Fatburger

364 days ago, Elizabeth and our friend Tracie went downtown for a concert - Jenny Lewis at the Orpheum. The next night I was having a couple beers with my friend Bryce, one of the best friends I have made in my adult life, and he was asking if Elizabeth would be coming out. 

"Probably not," I said. "She was at a concert downtown last night and didn't get back until after 1."

"What concert," he asked.

"Jenny Lewis."

"No way, Amy and I were there."

About a month ago, Elizabeth and I were trying to decide if we wanted to get tickets to see Regina Spektor at the Greek Theater. In the end we decided not to; I don't have the energy for midweek concerts that I did years ago, and I knew it would be the same night as game 1 of the World Series, and I had a better feeling that the Angels would be in the World Series this year than I have in years.

I was thinking about Bryce and his wife, Amy, on Monday night. Amy was due to give birth to their first child on November 9th and for some reason I thought to myself 'Wow, she could really have the baby any day now; I bet it will be sooner than the 9th.' So it was with very little surprise the next day that I got a text from Bryce about 11:30 in the morning reading "I'm a dad now." I responded with the only text appropriate for the occasion ("Damn, does that mean you're going to miss the Lakers season opener tonight?") and went on with my day.

A couple hours later I got another text from Bryce, mentioning that he had great tickets to see Regina Spektor that he obviously wouldn't be using now. I laughed and called him. "We were thinking about going but decided not to, but I will take them now," I said. "How much are they?" 

"They are on the baby," he said.

Even better.

So last night Elizabeth and I headed over to Los Feliz. We considered going somewhere a little on the fancy side for dinner, but in the end Fatburger sounded great to us. I wrote about Fatburger once before; I absolutely love it. I took better pictures this time and had something I've never ordered before, so I'm writing about it again.

This Fatburger, on Vermont, just south of Hollywood, is one of the smallest ones I have been to. It reminded me of the first time I ever ate at Fatburger, when I was still in high school, at the now-gone location on La Cienega. There was nobody in line when we walked in and we were able to order immediately. (5 minutes later there were ten people in line.)

Elizabeth ordered the Fatburger with everything. For the last decade I have only eaten one thing at Fatburger - the turkey burger. It's probably my favorite turkey burger around. But they also have a spicy chicken sandwich that I have been thinking about trying for a while. Knowing that we were going to be parking on Los Feliz and walking a mile uphill, I figured I could consume some extra calories for dinner no problem.

There is a drive-through at this location and there was a constant stream of cars the whole time we were there. It took about 15 minutes to get our food. And, of course, the food was great. The spicy chicken sandwich was indeed spicy; it reminded me of my favorite spicy chicken sandwich of all time - the Atomic Chicken Sandwich at the Dark Horse in Boulder, Colorado. It could have used more lettuce, but that's not a huge deal. We got one order of skinny fries and one of fat fries. The skinny fries were much better than the fat; the fat were undercooked and over-salted.

Elizabeth's Fatburger was great. She'd eaten a late lunch and couldn't finish it so she gave me a couple bites. They were my first bites of a Fatburger in years. Damn, I'd forgotten how great they are. The turkey burgers are good; the Fatburgers are much better. I think I might go back to eating them from now on.

We had a great time at the concert. I considered going back by Fatburger after the show, but in the end I decided not to.