Burger Parlor Expands to Orange - CLOSED

Burger Parlor

149 N. Glassell St. 

Orange, CA 92866

The Plaza, (not the Circle I have learned), has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to restaurants all of a sudden. They have had stalwarts like Haven Gastropub, Gabbi's, Taco Adobe, and Bruxie for a long while now. Then the next wave of spots opened up, Linx, Smoqued, and Pizza Press have set up shop in this area that used to be dominated by antique shops, rather than places to eat. Now there appears to be a third wave hitting this historical district that has been used as a backdrop for a ton of movies and TV shows. The new Watson's, The Pie Hole, and Burger Parlor have opened up in the last few months.

When my parents asked me where they could take me for my birthday, without hesitation, I said they could take Katie and me to the new Burger Parlor in Orange. This is our fourth visit to Burger Parlor, as we first tried them out when they were renting space at Rialto Cafe in Fullerton, and then we made two more visits when they finally moved into their own space, again in Fullerton. You can read about those visits here and here.

Now open in Orange since early April, it seems like they haven't lost a step in their new digs. They have a four and a half star rating with just under a hundred reviews doled out on Yelp. Glowing reviews and accolades are nothing new to Joseph Mahon and his team at Burger Parlor. They have been named best shakes in OC by KCBS Channel 2, they were written up in numerous magazines; Westways, Locale, and Sunset Magazine. They've also gotten glowing reviews from the OC Register, OC Weekly, and the LA Times.

To be truthful, I'm kind of enthralled with Chef/Owner Joseph Mahon's story. He graduated from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and quickly started working in a pretty impressive list of restaurants. He then hightailed it to the south of France to hone his craft even more. After leaving France there were more restaurants to conquer in NYC, and then perhaps missing his native California, he found himself working in some great LA restaurants, all the while moving up the ranks in kitchens, to where he was in charge.

Being the Executive Chef at critically acclaimed, Bastide would in a roundabout way lead him back to his hometown of Fullerton, and opening Burger Parlor. At Bastide he came up with Burger Mondays, and it was such a hit, he decided he was going to shed his fine-dining job and open a burger joint, which would eventually turn into Burger Parlor. I was just hoping that with the addition of a second Burger Parlor location that the quality of my first visit was not going to dip. Let's see what we thought of this new Burger Parlor.

We started things off with two sides, the first of which were these Onion Rings ($4.29). The menu says these are hand-dipped and made to order, and they taste like it. The beer batter breading is lighter than expected and actually clings to the onion ring, which is what I want from onion rings. These circular onions are made even better when dipped into their very well done ranch dressing. Excellent rings.

At first glance, these Plaza Fries ($7.95) resemble the weak animal style fries from In-N-Out, but they are so much better. Also known as the DTF Fries at Burger Parlor's Downtown Fullerton location, these freshly cut fries are topped with plenty of their secret sauce, which is reminiscent of a thousand island, cheese, caramelized onions, and chili. It defies science, but the fries stay crisp, even under the weight of the toppings here. The chili is meaty, but kind of devoid of a spiciness, which would bring this up a notch or two in my book. I really liked the sweetness from the onion, which contrasted nicely with the saltiness of the rest of this. I'd get this again for sure.

Not the most photogenic of burgers, but my dad did not have one complaint about this Danish Blue Burger ($9.29). Caramelized onion, mushrooms, Danish blue cheese, oven-roasted tomato, and arugula was sandwiched between these two sturdy buns. Big flavors on this one. The blue cheese was pretty pungent on this evening and worked well with everything else here. The beef was still prevalent, and I got the sense that this burger did not need to be overstuffed with toppings to be enjoyable.

My mom only took down half of this Crispy Chicken Sandwich ($8.89). Not because she didn't like it, she did, but it was much too big for her smaller appetite. This chicken had a nice crunchy outer crust, with tender white meat chicken inside. It was topped with American cheese, bacon, mayo, and tomato. I really enjoyed the bite I had, but if I'm coming to Burger Parlor, I'm more than likely getting a burger here.

And what a burger I had. Behold the impressive Frito Chili Cheese Burger ($11.49). Their hormone-free beef patty is smothered in chili and cheese sauce, and then topped with chili cheese Frito's and jalapenos. This is definitely a knife and fork burger, and it's even served in a metal bowl. I enjoyed this burger immensely. I'm very anti eating burgers with a knife and fork, but it had to be done here because they did not skimp on the toppings on this one. The chili was the same one used on the fries, and it was solid, but helped out more on this with the addition of the jalapenos. The Frito's added a nice crunch element here but were kind of lost in all of this. A messy burger, but well worth it.

Katie rounded out our time at Burger Parlor with this enormous Tuna Melt ($8.29). Served in a large lobster roll, this was stuffed with their house-made tuna salad, lettuce, Roma tomatoes, and she substituted Swiss cheese instead of the cheddar this usually comes with. Highlights of this sandwich for Katie included the toasted lobster roll, the plentiful Swiss cheese melted on top of this, and the fresh tuna inside. She even claims this might be her go-to item when coming back to Burger Parlor.

I can not hide my excitement that Burger Parlor has moved even closer to me, (okay it's really only twenty or so minutes, but with rush hour traffic that could almost be an hour). This visit to their new Orange location has shown that they have not lost their consistency and reconfirmed that they are one of the top burger restaurants in OC. In fact, since others always ask me, I'll put them in my top three OC spots, along with The Counter and G Burger. Of course, there's always a new burger coming down the pipe, so these rankings are of course subject to change. Burger Parlor has a great feel to it, the food is wonderful, and we experienced great service this evening. With Burger Parlor added to the mix, this might the greatest wave of new restaurants to hit the Plaza in Orange. Time will tell.

Out of five stethoscopes, (because the three largest employers in the city of Orange are all hospitals, UCI, St. Joseph's, and CHOC, and of course these house many stethoscopes hung around doctors necks), five being best to zero being worst, Burger Parlor gets 3.5 stethoscopes.

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

Hitting Bricks Before Heading Home

Bricks

23820 Lyons Ave. 

Santa Clarita, CA 91321

We had it all set up that we would wake up early, leave the hotel we were staying at, and head to a brunch spot we had heard good things about in Los Feliz. Of course, those plans did not materialize. After a late night of drinking and catching up with family, we slept in until right about checkout time. There was a hurried rush to gather our things, as housekeeping waited patiently to clean our room. Still a little groggy, and in need of some sustenance before our hour and a half drive back to OC, we did a quick Yelp search of brunch spots around us, and arrived at Bricks.

Bricks was a short five-minute drive from our hotel, and the perfect spot to get Katie some coffee, and me some much-needed food to help counteract the rum from the night before. Located in an old-style Taco Bell, Bricks has gotten a lot of love for their burgers, fries, and shakes, and in four short years has become known as a burger destination. They have a solid four-star rating on Yelp, with over 700 reviews. Pretty impressive.

We arrived here at just before noon on a recent Sunday. There's a register with an order window, but we were directed to a table, and our order was taken by a waiter. There's plenty of patio seating out front, but on this rather warm day, we chose to sit in the more climate controlled inside portion of the restaurant. A steady stream of customers followed us, but I'd never say the restaurant was packed.

Bricks have their specials neatly displayed on a huge blackboard above their register, flanked by two flat screens that were turned to sports. The two-paged brunch menu has plenty of egg options for you, and for people that enjoy sweeter brunch items, they got you covered as well. We made our selections and waited for the food that we hoped would be able to keep us content for our long car ride home.

Man, I had a tough time making a decision here, but finally went with their Pulled Pork and Chorizo Hash ($12). This brightly colored plate came with a hash made up of tender pulled pork, chorizo, onions, red pepper, and potato, and was then topped with two poached eggs and served with toast points. I really enjoyed this. The meats were prominent, the eggs were done perfectly so that when punctured, the yolk would spill out over the rest of the plate, and the toast was a great vessel for adding texture. Yes, I would have liked a little more spice included here, but a good first meal of the day.

Katie ordered the Breakfast Sliders ($11) as her selection on this morning. These came three to an order and were supposed to come with two eggs, but they were not included here. After being alerted to that fact, they brought them out separately, so Katie did a little assembly and ended up liking these sausage patties and egg sliders. This was a good quality sausage, which was spiced well, and the buns were not only visually appealing, but they were baked well also. If they use the same bakery for their hamburger buns as these sliders, I'd be pretty excited to try the burgers at Brick. The menu made no mention of fries being included with this dish, but we really enjoyed these skinny fries, which were made even better when dipped in the provided ranch.

At brunch I'm always one to mix sweet and savory, so we needed something to satisfy our sweet requirement, so we got this Brioche French Toast ($11). Beautifully plated and very tasty, this was a good plate of french toast, which was topped with mascarpone, mixed berries, and a dusting of powdered sugar. I'm not a big fruit guy, so I favored the maple syrup to sweeten these up, which definitely did the trick. The french toast had a good crunch to it but could have been a little more flavorful on its own. I'm trying their breakfast Monte Cristo which come with peanut butter, marshmallow, banana, Nutella, and a Nutella ice cream on my next trip here. Sounds awesome.

For not being on our original itinerary on this trip, Bricks was a solid option for brunch. Would it have been better than our original destination? Not sure about that until we go, but having something in our stomachs on the way back down to OC was exactly what we needed. There's more I'd like to try at Bricks, including one of their 19 varieties of burgers, which all sound so good. Brunch was good, even if the service was a little on the spotty side. We were not the only table that had issues with food missing from items, but they rectified things quickly. All in all, a very good unscheduled visit, and we'll look forward to coming back when we are up this way.

Out of five lassos, (because every spring, the Cowboy Festival invades Santa Clarita, and you can be sure that where there are cowboys, there will also be lassos), five being best to zero being worst, Bricks gets 3 lassos.

For more information about Bricks, head over to their website here: https://www.bricksnewhall.com/

Delightful Donuts in Westwood - CLOSED

Stan's Donuts

10948 Weyburn Ave. 

Los Angeles, CA 90024

It has pretty much become a tradition that when we are headed up this way to visit Katie's extended family, we stop for donuts on the way. Why donuts you ask? First off my mom taught me to never show up at someone's house empty-handed, and even though Katie and I have been together for over seven years, I still want to impress her crazy family. Secondly, one of my favorites of all her cousins, Gabi, is donut fiend. We bonded over our favorites the first time we met each other, so this is kind of an ode to her.

On our way up to Valencia or Burbank, there's some pretty good donut shops that run alongside the freeways, so they are convenient to pick up and continue our trek up into the valley. We have picked up donuts from Randy's near LAX, the Donut Man in Glendora, and now Stan's Donuts in Westwood, right near UCLA.

Stan's is kind of a big deal to Katie's family because one of their heroes visited here. Back in 2005 Huell Howser famously visited this tiny Westwood donut shop, and he even has a donut named after him, but we'll get to that a little later. Stan Berman, a third-generation Russian baker opened up this corner shop back in 1963 and has been selling tons of donuts to hungry college students, celebrities, and tourists ever since. The donuts are so popular that they now have even expanded with six locations open in Chicago.

Back in LA though, we only have one spot to get Stan's donuts, and that's in Westwood, where they share a tiny space with Flame Broiler at the corner of Weyburn and Broxton. They will ship you donuts, but at a steep price. A regular dozen goes for $32.50, while the more popular gourmet donuts go for $40 a dozen, and this does not include shipping. Pretty pricey, but are they worth it? Let's check out what we ordered.

A little overwhelmed by the number of choices, we ordered two of Stan's Samplers, which include 5 gourmet donuts,  4 jellies, bars, or twists, and 4 regular donuts for $29.50. Yes, we spent nearly $60 on 26 donuts. We might have a problem. This was a good representation of the donuts available at Stan's though. Someone actually counted all the varieties that they have here daily and came up with 72 different kinds.

Of course, I did not sample each of these donuts, as they were mainly for everyone at the party, but people were pretty excited by these, and if I do say so myself, they were definitely a hit. I liked that there were different varieties than what you can usually get at your corner donut shop. They offer plenty of jelly-filled offerings, lots with blueberry, including a very solid blueberry fritter. The apple cinnamon log was also a big hit, but I had my sights set on one particular donut and kept it for myself before the party.

Behold the most famous of all the donuts that Stan's makes, The Huell. Named of course after Huell Howser, who claimed that this was his favorite donut, and even did a whole episode of his TV show, "California's Gold" from Stan's proclaiming his love of this Peanut Butter Pocket. Yes, peanut butter filled doughnut, which is then dipped in a generous amount of chocolate and sprinkled with chocolate chips. Pretty amazing, and a definite must if you love peanut butter and chocolate like I do. This donut is definitely worthy of all the hype surrounding it, and even writing this review has got my mouth watering.

After having the donuts from Stan's, I am going to claim that these are the best donuts I have had in Southern California so far, and they only trail the ones I had at Doughnut Plant in New York in my all-time ranking. It's going to be pretty hard-driving up the 405 and not stopping by Stan's for their fresh, hand made non-greasy donuts. Besides the Huell, I also tried bites of others, and they were all pretty stellar. Thanks for making me the hero of the party Stan's. We will definitely be back.

Out of five bruins, (not only because this is the mascot of nearby UCLA, but also because it's almost unbearable to be without these donuts), five being best to zero being worst, Stan's donuts get 4 bruins.

For more information about Stan's Donuts, visit their website here: http://www.stansdoughnuts.com/index.html

Meeting Up With Fat Sal

Fat Sal's

972 Gayley Ave. 

Los Angeles, CA 90024

There are some restaurants that I'm pretty sure would seal my doom if they were located closer to me. As much as I would love to eat my way through all of the sandwiches on the Fat Sal's menu, I'm pretty happy that there's 60 miles between me and another four to six-inch increase in my waist size.

For those of you that are not aware of what a fat sandwich is, it's basically a sandwich stuffed with things you would not expect to see between bread. Arguably started at the famous RU Hungry? a food truck at Rutgers University, these items can include french fries, chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, fried eggs, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and more.

Fat Sal's has been around for six years now. Owned by three friends from the East Coast, including Jerry Ferrara, who played Turtle on Entourage. They lamented the fact that they could not find great sandwiches that they wanted to eat in LA, like the ones they have on the East Coast. So they opened up this spot in Westwood Village, right near UCLA, and in the shadows of the Fox Theater. They brought a little stability to this location, which had quite a bit of turnover in the past. Part of the turnaround is probably due to the fact that Guy Fieri visited here on Diner, Drive-In's and Dives, but I've also heard some great things about the sandwiches, and their pictures on Instagram are definitely drool-worthy.

We arrived in Westwood at lunchtime on a recent Saturday. I was a little nervous that it was going to be packed, and there were a lot of people here, but the line moved pretty quickly. I was even more anxiety-ridden about what to order. I had it narrowed down to about six different sandwiches to try but finally settled on one. Seating here can be a little bit tricky. They have some bar stools along the rail inside the restaurant, but for busier times you may have to have one person stand outside the rail and eat standing up, as I did. Our number was called rather quickly, so let's see what we thought of Fat Sal's.

I was really curious as to what Katie would order at Fat Sal's. I thought she might actually get one of their regular sub sandwiches, one of their wraps, or maybe even a salad. Yes, they actually do offer those, but she went with the rather tame Fat Joey ($9.99). Besides the french fries in this, it was basically a variation of a Reuben, or if you want to get technical a Rachel. It came with pastrami, turkey, Swiss cheese, coleslaw, and Russian dressing. Katie felt a little skittish coming here because she thought the sandwiches were going to be gut bombs, but she found this to be well balanced, she loved the crusty bread, and she liked the Boar's Head meat they used here. She would not hesitate to get this sandwich again.

Predictably, I went a little crazier at Fat Sal's with this Fat Jerry ($9.99). Cheesesteak, french fries, mozzarella sticks, fried egg, bacon, ketchup, mayo, and chicken fingers all on a hero roll. This was a delicious and manageable sandwich. I should have taken a picture of the length of the sandwich, but I'd say it was about ten inches, and smaller in girth than I had imagined it would be. Even with all of this in here, the hero roll kept its integrity and kept the contents of the sandwich wrapped tightly inside. Each bite provided a different flavor from one of the ingredients of the sandwich. Surprisingly this was not a heavy or greasy sandwich at all. It could have been made even better with the egg cooked a little less to provide for a runny yolk, and the chicken fingers were not too prominent, but a very solid sandwich nonetheless.

There are 11 different kinds of fries you can get at Fat Sal's, and we went with the Chili Cheese Fries ($6.99). These fries were topped with both mozzarella and cheddar cheese and a thin, but flavorful chili. I enjoyed this version of this classic side dish. The french fries were your basic fast-food fries, but the addition of the mozzarella really helped these out. The chili had a good flavor to it, without too much spice present. We'd probably get a little more daring on our next visit here by getting the pepperoni pizza fries, buffalo chicken cheese fries, or the bacon cheeseburger fries.  All sound like winners to me.

We left Fat Sal's very satisfied, but not overly stuffed like I thought we would. Even though these sandwiches and fries seem over the top, they are easy to handle and did not leave us overly full the rest of the day. We will be back on future trips up this way to try more from their menu. Service was good on this visit, as they took our order promptly and got the food out in a timely manner, even though it was peak lunchtime. Not the most comfortable place, especially with the lack of seating, but a lot of people seem to get their stuff to go. I'm glad there's a 60-mile buffer between me and Fat Sal's, but I'm looking forward to my next visit.

Out of five battleships, (because owner Jerry Ferrara was in the 2012 movie Battleship), five being best to zero being worst, Fat Sal's gets 3.5 battleships.

Fat Sal's has a website, but it appears to be down or something, so for more information, head to their Yelp page for more information. https://fatsalsdeli.com/