Rock Bottom Brewery

Prior to going to hear Kate Clinton, a very funny comedienne, four of us decided we would eat in Long Beach where she was performing. First we thought we would find a place at Shoreline Village which isn’t far from the convention center but, as so often happens in LA, especially on the 405, the traffic delayed us quite a bit. We found the Rock Bottom Brewery directly across the street from the convention center and decided that would be a good place to go - and it was.

I didn’t realize until today that this was a chain and that they have a restaurant in Milwaukee but this is the only one in the LA area. Although they brew their own beer, none of us imbibed but instead drank sodas and ice tea which were fine. BJ and I each ordered the Brew Burger with cheese and we had the fries. We could have had their homemade chips but they were made with vinegar, not pleasant for us. We also could have had fruit or brewery slaw but, being the health nuts that we are, we chose the fries. The hamburgers were very large on a very nice bun (remember I like soft buns and this one was perfect). It came with lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions on the side. The burgers were very juicy and delicious. The one complaint was that they were not done as we ordered. BJ ordered hers medium well and it was cooked medium and I ordered mine medium and it was definitely medium rare which actually is OK for me. If you go there and get a burger, order it more well-done than you would like and it will be perfect. The fries were seasoned and tasted very salty but they weren’t greasy at all. BJ had a side of BBQ sauce and she liked it and said it was a tangy sauce rather than a sweet one.

M ordered a Rueben sandwich. She said that she realized if you want an authentic Rueben, you need to go to a deli. She liked the bread and the sandwich was OK but not like you would get at Jerry’s. She didn’t care for the seasoning on the fries. BK had Classic Mac and Chicken. That came with a side Caesar that had real Parmesan cheese sliced on the top but seemed to be too light on the dressing. Although she liked her dish, she felt it could have been called pasta and chicken with a little cheese. She had expected true mac and cheese with chicken added but she liked the meal.

We were all very full and mostly satisfied. We opted out for dessert. Our server was pretty good as was the food. I would go there again and again get a hamburger although they have many other interesting items on the menu. The prices are in the upper medium range – our burgers cost about $9, the Rueben was about $10 and the mac and chicken was about $13. The Rock Bottom Brewery is at One Pine Avenue directly across from the Long Beach Convention Center.

Magnolia Grille and Casa di Giorgio

BK’s sister, CA, who lives in Milwaukee, had suggested I write a review of a restaurant that we went to while we were there, Casa di Giorgio, one that we all enjoyed. I would love to do that but I can’t remember it. I do remember going there and that one friend was late and that my oldest daughter came with us but I have no recollection of what I ate. However, CA has reminded me that it has “good food, service & reasonable prices.” BK remembers having a very good steak. If any of the other people who were there could remember what we ate and give me some more hints so I can remember, I would appreciate it.

I would love people to write even very short messages on this blog about where they have eaten. Wouldn’t it be great to have many reviews from all over the country? However, I have yet to figure out how to get people I don’t know to read this so I just post it on Facebook and hope there might be some ripple effect. If anyone knows how to do this on Blogger, I would love that information.

I write these blogs very soon after the experience because I want it fresh in my mind (never mind my forgetting the whole thing). After water exercise today, we went to the Magnolia Grille, 10530 Magnolia Blvd., in North Hollywood. This is a neighborhood type place and they also bake their own bakery. The first big plus was the Diet Coke. Not only did it cost $1.50, but they brought a good sized carafe of soda to the table so we never had to wait to get more to drink. As you know from my previous posts, this is very important to me.

We were waited on promptly, served the drinks quickly, our orders taken as soon as we were ready and the food delivered in a proper amount of time. We each ordered a cup of chicken tortilla soup and then we shared a hamburger with fruit. The soup was wonderful, although not like a tortilla soup one might have imagined. It had a chicken broth base that was completely devoid of grease, was filled with white meat of chicken, some white cheese, corn, tortilla strips and a slight bit of cilentro. It was thick with ingrediants with no tomato or any real Mexican spices and I loved it as did BK. Our hamburger was a normal burger, good but nothing spectacular. The fruit was fresh and sweet. The wonderful thing was that they split the hamburger and the fruit for us and charged nothing extra. We were very satified with our meal.

We have been here a few times before, mostly for breakfast where there is a choice of freshly baked breads instead of toast – banana and zuchinni are two I saw there today. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Again, if you are in the eastern North Hollywood, western Burbank area, I would recommend the Magnolia Grille.

Studio Café

Studio Café, also known to me as Jinky’s East, has one of the same problems as the original Jinky’s – lack of parking. That didn’t bother me when I lived in Sherman Oaks because we always walked there. After we moved, one of our many moves during that time, we found ourselves rarely going there because of parking. We would park in Ralphs parking lot and hope nobody would notice. Studio Café is closer to our home but it isn’t within my walking distance. They have a parking lot which is taken over for valet parking and cost $2 even during off hours. This is another of my pet peeves – restaurants with large parking lots that still have a valet. I then refuse to park there and find parking on the street. Today we were lucky as we found a space right around the corner. By the way, the parking lot had maybe 4 cars in it.

We were immediately seated and received our usual Diet Cokes while we looked over the menu. We decided to get a hamburger with sweet potato fries and a bowl of chicken vegetable soup. Since the hamburger was ½ pound, we decided to split it but I wanted sweet potato fries and B doesn’t care for them. She ordered the bowl of soup. The waiter brought everything at the same time which was fine with B and he also brought two plates without us having to ask. I did have to request a refill on my soda. The soup was excellent with many vegetables and chicken in what looked like fat free broth. There was also garlic toast as a side with the soup. The hamburger was served on a fresh wheat bun and was perfectly done as we had asked – medium. It comes plain with purple onion, a slice of tomato, lettuce, jalapeño, and pickles on the side. I like tomato and pickle on my half and Bonnie asked for and received Dijon mustard and pickles on her half. Both of us declared that this was again a wonderful hamburger. The sweet potato fries were excellent, not at all greasy.

I wonder if others have noticed that hamburgers seem to be much better than they used to be. Is that because they are making them so much bigger? Is it because they are using better meat? There was a Kobe burger but we chose the plain burger. I can’t remember exactly what the burger cost but it wasn’t cheap. Again, wouldn’t it be nice if they had a ¼ pound burger at half the price? Our bill came to something over $24 without the tip, a little high I think for soup, a hamburger, fries and two sodas. I did, however, bring home about half the fries.

I think I have been going to some very good restaurants and had some very good meals lately. I like that. Studio Café is on the corner of Colfax and Ventura in Studio City.