Pour Company
136 West Wilshire Ave.
Fullerton, CA 92832
I made a pretty big mistake over a ten-day period. It was a good week of eating out, and as usual, I had my camera along with me to document each meal. I was hoping that I'd be able to share my restaurant experiences with all of you, good or bad to see if you should spend your well-earned money at a spot or, find somewhere else to eat. It was all going along great until I realized that I had left the memory card out of my camera. I had lost 5 restaurant visits and had only taken a few sporadic pictures with my phone.
One of those places was Pour Company in Fullerton. We had visited my dad in the hospital on Katie's birthday, and after making sure he was doing okay, we treated ourselves to this little hidden gem in Downtown Fullerton. That first visit was excellent, but with just a few camera phone pictures, I did not have enough to write about it. So, two weeks later I asked my parents to meet me there for a lunch, and they were plenty eager enough to give it a try and spend some good quality time with their firstborn and favorite child.
When Katie and I had arrived for my first visit, it was near 8 on a Thursday evening and the inside of the restaurant had a few patrons, but the partially covered back patio was much more lively with a good mix of music being played and a good number of the tables and bar seats occupied. The lunch my parents and I had was way more subdued. Maybe it was due to the gloomy and rather chilly weather, the fact that they had just recently opened for lunch on weekdays, or that we had chosen to sit inside the restaurant on this visit.
Pour Company passed the one year mark last month, which is a big milestone for a restaurant. As their wordplay name suggests, they offer plenty in the way of cocktails and craft beers, but since I was driving all the way back down to South OC, I decided to focus more on their food. I know big surprise.
I kind of get the feeling that even though Pour Company has been around for a year, they are still tweaking some things. Our server told us that they are trying to make things easier by having just one menu throughout the day. The lunch menu we were handed when I was with my parents was a very pared down version of the menu Katie and I were presented with for dinner. That menu had plenty in the way of starters, bowls, sandwiches, entrees, and dessert. The lunch menu had less than half the starters listed, some handheld options available, and no dessert or entrees. Who could blame them for this, their kitchen, which you can catch a glimpse of going to or from the patio, is really tiny. Let's see what came out of this small kitchen for us on these two visits.
When Katie and I were here for her birthday, we started out with the Pretzel Bites ($13). Pretzels have never really been a snack food that I've really been a fan of. Most of them I feel are too dry and bready, and don't even get me started about the store bought bags available on grocery store shelves. I was not really excited when Katie popped up with her desire to get these, but it was her birthday, so I relented. You know what? They were not too bad. They were nice and soft, with a little flavor boost from the sea salt topping them. These came with spicy mustard and a beer cheese sauce. The beer cheese sauce was the choice here. It went wonderfully with these. I'm asking for double cheese sauce next time we get these.
The burger parade rolls on with the Burger of the Month offering that my Dad tried with a gentle arm twisting from our server. The burger was the southern inspired Fried Pickle Burger. This burger came with of course fried pickles, two patties, pimento cheese, and a ranch slaw. My dad inhaled this burger, not coming up for air until it was completely gone. He did resort to eating this with a knife and fork, so a few style points have to be taken away from him for that. The fried pickles, which are listed on their dinner appetizer menu were excellent and made me want to order them the next time we visit. Thumbs up from the big guy with this burger.
My mom was really having a tough time choosing what to have here for lunch. She had her heart set on the avocado toast, which is listed on their menu online, but it was absent, along with a lot of other options on the scaled down lunch menu we were presented with. She finally decided on the Spicy Chicken Sandwich ($14) after being assured that it was not going to be too spicy. This ended up being a very good chicken sandwich. The breading was light and crunchy, the chicken underneath was one of the most tender that I've had, and the cayenne marinade added just the right touch of heat so it did not overwhelm. I also need to mention the fries, which came out hot and were seasoned really well with salt and herbs. They rounded out our meals wonderfully.
The dessert I had with my parents was this Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich ($10). I'm not exactly sure what kind of cookie they used here. It kind of had the flavor of a chocolate chip oatmeal, but don't quote me on that. The ice cream in the middle was vanilla and the top of the cookie was streaked with caramel. This was good, but kind of fell flat. I had wished that the cookie was heated a bit, which would have made it a little less hard to eat. What you should really focus on is the next item.
The much better dessert option at Pour Company is something that would fit right in at the OC Fairgrounds, the Cinnamon Roll Ice Cream Sandwich ($10). The cinnamon roll was nicely heated and tasted exactly like the cinnamon rolls at the OC Fari, which are my favorites. It featured plenty of cinnamon, some of it crystalized, so it's a little crunchy. Those are my favorite bites. I'm not usually a fan of coffee flavored ice cream, but it was fine here. The real star is the cinnamon roll.
After leaving Pour Company on my two visits, I was really pumped up to share with you all about the food I experienced there. Not only did I find one of my top 4 burgers in OC, everything else we had was pretty stellar as well. It has made me intrigued to come back and try their entrees, like their fish and chips, Hawaiian pork ribs, and shrimp and grits. Brunch is also on my list to try, as soon as I have another weekend day off from work. Pour Company is situated in Downtown Fullerton, but it doesn't really have that over the top, slightly rowdy feeling that the restaurants and bars closer to Commonwealth Avenue has. It still feels like a little hidden gem which hasn't been fully discovered by a lot of people yet. After eating this burger, I have a feeling that's about to change. I'm actually kind of glad I screwed up by leaving my camera memory card at home, as it allowed me a return visit. The first of many.
Out of five bags of rice, (since Katie and I got married right across the street at the Villa del Sol, and it's common for people to throw rice at weddings, except at ours), five being best to zero being worst, Pour Company gets 4 bags of rice.
For more information about Pour Company, head to their website here: https://www.pourcompany.com/#home-3-section
Might have to try it.
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