Firefly Bistro: Burgers, Beer & Blues

(Note: Firefly Bistro is a dark restaurant with only minimal, romantic lighting. I won't ever use the flash in a restaurant where it will disturb other diners, which it most definitely would have here. So the pictures aren't great, but I hope they're good enough.)

I've written before that, while I prefer the Victory Park farmers market on Saturday mornings for the variety of produce, I love the South Pasadena farmers market, especially in the summertime. It feels like a celebration of summer, as synonymous with the season as the sound of Vin Scully's voice or hot dogs hissing on the grill. I still go to the market in the other months, but it's not as much fun; the vendors leave earlier, sometimes there's a chill in the air.

But the last couple days, though we are into November, have felt anything but autumnal. Wednesday was 97 degrees, yesterday was 96. I could think of few better ways to introduce Elizabeth's mom to our life in the San Gabriel Valley than the farmers market. And, since my parents wanted to come, too, we formulated a plan to eat dinner at Firefly.

I've written of Firefly twice before: a brunch two years ago, and another Thursday evening "Burgers, Beer and Blues" dinner we attended last year. The food isn't the best in town - their menu items often overreach - but I have been there a half-dozen times and never once had anything less than a very enjoyable time. (It's one of those beautiful, friendly places that everyone seems to want to like. I don't know anyone who raves about the food at Firefly, but I know plenty of people who rave about the place. Elizabeth says, only half-jokingly, that she would like to live in the restaurant.) And on Thursday evenings, when Barry Brenner performs the blues and there are beer and burger specials, it's one of the best places to be.

This night's burger special was the "Blackened Burger," with barbecue onions, pickled tomatoes, and basil aioli. That sounded good to me. My dad ordered that burger as well, and the three ladies ordered burgers with gruyere cheese, my mom and Elizabeth adding avocado as well.

There were two beers on special: Downtown Brown and Boont Amber. Both of those are acceptable, but neither thrilled me. The waiter then mentioned that the Downtown Brown was out and was being replaced by Turbodog - one of my favorite beers in the country. I immediately ordered one. Elizabeth and my mom both ordered red sangrias; Elizabeth's mom order a Blue Star wheat beer. (My dad said he would drink water with an annoyed grunt that I have come to understand means he can't drink beer on weeknights like he used to.)

The food took about twenty minutes to come out, though I would gladly have waited twice that time. Sitting in the tented dining room, drinking a cold beer and listening to some acoustic blues was just fine by me.

I took a couple pictures of my burger, cut it in half and took some more. The burger was cooked the perfect medium-rare that I'd requested. And, as always happens at Firefly, everyone else's burgers were cooked the same. Three people requested their burgers medium and one well-done, and they were all medium-rare. This was about the sixth time I have had burgers with a group at Firefly, and every single time this has occurred. At least I'm always happy.

But, even with the burgers cooked incorrectly for four of the five people at the table, nobody complained, because the meat is high quality and the toppings are delicious. I loved the burger, not just the beef but the smooth aioli and the tangy onions. This wasn't the best burger I've ever had at Firefly - that would be a Philly Cheesesteak Burger I ate there at the beginning of the year - but it was probably the second-best.

Earlier in the day Elizabeth emailed me that she'd looked at the menu and wanted to try the deep fried blueberry pie. Nobody else wanted dessert and she wasn't going to get it, but my parents insisted she did. She loved it. She even gave me a taste of the vanilla ice cream and I thought it was great, exactly how I want ice cream to taste.

I don't know if I will ever visit Firefly for dinner on a night other than Thursday. My guess is no. But I know I will certainly be back again for burgers and beer.

Seafood Grill

Seafood Grill opened five months ago on Colorado Blvd, on a block I have had no reason to visit since Hooters closed. (I'm mostly joking; although I do not remember the last time I was on that side of the block, it has nothing to do with the closing of Hooters.) Two things about the place stopped me from trying it right away: 1) I heard lukewarm reviews from several people, and 2) they don't have a website, thus no way to view their menu besides looking at photos on Yelp or other blogs.

(That second one always gives me pause. I know someone who will design an impressive-looking website for less than $400. Is that too big an investment for a restaurant to advertise their menu? Is it just that they can't be bothered? And if it's either of those things, what other corners are they cutting?)

The other day I was walking through Old Town and had not eaten all day. I got a text from my friend Tracie that New York Deli is finally open and that sounded good to me. But then I got close to OT and started thinking about it: did I really want to try the place on the first day? Has that ever worked out for me before?

So I decided I would try Seafood Grill. Some fried shrimp sounded good and, being that it was a hot day, I hoped they served beer and I could wash the food down with a cold Pacifico. (Turns out they do not serve alcohol.)

I texted Tracie that I was going to try Seafood Grill. She replied: "It's pretty good."

I barely glanced at the menu since I knew what I wanted, so I ordered the fried shrimp plate. I sat down and waited about ten minutes. I was the only person in the place and I could clearly hear the sound of my shrimp hitting the fryer, a sound that never ceases to please me.

My plate was brought out to me. And it was fish. But I was really hungry. I looked at my receipt - he had charged me for fish. (The shrimp is slightly more expensive than the fish so if he'd charged me for shrimp I would have said something.) No big deal, a simple misunderstanding, so I decided to eat the fish.

It was, as my friend said, pretty good. The fish was flaky and moist, but it was kind of a joke how breaded it was. Each bite tasted more of breading than fish. That's okay with a $1.50 box of Kroger fish sticks, but when I get fish & chips at a restaurant I expect a little more. At least the fish was decent quality, though, or I would have hated the plate. The fries and cole slaw were above-average, but nothing special.

In the back of the restaurant is a salsa/cocktail/tartar sauce bar where you can help yourself to as much as you want; definitely a bonus for me as I love a good, spicy cocktail sauce, which this was. I may have gone through three helpings of it.

I could only eat about half the fish so I took the rest to go and gave it away to someone (who loved it). Overall I have to say I liked Seafood Grill. It's always nice to come across a place in Old Town where you can get a full meal for around ten bucks, and the two employees I talked to were very friendly. I would be more than willing to return and try the fried shrimp or perhaps a plate of grilled mahi mahi.

The Habit Burger: Teriyaki Charburger

Elizabeth and I picked up her mom at the airport last night; she's in town on vacation. We'd come up with a plan the day before - do some shopping, get Popeyes Crawfish for dinner (Elizabeth hasn't tried them yet) and be at the airport in plenty of time.

It didn't quite work out as planned. Elizabeth had to stay at work an hour late. Her mom's flight, which I was following online, was scheduled to get in 45 minutes early. So we effectively found ourselves an hour and 45 minutes behind schedule. No worries, I said, we'll do the shopping later. And we headed down to Popeyes.

The last time I had been to this Popeyes at night, it was a madhouse. I described it a week ago: cars double parking, people wandering around. I had assumed it was people wanting to try the crawfish that had just come out that day. But last night it was even worse. There was a line out the door. I was lucky enough to grab a parking spot - two different guys, not paying any attention to their driving, almost hit me - and we went to wait in line. After standing around for several minutes I said "let's just go somewhere else."

I got back to my car, and there was employee from the neighboring Pizza Hut standing against the wall having a smoke.

"Is this parking lot always this much of a zoo?" I asked.

"Only on Tuesday night," she replied. "Popeyes has 99 cent chicken."

Ah, I thought, remembering that the night we went last week was also a Tuesday. I will never make that mistake again.

So now we only had about an hour before the flight got in, and I suggested we just head straight to LAX to see how traffic was. If it was good, we could just grab something near the airport. Luckily it was smooth sailing and we made it down there in about 30 minutes. I headed down Sepulveda, hoping I wouldn't have to resort to eating at McDonald's, when I saw the neon sign of The Habit. I've only eaten there two or three times, but loved it each time. I pulled into the parking lot.

I wanted to try something different - and no way was I going to order the pastrami - and I don't know why my eye was drawn to the Teriyaki Charburger. Teriyaki is not one of my favorite flavors; it's always salty and sometimes it's also sweet, a flavor combination I loathe. But I ordered one anyway.

Five minutes later I had my burger, with grilled pineapple and caramelized onions. I took a picture then took a bite. It was very good. The teriyaki flavor was subtle, not bad at all. I only ate half the burger with the pineapple - I wasn't a big fan of it - but I scooped up all the stray pieces of onion and put them back in the burger. I wish I had ordered extra of the onion.

This burger, like every other one I have had from The Habit, had that charred taste from being grilled over an open flame. Some people I know hate that taste, but I love it. I don't think I will ever get the teriyaki version again, it'll be back to the regular char burger, but I'm glad I tried it once.

Now that we have a Fatburger in Pasadena, it would be nice to have The Habit, too.

Steak Sandwiches

We're through the looking glass. We live in a decade where the Red Sox, White Sox, Angels, and now the Giants have all won the World Series. My God, the only team to win more than one title in the last ten seasons is the... Red Sox?

Last night was the final night of the World Series. Not guaranteed, of course, but anyone who has watched this series knew that last night was most likely going to be the end of it. (For those who aren't baseball fans, San Francisco's pitching has been dominant and Texas has rolled over - even getting shut-out twice, the first team to do that in a World Series in 44 years.) So it sounded like a good night to make dinner at home and sit in front of the TV.

In the last couple months, Taylor's in Sierra Madre has started carrying a prime cut of flat iron steak. That's never been my favorite cut of meat, but I have to say, these are simply spectacular. (They're priced less than ten dollars per pound; if you ate one of these in a steakhouse you would easily pay three or four times the amount... and be content.)

I took out the indoor grill, got it fired up hot, rubbed the steak with some crushed black pepper and butter, and placed it on the grill. About seven minutes on each side, I took it off, covered it for a couple minutes, and turned my attention elsewhere.

King Ranch Market has sandwich rolls for the ridiculously low price of twenty-five cents each. The fact that I just discovered these rolls - after years of searching for the perfect sandwich roll - is both sad and exciting. I sauteed some onions in olive oil and some fresh spinach, sliced the rolls open and placed some of the toppings on each.

I cut the steak with the Global knife that my friend Tracie gave me for Christmas years ago, but I could have used a fork. I could have used my hand. (Hell, I could have used something completely blunt and useless... like Vlad Guerrero's bat.) I layered several slices of steak on each roll.

Was it the best sandwich I've ever had? No. Was it the best sandwich I've ever made? Quite possibly. The soft bread was the perfect texture for the sandwich, and each bite melted on the tongue. One of my best friends refuses to use condiments of any kind, and I've always thought that quirky but completely unrealistic for me, especially with sandwiches. But I would not have added a drop of condiment to this sandwich.

I will be making these again very soon. If I didn't have such a busy day ahead of me I might start making one right now for breakfast.

Fatburger Pasadena

The first few blocks of Lake Avenue as it crosses over the 210 freeway and heads up towards the mountains are as densely packed with restaurants as any area I have ever seen. There are the fast food chains - I could stand in the middle of the street and hit McDonald's, Burger King, Carl's Jr and KFC with a thrown baseball. There are the local institutions like Roscoe's and The Hat and newcomers that seem destined for legend status like The Slaw Dogs. There are the hole-in-the-wall taco joints like Lake Taco, La Chona and El Taquito Mexicano, where you can still get lunch for two and change from a ten. There is the coffee shop where you used to be able to order mediocre omelets or world-class pho (though I've heard the Vietnamese chef left and it's back to just being a coffee shop). There is a even a seafood joint, the stink of which you can smell from one hundreds yards if the wind is blowing just right.

And now, thankfully, there is a Fatburger. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, Fatburger has returned to Pasadena - there was one on Arroyo about a decade ago - in a location that used to be a Taco Bell a few years back. I think it opens today but the owner works with my brother on another business venture so I was able to get an invitation to the "friends and family" event yesterday.

My relationship with Fatburger has ebbed and flowed over the years like no place else. Some of the locations I have been to - say, the now-gone West Covina and Monrovia locations - have just not been good and I've let Fatburger slip from my mind for a few months. There was a time when Fatburger vs. In-N-Out was a legitimate debate among my friends. I have not heard the argument made in almost a decade. News of a Fatburger closing these days is less surprising than a video rental store going out of business.

But then there are other times when Fatburger comes up and you remember why you fell in love with the joint in the first place. Burgers at the location on Vermont before a show at the Greek; a Sunday drive when a Fatburger you'd forgotten about long ago comes into view just as you can't take your hunger anymore and are genuinely considering eating at Burger King. A burger cooked on one of those older, seasoned grills, some onions rings and a cup of chili and all is right with the world. You have Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day" stuck in your head the rest of the day. ("No helicopter looking for a murder/ Two in the morning got the Fatburger.")

It's not terribly hard to guess that once upon a time this was a Taco Bell, is it? In my teenage years it was a frequent stop for cheap tacos with friends before heading down to Dodger Stadium. I only went there once as an adult - my friend Bryce and I were watching the NLCS one year, a Taco Bell commercial came on and he said whatever the particular promotion was (I don't remember) looked good. I said I would take him to Taco Bell if he shot some pool with me at the Rancho.

Usually we just get the "medium" 5.3 oz burgers and they are more than adequate, but I figured this time I'd order us the half-pound burgers. With an order of skinny fries to share and a couple medium sodas. I reached for my wallet after my order was rung up; it turns out the food was on the house. I left a couple bucks in the tip jar, upon which everyone in the kitchen shouted "Tip, tip, hooray!" (Later, when the owner asked my opinion of the place, this was the one thing I said needed to be fixed. I cannot believe anyone enjoyed that interaction.)

Elizabeth's burger with cheese and mine without. It was the most enjoyable burger I have had in weeks. I have missed having you in town, Fatburger. Welcome back. We'll meet again someday on the avenue.  

The Slaw Dogs across the street, partially eclipsed by the Fatburger logo - a picture so blatantly symbolic even Steven Spielberg would be ashamed.