Meeting Up With Old Friends at Zito's

Zito's Pizza

156 N. Glassell

Orange, CA 92866

I was thinking about something not food related for a change this week. Yes, sometimes my mind does wander, thinking about non-restaurant things, but only rarely. As we were planning our wedding and getting our guest list in order, I realized that I was still in contact with many friends from high school, junior high, and even elementary school (Go Fairmont!). My side of the guest list is dotted with people I would have probably lost touch with if it was not for Facebook. Nowadays, people do not have to wait ten years to see their friends at awkward reunions. You just log on and see what your friends had for dinner, where they went on vacation, and who they are supporting in the next presidential election. I bring all this up because we were going out to dinner with my friend from 5th grade, who messaged me on Facebook that he would be in town. He, of course, left the restaurant planning for me. Since he was going to have his kids with him, I thought pizza made sense. That brought us to Zito's Pizza in Orange.

Zito's is a mini-chain of pizza places spread across the cities of Orange and Anaheim. They have five locations now and a sit-down restaurant in Tustin, in the Enderle Shopping Center. Zito's came about when owner Steve Silverstein lamented the poor quality of pizzas available around OC. So he vowed to make a better pizza than what was available by offering a large pizza with over fifty pieces of pepperoni, a pound of cheese, and house-made sauces. His business strategy must work as we arrived at their Downtown Orange spot and observed a steady stream of customers picking up pizzas and eating them there.

Zito's location is set off the street a bit and right across the way from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. They have plenty of seating here, with a lively patio out front and plenty of seating inside the brick-walled restaurant. Ordering is done at the counter, and the food is brought to you. We grabbed a seat in this restaurant's side room, which got a little loud, with the cramped quarters and the blaring TVs showing what would eventually end up being the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals. The menu at Zito's is pretty much what you would expect. Pizza, pasta, and sandwiches reign supreme here. After ordering, catching up with our old friends, and watching a little hockey, I was ready for some food. Let's see how everything turned out for us on this trip to Zito's Pizza.

We had reached Zito's a few minutes ahead of Rob and Julie and took the liberty of ordering a couple appetizers, the first of which was one of Katie's favorite things to try in a pizza place, the Garlic Knots ($5.99). These knots are dusted with garlic butter and Parmesan cheese and served with a side of marinara. A little on the smaller size, they were a little doughy inside but had a decent crunch on the outer portion. Again, they had just the right amount of garlic and Parmesan cheese. The marinara was fine, but I always like my garlic knots with ranch dressing. Katie liked these but declared that they were still not as good as the ones at Oggi's.

As much as Katie loves garlic knots, I am as much a sucker for sausage rolls. The Stuffed Sausages ($6.99) at Zito's come two to an order, and the sausages and mozzarella cheese are encased in pizza dough, then baked and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. The sausage was well made, and the pizza dough was a great vessel for this appetizer, but there needed to be a bit more mozzarella cheese included and a little less dough for the sausage size. Still a strong starter, though.

Both Julie and Katie wanted to start with salads. Katie selected the Large Caesar ($7.49). This wasn't crazy big, but enough for at least two people to share. The produce was fresh, there was plenty of Parmesan cheese and croutons on here, and I liked that they gave us two sides of dressing because I like a little more dressing than the average person. Not a bad Caesar, for sure. Julie had the Small Dinner Salad ($3.49) to start. This basic salad had greens, pepperoncini, carrots, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese, with packaged salad dressing on the side. It looked good from across the table, and Julie did not complain too much about it, but she would have probably had difficulty getting a word in with Rob there. Sorry big guy.

Rob and Julie's awesome son Ian is not the biggest fan of pizza (weird that a kid would not like pizza), but he seemed very content with this child's portion of Spaghetti ($4.99). This was a very basic spaghetti, with just noodles and marinara sauce. He finished a good amount of this, which enabled us to get dessert later. Good job, Ian. The menu said this comes with a cookie, but we saw no sign of the cookie anywhere.

All four of us adults got our own personal-sized pizzas to try. Let's start with mine, the Zito's Meat Lover's ($8.49). I know; not shocking that this would be mine. It came topped with plenty of ham, bacon, Italian sausage, and pepperoni. I really liked that this pizza was covered with plenty of meat. The cheese spread sporadically, and the sauce was slightly lighter than I would have liked. The dough here is pretty good, but I did not eat much of the thick crust. I'm not much of a crust guy, though. Nevertheless, it was a good version of a meat lovers pizza, filling me up.

Katie likes a little more variety on her pizza, so she had the Zito's Special ($8.99). This pizza came topped with a plethora of toppings, including; olives, bell peppers, sausage, pepperoni, ham, bacon, mushrooms, onion, and mozzarella cheese. She felt this pizza was flavorful and delicious. She liked the light and fluffy crust and would definitely get this pizza again when we came here.

Rob wanted to spice things up at Zito's, so he selected the Spicy Buffalo Chicken Pizza ($8.49). This chicken wing-inspired pie was topped with garlic, cilantro, red onion, mozzarella, and chicken breast coated with a spicy buffalo sauce and blue cheese. Rob liked this pizza but was not in love with it. He felt it had a decent amount of heat, but it did not overwhelm him.

Our last night's pizza belonged to Rob's lovely wife, Julie. She got Zito's Famous Alfredo Pizza ($8.49). This pizza uses Alfredo sauce instead of the usual red sauce. It also came topped with Italian sausage, onions, basil, and mozzarella cheese. From where I was sitting, this looked like the most balanced pizza of the night and the one I would probably get on my next visit. She finished only three slices, but Rob helped her with the fourth one. What a caring guy.

The menu at Zito's claims, "this is the best pizza you will ever taste," and while that is not true for any of us on this night, this is a pretty solid place to chow down on some pretty good pizzas. It reminded me of the pizza parlors we would go to as a kid after my dad's softball games. Independent pizzerias that used plenty of toppings and cheese and woke up my taste buds at an early age. I would not hesitate to return to any of Zito's locations in the future. The service we experienced this night was pretty good, even though we had limited interaction with their employees. They were pretty quick about clearing tables, which was nice since there was almost always a new customer to fill the empty seat. The prices were not exorbitantly high here, and you will leave here pretty full, even if you just have a personal pizza. Zito's was an excellent place to catch up with our old friends, Rob and Julie. Glad technology has helped us keep in touch.

Out of five frozen dinners (because the name Zito comes from the Italian word Zitu, which means young bachelor, and bachelors practically live on frozen meals), five being best to zero being worst, Zito's Pizza gets 3 frozen meals.

For more information on Zito's Pizza, go to their website here: https://www.zitospizza.com/

Checking Out Burger Parlor's New Location - CLOSED

Burger Parlor

204 North Harbor

Fullerton, CA 92832

It's time to let the cat out of the bag. Katie and I have finally decided to take the plunge and get married next year.  So now my world is all about guest lists, color schemes, caterers, and venues. In fact, the wedding venue brought us up to Fullerton on a recent Saturday afternoon. The one place Katie has come back to again and again is a venue in Downtown Fullerton, right on Harbor Boulevard. So we grabbed my parents and checked it out, but we had to grab a bite before. I knew instantly where I wanted to go, Burger Parlor, which just happened to be within a block of the venue.

If you are a keen reader of this blog, you know that we have been to Burger Parlor before. That was back in 2011 when they were sharing restaurant space with Rialto Cafe, just around the corner from Burger Parlor's new digs. They have been in this new permanent spot for two years, and we have finally returned to see if the burgers are as good as we remember.

Burger Parlor comes to us from Chef Joseph Mahon. For those who do not know his story, he is a classically trained chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. While there, he worked at many big names, such as New York City restaurants. After graduating, he spent time working in France and then returned back to New York. He later found himself on the West Coast, working as Executive Chef at LA's infamous Bastide restaurant. Bastide is where his concept for Burger Parlor came from. They held Burger Mondays during his tenure there, and they were such a rousing success that he knew he had to do something with the iconic burger. Lucky for all of OC, he opened his burger restaurant near where he grew up. I was very excited to see the new place.

This new place is much bigger than his old spot at Rialto Cafe. We arrived at just about 4:30 on a recent Saturday afternoon, and there was a steady stream of people wandering in from outside, even at this early dinner hour. The space is much more open, with high ceilings, fantastic brick walls, and several large, flat-screen TVs showing the Stanley Cup Finals. The speakers in the restaurant definitely worked, as the indie music was on a tad too high, but it helped drown out some of my corny jokes, so I'm sure my parents and Katie appreciated that. Ordering is done at the counter, and the food is brought to you. Let's see if this would be as good as our first trip here.

We could start with the Bride to Be's burger, The Danish Blue ($8.95). Katie selected this burger with Danish blue cheese, grilled mushrooms, caramelized onions, oven-roasted tomato, and arugula. Katie liked the contrasts of this burger. She got the tang from the blue cheese, the onion's sweetness, and the hormone-free beef's tremendous meaty flavor. This burger was juicy, and the blue cheese was mild enough to not overpower it. She would definitely get this burger again.

My mom is a burger purist, which was on full display with her choice of burger that night. The Parlor Burger ($7.95) is their basic version of a cheeseburger here. American cheese, lettuce, caramelized onion, roasted tomato, and secret sauce top this. Again, the patty was very juicy, there was just the right amount of secret sauce used here, and the bun was sturdy enough to stand up to the moistness of the meat. My mom was pleased with this burger.

My dad got a little more adventurous with his burger after getting the Kali ($9.99). This California-inspired burger came topped with crushed avocado, smoked bacon, provolone cheese, peppers, onions, arugula, and a chipotle aioli. He liked this burger but felt there needed to be more avocado on it. It did look good from across the table.

Man, I debated what burger to get here longer than it takes some people to pick out what kind of car to buy. I finally settled on the Smoked Bacon Royal ($13.79). This burger appeared to be right up my alley. It starts with four pieces of bacon wrapped around the patty, then is topped with American cheese, caramelized onions, roughly chopped pickles, and bacon aioli. Just like when I ate the one-pound 100 percent bacon burger at Slater's 50/50, this burger overwhelmed me. The first few bites were pure bacon bliss, but as I got further along, the bacon became too much. I'm not a big fan of pickles, but I was happy some were here just to cancel out some of the bacon. If you are an extreme bacon fanatic, this burger is for you. On my next visit here, I will try a different burger, though.

Of course, we had to have some sides to go along with these burgers, so the first of our two sides was these Onion Rings ($3.95). Their menu states that these rings are hand-dipped and beer-battered to order, and I have no reason to doubt based on how they taste. These were some perfect onion rings. The beer batter provided a nice, crunchy outer coating with an excellent casing for the sweet onion. Less greasy than I thought, these are necessary when going to Burger Parlor.

These DTF Fries are worth ordering at Burger Parlor ($4.25). I will probably get stoned for this, but I'm not a big fan of the animal fries at In N Out. (I'm also not really into their burgers, but that is a story for another day.) These DTF fries are their version of animal fries, except they are good. These fries are topped with secret sauce, cheese, and onions, like their In N Out counterparts, but then chili is added to the mix here, making these almost irresistible. The chili was very well-made and meaty, with just a touch of spice. The fries, for the most part, all stayed crisp until the last one was plucked from the bowl. You could tell that the fries were fresh and not frozen. While everyone was eating the onion rings, I was stealing extra bites of these fries.

We had about twenty minutes until our appointment to see our potential wedding venue, so we had time to get dessert. My mom is a Chocolate Shake ($3.99) connoisseur, and she gave this one her seal of approval. The shake was nice and thick and made with Thrifty brand ice cream. It is also used at Farrell's, so you know it's good. The chocolate was not overpowering, which made me think they made this with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. Either way, it was good. I'm a giant brownie sundae fan, so I had to have it when I saw the Brownie Daze ($6.75) on the menu. Two scoops of vanilla ice cream, with hot fudge, caramel sauce, brownie bites, chocolate chips, whipped cream, and a cherry to top it off with made-up this sundae. I was surprised that it was served in a plastic cup, but I suspect there was some sort of mix-up because it took a really long time for us to receive our desserts. The sundae was still good, with a decent ratio of ice cream to other toppings, which is crucial to me when eating ice cream desserts. A perfect end to our time at Burger Parlor.

Even though my burger overwhelmed me, I still enjoyed this trip to Burger Parlor. Seeing how this place has evolved from such humble beginnings at Rialto Cafe is excellent. There are now 13 burgers to choose from, not counting specials that appear from time to time. They also have other sandwiches and salads for the non-burger-eating public (all six of you). I liked the vibe of this place as well. It had a relaxed vibe to it without being too hipster. The service we experienced that night was good, even with the bit of snafu with the desserts taking ten minutes to come out to the table. The guy at the register was knowledgeable about the menu, and the food runners ensured we had everything we needed. The prices here are high, but you are paying for the quality ingredients they use to create these delicious burgers. Glad we came here first before looking at the wedding venue because it gave me an idea of where to eat before the big day coming next year.

Out of five red hats (because the social organization, the Red Hat Society, was started by a Fullerton resident), five being best to zero being worst, Burger Parlor gets 3.5 red hats.

For more information about Burger Parlor, go to their website here: http://www.burgerparlor.com/

Flashing Brilliance at Selanne Steak

Selanne Steak Tavern

1464 South Coast Highway

Laguna Beach, CA 92651

Writing this post is pretty bittersweet. As I'm starting to write this, the LA Kings are about to win their second Stanley Cup in the last three years. In this day and age in sports, that almost constitutes a dynasty. My beloved Anaheim Ducks were sent packing in a great seven game series with the Kings about a month ago. The end of that series, also meant the end of the line for the greatest player to ever lace up the skates for the Ducks, Teemu Selanne. He had announced this was going to be his last season, and he would be retiring. Lucky for all of us in OC, his legacy will live on with the opening of his steak restaurant in Laguna Beach. Would it live up to the high standards he has set on and off the ice? We will soon find out.

When Katie asked me where I would like to go for my birthday dinner, there was only one place we both had in mind, Selanne Steak Tavern. Opened in the old French 75 spot, this restaurant has been winning rave reviews from just about everyone that has eaten here. Not just relying on name recognition alone, Selanne's is co-owned by Teemu's neighbor, Kevin Pratt, who along with Teemu has put together a great culinary team at this restaurant. Manning the kitchen is Chef Joshua Severson, formerly of St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point. He's created a menu that is of course heavy on steak options, but also since this restaurant is close to the beach, it also features some seafood offerings for non-steak eaters. Also of note is the Pastry Chef here, Heather Fisher, who has gotten some notice for her fantastic desserts. I was eagerly awaiting our dinner here.

Katie had made reservations for 5PM on a recent Sunday. Selanne Steak is only open for dinner, starting at that time. When we had walked in the door, there was already a good amount of people around the small bar area, and hovering around the hostess stand, waiting to be seated. I had never been to French 75 when it was here, but from what I have heard, this restaurant is much more vibrant and lighter than its predecessor. There are four different areas of this restaurant, which was built as a single family home in the 30's; the bar area, private wine rooms, the main dining room, and the popular patio in the front of the restaurant. We were seated next to the bar, which was a great place for us, so we could watch the hockey game from our table. From this vantage point, Selanne Steak seemed to be beach elegant, but not overly stuffy. The restaurant is not overly decorated with a plethora of Selanne memorabilia. There is one case entering the tavern area which houses a replica Stanley Cup and his numerous Olympic medals, including the one he won at this years Olympics in Sochi. It was now time to see if the food here at Selanne Steak would take the gold.

As is the custom here on our blog, we always like to take a shot of the bread basket, and this one was pretty unique at Selanne's. It had a lot of varieties of bread in it. Katie was partial to the pretzel bread, while I really enjoyed these more traditional rolls. Wish they had asked if we wanted more, but maybe they saw the way we scarfed these down, and wanted to save more for the other guests.

None of the appetizers on the menu really caught our eye, so we both went for salads to start. Katie selected the salad that I would usually order, the Prosciutto Caesar ($12). As soon as this hit the table, we both knew this wasn't your average, run of the mill Caesar salad. This one of course included hearts of romaine, Parmesan cheese, and croutons, but it also featured a black garlic aioli, smoked prosciutto, and white anchovy. Not only was this presentation wonderful, but this salad won the praises of Katie as well. There were equal parts of salty and peppery notes in this salad, there was ample dressing, and the produce was exceptionally fresh. The only drawback to this salad, was that it required a lot of cutting, to help get it into bite size pieces, but other than that, it was great.

When I don't order a Caesar, I usually end up with a Wedge ($12), like I did on this night. Again, the presentation here required a lot of cutting, but I liked the look of this salad. This wedge had all of the components of a typical wedge salad, but they made it their own by tweaking little things. They used baby iceberg, instead of the typical quartered iceberg, they used heirloom tomatoes, instead of diced ones, and this salad included a bacon foam, along with some bacon bits. The salad was then finished off with a great dressing made from Point Reyes blue cheese. This salad had a lot of smokiness to it, from the bacon bits and the well made bacon foam. There were not too many tomatoes on here, but they got just the right amount of dressing on here. A very well done wedge.

It's funny, when we were driving to Selanne's Steak, Katie had mentioned maybe trying one of their fish dishes, or going with the chicken. As soon as she asked the waitress for her recommendation, Katie was all about this Beef Short Rib ($34). This ten ounce, Brandt Farms short rib was served with a white polenta and a Gouda fondue. The meat on this plate was as tender as could be, with a great flavor to it from the mild Gouda fondue and the natural juiciness of the beef. This was the perfect size for Katie, as she did not feel overly stuffed by finishing this. The polenta kind of had a cheesy grits kind of feel to it, which worked well here. I could tell it was pretty hard for Katie to share even a few bites of this with me, as she wanted it all to herself.

If I had a quarter for every time that I pulled out my phone and showed someone a picture of this Ribeye ($46), I would have enough quarters for this one and another one. This 14 ounce ribeye was probably one of the best ones I have ever had. Now even two weeks later, I still find myself marveling at it. I always love the flavor of ribeye, but usually there's so much fat on them. This was not the case with this one. Very good beef to fat ratio, and the chef's truffle butter and borelaise negated the need for any extra sauces. It was cooked to my desired medium rare, and was rendered almost fork tender. Good sized, and I could tell this was a prime cut of beef. It was served simply with a mushroom of some sort and a single pearl onion, so the ribeye could be the star of this plate. Simply amazing, and worth the price.

Not to ruin the suspense for the rest of this review, but the Selannes Mac and Cheese ($13) was the only minor misstep of our evening. Not that it was bad, but we just expected a little more. It's made with Rustichella d'Abruzzo pasta, which I learned is a brand of pasta that has been around since 1924, and is known for it's denser and superior texture. We had no problem with the elbow shaped pasta here, which stood up very well to the five cheese fondue and bread crumbs. I just expected a little more pop from the cheese sauce, which had a good creaminess to it, but was kind of boring after the first bite. I'd probably go with a potato side or maybe the risotto on my next visit.

We decided to splurge with two desserts on this night, the first of which was Katie's choice, Pie in a Jar ($10). I learned it's very hard to take a decent picture of desserts in jars. Sorry, I did not get a good shot from the side, as I was preoccupied by my dessert. This jar was filled with mixed berries, rhubarb, vanilla bean ice cream, and a brown sugar streusel. I'm not really a fresh berry lover, but Katie enjoyed this dessert very much. She liked that it was not overly sweet, there was plenty of ice cream, and the berries were farmers market fresh.

Pastry Chef Heather Fisher knocked this dessert out of the park, and it's definitely worth having three pictures here. This Monkey Bread ($12) could be the best dessert we have had in a long time. For those of you that do not know what monkey bread is, it's little balls of sticky buns rolled in butter, cinnamon, and sugar, then stuck together. At Selanne's it's then topped with caramel pecans, banana ice cream, a caramel sauce, and then garnished with caramelized bananas. Wow, just like it pained Katie to share bites of her short rib, I was very greedy with this dessert. It was that good. The banana did not come through as much as I would have liked in the ice cream, but the rest of this dessert was great. The monkey bread portion was nicely baked, the caramel sauce was not overly sweet, and the bananas almost fooled me into thinking this dessert was good for me. I am actually considering coming back here for just this dessert sometime, it was just that good.

If you have made it to the end of this review, and have not made a reservation to go to Selanne Steak and Tavern yet, go do it now. Having this restaurant in our own backyard is a real blessing. The little touches that they have made here, as well as the food is definitely worth your time. They even had mints and a thank you card placed inside our car when it was brought from the valet. I'd expect nothing less from a restaurant that has Teemu's name on it. There are just a few things here that would make this restaurant even better. When you make a reservation, they should ask where you would prefer to sit. We were in the louder bar area, which is fine for us because we wanted to watch the game, but I could see how some people would rather sit in a the quieter dining room. It worked out fine for us, but I can see how this might rub some people the wrong way. Also, they could have had a few more chicken or pasta options on the menu, but I get it, this is a steak focused restaurant, and these are some great steaks at Selanne's. The service we encountered on this night was very cordial and relaxed. The staff was right on top of everything, the busboys were some of the hardest working ones we have seen in a long time. Eating at Selanne Steak Tavern has even softened the blow of the Kings eventually winning this years Stanley Cup (almost).

Out of five race cars, (because Teemu is a big auto racing fan), five being best to zero being worst, Selanne Steak Tavern gets 4.5 race cars.

For more information about Selanne Steak Tavern, go to their website here: http://www.selannesteaktavern.com/