Summer. The season to fire up the old Weber. Nothing says summer like a smokey grill, frosty beer and sizzling steaks. It is part of the fabric of our American culture. Summer barbeques bring people together. They let people  indulge in great food and drink. Most importantly they let you showcase your skills on the grill.

Luckily, I live in Southern California so my Summer grilling season lasts about three months longer than most. We are able to grill outdoors well into November without having to bundle up in our parka’s and scarves. This weekend was a perfect example of our climatological advantages. While much of the country can see Winter peeking upon the horizon, us Los Angelinos  were awarded with a weekend perfectly suited for the beach, football tailgate or backyard barbeque… all three if you were lucky.

My weekend saw me tinkering with a few new marinades, tailgating at USC before watching my Alma Mater get stomped and grilling chorizo and eggs for a great hangover meal. There is just something about putting meat over flame that eases the mind. A long hard week can be washed always with some ground beef, chicken wings and sausages…. not to mention a dozen beers or so. It rejuvenates the soul and body and gives you all the more reason to work for the next Saturday.

I love Summer. I love to barbeque. A life without those two would not be a life worth living.

make the explosion THIS big!!!!!!

(Hey Party Hat Dog, please check Michael Bay’s alibi)

This is an old story but I found it very funny. Despite the very incriminating photo above, an island in the Caribbean basically blew up because of a faulty gas line leading to a BBQ shack. Did I turn off the gas valve to my grill last night???

Read more below….

In December of 2006, a devastating fireball scorched over half of a small island in the Caribbean. From the Metro UK news.

This was the staggering scene after a faulty gas cooker exploded in a timber-framed shack – and devastated a tiny Caribbean island.

The blast caused an inferno that leapt from hut to hut, taking less than ten minutes to sweep across Soledad Miria.

Many of the 1,014 inhabitants dived into the sea or took to fishing boats to escape. More than a third – 348 – were injured but, amazingly, no one died.

I guarantee that the true story contains some form of the phrases: jerk chicken, Rastafarian, weed and nap. This whole thing just reeks of stoned Jerk Shack cook.

Or I could just go with my gut and say it had to do with a Nick Cage movie and Micheal Bay in an off-shore yacht pushing one of those old timey dynamite plungers. A boy can dream….

Wanting to start off the great quest with a bang, I scoured google for a local place that I had never heard of, yet had great reviews. I grabbed a buddy and set off to find out if this little place was as charming as it’s billed to be. It didn’t hurt that this restaurant was located in my neighborhood. On a perfect Westside evening, with the sunset painting beautiful pinks and blues across the cloud-strewn sky, I sat down at stop number 1 on my great burger quest.

This great little hole in the wall is ironically named Hole In The Wall Burger Joint. This small restaurant is located just off one of the busiest intersections in West Los Angeles, yet nobody would even know it exists because it is tucked behind a shopping center and has no on-street signage.

What the Hole In The Wall Burger Joint lacks in marketing, it makes up for in friendly service, casual ambiance and very delicious hamburgers. After easily finding street parking, we walked up to what must have once been a loading dock or rear parking space for a restaurant. Looks can be deceiving though because there is no doubt that we stumbled upon a hidden treasure. The entrance to the restaurant is decorated in an “industrial” manner and has a blown up copy of its small and simple menu embossed on the glass window. There is some counter space inside and a dozen or so tables in front if you choose to dine in. On a sunny day, the patio area can be covered over with two sails taken from the owners boat. This addition gives the place a little charm and bit of a back yard BBQ feel.

The ordering is simple. There is a small sheet of paper and some pencils on the counter where you mark out what you want. There are not too many options, but I was able to put together a delicious looking burger that consisted of the 8oz. beef patty, onion, lettuce, cheddar cheese, chipotle mayo, honey bacon and roasted red peppers. The highlight of the burger was the house-made zucchini pickles, which add a little touch of originality where you normally would not find it.

As the server walked out with our burgers he grabbed a stack of napkins and said that we would need them. He was not joking! The thick, half-pound burgers were some of the bigger burgers that I had ever seen. I was in for a feast.

The burger was everything that you would not expect from such a small, unheard of place. It started well with fresh vegetables and a delicious sauce. The meat was well balanced and cooked to a perfect pink middle. The showstopper was the golden-brown pretzel bun. This bun added some crisp sweetness to the very savory burger and sauces. It was a great getaway from the normal wheat or sesame bun that you find at just about every other burger place.

Overall, Hole In The Wall Burger Joint was a great experience. The act of finding this small, off-the-beaten-path eatery was a joy in itself and the burger was surprisingly good too! This little gem is a great place to bring friends on a lazy weekend day, or for take-out on a weeknight. The service was friendly and fast and for $7.95 was not all that much more expensive than a fast food burger.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Hole In The Wall Burger Joint

(website)

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Each restaurant has it’s own flair and it’s own charm. It’s hard to gauge each place on a equal playing field since there is so much that goes into the experience of eating. It’s easy to judge the burger alone, but that is only half the fun. It is about ambiance… or lack there of. It is about service. It is about the people who dine there. But most of all, it is about your level of satisfaction when you have devoured the food. In lieu of this, I’ll be putting each burger joint into a category and choosing the best one from each.

There is The Unknown; this is the place right around the corner from you that you pass on the way to work everyday. You may not even know that it is exists, but there is a large and loyal following. The service is good and the people are nice. The only problem is finding anyone who even knows about it.

There is The Hip; this is the place where every skinny jeans wearing cool kid with a sweet haircut goes. They will tell you that this place has, bar-none, the best burger that they have ever had. It probably is good, but since that hipster has sang similar praise about crappy music and horrible films, you are quick to shut down his recommendation.

There is The Dive; this is the place that looks way too dirty for you to go, but there is always a line at lunch so it catches your eye. It may be a little shack on the corner, or a plain looking storefront that has caused you to ignore it and instead go for the McStandard burger. Either way, these are the types of places where magic happens on the grill.

And finally, there is The Fancy; this is the place where you have to make a reservation and put on your snazziest sweater vest. This is the place that your girlfriend may actually order a burger and not her usually salad with the dressing on the side. There will most likely be a valet that will steal your change and waiters who know nothing about the food but will try to sell you their screenplay about a down and out waiter in LA who makes it big after he wins the dancing contest [Ed- hey, I might actually watch that]. But many times these are the places that house the best chefs and the highest quality food.

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Hey ladies, this giant six-shooter pistol BBQ is not compensating for anything. Who wants a hot dog? YEE-HAW!!!!

I think I’m going to build a smoker grill that looks like Cheech and Chong.

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L.A. does many things wrong. The Hills, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, our Mayor, our Governor, crime, clean air, natural disasters, Lindsey Lohan…[ED: did I use that one already?]…just to name a few. But one thing that this city does right is burgers. Some of the largest fast food chains were started in or near LA, including McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr [ED: whoops, there's that damn Hilton chick again] and In’N’Out Burger. And their legacy has given this city a reputation for producing some great burgers.

I’m setting out on an epic journey to find the best burger in town. I will go to hole in the walls, chic Beverly Hills eateries, as well as the popular burger joints to find what is truly the best burger in town.

Enjoy… I know I will!

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Our mission here at The Barbeque Life is to give you some guidance in and around the grill. We’ve always found many of the large barbequing sites and books to be centered around expensive and time intensive options and the TV show cooks to be quite pretentious.

Like us, you probably BBQ for yourself and for family and friends on a pretty regular basis. If you were to follow a recipe for some book or website, you would be as broke as a recent college grad. Well, we are recently broke college grads so we know a thing or two about grilling on the cheap.

But we know how to make our cheap grilling into gourmet affairs. We want to show you how to grill like a gourmet chef from the Food Network without breaking the bank. We will share some of our favorite recipes, try some new ones and hope to inspire you to share some of your best.

We also want to be more than just an informational blog. We want to entertain you with great stories and fun reviews of tailgates and BBQ joints.

-Grill Guy

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Welcome to the THE BARBEQUE LIFE. This blog is setting out to become the premier destination for your grilling needs. We will provide you with entertaining articles about our favorite recipes, restaurants, tailgating needs and grilling lifestyle products. We love to grill, and we want to share our passion with all of you. Grilling gives us a purpose in life and we believe that you will enjoy our entertaining style of writing and commentary.

Enjoy!

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