Johnny Garlic’s – Santa Rosa, CA

Love him or hate him, you all know who Guy Fieri is. Guy has been one of the heavy hitters in the super-celebrifying of the chef, and I am definitely guilty of going out of my way to stop at places featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. My girlfriend’s parents are fans of the show, and enjoy visiting featured places when they are traveling as well. So naturally they wanted to check out one of Guy’s own restaurants when they came up to visit.

So up north, beyond the outskirts of the Bay Area, is Johnny Garlic’s. It’s called a pasta grill, but the dishes are pretty all over the place, especially for its location. The menu has something for everyone on it, including vegetarians and generally picky eaters. But then it also has bison burgers, and some exotic animal as the Hunter’s Special. I’ve actually been a few times, and had things like the pizza, and everything has been pretty tasty. The bread they bring out is always a huge hit too. But that is not why we are here. We are here for this.

Checking their website and menu now, it looks like this burger has been updated. I had the Snake River BBQ Burger, but now it appears to have been replaced by Guy’s Big Bite Burger. They have added a pretzel roll (one of my personal favorites), and swapped the pepper-jack for cheddar. The BBQ burger was really good. Should this be surprising or not, I don’t know, but it really was solid. The bacon is thick and crispy, breaking apart cleanly with each bite. There’s some onion straws on top for some added crunch, though not overwhelming. The bun was actually really good, with a little bit of crunch to it. Almost a bummer that they went to a pretzel bun, when their regular buns were already rather good, and so many other places would benefit much more from it. What really pulled this burger together though was the BBQ sauce. Definitely a top notch and delicious sauce. It was sweet enough where it balanced the kick of the pepper-jack and brought the whole thing together. They use higher quality ingredients, and its definitely noticeable.

This messy burger caught me off guard, as it was a bit better than I was really expecting. I figured it would be good, albeit standard, but everything worked really well together. It’s a bit higher priced at 13.95 with a side of fries, but that is most likely a balance of local meat and a sprinkle of unicorn dust for that bbq sauce. As a whole, the restaurant is a good place for friends or family; it’s a little loud, there are tv’s up, and the waitstaff is pretty consistently great. The onion rolls they serve with oil and vinegar get devoured plate after plate, and if you can survive for dessert they have some pretty decadent options as well. Prices seem a couple dollars too high on some items, but it is good food and a good time.

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You can get more info at http://www.johnnygarlics.com/

Sylvester’s – Los Osos, California

Usually I like to give a little background and talk about the restaurant before really getting into my own opinion, but with Sylvester’s I just can’t do that. I have to say Sylvester’s is why this website exists, and it is what set in stone what a great burger and burger place should be.

Sylvester’s is a ten to fifteen minute drive outside of San Luis Obispo, a medium sized college town where I spent my academic career. With that being the case, it seemed to take at least 1 or 2 years until you heard about Sylvester’s. They are tucked away a few blocks off the main road that runs through Los Osos, so you really just have to know about it beforehand. But word spreads fast, and once someone who knows someone you know has had Sylvester’s, you’ll hear about it.

I instantly fell in love with Sylvester’s. It was a small burger shack kind of place, but they have recently opened it up a bit more and have also redone the outer patios. It also used to be cash only, but that too is no longer the case. The menu has a lot of options for burger style, and you can swap out the patty for chicken, veggie, grass-fed Hearst Beef and even buffalo or elk. Burger’s come in the 1/3 and 1/2 pound variety.

As for pricing, it feels like a shock for anyone from the Bay Area or Los Angeles. Almost every 1/2 pound burger is under $7. I went with a 1/2 pound Desperado burger – bacon, Pepper Jack and BBQ sauce and it was only $6.95. We also ordered onion rings, which are $3.65 for a half pound.

I have a few friends who were my Sylvester’s buddies, and between all of us the Desperado was almost always ordered. I may have ordered the Hana Hawaiian burger once, but every other time I’ve gone western. The second most popular I believe is the Mushroom Swiss burger, but the Desperado is just a beautiful thing. And upon receiving mine, I threw on some of the onion rings for the perfect burger.

One of the nice things about these burgers is their diameter is pretty large. Personally, I am not a fan of real thick patties, I like the balance of a standard patty thickness with the rest of the ingredients, so if it’s gonna be big either go double patty or spread it out more. Sylvester’s just has that perfect melding of every ingredient, everything is working together to make it great. The bacon is crispy, and snaps cleanly when eating so you don’t have to go messing with the structure of the burger. This is a very good thing, because when they say “Big, Hot N’ Juicy” they really mean it. Not only are the patties juicy, but every burger and sandwich is extremely messy. The Desperado oozes its delicious BBQ sauce everywhere, perfect for dipping when you are trying to finish off the fries. And just about every other sandwich and burger also acts the same, but unlike fast food chains its not mayo thats dripping everywhere, it’s one of their many delicious sauces. Be prepared. The photo below is the aftermath of a 4 person lunch, with an order of fries and onion rings. The napkin death toll was probably around the 25 mark, and I was still rather sticky.

For anyone who’s read the page on my Burger Beliefs, this is exactly where the “Don’t put it down once you pick it up” rule comes into play. You try and put one of these down and it just is not going to work out for you. As I’ve gotten older, I am more likely to leave a bit behind or eat it slowly, especially at a 1/2 pound, but this burger got annihilated. I looked up and my partner in crime (and also the one who introduced me to Sylvester’s) was already working on his fries with just a puddle of barbecue sauce remaining on his tray. His wife and my girlfriend also made quick work of theirs, but our basket of fries and onion rings proved too much for the group. The conversation again returned, as silence had come with the arrival of our food. A obvious sign of how good the food is is how quiet the group is when they are eating it.

When I think of a burger place, I think of Sylvester’s. And any other burger place I’ve gone to since will be compared to it. One of my close friends who is also a burger fiend took his brother their once. Now he drives an extra burger back from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles for his brother. It is just that good. So it is a bit of a trip to get here unless you live in the central coast, but take a nice weekend off in San Luis Obispo, go visit Montaña de Oro State Park in Los Osos, and then have an amazing burger. There is not much better in life than that.

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Learn more about them at:
http://www.sylvestersburgers.com

1099 Santa Ynez Ave.
Los Osos, Ca 93402
(805) 528-0779

Johnny Memphis’ Smokehouse Barbecue – Manhattan Beach, CA

Well this was a surprise. I spent 4th of July weekend in LA, and I have built up a decent selection of burger places to try out there. We ended up being rather busy the whole time and never made it to any of those places, but I still got a burger in. After a long and almost stupidly-hot day somewhere in “the valley” (my LA geography is terrible) we wanted to grab some food on the way back. Johnny Memphis’ Smokehouse Barbecue was mentioned, and thankfully the whole car agreed.

I hadn’t heard about this place before, and it was a typical strip mall location. It has somewhat recently changed names and ownership. Not being a local I am unsure if there were menu changes or just behind the scenes stuff, and their website is absolutely of no help (I really need to push my web design services to all these restaurants, but that is a whole other story). Anyhow, this place is totally non-assuming from the outside. I have no judgement over being in a strip mall, as I have had great and terrible burgers in terrible and great looking places.

The menu is large, and has a good variety. They offer 6 burgers, which seems like a lot for a BBQ smokehouse. They have plenty of other meaty goodness, and the giant stuffed potato and pulled chicken sandwich my girlfriend and her sister ordered also looked great. A little something for everyone, which isn’t always the case at a place like this.

Obviously I went with the BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger. Applewood-Smoked Bacon, Onion Rings, Sharp Cheddar and Barbecue Sauce. I am capitalizing these words because they are all important. This was one hell of a burger. $8.99 and it came with seasoned shoestring fries. 4 items on a bun, and nothing more could be needed. Where do you even start when breaking this burger down? It requires some serious smashing if you are trying to go bun to bun on your first bite, but you will be doing yourself a favor if you can manage the complete bite. They have house-made bbq sauce in two varieties, and it is great. Real sweet style barbecue sauce, and you can really taste the honey. Even in the pictures you can see how strong a base honey is in the sauce. My mouth is literally watering thinking about it. Not in the cute writery sense, but am I actually wondering why I didn’t smuggle a few containers of it back on my plane.
Ok, so a delicious barbecue sauce does not an amazing burger make. But that onion ring. It was a beautiful thing. I have never had a better onion ring on a burger. At one point, I thought there was some cornbread involved (which I later may be experimenting with in a segment possibly titled “Failures in my Kitchen” or “How I Lost Everything in the Fire”). The batter is just absolutely stellar. And that ring was massive, and covered just about every bite of the burger. Success. The bacon offered its own hint of unique flavor too, and though it was much more subtle it was another reason this was so good. A blt with that barbecue sauce would make a killer sandwich on its own, that is if you ended up there for breakfast.

The patty here is large and mine was cooked just right. And while it was large, it had the perfect thickness to surface area ratio. With the bacon and onion ring on top, you definitely want a lot of area, and it delivers. This was a messy burger, but the meat was nice and juicy without sogging up the bun or getting everywhere. I thankfully was only covered in sauce and not grease. It reached a point where I was dipping fries on my hands, but what more could you ask for from a bbq sauce claiming to have the best sauce west of the Mississippi (I think they have a chance)? The bun was nice and airy, and complemented the rest of the burger well. Nothing out of the ordinary, but definitely tasty.

This was a total surprise for me. We stopped here so randomly, and it’s now a go to place whenever I head back into LA. I haven’t had a western barbecue bacon onion-ringed burger this good in a very long time. If you are anywhere nearby I highly recommend you go!

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Johnny Memphis’ Smokehouse Barbecue
http://jmsbbq.com
3564 N Sepulveda Blvd,
Manhattan Beach CA 90266