hamburger

After months of anticipation, The Habit Burger Grill has opened in El Segundo at the corner of Sepulveda Blvd and Grand Ave. The line was literally out the door as hundreds of hungry folks on lunch break streamed out of the neighboring businesses.

One of the best ways to celebrate summer is with food, music, and a few hundred of your friends and neighbors.  Sounds like a block party to me!  Plaza El Segundo, the shopping center located at the corner of Sepulveda and Roscrans, recently kicked summer of with a block partythat featured plenty of the ingridents to mix up a celebration to remember.

Last weekend, Josh (the commander in chief over at Food GPS) brought a crack team of food bloggers to our neck of the woods for a marathon; a food marathon.  The concept?  To spend an afternoon eating and drinking at some tasty spots near the beach.

Imagine, walking through your grocery store and, just as you past the produce section, a quaint little patio restaurant pops out of nowhere.  It has an open kitchen with a charbroiler, a bar and tables facing a ceiling mounted flat screen TV, and a menu featuring burgers, salads, and BBQ combo plates.  That’s Bill’s Grill!

Here’s another one for National Hamburger Month.  The folks at The Habit Burger Grill have seen fit to bless the South Bay with a second location of their counter-service style build your own burger joint.

Having experienced the comforting surroundings of public houses (aka pubs) in England, I can appreciate the look and feel of Hennessey’s in Manhattan Beach. But beyond the cozy feel, great service, and Guinness propaganda all over the place, the food is what keeps me coming back.  Particularly on Two Timin’ Tuesdays.

There are so many great places in LA where you can get a gourmet burger made to order.  Some of my favorites – The Counter, Houston’s, and numerous diners around the South Bay – are well worth the visit.

But these days, I’m finding it harder and harder to shell out $10 or more for a burger and fries at these places.  I’m even thinking twice about the $5 #2 “animal style” at In-N-Out!

To get over my hamburger-centric economic angst, I decided to do gourmet burgers at home.

Today I was fortunate to  participate in a soft opening at The Counter, located in Plaza El Segundo.  The staff there referred to the event as a “Practice Party”.  Party indeed; All seats for this free — yes free! — event were by invitation and reservation only.  Thankfully, Annalise had been on top of this [...]