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Pete Tittl: Cheers for food at Amestoy Grill
- Tuesday, Apr 07 2009 03:48 PM
See the review online.
If an artist is working in the kitchen but his customers are inebriated, will his work be truly appreciated?
Doubtful, as we all know that alcohol dulls the ability to discriminate in culinary matters. Put a gangrenous leg of lamb in front of someone stumbling out of a bar and they dig in as if they're on their last meal on this planet. Thus I have mixed feelings about the work of Benjamin Lindquist, a Culinary Institute of America grad who is in the kitchen at the Amestoy Grill cooking up great burgers, pizzas and sandwiches, but also offering "breakfast" near closing time for those wandering souls who somehow can't stumble into Denny's after imbibing vigorously all night.
He deserves better, if only because on the night we visited for dinner we were the only customers not sitting at the bar (restaurant customers have a few tables near the kitchen window) and he came out to make recommendations from his new menu. "We're known for our burgers," he insisted, pointing out they're made from grass-fed beef from the Hearst Ranch cows (he said he has a connection and gets the beef fresh, to his specifications), so we ordered one of those, the barbecue bacon burger ($8.75). My companion almost went for the lamb dip ($9.50) or the prime rib with onions and Swiss cheese ($9.50), which a bar patron had enthusiastically declared as his favorite on the menu. Another time, perhaps, but she went with the chicken chipotle pizza ($11 for a 10").
OK, this was a burger good enough to earn a spot on the best in town Top 10 list for a number of reasons. Great bakery bun, medium rare in the middle, juicy beef taste, and no ordinary mayo but a roasted garlic aioli that just impressed in a classy way. This is best enjoyed sober, or with a maximum of two beers, moderately consumed. It came with these wonderful, fresh-cut shoestring fries that were liberally seasoned with garlic. Not the standard Basque French fries, but something great nonetheless.
My companion's pizza was very spicy, with jalapeno rings and tomato bits and chicken breast that was grilled and sliced. Lots of cheese, too. Though the crust was brown on the bottom it didn't seem cooked all the way near the top. We took some home and it was more impressive after being reheated.
Desserts are another strength, though the miniature apple pies were not available that day. Instead we sampled a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie in a pan with vanilla ice cream on top, similar to what BJ's serves. Now this can be appreciated no matter what your sobriety level is at the time, with a drizzle of fresh caramel sauce on top.
Lindquist the owner is a North High grad who has worked all over the country, including as executive chef at Linn's of Cambria, Jackson Hole, Wyoming and a stint as the chef at Sandrini's downtown. He's always wanted his own restaurant, and seems eager to keep tweaking the menu to find something that works.
This is all located in a bar (in the northeast between Columbus and Bernard) that is probably Bakersfield's version of Cheers, owned and operated for years by Frank Amestoy III who died three years ago but is honored on a wall banner. Though many of the regulars can boast of decades of patronage, they do have modern touches such as a touch-screen CD jukebox and a MySpace page complete with pictures. The house specialty is a waterfall, Frank's drink of peppermint schnapps splashed into a draft beer. All I can say is, restrain yourself until after you try the food.
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Here's to $2 shots at Amestoy's Thursday!
BY SHELLIE BRANCO, Californian staff writer
Last Updated: Wednesday, Feb 4 2009 1:47 PM
Here's to $2 shots at Amestoy's Thursday!
Friendly northeast neighborhood bar Frank Amestoy’s On the Hill lost its colorful owner, Frank Amestoy III, three years ago this Thursday. Best way to keep his memory alive?
A shot, duh.
Bar manager Jessica Lessaos says Amestoy’s has declared Thursday National Waterfall Day, in honor of the drink Frank III claimed he invented, a shot of peppermint schnapps splashed artfully into a draft beer. You can get ’em for $2 each all day long.
Join in the group photo of waterfall drinkers at 5 p.m., and while you’re at it, tip your hat to the man who started it all, Frank Amestoy Jr., who died a few months after his son.
Amestoy’s, still owned by the family, has seen a few changes in the past year. They added a live music space in an old storage room last year, and Wednesday karaoke (8 p.m. to midnight) began shortly before Christmas.
The bar has hosted rockabilly acts in the past, but has recently branched out, hosting such performers as a Clash tribute band and guitarist Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham from Social Distortion. The Southern California Ramones tribute band Gabba Gabba Heys performs Friday.
In November, Amestoy’s brought back the chow. It stopped serving food around the time Frank III died, so it’s a bit of a tribute to bring food to snackish bar patrons. The Culinary Institute of America grad Benjamin Lindquist, a local chef with 17 years of experience, owns the restaurant side, called Amestoy Grill.
The old menu was heavy on Basque, and the ubiquitous pickled tongue is still around, but you’ll find lamb and prime rib dip sandwiches alongside gourmet hamburgers made from Hearst Ranch grass-fed beef, stone-baked pizzas and good old spaghetti and meatballs as one of the weekly specials. The Friday deep pit barbecue sandwiches and plates are popular, Lindquist says.
Prices range from $4.50 for individual pizzas to prime rib dip sandwiches for $9.50.
Last month, Lindquist started serving up 1:30 a.m. Sunday pancakes and eggs breakfasts to late-night barhoppers — good when you need to soak up all that Saturday night liquor with serious starch. Get one “princess style” with chocolate chips and whipped cream.
Response to the late pancake breakfast has been good, the chef says, considering the drive-through joints start to wind it down around that hour.
