Short Order || 11/22/11

I mean, I'm just taking Top Chef Antonia Lofaso advice "Stop dieting around the holidays people!"  What with indulging myself at Chef Roy Choi's Sunny Spot on Monday & then pigging out at Amy Pressman & Nancy Silverton's Short Order Tuesday, this Thanksgiving Weekend is going to prove very rough on my gym routine... thank god I got that Equinox membership!  Because at the end of the day, I'd MUCH rather be enjoying delicious food & working off the calories later verses living my life on a diet.

The newest burger joint to hit LA is a love letter from Chefs Amy Pressman and Nancy Silverton to the Short Order food scene.  Out with the greasy, cheaply manufactured & overly processed foods on the fast, and in with a handcrafted selection of locally raised, organic and artisanal ingredients to elevate fast food to the next level.  While their concept isn't entirely original to the whole burger revolution we've been experiencing in the recent years, their love of the food they're creating is easily apparent, and their stylized cocktails courtesy of master barman Julian Cox will keep me coming back for more.

While the opening of this restaurant was clouded with the terrible news of Amy's passing, Bill Chait, a partner in the new restaurant summed it up best, "Amy was the one of the singularly most passionate people I have ever met. She was more than my partner. She was my sister. She will be with me the rest of my life and there is no advocate I would rather have by my side. For me, there will never be a moment where I eat a piece of cake, or now, a burger, without thinking fondly of my dearest friend." ~ LA Times.  I think she would be so proud of what was accomplished.

 Nancy's Backyard Burger [$13]

Nancy Silverton's beef blend, artisan bacon, comté, avocado, tomato, onion, iceberg, spicy mayo

I really wanted to love this burger, but as it goes, everyone always has their favorite that they use as their gold standard & mine forever will be the original Shake Shack burger.  That said, the beef was well seasoned, and the bread was spot on.  My complaint was the abundance of avocado (gasp, what kind of cali girl am I?!) but it ended up overpowering the burger & making it a little mushy.

Short Order Burger [$12]Grass-fed beef, morbier, griddled mushrooms, bibb, mustardy mayo

While the first burger left me feeling a little underwhelmed, this burger is one I could sing praises of all night.  The meat was rich and tender, the cheese luxurious & the griddled mushrooms adding a hint of decadence that left me wanting more.  Plus the mustardy mayo was thick with seeds and I found myself scooping up fallen drippings with the spuds not wanting to let any go to waste.  

Short Order Spuds w/ Dipping Sauce [$6]

Now these are what potato heaven should taste like... torn pieces of baked potato that are deep fried & salted.  The creamy interior + the perfectly crunchy exterior was like a little mouthful of potato explosion!  We tried out the "dipping sauce" as well which basically amounted to a bowl of baked potato toppings, sour cream, bacon, chives etc, but it sort of ended up being a little bland.  Next time?  Who do I need to sleep with to get Short Order to add the Mustardy Mayo as a side dipping sauce???

Granny Smith Apple [$12]

This is where I curse myself for not taking better notes (and/or taking a copy of the cocktail menu) but from my hazy memory this was a superb & thematically awesome cocktail just screaming holiday cheers.  My friend Devin described it as "a mouthful of caramel apple." so I'm going to go with that...

Fist Full of Dollars [$12]
Craft method brandy, Combier, Amaro Montenegro, fresh lemon, cinnamon bark syrup, angostura, spiced castor sugar

Normally I have my Cloak & Dinner bartender lying around to analyze and break down the cocktail ingredients for me, but since he was off working, we had to google this one ourselves. The best thing is looking up an ingredient, only to see the words "the exact formula is a closely guarded secret."  So with that in mind we knew we had to try this & like the drink before it, it reminded us perfectly of the holidays. While the drink was chilled, the spices and flavors left us with a very warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of our tummies, perfect ground to pile on a few dozen spuds.

All in all, the food was good, the cocktails great, the location perfect & our waiter Damien awesome.  I will certainly be back, especially considering there's an entire upstairs menu I've yet to try!

Short Order
6333 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 761-7970
http://www.shortorderla.com/