Opening the show with a brief visit with Evan Papadakis the Co-owner of Zuzu’s Petals in the East Village area of Long Beach and a participant in Long Beach Burger Week. Chef Jessie Franco’s (Co-owner) creation for LBBW is a Brie-stuffed Kobe Burger with bacon onion jam, fig aioli and lemon vinaigrette tossed arugula. “Long Beach residents and visitors alike are in for a treat as dozens of local restaurants and pop-ups will offer unique over-the-top Burgers and value-priced Burger Offers when the 4th annual Long Beach Burger Week returns July 21-28, 2024. Organized by local non-profit Long Beach Food & Beverage, the organization felt that in addition to encouraging local and surrounding "foodies” to enjoy what the expanding Long Beach culinary community has to offer, events like Burger Week support the local economy and put “butts in seats” of our valued restaurants.
Outrageous Fair Food is always a mouthwatering highlight of any Fair visit. What crazy edible will they next put on a stick? One of the all-star, Fair Food personalities is the well-traveled Midway Gourmet, Chef Dominic Palmieri of Biggy’s fame on the RCS Carnival Midway. We’ll find out what indulgent deliciousness Chef Dominic is cooking up now for The OC Fair (“Always a Good Time”) running through Sunday, August 18th We’re taking Fair Food at its tastiest best with The Midway Gourmet.
The Peppermill Restaurant and Fireside Lounge located on The Strip in Las Vegas was one of six recipients this year from all over the United States of the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award as an America’s Classic. Joining us to celebrate this honor is Executive Chef Nicholas Orth who has been cooking there since high school. Opened in 1972 by Nat Carasali and Bill Paganetti, the Peppermill Restaurant and Fireside Lounge has been a Las Vegas icon for over 51 years. “It’s appeared in movies like Casino and Show Girls, has been frequented by mobsters and celebrities, and it’s best known for its over-the-top pink and purple neon nights, fire pits, faux botanicals, oversized drinks in the cocktail lounge, and massive platters of elevated diner classics in the family-friendly restaurant.”
“At Lustig in the Helms Bakery Complex in Culver City they speak FOOD – the language of the world. A casual neighborhood spot, serving a modern twist on dishes that you know and love. There is an Austrian vein running through the culinary offerings with Chef Bernhard Mairinger (ex-BierBeisl in Beverly Hills) combining the flavors of the world in an innovative way. Enjoy a whole new dining experience with Chef Bernhard at his restaurant.” Think Veal or Jidori Chicken Schnitzel served with lemon and a lingonberry-yuzu chutney. Also the BierBeisl Salad with romaine, arugula, pork belly, corn, pumpkin seed, radish peppers and Parmesan. How about a Raclette Cheese pizza with radicchio, potato confit and housemade pickled vegetables? Chef Bernhard takes a break from his busy kitchen to join us.
Our own Chef Andrew Gruel, the menu-maker behind the full-service Calico Fish House (in the Sunset Beach area of Huntington Beach) provides another timely and informative “Ask the Chef” segment where he responds to listeners’ thoughtful inquiries. Robotics and labor-saving automation are coming to restaurants particularly in the back-of-the house. Would you believe a robot that cuts, cores and peels avocados before prep cooks then mash them into guacamole? Chef Andrew gives you his informed perspective for what’s on the horizon from a chef’s and restaurateur’s POV.
All of this and heaping helpings of extra deliciousness on this week’s not-to-miss show!
Good morning Southern California and welcome. If you're food obsessed you've come to the right place. Join us for the next two hours and you won't go away hungry. One of the first American culinary icons Julia Child said people who love to eat are always the best people. We agree. Live from the AMA 30K LAA studios at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. The SoCal Restaurant Show is on the air. Welcome back. It is the SoCal Restaurant Show and happily we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 a.m. until 12 noon right here on AMA 30K LAA the Home of Angels baseball 2024 and you can also catch us on the AMA 30 Angels app. I'm Andy Harris the executive producer and co-host of the show. Thanks for sharing part of your Saturday morning with us. We certainly do appreciate it. My colleague chef Andrew Grulle of the Calico Fish House on Pacific Coast Highway in the Sunset Beach area of Huntington Beach will be joining us a little later in the show with his usual Ask the Chef segment and we're going to be discussing today robots and technology in restaurants because they are around. Do keep up with us on social media or on all the platforms just a great way of connecting us between Saturdays and giving you some extra visuals along the way particularly of the restaurants and food items we talk about on the show. A website's easy at SoCalRestaurantShow.com. Facebook is SoCal Restaurant Show. Send us a tweet if you like or an X or whatever it is @SoCalRestaurant and as we love to say for the very best and provocative food imagery Instagram too @SoCalRestaurantShow and we're enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats and happy to have Tony with us in technical excellence. Good morning Tony. Without further ado we have a guest waiting in the wings. The fourth annual Long Beach Burger Week starts tomorrow and runs through the 28th. One of the participating restaurants in Long Beach Burger Week is Zuzuz Petals in the East Village area of Long Beach and the Co-Proprietor from really a restaurant dynasty family is Evan Papadakis and it is a pleasure to welcome Evan to the SoCal Restaurant Show. Evan good morning. Good morning Andrew thanks for having me. Well Evan will pull the curtain back a little bit with our audience and mention that I had a chance to feast on some of your breakfast specialties a few weeks ago and really get acquainted with Zuzuz Petals and how you do business and what your philosophy is and how you got into the business and we're gonna save that because a couple weeks down the road you're going to be back with us for a full interview. But your partner and executive chef Jesse Franco has jumped in in a big way for the fourth annual Long Beach Burger Week. You normally have a smashed burger on your lunch restaurant menu but he had to come up with something special for the fourth annual Long Beach Burger Week which starts tomorrow and runs through the 28th. So first of all Evan let's tease our audience with this brief stuffed Kobe burger. Yeah we're excited to bring this to Burger Week in Long Beach. We believe that it's a phenomenal offering and dynamic for anyone who's coming into the city to participate and experience it. Our brief stuffed Kobe burger we're gonna make it with a bacon onion jam of fig aioli and a lemon vinaigrette tossed arugula. So it's gonna have a little bit of savory a little bit hanging a little bit of everything you can want in a burger and we're excited. Absolutely. Now what sort of a bun is this gonna be on Evan? We're serving it on a fresh baked brioche bun that we get from our partner Nona Mercado who you can find up in Bixby Knowles. They work with us on our fresh bread each morning and pastries. I got to love it and supporting local. Now talk about supporting local. The Long Beach Burger Week is put on by a nonprofit and they always give back to the community. So instead of having you know some sort of a walk around tasting to introduce Long Beach Burger Week every year they want to give back to the community and you participated in that this week. They always do a lunch to benefit the homeless. I believe this was at the Long Beach Rescue Mission this week. Frame that up for us Evan and mention your participation because again you're doing this as a volunteer you're a big believer in supporting the community and this is just a great example of that. Our restaurant Zuzuz Petals is smack dab in the middle of the East Village community of Long Beach in a residential area and we love that about our model and we can be close to our customers and who are our neighbors and get to know people on a first being basis, get to know what's going on in their lives, have them have their regular orders. Correct and Long Beach kicking off Burger Week at the Long Beach Rescue Mission and we we had my executive chef and brother go out to serve over 200 individuals. We brought big batches of our Caesar salad, other restaurants participated and we were able to serve over 200 members of the community that are in need and it is within our belief system to give back to the community so we have appreciated that very much. Well Evan I think it's just you know again we're all fortunate you know we have plenty to eat there a lot that don't and you know particularly when you're celebrating burgers you know you need to remember that there's some hungry folks out there so I think this is just a wonderful gesture that Long Beach Food and Beverage who organizes Burger Week every year that this is how they want to kick off the event and I congratulate and thank you for Zuzuz Petals being part of all of this because again it's not like you know restaurants have a lot of extra to be able to give away these days. The mandate is to hopefully stay in business so you know this is just great and definitely being part of the community. Evan is we're close to running out of time. Please let people know where you are in the East Village area of Long Beach, what your website is and what hours the burger is going to be available because we don't want anybody going down to Zuzuz Petals and not be able to get that brief stuffed Kobe Burger. Of course yeah Burger Week kicks off for us tomorrow Sunday and it goes all through the week and to next weekend. You can come down we're at 8.01 East Third Street almost on the corner of Third and Alameda and Long Beach is East Village and we'll be running the burger all week on special. Come on down give us a try or come back if you've already been. We're excited to see you. And your website. You're gonna go to zizinzebra.pizinpal eatery.com and you can find the rest of the wonderful information we have about our restaurant our menu our catering wing and everything else you might need. And the website for Burger Week where you can find out what other wonderful Long Beach restaurants are doing for Burger Week is burger week L B dot com burger week L B dot com. Evan look forward to having you back on the show to talk more about the background of Zuzuz Petals and we'll also give you the opportunity to explain the name and what all those references are on your menu. Have a great burger week Evan and we'll catch up soon. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. When we return yes the OC Fair open yesterday. It means fair food and of course it means a visit with the Midway Gourmet. We're proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats. Give us a minute we'll be back.
