Dog Haus Biergarten

Dog Haus Biergarten has only been open for a few months but I'm going to miss it as much as most other restaurants around Pasadena. Once upon a time there were quite a few options for inexpensive dining in Old Town that I liked, whether it was the two sandwiches and pitcher of beer that my friends and I would split at Rack Shack, the tacos at Ernie Jr.'s or the slices of pizza from Bada Bing.

These days there are cheap places and there are good places and they don't really overlap. But Dog Haus Biergarten allows the two of us to get a couple burgers and sodas and split an order of fries for right around twenty bucks. In Old Town, where some places get four bucks for a single slice of pizza and others get fifteen for a deli sandwich, I've always been happy with that arrangement. And if I'm in the mood for a beer, well, they have that too.

The other day I stopped by for lunch with my parents, an easy trip for all of us but especially so for my dad: from our table on the patio I had a view of his office a hundred yards away. We ordered two burgers, a hot dog, fries and three sodas; it was twenty-five bucks pre-tax. (On our last lunch in Old Town, the name of the restaurant which needs not be repeated, the total was about three times that for much lower quality food.)

My mom ordered the Ringer: a burger with cheese, smoked bacon, barbecue sauce and an onion ring. She thought it was very good.

My dad went with the Holy Aioli. If you've been a reader for a while you've seen it before: Elizabeth gets it every time and it cracked the top 15 of my Top 20 For 2011: a burger with bacon, cheese, caramelized onions, and aioli. My dad thought it was fine although he did not care for the sweetness of the King's Hawaiian rolls. But take his opinion with a grain of salt: "Bread is just a vehicle to make it easier for me to eat the meat," he claimed. 

I had the Scott Baioli: basically the Holy Aioli in hot dog form, named after the star of my favorite sitcom of the 80s. Did I like it? Hell yes. Did I love it as much as the burger? No, not really. I think the toppings are better served on a burger.

As usual, I got some of Dog Haus's curry ketchup for the fries.

It was a good lunch. So good, I went back later in the day and got another dog.

This time I got the Cowboy: American cheese, onion rings, barbecue sauce, bacon and crispy onion bits. It was great.

And I may even go back again in the next four days.