Offbeat Eats

Our first morning in Marin County, Carol and I were hungry for breakfast, so I took a quick look at the internet (with Yelp being based in SF, there’s no shortage of reviews for places in the Bay Area), and found one place that had a very strong following just down the way from our hotel: Fred’s Coffee Shop in Sausalito. Heading down to Sausalito, Fred’s was pretty easy to find, it’s right on the road into town, well before you hit heavy traffic. So we grabbed an easy parking space and headed in. Three things were immediately apparent upon entering Fred’s: (1) This is definitely a popular place for both tourists and locals, (2) service was a bit slow. Everyone had that “we’ve been waiting too long” look on their faces, and (3) The grill guy was obviously good, and had quite an impressive array of good looking dishes going on the grill…

(Closed) Sometimes you just want a burger. Anyone that’s followed my Flickr feed knows that I have a weakness for a good hamburger. Indeed, I’ve got an entire set on Flickr dedicated to disproving a former coworker’s comment that “a burger is just a burger.” So, any time I’m traveling, I like to try out some of the local burger places, be it a chain (indeed, I can make claim having eaten at Fatburger, Habit, In-N-Out, and Five Guys all in the same 24 hour period) or an honest one-off burger stand. So, while Carol and I were wandering around before my friend Steve’s wedding, we found ourselves in Mill Valley needing a fairly fast lunch…

(Closed) My college roommate Steve lives in San Francisco in the Mission District. Just down the way from his house is a cool restaurant called Spork, made out of a renovated former Kentucky Fried Chicken (get the joke?). Both Steve and his wife Emily have said good things about Spork, so I was happy that I finally had a chance to try them out as part of the activities for Steve’s bachelor party…

Lancaster is filled with little Mexican mom and pop places, and something about Taqueria Pepe El Toro jumped out at me when I was grabbing some items at the Home Depot across the way. So I decided to check it out. First thing I saw on the menu was Tacos Al Pastor. I always love Tacos Al Pastor. It’s my favorite type of taco, with nice seared bit of seasoned pork. Taqueria Pepe el Toro did not disappoint, these tacos were quite good, and both of the sides (rice and beans) were good quality as well.

(Closed) It’s not often that I’m tempted to write a second entry for a place, but when I reviewed The Pines Cafe in Palmdale, CA back in December, I ended my review with “I need to come back.” Indeed, several people had told me that when I got my “Loco Hominy Quicky” breakfast, I had missed two better items on the menu: the Chicken Fried Steak, and the pancakes. I’m happy to report that I’ve since been back to the Pines, multiple times (I’m in Palmdale for several weeks for business), so I’ve had a chance to much more fully explore the menu.

Anyone that knows me knows that I love hot dogs. I’ve made it a point to seek out iconic hot dogs at places such as Blackie’s in CT, Lafayette Coney Island in Detroit, various Chicago spots, Ted’s in Buffalo (and Arizona), as well as any number of additional places. One noticeable omission in my reviews has been Pink’s in Los Angeles. I’ve been here before, but not in many years. But, with a late night flight arrival, I had an opportunity to visit on the way out to Edwards AFB.

(Closed) Every since I started going to Edwards AFB regularly several years ago, this place has been on my to-do list. Several people on Chowhound raved about it. Several area guides recommend it. And the place is photogenic to boot. But every other time I’ve come to the area, I’ve had to be out at Edwards early enough that I couldn’t do breakfast. But finally, on my 5th trip out here, I had a chance to go here for breakfast. And I’m glad I did.

Today’s breakfast was at Cajun Kitchen in Santa Barbara. Cajun isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Santa Barbara, but this place has enough diversity that I’m not particularly surprised that this place made the top of several people’s recommendation for a good breakfast joint (including my brother the Secret Service agent and several folks over at Chowhound.com). I rather enjoyed Cajun Kitchen. It’s set up as your basic breakfast joint/coffee shop, with a counter for people like me that are eating by themselves.

Driving from LA to Palmdale, my coworker Tony wanted to stop and grab a bite in Santa Clarita. He originally wanted Subway, but I talked him into the In-N-Out burger instead, which he had never had before. Myself, I’ve been to In-N-Out burger more times than I can count, but, oddly, I haven’t written it up here yet…

As part of a project at work, I travel fairly regularly (at least 4 times a year) to Edwards Air Force Base, which involves at least 7 hours of flying, usually arrive late at night and leaving late in the morning (since the return flight is usually a red-eye). So, we’ve come up with a tradition that every trip out there, we stop at Roscoe’s House of Chicken n’ Waffles, either as a way of restoring our spirits after a day of flying, or as a way of preparing ourselves for an upcoming red-eye flight (since it’s basically dinner and breakfast at the same time) Roscoe’s itself is an institution. Unless you’ve either been to Harlem, or been to Roscoe’s before, most people haven’t run into the particular combination of fried chicken and waffles served at the same time.