Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [249]
Steak at the Hitching Post is part of a full dinner, which is the archetypal Santa Maria repertoire of relish tray with sweet peppers and chile peppers, celery ribs, carrot sticks, and olives, plus shrimp cocktail made with teensy-weensy shrimp, a green head-lettuce salad, garlic toast, and potatoes, either baked or French fried.
Ambience is cattle country supreme: a big, dimly lit roadhouse with linoleum floors and red tablecloths, each table supplied with a basket full of cellophane-wrapped saltines. Above the bar, a TV is always playing; the mirror is plastered with decals from NASA, the Voyager space shuttle, and the Army Corps of Engineers; a bison head on one wall wears a Buffalo Bills cap. In the dining room, which affords a view of the kitchen, there are mounted deer heads and old black-and-white family photos of young Bill and his brother on hunting and fishing trips with their dad when they were young. The hallway that leads to the restrooms is lined with cattle hides.
Hob Nob Hill
2271 First Ave.
619–239–8176
San Diego, CA
BLD | $
The California coffee shop is a unique style of square-meal restaurant, but there aren’t a lot of them left. Hob Nob Hill is classic, a three-meal-a-day place where the food is homey, the service fast, and the prices low. At mealtimes, especially breakfast, chances are you will have to wait in line. But the line moves quickly, and once you are seated you are set upon by a team of waitresses who could not move faster if they flew through the aisles—taking orders, filling coffee cups, making sure everyone is happy.
Hob Nob Hill’s repertoire is broad, and there isn’t a clinker on the menu. There are pecan waffles, pigs in blankets (buttermilk pancakes rolled with ham, sausage, and sour cream), blueberry hotcakes, grilled smoked pork chops, etc.—plus a bakery’s worth of coffee cakes, muffins (try carrot), and a not-to-be-missed pecan roll. Even little amenities are special: syrup is served warm; jelly comes in hollowed-out orange halves; coffee is strong and rich.
At dinner, it’s meat-and-potatoes time: leg of lamb with sage dressing and mint jelly, chicken and dumplings, roast tom turkey with giblet gravy, corned beef and cabbage, pot roast and buttered noodles every Sunday. There are turkey croquettes with cranberry sauce, a nursery-food breast-of-chicken curry, and baked ham with fruit sauce and yams on Thursday. Accompaniments are such comfort-food side dishes as warm applesauce (homemade, of course), marinated bean salad, and puffy yeast rolls.
Hodad’s
5010 Newport Ave.
619–224–4623
Ocean Beach, CA
LD | $
Hodad’s motto, on a sign above the cash registers: “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem!”
This ultra-casual beachside eatery offers hamburgers in three sizes (mini, single, and double), cheeseburgers, and bacon cheeseburgers. They come solo or as part of a basket with a pile of French fries, and they are sights to behold. The double, which is two good-size patties, is huge beyond belief, piled inside a broad sesame-seed bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup. The menu warns that all burgers come with all condiments “unless you say otherwise” and frankly, we suggest that unless you are allergic, all the way is the way to go.
The hamburger is presented partially wrapped in yellow wax paper, which provides a way to hoist it from the table and to keep it relatively together as you try to eat it. The French fries in the basket are thick wedges of potato with pleasantly tough skins and creamy insides. To drink on the side, we recommend a milkshake or malt (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry) served in a glass and the silver beaker with a straw and a necessary spoon.
Just getting to Hodad’s is a blast. Lined with palm trees, and with a gorgeous ocean view, Newport