Category Archives: restaurant

by | February 28, 2012 · 9:04 pm

Wolf Creek Restaurant & Brewing Company

Yes, I realize that I have, indeed, done a post on this place before. However, that was the restaurant in Calabasas. Today I got an invite to the original Wolf Creek in Santa Clarita – where the brewery is!
The brewery is hidden away in a little strip mall between Starbucks and Rite Aid. You’d never know that beer genius was being conducted in this building.
I got straight to work and grabbed a taster of the Midnight Howl Black IPA before my tour.
As of now, this is my favorite of their beers. Deliciously hoppy with an overtone of bitter coffee rounding out the end.
When sitting at the bar, you gaze through the glass windows and doors directly into the ten barrel brewery, watching the entire process from start to finish (if you are patient enough to sit there for quite a few hours)…
They currently have a copper system, but are looking to upgrade to a larger system, and building, within the next few months to keep up with demand.
The brewery contains the 10 bbl mash tun, lauter tank, a few fermenters and four serving tanks that are full with the high demand brews like Golden Eagle Ale and their Howlin’ Hefeweizen. While it looks like a tight space, Rob, the brewmaster, and his brother have no issue turning out consistent beer with the equipment that has been with them from the beginning of Wolf Creek – 15 years!
Allie and I decided that it was extremely important to taste test all of the beers, and a lot of food, to make sure that our first visit wasn’t a fluke. Quality control.
These. Are. Awesome. “Rings and Thorns” – Ale-battered onions and jalapeno slices, served with a spicy chipotle ketchup and a cooling ranch in case it gets too hot for you. We devoured almost the entire bag.
The Vaquero sammich – sliced steak with grilled asparagus, fried onion strings, cilantro pesto, sliced tomatoes and goat cheese on top of fresh ciabatta. I’ve had this before and needed to do more quality control. It’s still as heavenly as I recall.

Unfortunately we were too stuffed to take advantage of their two-for-one dessert special of the day. I am ashamed of missing out on that.
Thanks to Rob for giving us the tour and letting us try your amazing brews and foods! I’ll be back for that dessert special. And the beer. And the onion rings. And the sammich. And probably to try every other item on the menu…

11 Comments

Filed under brewery, restaurant, Restaurant Review

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | February 26, 2012 · 7:00 am

Another Day at Sofrita

It’s official. It’s been official for over a year now – I am obsessed with Sofrita. This little gem of a restaurant in the middle of Fountain Hills has been my home for each show that we’ve done here. For fail-safe foods, coffee and drinks, I simply wander across the street from the booth and am greeted by the lovely owners and employees, who all know me by name.
This pic is from one of the first times I visited the place. Cozy, cozy!
After half a day sweating it out in the heat of the booth, I grabbed a cranberry chicken salad sammich. The hours slowly ticked by…
After closing the booth for the day, we traipsed back across the street to enjoy dinner in the sunset.
Saturdays at shows are my favorite days. The booth is all set up, we don’t have to worry about breakdown and we get a full day with no worries except where to get our next meal.
The restaurant was still getting their bearings after a day being stuffed to the brim with art show enthusiasts, hence the fancy plastic cup that contained my margarita.
After perusing the menu, I asked Angel for his recommendation and was greeted by this delicious pork pernil – slow roasted pork covered in a rich tomato sauce, seasoned with garlic and oregano with a side of spiced yellow rice.
For dessert I snuck a bite off of what our dinner guests ordered – a sponge cake topped with flan and wine-poached peaches, drizzled with a caramel sauce. Lucky for our guests I was so full that I didn’t attempt to make a grab for more. I’m thinking dinner tonight might just be a selection of all their desserts!

Today’s the last day of the show which means a long night of breaking down the tent, hopefully followed by, you guessed it, sangria at Sofrita!

2 Comments

Filed under restaurant, Travel

Tagged as , ,

by | December 9, 2011 · 7:24 am

Wurstküche

I was introduced to an epic place in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. I helped out with an event for Enegren Brewing and was treated to delicious foods and beers after.
I realized just now that I already used this picture, but since I’m a hotel (Edit: I’ve studied for years to be able to call myself a hotel. I didn’t mean to type “at a hotel” like many of you may have thought…) and it took ten minutes to upload, I’m leaving it in. I’m sure you’ll forgive me – plus it’s a gorgeous pic.
Wurstküche is a sausage sammich haven with twenty-four imported beers on tap. When you enter the front, you’re greeted by a tiny little white room with a line full of people, all of who are holding Belgian beers that have been served into proper glassware. I knew that this was the right place for me. After you’ve placed your order and have your beer in hand, you walk down a long corridor toward what sounds like the center of a dance club.
The room in the back is filled with long family-style picnic tables with crowds of people. Apparently this place is packed at all times of the day – and for a good reason.
Commander Matt ordered a Weihenstephaner Dunkelweizen and I grabbed a Reissdorf Kölsch. I’ve never had a Kölsch before this night – at least not a legit one (must be brewed in Cologne, Germany under the Kölsch-Convention which states how Kölsch is to be defined). This beer was extremely clear, highly carbonated with a bready aroma and crisp taste with an extremely faint end of bittering hops. Summer beer, anyone? High drinkability, especially at 4.8%ABV!
This meal lit up my night! Mango-chicken sausage smothered with whole grain mustard, caramelized onions and sweet peppers. The wonderfully crispy fries on the side were generously dipped in sundried tomato mayo and melted in my mouth. Looking at this picture (not the best picture due to the dark lighting) is making me salivate right now…
Since it was late at night and so dark inside, I would like to apologize for the fact that these pictures are not up to par. In order to make up for this, I’m offering to go back to eat more fries and sausages and take more pictures in the daytime: for the sake of the blog, of course.

I’m selfless like that.

4 Comments

Filed under restaurant

Tagged as , , , ,

by | July 14, 2011 · 2:25 pm

Azu Ojai

I bought this Living Social deal MONTHS ago. For $20, you get $40 worth of food from Azu in Ojai. I love Ojai and I love cheap food. Win-win-win!
Azu is nestled in between a frozen yogurt shop and a bakery on the main street. Once you enter, you’re greeted by dark woods, craft beers on tap and a surprising extension of the restaurant that stretches all the way to the back.
For noon, it was relatively quiet. Two other tables by the windows were occupied.
Since I had a massive amount of money to spend (I don’t think I’ve personally spent more than $12 on food…) I did something I never do – got an appetizer. The honey baked brie took about twenty minutes to bake. The wait was well worth it. It came out sizzling hot, the local sage honey caramelized and crusty around the edges, and the candied walnuts toasty with a slight crunch of sugary coating. We DEMOLISHED this plate!
For the main course, I ordered the vegetable panini. I’m kind of on a portobello mushroom kick since I found out that I’m not totally disgusted by them two weeks ago. Marinated and grilled portobello mushrooms, bell peppers and onions set atop soft, pillowy foccacia bread, and slathered with pesto and goat cheese. The skinny fries on the side were sprinkled with sea salt and served with a homemade ketchup. Another plate, demolished.
We decided to get two desserts and split them. Azu’s dessert of the day was strawberry shortcake served in a cream puff and overflowing with homemade whipped cream and balsamic macerated strawberries. I had a few bites of that one, but I was really waiting on the edge of my seat for MY choice.
Crème brûlée!!!! I’ve been dreaming about this since I had it at Ladyface last week. This one was a clean and simple crème brûlée – studded with vanilla beans and topped with a thin sugary crust that cracked easily with the tap of a spoon. They drizzled homemade caramel around the plate which I may or may not have licked clean. I’m classy like that.
Azu made for a ridiculously content Becki. It also makes her talk in the third person… Immediately after, I lapsed into a food coma and had to be bribed out of my seat with the promise of a visit to the Ojai Beverage Company.
Oh yeah, I went there.

9 Comments

Filed under restaurant

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | November 19, 2010 · 4:52 am

It’s a Small World After All!

     I visited some pretty cool places yesterday!

A really old-fashioned bar…
An old-fashioned kitchen…
They were making HUGE old-fashioned jelly rolls!
Found a cute little Italian restaurant… (semi-old fashioned)
A local magazine rack… (not old-fashioned)
A fancy bakery…
And a little farmhouse!
     The cool thing about all these places? They were just big enough to put my hand into! I visited a miniature store, Larrianne’s Small Wonders, which is basically where they sell dollhouses and doll-sized objects.
Another old bar with Santa in the background, getting wasted.
Breakfast in bed!
These things are so detailed!
Beer and pizza!
Everything is wired and functional!
Fancy drinks!
A big selection of drinks!
Just a sample of the houses they had in the store…
     I spent quite a while in the store, taking massive amounts of pictures (with permission, of course), completely enthralled at how much detail these people put into the miniature artwork. Those magazines on the picture above were as big as my thumbnail, and so elaborate! The artists have much more patience and talent than I can ever hope of having!
Creepy. Amazingly well-done and detailed, but creepy.

5 Comments

Filed under bakery, bar, dollhouse, Heineken, Italian, jelly roll, kitchen, magazine rack, miniatures, old-fashioned, restaurant, Santa Claus