How to make your belly happy.

You’ve had a tough day and you really want to treat yourself to make it all better. Best way to indulge? Chow down on the decadent lobster mac and cheese at Blue Palms Brewhouse in Hollywood. Yup, this craft beer bar not only features 24 awesome beers on tap at any given time but it has delicious food to boot! (Click here for their menu.)

Its lobster mac & cheese can be ordered up as a $7 half order or a $12 full serving. But I like to get it as a side (for an additional $2.50) to the veggie burger because, as it turns out, as much as I love the stuff, the side portion is just the right size. The cheese here is so creamy and not too sharp. The cheese-to-pasta ratio is perfect, as there are some places where either the pasta is left swimming in the cheese or, horror of horrors, there’s so little of the good stuff. And naturally, since it’s a sin to have cold melted cheese, it’s best to enjoy your side first. The burger can wait. Arggh, I’m just salivating looking at that picture. The only thing is that the subtle flavor of the lobster is hidden in the cheese. But I still wouldn’t kick this mac n’ cheese out of bed.

In any case, I highly recommend hitting up BPB during its $4 pint night on Tuesdays when you can get ANY beer off the 24-tap list for only $4 through 10pm! That includes the strong Belgian ones that come in tulip glasses! I took advantage of this deal the Tuesday after their 3rd anniversary party when they had a lot of rare and amazing brews left over. Teh awesome! The best beers and delicious mac ‘n cheese? You’ll forget all your worries in no time.

Blue Palms Brewhouse
6124 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, California 90028 (map)
(323) 464-BEER
Facebook: Blue Palms Brewhouse
Twitter: @BluePalms_Brew

Fast-food childhood revisited. (Sorry for the cellphone picture.)

Last night, I tried the Glutster for the first time and boy, delicious. The burger, not the blogger. The decadent burger was created by Biergarten chef Eddie Hah (formerly of 8 oz) as an ode to kid blogger (really, 22 years old) Glutster, who is well-known in the L.A. food blogging circles thanks to praise by Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Gold, Chef Ludo Lefebvre and the New Yorker, not to mention his basic ubiquity on the food scene via TV shows, blogs, newspapers, magazines.

So it makes sense that he gets a burger created for him. And not surprisingly, the Glutster burger is for the daring and the non-dieting as it’s made with a pork patty, chipotle black beans, epazote aioli, pickled onion, fried green tomato and guacamole. And delicate eaters can forget it as well. In other words, DO NOT order this on a first date as there’s no way you can get around the messy goodness of black beans and guacamole sauciness sliding all over the place. Even my boyfriend of many years raised an eyebrow as I went through three napkins, wiping up my chin and my fingers. “Don’t look at me, honey!”

Now, Glutster, aka Javier Cabral, prefers the burger with the pork patty but you can also order it with either a beef or a beef-pork blend patty. Neil, owner of Biergarten, said he likes it with beef. I ordered mine with the pork, only cuz I’m not a big beef eater.

Suffice it to say, great burger. Like it reminded Javier of his fast-food-driven childhood, it took me back to my favorite Carl’s Jr. burger while growing up. I don’t really remember its name, I think it had “California” in it. But it was made with a big chile and guacamole and it was sadly only available for a limited time. Sigh. But here again was that spiciness and the creamy guac, this time accompanied with a bit of tang from the pickled onion and even char on the pork! Almost tasted homemade.

I was very nearly able to enjoy it without the guilt that so often plagues my indulgences now that I’m an adult with sucky metabolism. Regardless, last night at Glutster’s party, where he was celebrating his cover story in this month’s Saveur Magazine, I enjoyed the burger with a La Fin du Monde followed by a Gnomegang. Take that, diet!