A Day at the Office

Just a couple more details about the trip to Los Angeles. I had heard of this place, Father's Office, in Santa Monica, that was supposed to be home to one of the best burgers in the nation. It is a very small, unassuming looking place that is known to have a line of people waiting to get in to eat. I headed over one evening after class around 6 pm and was able to get a seat pretty quickly. This is great because Father's Office only has open seating, i.e. first come first served, and as such there are lots of people standing inside waiting for a table even after they waited to get inside. Anyway, I went for the Office Burger and some sweet potato fries. I am known from time to time to speak hyperbolically, but I really mean it, these were the best burger and fries I have ever tasted. The burger was a revelation, juicier than a burger has a right to be, featuring perfectly complimentary flavors of arugula, bacon, blue cheese, and what I imagine is several different cuts of beef. The fries were great too, the right combination of crunch and potatoey goodness served with a blue cheese aioli. If you've never had sweet potato fries before you've got to give them a try. Again, I was too self-conscious to bust out my camera in the middle of a hip restaurant, but just like with Pizzeria Mozza, there are some really great pictures and videos here.

On the last day of my trip our class got done early so I spent some time driving around in the mountains on Mulholland Drive. It was really beautiful, LA is unique in that it is one of the only cities in the world bisected by mountains. Anyway here are a couple of the better pictures I took from Runyon Canyon Park.

The last night I checked into a hotel closer to LAX so I hit a couple of places that I had heard about (yes, I ate two dinners). First was Santouka Ramen (click for pics, not mine), located in a Japanese supermarket food court in Venice. I had always wanted to try the real food that those cheap, MSG-laden noodle soups that I ate as a college student were based on. I wasn't disappointed, I got the shio ramen with chashu, basically salt ramen with pork. The broth, made from pork bones, would be enough to bring me back, but the beautiful slices of fatty pork were the real star of the show. My second dinner was Tito's Tacos, a LA landmark and very popular place to stand in line for cheap tacos. The food was good, but I'll remember it more for being my last meal in LA and for the friendly Angelenos I talked to that night.


Ok, back to regular scheduled programming. I promise.