feast restaurant - Tucson AZ

Visiting my step-dad in Tucson, AZ. He wanted to try something new, so I did some online research and found feast, a small place on Speedway blvd. This is the bacon, lettuce, tomato and fried oyster sammich on ciabatta bread. I really wanted to love it. Unfortunately, the oysters were very large, so the proportion to floury coating to oyster innard was not entirely to my liking.

The haloumi and roasted eggplant grilled cheese was a very good take on the comfort food favorite. The haloumi's chewyness made a great foil for the soft grilled eggplant.

The menu was very innovative. (There were four or five things I wanted to try, which is always a good sign.) The ginger cake we shared for desert was really, really good. I'll definitely give this another try when I'm in Tucson again.

www.eatatfeast.com

4122 E Speedway Blvd
Tucson, AZ 85712
(520) 326-9363

Square One Dining - a GREAT restaurant in Los Angeles.

Square One has become my favorite breakfast in LA*, bar none.

This is the lemon thyme chicken sausage omelette, stone ground grits with applewood smoked bacon and cheddar and a side of whole grain toast. it is simple, fresh and absolutely delicious. The omlette is flecked inside with roasted tomatoes, bringing an earthy counterpoint to the lemony thyme sausage.

This place is based on the premise that "natural is always best and basic is not a trend." Square One proves one of the the central premises of organic; that minimal interference produces the best tasting and most exciting food. Their whole food, organic, locally sourced, hormone free aesthetic makes my friend David cringe, (his diet is deliberately and willfully the opposite of all of that.)

It is nestled behind the Scientology Center - on Fountain Ave near the corner of L Ron Hubbard Way. (No, I'm not kidding - that is the name of the street.) The location also makes for great "only in LA" people watching.

If you like real food respectfully prepared - pay this place several visits.

Square One Dining www.squareonedining.com
4854 Fountain Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90029

(323) 661-1109

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* I've been going a LOT since the demise of the beloved Belle Epoque.

White Turkey Drive in - Connaught, OH

It's cold in LA right now - a brisk 48 degrees - so I'm daydreaming of summer. On July 1st of last year I had lunch at the The White Turkey Drive In, in Conneaut, Ohio. This place was founded in 1952, and hasn't changed one bit since. It was by far the most charming and atmospheric of the joints I visited on that trip, and had shady picnic tables out back surrounded by a beautiful perennial garden.

I had the the turkey sandwich called the "Large Marge." (No, it's not named for the lesbian ghost trucker in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, but for the restaurant's original proprietress.)

I can only describe the sandwich as a "pulled turkey" sandwich. It is startlingly like North Carolina BBQ, but made with white meat turkey instead of pork. It was topped with bacon and American cheese. It was delicious, and very vintage-y in character as you'd expect from the looks of this place. It was accompanied by a delicious real milkshake, freshly made and with globs of vanilla ice cream still slightly unblended. The onion rings were good, but of the crumb breading type, which is not my favorite. (My mother's onion rings were arguably the gold standard, closely followed by those at Liam's on Nauset Beach in Orleans Mass on Cape Cod.)

This place was so sweetly retro-Americana that I was nearly moved to tears while waiting for my sandwich. (I'm funny that way.)

I suddenly understood the much vaunted charm of the Midwest. I confess this has previously largely escaped me.