Father's Office

February 22, 2006 (by Lincoln)

Ready, fire, aim...

The call came in at 7:30.  Andy was performing routine reconnaissance on the night's tour and discovered...it was closed!  WTF?!?  It's bad enough Ercole's ran out of burgers, but an early closer?  Turned out it was Tony's night...  After a brief huddle in the Raytheon parking lot - Mistro [sic] called the audible.  "Father's Office" it is!  Next came the cascade of phone/emails directing people to the new location.  Perhaps the best part of the tour was being able to tell everyone to take Montana, then "you'll have to go down on Lincoln."  Nobody got it.  I did.  Tony's folly did prompt a new rule to the credo - rule #5.  Make doubly sure the place is opened past 8:00.  Tony did place a call, but turns out that by "open," Marty's Hamburger Stand meant they were not yet bankrupt - not that they were open at night.

Father's Office is really like walking into your father's office.  No, my father didn't have 40 taps on the wall - but the size of this place is not much larger than dad's typical office.  The fourteen of us ended up staged around a chest-high table that would have been a squeeze even for two.  We still have to wait for this spot - and we were lucky.  The place offers a variety of on tap beers - particularly a good selection from Belgium.  Each type has its own glass, which makes it easy to keep track.  Sweet potato fries were fantastic - and the burger was unstoppable.  Don't come here wanting anything else.  The only other options were "Warm Forest Mushroom Salad" and "Frisee aux Laudons"...and they were all out of the Frisee.  Starting from the middle, its a blue-cheese burger with caramelized onions and fancy lettuce.  I was later corrected that the fancy greens were in fact called "arugula."  Go figure.  There's no ketchup or salt, and no need for any - don't bother asking.  They won't give you any.  And they only serve the burger one way - rare.  Don't worry, its perfectly done - juicy, all between two halves of a soft french roll.  There's some magic to this place.  In the back hangs two drapes.  You can see a glow of light from behind - but never anyone coming in or out.  Its strange.  Just burgers coming out - and empty plates going back in.  Chris thought there was likely a golden Buddha overseeing the whole operation.  I recommend an extra glass of water (also on tap, with a fire hydrant for the pull) - for whatever reason, the food leaves you extremely thirsty.

We had some new tourists tonight, which was good.  Immediately lost Monica and Jaime to a pair of "producers"...in LA of all places.  At one point I heard Whitney talking about how if we turned the burger tour into a dating site, vegetarians would eventually die out as they would have no way of meeting anyone.  Should be noted that Tony picked up the drink check.  We figured its sort of like Cheney going quail hunting.  Chances are good he won't make the same mistake again.  For that reason, we opted to give Tony another chance.  Week after next is his chance for redemption.

Some comments:

"So good I wet my pants a little"

"Seating can be challenging"

"Best burger yet"

"Its good, but you must go to the bar to order.  That sucks."

"In my mind FO has the best burger in LA"

"They don't give people ketchup and mustard.  I respect that."

"Pink juicy meat.  How meat should be"

"Loved the caramelized onions"

"Good social scene - awesome burger"

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