Tuesday, October 15, 2013

When sheer genius goes bad.



I thought I'd been to the smallest restaurant in California. It was called the Squeeze Inn in Sacramento. Stretch your arms out, and that was how wide the business was. Which means they were not handicapable. Someone started suing them and forced them to move to a more handicapable space. In the end it was probably much better for the business and the customers. The wait time at that place was mind crushing. I was kinda bummed because it was a charming place you never see in California anymore. Like those old timey drive in burger places. It was the end of an era I thought.

Well..... this weekend I accidentally found an even tinier place. I'm not even going to say the name of the establishment or where it is - because this is literally the tiniest restaurant I've ever seen. And frankly I don't want the guy shut down. He's old and might not recover as easily as the Sqeeze Inn did. I don't know how he hasn't already been shut down due to it's close proximity to Berkeley. It was probably half the size of the old Squeeze Inn.

When we got here - there were 6 people in front of us. That's because a total of six people could fit in the place. And it was all bar seating. It wasn't a problem and we just sat outside. What we didn't realise however is the place cooked each meal one at a time. And after each meal the grill was cleaned so your food only tasted like your food. Mr S. and I really didn't even get to eat together as the plates come out one at a time. It took well over an hour to get our food.

This man was so passionate about his food when he brought mine out he said "please taste it before you put anything on it". Like I was at a fancy steakhouse or something. But the man was right. His food was cooked to perfection. And the guy had really creative ideas I've never seen before like sausage pancakes. (above) I thought I'd ordered scrambled eggs but it turned out to be this egg risotto dish. I've never had anything like it before and I couldn't believe how good it was. Make you full for the whole weekend heavy though. I'd go back there in a heartbeat - if I had a few hours. It really was like home cooking. And the charm of such a tiny place - I just love. Not being able to eat with the people you arrive with is a huge bummer though. Super huge bummer.

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