Refueling at Dick Church’s on Race Day

 Dick Church's

2698 Newport Blvd. 

Costa Mesa, CA 92627

We were fresh off our second 5k of the year and needed some nourishment after we had probably burned ten calories by leisurely walking 3 miles at the OC Fairgrounds. My sister, brother-in-law, and one of my nieces joined us for this race. After we collected our participation medals and gulped down some water, they left it up to me to find a place to get breakfast. I suggested the nearby Dick Church's

This was my first time ever at Dick Church's, which is incredible since I lived nearby for over ten years and because this place has been open for business since 1972. Even before that, this location has been a couple of different restaurants since 1948, which makes it one of the oldest continuously operating restaurant locations in OC. 

Dick Church's sits at the corner of Fair Drive and Newport Boulevard, across the freeway from the OC Fairgrounds. It could best be described as a diner with vintage decor, which attracts a wide range of clientele. The wood paneling, orange upholstered furniture, and brightly colored walls bring to mind what I always wanted for my game room while growing up. 

The breakfast and lunch menus at Dick's are pretty straightforward. Egg dishes, griddle items, and breakfast faves are available for people who enjoy the day's first meal. The lunch portion of the menu features sandwiches, salads, burgers, and small plates. Nothing on these menus is over $20, with most items hovering around the $15 mark. The dinner menu is a bit more extensive, with salmon, bacon-wrapped meatloaf, and steak available at just over $20. 

When we arrived at Dick Church's at half past nine, we were met with about a ten-minute wait for a table, which was not too bad. We were seated in the roomy booth at the front of the restaurant, with a window looking out onto their makeshift front patio. Our server was friendly, taking our drink order and coming back promptly to see what we wanted for our meals. So let's see if Dick's was a good choice for our post-race meal. 

My sister is not the biggest fan of breakfast foods, or maybe she was just trying to be a trendy millennial by getting this Avocado Toast ($11). The toasted sourdough was smeared with plenty of avocados mixed with garlic and perched atop some arugula and pickled red onion on the side. She enjoyed this tremendously. I have never really gotten the fascination with avocado toast. Yes, it's okay, but it's not over-the-top fantastic, and its upcharge is unreal. Maybe 20 cents to half a dollar for the bread, avocados are going for $2 in the markets, and the rest is profit. No wonder almost all restaurants have this on their menus. They make a killing on it. 

Katie, of course, loves breakfast, and she selected the Westside Scramble ($15). Two scrambled eggs with bell peppers, bacon, ham, and sausage, then finished with a sprinkling of cheddar cheese. The plate was rounded out by some hash browns and her preferred choice of toast for breakfast, rye bread. She felt this was a very well-done classic breakfast plate. She liked the crispiness of the hashbrowns and the unique marbled rye bread option. 

People love a Monte Cristo ($14), and my brother-in-law Jarrod can be added to that list. This sandwich comprises two slices of french toast with ham, melted swiss cheese, and fresh preserves. The only problem was that they were out of their fresh preserves, so Jarrod had to settle for packets of Welch's strawberry jam. He enjoyed this sandwich nonetheless, as it had plenty of ham and cheese, and the french toast added to the richness of this sandwich. He splurged for the $1 upcharge to get sweet potato fries instead of regular fries. Monte Cristos are disappearing from menus across OC, so if you are a fan of this sandwich, bookmark this place as another spot where you can get this sandwich. 

My niece Kaylie is not the world's biggest eater, but maybe she needed to refuel after our race. She selected this French Toast Combo ($14) to do just that. Two slices of french toast dusted with powdered sugar, two scrambled eggs, and two strips of bacon made up this plate. She ate most of this, and I was strategically seated beside her to sample what she did not finish. I found the french toast to be pretty good but heavy. The bacon was nice and crisp. A well-deserved breakfast plate after walking three miles. 

When eating breakfast, I like to have a savory and sweet part to my first meal of the day. It's almost impossible to take a bad picture of Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs ($18). The beef was nicely breaded and topped with a slightly chunky and delicious sausage gravy. It was just tender enough and paired well with the breakfast potatoes. The Short Stack of Chocolate Chip Pancakes ($9) satisfied my sweetness requirement for breakfast. It might not look like it, but a good amount of chocolate chips were included here. I liked these pancakes better than the french toast, but I'm always more partial to pancakes over french toast. 

We all left here very satisfied. No, this is not a destination-worthy breakfast spot, but if you are in the area and craving breakfast, it's worth your consideration to visit  Dick Church's. The food was good, with the chicken fried steak and the Monte Cristo as highlights, and everything else was solid. However, what might have been even better than what we consumed here was the service we experienced. Our server was friendly and on top of things, even though she was pretty busy with numerous tables. I'm glad I finally made it to Dick Church's after all these years, and now it's off to our next race.  

Out of five Plinko chips (because the same year this restaurant opened up, 1972, was also the year that The Price is Right premiered, and probably the most popular game on that show is Plinko), five being best to zero being worst, Dick Church's gets 3 Plinko chips. 

For more information about Dick Church's, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.dickchurchs.com/

Burger Time at Cassell's in Downtown LA - CLOSED

 Cassell's

421 West 8th Street

Los Angeles, CA 90014

It was another wild Saturday night up in Burbank with Katie's family. Since we knew it would be a late night, we were lucky enough to snag a hotel room, so we didn't have to drive back to OC at a late hour. It also gave us a chance to wake up fresh for the long trip back to OC. Not wanting to let this opportunity go to waste, it was also a chance for me to cross another LA restaurant off of my restaurant wishlist. I knew just the place, the fabled Cassell's. 

Cassell's made my list because it's pretty legendary. It's been around since 1948, with only a brief closure of two years between 2012 and 2014. Al Cassell opened his lunch counter at the corner of 6th and Berendo, serving up what many people called the best burger in LA at the time. He ground his beef daily, used quality ingredients, and made as much from scratch as possible, including his mayo, potato salad, and pies. After 40-plus years in business, Al sold, and his place stayed open for a while but ultimately closed. 

Enter Chef Partner Christian Page and Jingbo Lou, an architect who had recently bought and begun renovating the Normandie Hotel, a mere five blocks from the original Cassell's. Lou felt this hamburger concept would be perfect for the ground floor of his hotel project. Chef Page had worked at Short Order at the Original Farmer's Market. Page and Lou felt protective of Cassell's concept because they bought all the old recipes, retained the signage, and even kept the old meat grinder from the original location. 

People must really enjoy the revamped Cassell's. They have four-star ratings on Yelp and added another location, the one we visited, in Downtown LA near the corner of Olive and 8th. It's a bi-level restaurant with a fifties vibe going for it but without the over-the-top kitsch of a Ruby's or Johnny Rockets. The menu is expanded with burgers, melts, sandwiches, sides, desserts, and even breakfast offered. Even though he was mistaken, our good friend Ed found his way to meet us and went first to the Hotel Normandie location. So, let's see if Cassell's is still one of the best burgers in LA. 

Katie is definitely a breakfast person, which is funny because she's asleep almost all the hours when breakfast is served. She's lucky that Cassell's serves breakfast all day, so she could try this Breakfast Burger ($16.50 plus $2.50 for bacon). This unique burger had two crispy hashbrown patties substituted for the bun, with a fried egg, some avocado, and cheddar cheese blanketing the hamburger patty. I'm still determining how most people eat this, but Katie mashed it up and ate it with a fork. It would be too messy to be eaten with your hands. Nevertheless, she enjoyed this and thought it would be greasier than it actually was. 

Part one of my meal at Cassell's was this Patty Melt and Fries ($17 plus $3.25 for the fries). As you can see from the picture above, this was the best-looking patty melt I've had. It was cooked perfectly to a nice medium rare, and the outer layer of the patty had some nice caramelization going on with it. The Swiss cheese was nice and melty, and the caramelized onions added sweetness. The toasted rye bread was sturdy and had a great crunch to it. A classic patty melt and one of the best I've had in a long while. The fries were good but needed more seasoning to make them more enjoyable. 

I also ordered this 1/3 Pound Cheeseburger and Macaroni Salad ($15.50 plus $3.25 for the Mac Salad) for research purposes. The burger was like a smash burger, with its crispy outer crust and more substantial middle area. The lettuce, tomato, and onion, along with the condiments, are served on the side. I really enjoyed the way the cheddar cheese melted over the patty. I suspect it was Tillamook cheese, but I could be mistaken. This burger came with a very well-made Thousand Island dressing, but I should have experimented with the other seven sauces they offer. Again, it was a very clean and tasty burger, but the bun-to-meat ratio was a little off. The bun overwhelmed in most bites. The macaroni salad was good, with a thick mayo-based dressing covering the macaroni and some diced red peppers and olives. I should have gotten the potato salad, which seems more popular online. 

As you can tell from the above, Ed is much more health-conscious than Katie and I are. He went with the Chicken Sando ($13.25) and a Market Salad ($10). At Cassell's, they use Naked Truth organic chicken breast and add cheddar cheese, plenty of lettuce, tomato, and ranch to complete the sandwich. Ed's not one to express his views on food, but he enjoyed his sandwich. His salad contained mixed greens, celery, cherry tomatoes, onion, and ranch dressing. A basic but fresh salad. 

I had read somewhere that Cassell's had some pretty good pie baked daily on the premises, so we all split a slice of Apple Pie Ala Mode ($9.50). They used the traditional granny smith apples mixed with cinnamon sugar and a caramel streusel sprinkled on top. The pie was good, but I liked the one from Pie 'N Burger better. This one was way better than the one we had at The Apple Pan a few years ago. They also get bonus points for serving Fosselman's ice cream.   

The folks behind Cassell's revival have done things right. I got the sense that they have taken great care in preserving the heritage of what Al Cassell had built. The quality of the food and the way they make things from scratch while expanding their menu to cater to the tastes of the modern consumer is reason enough to visit. I'm sure a good number of you are looking at their prices and thinking they are way too high, as I was walking out of here $72 poorer. Still, this is a great place to get one of the best patty melts in LA and a nice treat when you just got paid. 

Out of five speeding tickets (because 1948 was not only the year that Cassell's opened, but also when Porsche was founded, and I'm sure drivers of those sportscars have gotten their share of speeding tickets), five being best to zero being worst, Cassell's gets 3.5 speeding tickets. 

For more information about Cassell's, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.cassellshamburgers.com/