Recon: NO NAME SALOON

Park City, UT


I flew into Park City for the Sundance Film Festival with a nicely sized posse and after our long journey and fantastically chauffeured suburban ride into town, we needed some hearty food.  We marched straight over to our old, get-drunk-in-the-afternoon-stand-by favorite, the No Name Saloon and binged on the local fare.  We started with mozzarella sticks, french fries and onion rings, which we scarfed down before they could be photographed (we were starving!) but trust me when I say they were delicious.

We ordered buffalo burgers, which are- yes- made out of buffalo meat.  Apparently the buffalo is not endangered like I thought.  Or maybe I just ate an endangered animal.  Let's go with not endangered for conscience reasons.  I opted for bleu cheese and bacon.  Murph, Court and Kate went for the classic Saloon burger- one with cheddar, and one with grilled onions.  No Name serves all their burgers with lettuce and tomato, and their home made potato chips.  (George Michael ordered a wrap, so not really worth mentioning...)

We needed so much diet coke the waitress finally just brought over a pitcher.  I went with a hefeweizen.  Hey, I was on vacation and I was going to have alcohol with every meal even if it killed me.  I thought the burger was great.  Meat was tender with great flavor, grilled to medium, with a nice char on the outside.  Bleu cheese wasn't overwhelming.  Could have used more bacon, or a better way of organizing the bacon to ensure bacon in every bite.  I made my usual spread of ketchup, mustard and mayo- which was also an excellent dip for the chips.  They serve salsa with their potato chips which must be a Utah thing, because salsa is for tortilla chips, dip is for potato chips.  Duh.

No Name is a great place to take a breather at Sundance; the food will fill you up and they have a massive bar.  Decor is all western, and vintage advertising, with plenty of tables, one long bar and good sized restrooms.  It gets crowded, so that is an important plus.  Definitely stop in here if you're in Park City, but don't try to be dainty about what you order, go for the jugular and you won't be disappointed.

Recon: 26 BEACH

Venice, California

26 Beach is big but has sort of a split layout with a bar in the middle. You can eat in the dining room or in the garden, but they’re both kind of indoor/outdoor spaces. Décor is eclectic- faux copper ceiling, sparkly chandeliers- 26 Beach definitely has delusions of grandeur. I gathered with a team of three other attractive ladies to do some burger sampling.  We started with salads- which were delicious.  Meredith and I shared a Caesar that I very much enjoyed. Andrea and Megan opted for a house garden salad. We chose two burgers: the 26er and the Napa burger.

The 26er is best described as a grown-up version of an In N Out burger. It’s classic ingredients and flavors (lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mayo and special dressing) left us feeling reminiscent of our fast food days in the most mature way possible. The Napa burger has avocado, heirloom tomato, goat cheese, mixed greens, mayo and Dijon on a wheat bun. I bet you’re shocked I didn’t order anything with bacon. The Napa burger was refreshing. The avocado and goat cheese definitely stood out, in a good way, and complimented the meat.  Both burgers were made with angus beef but the restaurant does offer a veggie burger as well as a turkey burger. Presentation was tidy and a little tall. We explained to the waitress we were sharing, but nothing came out cut, so we asked for a knife and stabbed away. Cutting the burgers turned them real messy, real quick, but they never got soggy and stayed together ok.

This place is all about flavor combination. Some of the burgers might seem a little odd at first glance; there’s a sushi burger and PB&J burger that I might initially throw a side-eye at, but my gut says Chef Mori knows what’s up.  We saw several other plates of awesome looking food coming out of the kitchen and it definitely piqued my interest in the rest of the menu. Thursday nights are half off wine night- I swear I didn’t know in advance, it was a happy coincidence- so we ordered the Uppercut Cabernet Sauvignon and I liked it, may be a little woody/dry for some of you but I enjoyed. Tuesdays, it’s buy a burger and get another half off, so you can bet when we go back it’ll be on a Tuesday and we’ll get four burgers. They were generously sized; if I skipped the salad appetizer I could probably eat a whole one.

Now for a wee bit of the negative, the fries were boring. Thick cut, lacking flavor, in all seriousness, get the salad. Burgers come with either or, and I say eat your veggies on this one. We asked for mayo, ketchup and Dijon so I was able to make a dip at the table that livened up the fries but really, skip ‘em. Service was so-so.  Everything we asked for they brought us, but I felt like we had to ask for things that should have been automatic.  It was a nice place to sit and chat with friends and would be a good spot for a date as well. Our bill was $76 and felt reasonable for what we ordered. If you’re feeling brave or open-minded dash over to 26 Beach and sample a more imaginative burger- they have more burgers in the restaurant than listed on the online menu!