounds ice
1 pound ice cream salt

Directions:
In medium saucepan, combine milk, milk powder, cream and 1 cup sugar.
Heat over medium heat, stirring, until it reaches a strong simmer (7-8 mins.)
Remove from heat, store in fridge at least 3 hours, up to 2 days.

In blender, combine the cooled milk base with strawberries and remaining 3/4 cup sugar.
blend until smooth.

Place mixture in small metal bowl over a larger bowl containing ice and salt.
Whip w/hand mixer ten minutes or so to lighten texture.

 
Freeze for about 1-1/2 hours before serving.  (Per Richard, it never freezes well enough in that short a time... four hours maybe – but gelato should have a soft consistency – just like that ‘loose’ creamy homemade ice cream)

DEFUND THE NEA? THE ART OF THE MATTER - A Musing

DEFUND THE NEA?

 THE ART OF THE MATTER

A Musing

“ONE MILLION PEOPLE FIRED!” 

What if you saw that headline tomorrow?  Unemployment would skyrocket, people would lose their homes and homeless families would flood the streets, the economy would falter and life as we know it would be over.  Oh, right – that’s already happened because of the greed emanating out of Wall Street and corporate America.   

But what if, during this year’s Federal budget debacle, that headline really did appear in the news media around the country.  Anarchy?  I know, I know, if anarchy couldn’t take hold in the ‘60s, it certainly couldn’t happen in today’s climate.  Right?  Wrong. 

Times are hard for those not in the top 2% of income earners, and unemployment is higher than it’s been in decades.  Anger at government has become a national pastime.  So no one’s going to throw more than a million people out of work!  Right?  Wrong!  Just ask some members of Congress. 

More than one million Americans work for the “not-for-profit” arts industry and Congress wants to fire them as it stubbornly clings to that tax break for the wealthiest Americans.  Why?  Because the arts don’t help the economy, they say.  The arts don’t create jobs.  Rich people create jobs. Wrong!  History has proven over and over (and again during the last ten years of the Bush tax cuts) that the rich really just want to get richer. They don’t relish the idea of ‘sharing’ with the workers who made them rich.  If they did we wouldn’t have needed child labor laws, labor unions, work place safety laws, minimum wage laws… the EPA, the FDA, the SEC, etc., etc.   And the rich don’t believe they should share their riches with the country whose principles allowed them to get rich in the first place. Just ask G.E. They claim that living under the tax rate they had during the Reagan or Clinton administration would be a hardship. Ha!  But, I digress…

The truth is our deficit has ballooned and we do need serious budget cutting… So why care if the NEA is shut down?  NEA opponents state that they’re not taking away ‘life threatening’ services here.  It’s only some music, a little dancing, maybe paint.  Wrong!  Besides the more than one million people who would make unemployment skyrocket, making more families lose their homes, adding to the legions of homeless, that music, that dance, that paint helps create a person’s soul.  Without a soul, we aren’t human.  If we aren’t human, we won’t behave as humans.  If we don’t behave as humans…  anarchy! 

Critics say we’ll get all that stuff on TV or in school.  I don’t know where these critics live, but it’s not in the United States of America.  After the NEA is eliminated, PBS, the only non-cable network that consistently highlights the arts, would soon be unable to fund those programs even if they managed to stay on the air.  And forget about school arts programs unless you're in that favored 2% and can afford to send your kid to a private school.  Since most Congressmen/women graduated high school, art and music programs have all but disappeared from our public school system.  Budget cuts.

So what’s the bottom line?  If we cut off funding to the arts, then art will truly become the property of the elite – not the cultural elite or the intellectual elite, but the money elite – those men and women wealthy enough to buy subscriptions to the opera or the symphony or who can afford expensive theater and ballet tickets.  Those with that big tax break. 

The chasm between the haves and have nots, already escalating, will grow even wider and deeper.  With more and more children not being uplifted by the arts, challenged to think about the arts or soothed by the arts, crime will rise, membership in militias and gangs will go through the roof and the need to escape into a drugged stupor will become an American way of life. More and more money will be needed for more and more police and more and more jails.  But we won’t have the money and if we don’t have the money… anarchy.

Ah, but that’s what this budget cut will give us, right – more money?  Wrong!

The NEA’s yearly budget is less that 2/100^th of 1% of the Federal budget (about 54 - 64 cents per American every year, depending on the spin).  Putting over a million people out of work will cost the tax payer a helluva lot more in unemployment benefits, tax revenue and healthcare, and will stifle economic recovery.  Frankly, 64 cents a year is a cheap price to save our country and our souls.

WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR - An Ode to Gil Hodges

 

WAIT ‘TIL NEXT YEAR

An Ode to Gil Hodges

Yesterday was opening day and baseball is again on my TV screen.  Spring is in the air (well, summer here in LA – it was 90 degrees!), but it was cold and damp in New York and, as the Yankees played the Tigers, you could see the pitchers’ breath…

Ah, baseball in New York.  The game’s not the same for me since I moved to LA.  I no longer live minutes away from Shea (yeh, I know, Shea’s gone… but NuShea is right next door) and it’s harder to walk down memory lane and cling to the Mets as a substitute for Brooklyn in a town where baseball fans leave the stadium in the 7^th inning to ‘beat the traffic’...even if it’s a tie game!!!  Really!!!  The LA Dodgers just don’t cut it for me.  I know the Dodger players didn’t betray me – the owners did – but it ain’t Dodger blue unless it’s Dodger blue in Brooklyn.

If you grew up in NY in the ‘50s and rooted for Brooklyn, “Wait ‘til next year” was your mantra.  It was a heartbreaking agony as I sat on my father's lap while he read aloud the sports pages … the pain of being a fan relived through the vivid prose of the sportswriter, back when sports writers still dabbled in “vivid.”

Finally, in l955, we were vindicated.  A miracle had happened!  “Next year” had come.  The aging Bums, led by Robinson, Snider Campanella, Reese and Hodges beat the Bronx Bombers.  My father’s Bums – my Bums – were champions of the world!  We Brooklyn fans went nuts.  We danced in the streets (literally), threw block parties (literally) and swam in ticker tape (not literally).  The sportswriters around the country vividly captured the glory and I was so enraptured by their writing, I didn’t know if I wanted to be a Dodger or write about them.  I wanted to run like Jackie and write like Red Smith.

Years later, after my father died, I thought how proud he would be to know that his beloved Duke, Pee Wee, Jackie, Roy and Gil were immortalized in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Wait.  No Gil!!!  How frustrated he’d be that the quiet, talented, steady, solid, loyal Gil Hodges – the player who was NEVER booed in Ebbets Field – wasn’t with his teammates in the ‘Hall.’  I can still hear him whispering in my ear, “Don’t worry about first, honey, Gil’s there.  Like Coop in 'High Noon,' he’ll stand tall and never let you down.”

Now, I was a mere child when the Bums abandoned its fans for palm trees, but my love for the team has never subsided.  The Boys of Summer were my heroes.  I had all their baseball cards.  They were living legends – and every year after he was eligible, I waited for Gil to enter Cooperstown but, like so many baseball seasons of my childhood (except ’55), I re-entered a “wait ‘til next year” existence.  Am I ever going to see a ‘55 miracle again? 

A couple of years ago my hopes were heightened when Roger Kahn wrote about this injustice… but, as a Nathan’s hot dog was steaming on my stove that year, its spicy Coney Island smell making my mouth water as the new inductees’ names were announced, it became apparent that not even Kahn could convince the voters to let Gil in the “Hall.”  I was so heartbroken, I lost my appetite.

And here we are in 2011 and Gil is still forgotten.  Where was the man who revolutionized play at first base and, during his 18 year career, averaged 30 home runs and 100 RBIs for TEN consecutive years, had a lifetime batting average of .273, w/ 370 home runs--  the man who turned the “Amazin’ Mets” into world champions… the man who has schools named after him – even a bridge!!!  Where was Gil Hodges?!  It’s not fair!  How often does a girl have to say, “Wait ‘til next year?”

The Baseball Hall of Fame rules state that “voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”  Gil Hodges had all those qualities.  He was a man of character who exemplified what’s good about America – what’s good about us.  How can a player w/ so much ability to inspire such faith NOT be in the Hall?  As debates over Peter Rose still wage and debates that I’m sure will arise when all the ‘steroid-ed up’ home-run record breakers become eligible, I can only hope that next year’s voting panel remembers how much talent, class and integrity Gil Hodges brought to the game of baseball as a man and as a player.

Wait ‘til next year!

2011: A BATHROOM ODYSSEY or HOW TO REMODEL YOUR BATHROOM FOR UNDER $1,000 w/ Lunch for 2 for 2 Bucks!

2011: A BATHROOM ODYSSEY or

HOW TO REMODEL YOUR BATHROOM

FOR UNDER $1,000

w/ Lunch for 2 for 2 Bucks!

OK, I lied.  I didn’t really ‘remodel’ our bathroom for under $1,000, but I did ‘reface’ it for $750 making the bathroom look like a million.

We have an old house.  Well, old by LA standards.  Built in 1941, very little was done to ‘update’ this ‘bungalow/cottage home after about 1962.  When we bought it twenty years ago, it was a sea of tired linoleum and formica in the kitchen, some 50’s aluminum windows and layers of linoleum and 50’s/60’s vinyl flooring in the master bath.   Home prices being what they were (and still are in LA even in today’s housing recession), we didn’t have extra cash after slapping down our down payment.  No remodeling for us.  But, paint’s cheap, so I had fun creating our rooms in various ‘decors’ and showing them off as a design consultant on HGTV.  But over the years we did make some bigger changes.  I designed the long add-on room into a home library.  We had decks built, and eventually replaced the aluminum windows and redid the kitchen.

But... back to the master bath. 

It’s a quirky bathroom, consisting of three small rooms. 

The ‘main’ room holds the washer/dryer, has a walk-in closet (which we had built years ago), a built-in vanity and a French door (which we also installed when we first moved in, replacing an old composite 50’s door) which leads out to the garden and pool. 

The second room has a walk-in shower and holds a wonderful old cast iron, claw foot tub that I’ve painted various colors over the years.  Once I even painted a desert scene on the tub (I was in my Sante Fe, Georgia O’Keefe period)… another time I painted it green w/ gilt ivy vines climbing up the tub (my Italian ‘old world’ period) – now it’s painted espresso brown to match the color I painted the old vanity. 

The third room in our ‘en-suite’ bath, is the water closet (WC).

The floor connecting all three rooms was covered in dated and tired vinyl.  Underneath were layers of even more dated and tired vinyl/linoleum.  To remove it all, rebuild the sub floor and put in new, ‘today’ flooring would cost thousands.  So over the years I’ve painted the floor along w/ the tub.  Once w/ splashes of color a la Jackson Pollack, another time those gilt ivy vines and until this most recent redo, a solid gray (the bathroom made many guest star appearances on HGTV’s “Your Home w/ Kitty Bartholomew”).

But no matter what I did, the bathroom still didn’t look ‘polished.’  Finished.  I wanted to really love it.  I wanted to smile when I looked at it.  I wanted it bright and cheerful.  Don’t get me wrong, I did love my funky designs of the past and they brought me a lot of attention… but that was then.   Now I wanted something that would be pleasing not only to us, but to potential buyers in case we wanted to sell. 

Remember I told you we have a kind of bungalow/cottage-y house?  Well, that’s where I decided to go, design-wise.  And, what’s more ‘today’ for that style house?  Wainscoting.  Wide crown molding.  Check out the Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware catalogs and the recent bathroom design books and you’ll know what I mean.  Wainscoting and crown molding are sweeping the nation along w/ those little ‘vintage’ octagon white floor tiles (some w/ decorative black or brown designs and borders).

But, here’s that but, again.  Cost.  Out of work writers don’t have large cash flows, so the floor was out of the question.  But talking w/ my wonderful, fabulous, fantastic painter (who can do anything), he told me he could install the wainscoting and crown molding, paint everything, even the floor w/ my latest “simple” border design (I can’t be on my hands and knees for hours anymore – hell, not even for 5 minutes) for $750.00.  Sold!

Oh, and that two buck lunch?  While carousing around Ikea in search of some brushed nickel accessories (didn’t find anything we liked), we had lunch at the little counter by the check-out.  Two hot dogs, one diet coke and a bag of potato chips:  $2.00.  The hot dogs were all-beef ‘Hebrew National-y’, steamed the way I like them, and the potato chips were Swedish “Original Lantchips, Scandinavian Style” – delicious.

So, a new bathroom:  $752.00 (including lunch).  A new look:  Priceless. 

Here are a few ‘before’ and various ‘after’ shots of our ‘remodeled’ bathroom.

BATHROOM FLOOR - 

Before:

After:

WATER CLOSET -

Before:

After:

THE TUB/SHOWER ROOM - Because of the tub and mirror, we were unable to put in wainscoting, so a chair rail defines the walls instead.

All after shots: 

VANITY - Before:

After:

 

Niche above vanity:

VARIOUS PICTURES OF THE MAIN ROOM w/ WASHER/DRYER, CLOSET & VANITY

Our room w/ a view.  I love our 'new' bathroom.

LAVENDER - (In Chicken?!?!)

LAVENDER

(In Chicken?!)

 

We all know that lavender smells great.  We buy lavender soap, lavender sachets and pillows and, some of us (me), dream of walking through lavender fields in Provence.

But lavender in food?   Who knew?

Dear friends, Stu and Kyle, live in Ojai, California and one of our greatest pleasures is visiting them for dinner and a sleepover.  Ojai is famous for its ‘pink moments’ at sunset,  the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa where I spent a glorious birthday a couple of years ago:

http://mydinnerswithrichard.blogspot.com/2009/10/sleepover-in-ojai.htm

...and its yearly lavender festival.  Kyle has a booth at the festival and one year she asked me to submit designs (I did about three/four watercolors) for the annual Lavender Festival poster contest.  I lost.  Last year I painted a couple of children’s stools w/ a lavender theme to be sold at her booth.  And this year, she’s involved in putting together a lavender cookbook.

Of course, she didn’t ask me to participate. Why would she?  I wouldn't ask me either, when Richard is available.  His assignment if he chose to accept it (he did) was to test a recipe, make comments and advise her if the dish should be included in the cookbook.  He chose stir-fry chicken.   

LAVENDER STIR FRY CHICKEN

Ingredients:

1/2 cup lavender/rosemary oil (see recipe, below) 

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons honey

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed or cut in strips,

5 cups chunked summer vegetables (squash, sweet onion, red peppers, small red potatoes, mushroom caps).

LAVENDER OIL

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil
5 sprigs rosemary
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp. dried culinary lavender buds

Warm in a saucepan for five minutes.  Steep three hours.

Strain, pour into bottle, stir in cool, dry place

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix together oil, lemon and orange juice, and honey and marinate chicken for 3 hours.
2. Place chicken in a saucepan with marinade and cook until browned, stirring constantly. See Richard's comments below.

     3.  Add the vegetables and cook until tender.    

Makes 4 servings

RICHARD’S COMMENTS:

Richard felt the chicken should be seared at high heat, then removed.  Stagger the addition of the veggies – potatoes first since they take a bit longer to cook – then add the chicken again at the end to cook it through… that way, the chicken doesn’t dry out.

And, since he loves lavender, he would up the amount of lavender in the oil.

MY COMMENTS:

Richard made it again w/ his enhancement suggestions.  Lavender in chicken stir fry takes this traditional, easy, healthful dish to a delicious new level.

Did we like it? Whadda ya think?

;o) - Two thumbs up.  This dish should definitely be included in the cookbook.

BEETHOVEN, JANE FONDA & A MARTINI

BEETHOVEN, JANE FONDA & A MARTINI

I love to go out to dinner and a show, or in our case this past Saturday, a show and dinner.

Since it opened on Broadway, Richard’s been waiting to see “33 Variations” a play featuring Beethoven and starring Jane Fonda.  He loves Beethoven.  He relates to Beethoven.  They have the same birthday and, as many of you know, both have ‘hearing loss.’  Over the years we’ve amassed an amazing collection of Beethoven records and dvds, books, busts and paintings displayed throughout our library and on the bookcase in our dining room.  So… when the play came to the Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center (LA’s Lincoln center complex), Richard was thrilled.  I was thrilled for him and looking forward to seeing Jane’s Tony nominated performance.

Just one snag – unless we’re in the first 5 rows, Richard misses too much of the dialogue – which makes the whole theater experience frustrating and a waste of money.  During the show’s limited run, he searched and searched for tickets, but came up empty handed.  Not a ticket was to be had in the first 5 rows and the show was closing over the weekend.  But Richard refused to give up and gave it one last shot.  Voila – two tickets in the 4^th row for the very last Saturday matinee!  Score!

To stay on budget, we decided we’d come home for dinner after the show.  But you know that old saying… “the best laid plans…”

Though the show got decent, but not great, reviews in New York, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.  Jane was very good as a music professor suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease and Zach Grenier (‘The Good Wife’) was excellent as Beethoven.  The play darts back and forth between the present and the past w/ great ease as Fonda’s dying character tries to solve the mystery of why Beethoven spent his dying years working on what are now known as the Diabelli Variations (33 of them!) for a mere 80 ducats.  The set, made up of moveable panels of sheet music, was incredible, and for the record, Ms. Fonda has the perkiest breasts of any woman alive over 70 which she heartbreakingly bared during a scene where she’s being x-rayed and MRI’d.  Weird reference, I know, but it was rather startling and almost took me out of the play which was funny, emotional and poignant.  The applause was thunderous. 

We left the theater exhilarated.  I didn’t want to ‘just go home.’  On the Music Center’s plaza by its ‘dancing waters’ fountain is the Pinot Grill, a wonderful open air, fine-dining restaurant and bar.  It was almost 5:00, the cocktail hour, and a martini seemed just the thing.  We sat at the oval bar and chatted w/ some other theater goers as I sipped my very dry (is there any other kind?) vodka martini w/ two olives.  Richard had a glass of 2008 Mas Carlot, Rhone from France.  My martini was ‘mighty fine,’ though Richard thought the Rhone was just OK.

It was a beautiful evening and as the sun began to set and I finished my drink, I did not want to go home.  So as the Music Center/restaurant’s twinkling lights were turned on, we took a table in the restaurant.  There goes the budget.

I switched to chardonnay and ordered a glass of Napa 2009 Rutherford Ranch.  Buttery w/o being too heavy.  Perfect.  Richard tried the France 2009 Tortoise Creek “Les Oliviers”, Pinot Noir.  He liked it.  We decided to share the beef carpaccio salad made up of thinly sliced beef, capers, quail eggs (they’re so adorable), red onions, crostini olive tapenade (loved every bite) and the ‘Speck & Arugula’ wood oven-fired pizza made w/ Buffalo mozzarella, smoked prosciutto and baby arugula.  To quote my mom, “Divine!”

It was dark when we left sated and happy.  Yes, our budget was in shambles, but our spirits were soaring.  Beethoven and Jane Fonda were worth every ducat.

BURGER BIRTHDAY

BURGER BIRTHDAY

Many of you who have been reading me for a while know I love burgers.  In fact, I’m forever questing for the perfect burger. 

Remember my friend Cindra and our semi-annual birthday lunches often in “in,” chic-chic, celeb & “industry”-riddled restaurants like The Ivy…

http://mydinnerswithrichard.blogspot.com/2010/01/ivy.html

… or Thomas Keller’s Bouchon?

http://mydinnerswithrichard.blogspot.com/2010/09/bouchon-in-beverly-hills.html

Well, Cindra loves burgers as much as I do (neither of us could resist the burgers at Bouchon).  We’ve been comparing notes on burgers for years.  I discovered the drippy, juicy experience of fast food Fat Burgers because of her – she discovered the savory burger w/ special relish at The Village Idiot because of me.

http://mydinnerswithrichard.blogspot.com/2009/08/it-takes-village-to-please-food-idiot.html

So when she suggested she wanted a ‘burger birthday’ lunch, I was all over it like melted cheese on a perfectly grilled, medium-rare patty.  But, where to go for this ‘burger birthday’- that was the question?  For a while, she has wanted me to try the 8 ounce burger at – where else?   8oz Burger Bar on famed Melrose Avenue.  So, the 8oz Burger Bar it was.

The restaurant itself has a pub-y, saloon-y, bar-ish vibe, with some tables outside on the sidewalk.  We ate inside by sliding French doors and, instead of ordering one of the featured shakes, malts or floats (they also have sundaes and banana splits – but this is no malt shoppe), we ordered Bloody Marys (it’s been our tradition to start our b’day lunches w/ a Bloody Mary) – and ‘perused’ the menu which proudly states on its cover:

“Menu items are made in-house utilizing the season’s finest local produce and hormone free, humanely raised meats, reflecting our commitment to quality and sustainability.”

It then went on to list sandwiches which included a short rib grilled cheese sandwich and a tuna melt, and small snacks including mini Kobe corndogs (really, Kobe? – yes, really!) w/ purple mustard, fried olives stuffed w/ chorizo and Buffalo drumettes w/ a blue cheese sauce and celery.  Also on the menu was an arugula & endive salad w/ seasonal citrus, avocado, radish, walnuts and a champagne vinaigrette, an escarole Caesar, and a 8oz iceberg lettuce wedge w/ blue cheese, garlic roasted tomato, balsamic grilled onion, house cured bacon and blue cheese dressing (be still my heart!) – but the ½ pound we wanted was the 8 ounce burger…

But which one?  There was a turkey burger, a Niman Ranch lamb burger, a pork blend burger called “Three Little Pigs” – a veggie burger and a fillet of fish burger – all w/ a variety of delicious sounding toppings... but we wanted a real old-fashioned burger, burger – and that means ground beef.  We decided on the classic 8oz ‘house-blend’ burger that included iceberg lettuce, tomato, white onion and a special sauce.  Cindra had the works w/ melted white cheddar (there are seven cheeses to choose from).  I chose the white cheddar, too, but asked for everything, except the patty and the melted cheese, “on the side.”   I’ve never really understood why one would want anything encumbering the flavors of grilled burger and cheese on a roll, but the special sauce made a nice salad dressing for the lettuce, tomato and onion.

From the sides which included roasted baby broccoli, fried pickles, truffled potato skins and chorizo mac and cheese, we opted for the Kennebec fries.  Kennebec, I discovered is a type of potato.

The potatoes were good – the Bloody Mary wasn’t too spicey (which is how I like them)… but the burger was the best… grilled to a perfect medium rare w/ no skimping on the cheese which oozed like molten lava over the patty.  A very HAPPY BURGER BIRTHDAY! 

8 oz Burger Bar
7661 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90046
323-852-0008
www.8ozburgerbar.com