Anyone brave/crazy enough to touch down on The Grove on Black Friday encountered a new lunch option abutting the farmers market. Nancy Silverton’s Short Order Burger officially opened for lunch on November 25th, the start of new hours that find the restaurant open seven days a week at 11:00 A.M. In addition, Short Order has a selection of brunch dishes coming out on January 1st, the first full menu for which we have below, toad-in-the-hole, benedict burgers, and all.
We took advantage of the heavily anticipated project’s new daylight hours this past weekend to squeeze into the coveted upstairs seats (beside ink. chef de cuisine Cole Dickinson and family), where pork, lamb, and tuna burgers, as well as tuna nicoise and frisee lardon “rafts,” are also available off the regular menu served downstairs. Our entrance (compared to our egress, which left one stocking torn and one thigh lacerated by the sharp end of a communal table) was a snap. And what did we think of the three burgers we tried?
We’d been looking forward to Silverton and Amy Pressman’s burgers for over two years and, as expected, found absolutely everything conceived to the absolute closest point of perfection: soft, fluffy brioche buns, deliriously pink, grass-fed beef in a loose, juicy, smoky patty of significant size, the crispest heritage toppings, with luxury cheese and artisan bacon (on Nancy’s backyard burger). It’s clear from touchdown that these studiously crafted burgers have all the right components in place. They are burgers of perfect parts that somehow, disappointingly, don’t come together yet to form truly spectacular wholes.
While an excellent example of a expertly engineered burger, it feels as though Short Order’s burger is a bit over-ordered and a little too perfect, leading to a burger that sadly lacks some necessary soul and unique character. Could the intrusion of something a little grimier have improved this little miss perfect burger? Could be. More frustrating, two-plus years of R&D; somehow lead to one of our least favorite burger bobbles: Placing the patty on top with the so-called “toppings” on the bottom, often done to spare the integrity of the bun, but almost always breaking the spell of our burger nostalgia. Cries of our initial disappointment still echo through the Hollywood Hills over this bold choice.
Still, Short Order provides a clean, cool respite among the muddle of The Grove and an improved addition to O.G. Farmer’s Market meal offerings. While it won’t unseat our own top five burgers anytime soon, we’ll be back for the wonderful Short Order spuds, Julian Cox’s cocktails, and to sample this brunch menu you see below, coming to the restaurant on January 1st.
Short Order, now open 11:00 A.M. daily.
Short Order Brunch Menu
coming January 1st, 2012
Benedict Burger ……………………………………11.00
Ham-burger, fried egg, english muffin, hollandaise
Rob’s Breakfast Sando………………………7.00
Artisan bacon, fried egg, cheddar, english muffin, tomato, bibb
French Toasted Sausage………………………………………………………..12.00
Egg-dipped & griddled bun, chicken sausage, maple syrup
Toad in the Hole………………………………..9.00
Two eggs fried in bun, breakfast or Florentine gravy
Breakfast Cobb……………………………….10.00
Fried egg, artisan bacon, feta, avocado, tomato, frisée, bibb,
lamb’s lettuce, lemon vinaigrette
Breakfast Herb Tots………………………4.00
Short Stack……………………………………………9.50
Marion’s heavenly hots, butter, maple syrup
Fruit Compote & Straus Yogurt………………………………..6.00
Morning Sweets……………………………….4.00
Breakfast Cereal ……………………………..5.50
