Although sandwiches and burgers are slowly becoming the meat and potatoes of American cuisine, they still have not wrested the title from meat and potatoes. Enjoy competing comfort cuisine with today's Groupon: for $15, you get $30 worth of modern American fare at Dish Restaurant in La Canada Flintridge.
Amid antique wooden tables and benches, a full fireplace, and fresh flowers, Dish Restaurant dishes out steaming platters of creative American soul food. Rise and take a shine to the breakfast menu, or delve into a flavorful lunch menu to wrap tongue buds in the classic BLT’s thick-cut applewood-smoked bacon, whole-wheat toast, and a side of hand-cut Kennebec-potato french fries ($8.95). Herbivores may forage through the house-made veggie burger ($11.25), which combines more garden all-stars than the Green Giant’s softball team. The restaurant's homestyle dinner menu translates into a diverse selection of inventive comfort fare, including grilled pork chops ($14.95/1, $19.95/2) accented with spicy apple chutney. Heartier appetites may be sated on the roasted bone-in ham, served with a side of grown-up macaroni that still believes in Santa ($14.95).
Under the expert hand of Chef Alfred Salvatierra, Dish delivers the kind of cozy modern food that can only be found in grandmother's cookbook or a sofa's recipe diary. Dish's very own bakery is where the restaurant fashions its homemade banana cream pie, strawberry-rhubarb pie, and deep-dish apple pie.
DISH
"To be honest, when I opened DISH I was just looking for a place where I could get a good grilled cheese sandwich for my kids, and a decent cup of coffee for me," says Kevin Finch, the founder of DISH. The idea grew exponentially over time; Kevin had spent the late 1980s working the culinary boom of Sonoma County, so he naturally was inclined to include great wines and slightly more sophisticated menu items. But not too sophisticated: the hallmark of DISH that it's comfortable, a place where you can eat food that might remind you of what your grandmother used to make. In that spirit, the restaurant itself has an antique vibe LA Weekly described as "an old-fashioned, slightly rustic feel, like a farmhouse kitchen in an orange orchard, 1925."
The magazine went on to say that, "At breakfast, the room is as bright and sunny as a conservatory." The dishes are bright, too, such as yellow omelets studded with avocado and red potatoes and made from cage-free eggs from the smartest chickens. The five-page breakfast menu is also popular for the jonnycakes––cornmeal cakes that conceal whole kernels of sweet corn. Later in the day, guests can order an old-school cobb salad adored by LA Times food critic Merrill Shindler, Black Angus sirloin burgers, and pork belly paired with macaroni and cheese. The dishes are made using ingredients from local farmer's markets and food purveyors, a touch that no doubt helped the restaurant land its Three-Diamond Award from AAA.