This nicely appointed San Francisco eatery serves up some pretty fun grub.
We tried a bunch of stuff, so let me get right down to business.
Toga Tots
These brick-like tots were stacked, Jenga style. They had an awesomely crisp outside and a soft, mashed potato-esque inside. Topped with cheddar, chorizo and cilantro. Perfect.
Seven Spice Chicken Slider
These were pretty good. I really liked the Alabama white sauce and dill pickles.
Cubano Frank
This wonderful mashup between a Cuban sandwich and a hot dog was my favorite dish of the meal. Slow roasted pork, swiss cheese and spiced relish.
The Saratoga Burger
This baby was served with taleggio cheese and slaw on an onion bun. Pretty good! But after coming off of a Causwell’s burger high, we weren’t blown away.
Dry-Aged Flannery Beef NY Steak
For years I’ve heard great things about Flannery Beef. I had high hopes. This was really tough. I think they served us a hanger steak too – not a NY strip (I even asked and they confirmed NY strip). No way. I know beef texture and this was more like hanger and not remotely like striploin. The sauce was good but the beef was difficult to eat. 4/10.
Tomato Braised Tuscan Kale
Not my cup of tea here. Probably should have ordered the mushrooms or spring peas instead. This tasted like heartburn in each bite.
Ho Hos
These were fun! Definitely tasted just like a classic ho ho, but much better and elevated. Winner.
Chartreuse
The staff was awesome here. The owner saw that we were all taking pics for Instagram so he gave us a round of yellow and green chartreuse on the house. We barely touched them, however, since none of us particularly liked either of them. Bitter, and tasted like cough medicine. I realize this spirit is an acquired taste though, and I respect that this joint has one of the largest collections of chartreuse available in the world. Pretty cool. Just not my taste.
Their cocktails, however, are delicious. Here’s a shot of the Vieux Carre, which was delicious:
THE SARATOGA
1000 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
This roadside stop in Red Bluff is like an improved mom and pop style Denny’s. We stopped in mainly to try the pies, but we couldn’t resist trying some of the savory items too.
First, the marble rye patty melt:
This was nice, and I liked the idea of it, but after coming off of the perfect patty melt at Pinecrest Diner in SF, we were underwhelmed.
Philly Style Prime Rib Dip
This was okay. Nothing to go nuts over, and a bit light on the meat. The fries and tots were good though.
Now on to the pies.
The butterscotch pie was probably the most well liked at the table. Really great texture and flavor.
I wanted more from the s’mores crunch pie, but ultimately I would house these, slice after slice, with ease.
The strawberry and rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream was perfection. I usually don’t love fruit pies but this one was fucking fantastic.
Definitely stop here if you’re driving by. Stick with the pies!
SHARI’S CAFE & PIES
128 Bell Mill Road
Red Bluff, CA 96080
This roadside dining spot was referred to us by the folks at Belcampo Meat Camp as a fun place for good burgers.
We tried their famous warm sticky bun first. This was deadly delicious.
Next up, some wings. I thought these were a little on the sweet side, but I appreciated the smoke flavor.
We tried the jalapeno and cheddar burger, which was really tasty despite looking like pure foodporn. Loved the addition of ranch here to cool it down, and the local beef happened to come from a guy’s family farm who we just met (he now works for Belcampo now, but this place uses his family’s grass finished beef). Great beef.
The cajun brown sugar tots were strangely addictive! I could not stop popping them.
YAKS ON THE 5
4917 Dunsmuir Avenue
Dunsmuir, CA 96025
Before heading to San Francisco my friends and I poked around and did some research on where to get a good burger. One place that kept popping up was Causwell’s.
Our research proved correct: this places serves a great burger!
Their Americana burger is a nice Big Mac style double smash that really satisfies. The fries are great too.
We also tried their Loco Moco burger, a nice tribute to the Hawaiian ground beef, rice, onion, cheese and gravy plate.
This was really great, and it embodied all those flavors that you expect from the Hawaiian classic. I just wish it came with a cup of gravy for dipping with each bite. We had fried onions with this, which were really nice and crisp. Shredded style.
I highly recommend this if you find yourself in that beautiful disaster of a city known as San Francisco.
CAUSWELL’S
2346 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
I finally tried In n Out, the craze of the west coast!
I went with the double double, animal style.
I approve! The burger has an awesome classic roadside style, but the sauce is what really sets it apart from others. The fries need some work, however. They just lack crunch and depth. They taste like cheap frozen fries that you baked in the oven instead of fried. A little dry. A little unseasoned. A little boring.
All in though, I really dig In n Out. It’s on par with Shake Shack.
IN N OUT
333 Jefferson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
I recently went to Belcampo Farms’ “Meat Camp,” up near Mt. Shasta in Gazelle, northern California.
Over the course of a few days, some Instagram pals and I were able to get a sense of their operations, how they raise their animals and how delicious their proteins are.
The camp itself was pretty awesome. Home base was a nicely appointed “glamping” style tent that can sleep two, outfitted with extremely comfortable beds.
I was more comfortable here than I was in the hotel that I stayed at in San Francisco prior to the drive up. There are nice modern bathrooms with hot water showers near the tents too, so you’re not roughing it in some outhouse or washing up in a lake.
Here’s the event barn and main lawn, where most of the action took place:
Okay so let’s get down to business:
Belcampo Meat Co. is a 100% grass fed and grass finished organic beef producer. They also raise lamb, pork, chickens and turkeys, but they run about 3200 head of cattle total, including their cows, calves and bulls.
The animals are generally about 24 to 30 months old when they reach market weight, after which they go off to Belcampo’s processing plant in nearby Yreka. Most of their beef grades out at USDA choice or select in terms of marbling. However since intramuscular fat (marbling) isn’t a priority for Belcampo in the way that it is for traditional beef producers, the grading almost doesn’t matter.
This was the best tasting grass finished beef I’ve ever had. Truly outstanding!
As you can imagine, at a place called “Meat Camp” your daily scheduled activities are pretty awesome if you’re a raging carnivore like me.
We broke down a beef forequarter, which included the chuck and rib sections.
We also broke down a lamb shoulder, pork shortloins/t-bones, and chickens.
We portioned out chops for grilling, as well as ground up various meats for burgers and sausages.
Yes, we ate LOTS of it.
We even made sausage and tasted several of their incredibly delicious cured meat products with a charcuterie and wine pairing lesson. I think these bites were my favorites of the entire trip!
One of the many impressive things up at Belcampo is the fire wagon, which they use to develop embers and natural charcoal for cooking on their Argentinian style grills, their huge cauldron, and their “Asado Crucifix,” (all of which are made by NorCal Ovenworks).
At breakfast on the last morning, everything was lit and ready to rock. The versatility and creativity of cooking with open flame was on full display for all to witness.
Another fun lesson was about how they make their “bone broth” and sauce bases, like ragu and soffrito.
When we weren’t cooking, eating or butchering, we toured their farms, fields, and animal paddocks, which consists of about 5,000 acres of grasses and alfalfa.
We also visited the farrowing barn where newly born piglets were nursing from sows.
Just nine months later those babies are pushing 500-600lbs from eating a mixture of pasture, grains, acorns and nuts on the farm.
We saw their chicken train cars and barns, with the animals truly “free range” feeding on bugs, seeds and grasses.
I even got to see their turkeys along the road when I was out for a morning run.
Belcampo goes above and beyond to make their animals comfortable, and they exhibit the utmost respect for the environment. The farm is run like a family, and the love and care they give to their animals translates directly into a high quality product at the end of the animals’ lifecycles.
I think my biggest takeaway – and by far the most important one – is that not all grass-finished beef is the same. I had it in my head that I wasn’t a huge fan of the taste of grass-finished beef, but Belcampo’s product is truly amazing. They definitely changed my mind on that, but their other proteins and products are outstanding as well – especially that charcuterie!
This was a really great experience, and I’m looking forward to going back in the future for their advanced camps and specialty camps. If you can’t book a trip and get out to meat camp, you should still hit Hudson Yards in NYC to try the new Belcampo restaurant there. I know I’ll be going often!
Currently, Saigon Social is chef Helen Nguyen’s pop-up dining experience. The location varies, but the most common spot seems to be at Boys Don’t Cry in the Lower East Side/Chinatown.
A lot of buzz has built up around her dinners – deservingly so – because she’s extremely talented. I’ve eaten her food several times in the past year, and I have to say she’s serving some of the best Vietnamese food I’ve ever had in the city.
I haven’t written about her yet because, well, up until now she’s only been doing pop-ups, and for some reason I feel like I can’t talk about pop-ups since they’re so fleeting and temporary.
But Helen is about to open a restaurant here in Manhattan, spearheading the way for great NYC Vietnamese food, along with John Nguyen (Saigon Dep), and Yen Vo and Jimmy Ly (Madame Vo and MV BBQ). Yes, I’m ignoring Brooklyn and Queens Viet food for the moment; there are some great spots out there in the sticks.
Anyway, my wife loves her food too, so that pretty much means it’s legit. Those of you that don’t yet know Helen Nguyen will be saying, “Hey, wait a fucking minute… Johnny GODDAMN Prime was talking about her, and now here she is, all over the news!” But if you read food publications, you may have seen her pop-ups featured as a “must try” for the past year.
Her bo 7 mon (“beef seven ways”) feast was incredible. Her brûlée bone marrow ended up in my top dishes of 2018, not to mention that she can seriously cook steak and makes some of the best pho around.
She knows her meat, as she is deeply connected to the Pat LaFrieda brand. At a recent pop-up, I had her garlic noodles with deep fried soft shell crab, which was incredible.
Also, her meaty fried rice with bone marrow and egg was probably one of the best rice dishes I’ve ever eaten. Highly addicting with that home made scallion oil.
Her newest creation is a banh mi burger. The perfect halfway point between American and Vietnamese, marrying the familiar flavors of both classics.
This beauty is a blend of short rib, chuck and 60-day dry-aged rib eye.
It’s topped with pate, mayo, maggi sauce, pickled carrots, cilantro and jalapeno.
Helen smiles at the joy I exhibit upon eating her burger.
What I really like about this burger is that it’s meaty as fuck but it isn’t heavy. Just like Viet food generally, it’s light, fresh, herb-ish, and healthy… but the culture is very meat-centric. And just like a banh mi sandwich, you can eat this and still walk around after, not food-comatosed and yet still craving more.
Look out for these dishes at Saigon Social, coming soon to NYC!
Lately I’ve been gravitating towards biltong for my meat snacking needs, rather than jerky (which can sometimes be loaded with lots of sugars). Biltong is a meat snack that originated in Africa. Generally this stuff is seasoned and dried whole muscle meat, sliced thin.
While both biltong and jerky are high in sodium, I sweat like a shitstain with all the running and physical activity I’m engaged in, so I don’t mind that so much.
What I like about biltong in particular is that it’s shaved nice and thin, and that means it’s almost always tender and not aggressively chewy. I had some jerky recently that made my jaw muscle sore for a week after eating. Fuck that noise.
Anyway, enter Stryve brand biltong. This stuff was the cheapest and had the largest portion sizes/bags that I could find on Amazon. They also had the most interesting flavors, like spicy peri peri and hatch chili.
Both the biltong and the meat sticks from these guys are great. Meat sticks are often times greasy and overly salty. Not these. They’re perfect.
A great way to satiate snack time hunger while also delivering protein, zinc and B-vitamins.
Give this brand a try. I fucking love it. The only down side is that the bags of biltong are an absolute BITCH to re-ziplock (yup – Ziplock is a brand, and I’m diluting it with genericide so that you know what the fuck I’m talking about). But if you call yourself a man, you should probably just crush the entire bag in one sitting anyway. There’s only two servings in the size I purchased.
Chalk this up to successful targeted Facebook marketing campaigns. I first learned of this snack bar through an ad on Facebook. The label caught my eye: bold typeface listing all of the ingredients, and there were just four. Egg whites. Dates. Almonds. Cashews.
Good numbers as far as nutrients go, and the ingredient label pretty much checked out.
I saw them in Walgreens on sale, two for $5, so I picked up four of them (three flavors – blueberry, chocolate chip, and chocolate sea salt – I doubled up on the blueberry).
They’re all really good. They’re chewy, so expect to pick some bits off the surfaces of your teeth in the subsequent 20 minutes or so after eating.
Worth it though, for a nice change-up to the snack bars I’ve been eating. It was a toss up in terms of my favorite – all were good, and I’d buy them all again.
