Father's Office.

So for years I have been hearing about the "Best Burger" East Coast/West Coast battles. Those rivalries extend past rappers, and into food you know. And since then I have also been on my own quest for the best burger ever. It's hard to decide what exactly makes a burger the best, and even then my tastes will differ from the next. All I know is I want some medium cooked juicy hamburger, some amazing toppings, and the satisfaction that I must have this again soon. I got that last night with Melissa at Father's Office. Let me share it with you.

Santa Monica Location
1018 Montana Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 736-2224

We started off with some beers. Father's Office has a at any given time at least 35 awesome craftsman beers on tap, Melissa go the Maredsous 10.

I had an Old Speckled Hen. It was nice and light, and heavenly creamy.

One of the main problems of Father's Office that I've heard and the main reason (besides laziness) that I've stayed away is the crowd partnered with the Soup Nazi style of ordering. This isn't the kind of place you would want to go on a first or second date to, in fact let's keep this place for something more along the lines of a 6th or more date.

You wait outside in an astonishingly long line, only to be slowly trickled in by the doorman into a tiny hole in the wall sized room, lined with tables, with a bar at the far end. Mozy up to the bar and wait to place your order, and don't even worry about finding a place to sit yet. Grab a beer, and just wait.

FO's is famous for its burger envisioned by Sang Yoon, a self proclaimed "chef and a beer sommelier", and what we both ordered. It comes stacked high with arugula, soft tender onions caramelized in bacon, and a blend of melted blue and gruyere cheeses piled on big burger cooked to order (anything cooked longer than medium is blaspheme.) on a soft roll. For a bit more add an order of shoestring fries with parsley garlic aioli. Don't even think about substituting anything because, well, you can't. It comes as is.

After we ordered, it only took about 5 minutes to find a place to sit, and another 10 to get our burgers despite the large crowd on a Thursday night. My burger was cooked medium, juicy and AMAZING. I'm usually a burger purist and just dig meat on some bread with light condiments, but wowee was this burger worth it. The onions were quite possibly the best thing I've ever tasted on a burger, ever. The fries were thin, crispy and tasty with the aforementioned parsley garlic aioli, which tasted like fancy ranch. I think what made Melissa the most happy is, you will not find a drop of ketchup in this place, so don't even bother to ask.

The Father's Office burger definitely ranks up there in my top 10 burgers of all time, and I will be enjoying another one very soon.

The Arsenal

One of my most awesome friends, Danielle, was in town this weekend and we went out to get a drink at one of our old haunts, The Arsenal, in West LA on Pico Blvd.

We used to visit this place pretty regularly when we all (Danielle, Michelle, Andrea and myself) lived in LA. Here is some proof from the Facebook Photo vault, from 2006.

Yes, that is me with PLATINUM BLONDE hair at age 25.

Anyway, don't mind the digression, hands down, The Arsenal has THE BEST KEY LIME PIE MARTINI in the history of the world.

I can make outrageous claims like this, because after I tried theirs, I would order them at all other bars, hoping to have the same delicious flavor of the first at the Arsenal, to no avail.

Yes! It does look creamy, refreshing and delicious! Yes! That IS a graham cracker crust rim! YES! This martini is LESS THAN $10! It's made with Licor 43, lime juice and whipped cream.

Here's another pic from the vault, Michelle enjoying some chardonnay (some things never change, eh Meeshy?), and me, Key Lime Pie Martini in hand.

Danielle, on this fine evening couldn't decide between a margarita, or a Pom-tini, so when we saw the Pomegranarita on the menu, well, you can only imagine the glee.

I also had worked ALL DAY, and was pretty much starving, so I ordered some bar food. I went with the least greasy and fattening choice as possible seeing as it was like, 11:00pm.

Their guacamole, for not being a Mexican restaurant, was surprisingly good, and their chips were light and crispy. Not the BEST I've ever had, but I would order them again.

All in all the reunion was a good one, and we had a very lovely time, laughing and reminiscing about the time when we were younger, and crazier, and didn't get tired after 2 drinks.

Red Velvet Tea Cakes!

OMG! Melissa brought me this while I was at work!


LOOK HOW TINY! Omg! One of the things I miss most about living in the South is Red Velvet! But I'm glad it's gaining popularity out here! These lil treats are from Jamaicas Cake's in West LA! Go there cuz Jamaica is SO SWEET and SO NICE and they have the best treats!