Fortunately, that isn't true. Although many places these days won't serve a rare hamburger, some will make them as rare as you want, and there are enough of them so that it's not terribly hard to find (at least in the cities I know).
I had thought there were recent laws against rare hamburgers in most places here in the US, but if there are, either they are widely ignored or there are ways around them.
And - to bring the discussion back around to San Francisco - I have had no difficulty getting rare meat, including hamburgers, there. In fact, SF and Berkeley are the only places I know in the US where the tendency is not to overcook meats.
Marc Dionne
I had thought that also about some states. It is not that way here in the Washington DC area. One of the states that has such a law, NC surprised me last week when I got a hamburger as rare as I wanted it. They explained to me that the law pertained only to restaurants that used frozen hamburgers. By using fresh, never frozen meat that were exempt.
"Marc Dionne" in news:080820041638599563% snipped-for-privacy@stanford.edu...
First, I would be grateful for email at your convenience (remove obvious antispam letters from address) with recommendations of restaurants for this in the cities named. (Berkeley is my hometown, but I have not lived there for some years and do not know the restaurants alluded to.)
Second, I have spent some time looking at food around various of the United States (the majority of them, anyway) and so far found the most flexible "hamburger culture" in New Orleans, Louisiana. Check that out if you have the chance. Good hamburger places there grind the meat fresh, and ordering it cooked "rare" is a local custom. Among late-night and all-night eateries there (some of which form a lively "secondary" restaurant market serving the many restaurant and hospitality employees and musicians getting off work at midnight or 2AM or later) are some highly regarded fresh-hamburger places, while others (not sure if 24-hours) let you have your choice of meat cuts, e.g., "strip steak" (US term) or even filet if you prefer.
-- Max
Yes, it might well appear that LA is getting more than its share of the spotlight, deserved, or not. Actually, my related restaurant horror stories related to dining in the Phoenix area. Others, that I have cited here, have been in New Orleans and Honolulu - each cities where I enjoy dining very much, and very often.
I think that the main reason for the proliferation of LA restaurant problems is the OP's experience being centered in Laguna. Had it been Chicago, I'll bet that you would have seen a ton of "yeah, I had one of those bad experiences there too - must be the Commodity Markets... "
Yes, some eateries in LA area do have an attitude problem, but I've found this to be true all over the world. I assume that some critic said they were the best, and they believed their own headlines. These places usually do not last that long, because of the volitility of the "it's tony today," group of diners. They will be on to the next hot joint in a week, and if the restaurant doesn't server good food, with good service, it soon disappears, regardless of how much hoopla they received on opening weekend.
Hunt
I think it was a motel restaurant in NC (I was driving across the country when this occurred, so I might be remembering wrong) where I ordered a *very* rare hamburger and got one very well done. I sent it back and got it replaced by another very well done hamburger. I tried again, and got a third very well done hamburger. When I complained to the waitress the third time, she told me the law prohibited serving rare hamburger.
Why didn't she tell me that when I first ordered? I would have ordered something else. By this time it was late and I was falling asleep, so I just went to bed hungry.
I have had that law quoted to me in NC also. I have also met people from NC that are really happy to find a rare burger here in DC. Two weeks ago I visited a restaurant in Wilmington, NC, called Red Robin that has the subtitle, Gourmet Burgers. I ordered it medium rare thinking it was going to be well done. It was rare and I was happy. They explained the fresh meat vs frozen law.
Dale,
My apologies, you're correct.
I was quoting the at-the-vineyard price, which always seem to be full retail.
Regards, Dean
Hmmm. That's interesting, Dean, and I certainly don't claim to be an expert on what Dale would or would not like. FWIW, your impression of the Garretson stable are a bit different from my own. Here are my notes from a visit there late last year:
Powerful, yes; big, too. But, I didn't really get the ripeness and alcohol that you did: vintage variation? or perhaps the winery was cooler when I was there than we you were? Who knows?
I didn't know about the pricing, but like you did buy a few wines (all white IIRC). While I like their Syrahs, it's hard to justify buying them at twice the price of Graillot's Crozes-Hermitages...
Mark Lipton
Well, their Grenache was over 16%, and the Syrah I bought was 14%. The Grenache was almost port-like in concentration, but had enough acidity to keep it from flabbiness.
Agreed. I only bought 3, all reds. Well, one was an intense rose. My wife accompanied me to the tasting, and as she is primarily a red drinker it's hard to justify spending a lot for a bottle she probably won't enjoy, especially when she's with me!
I was there just 2 weeks ago, and I think all the whites were gone. In fact, the woman who managed the tasting room said that she would probably move to appointment-only soon because they only had a few cases of wine left. I believe their total production is under a 1000 cases.
Dean
Sorry to re-open a dead thread, but we ate at the aforementioned restaurant, French 75 in Laguna Beach this evening. Given the previous conversation here, I was listening for what the waiter said when he described the specials: "We have two entree specials this evening, they -are- premium priced. They are..." We didn't inquire about the price, but the next table did, and he was happy to tell them. My wife did have one of the specials (an angus beef filet topped with foie gras, and it was splendid) and it was $42.
BTW, this guy was pretty knowledgeable about his wine. We had the same half-bottle of Sancerre that Dale had with our appetizers, and a half-bottle of Ch du Pape with the entrees. He was very responsive to questions about both wines.
Larry Coon University of California
Thanks for update. I forwarded my complaint (and a thread at Robin Garr's page) to the restaurant, while I didn't get a response maybe they at least made a choice to note when specials were priced above menu. The big question , though, was 2000 "Beaucastel" still listed for $15/glass? Dale
Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply
I'm sorry, I didn't even think to look. We'd decided on two half bottles, one for the appetizers and the other for the entrees, and I didn't do a lot of looking beyond that.
Larry Coon University of California
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