#3 - Comme Ca Cheeseburger

We are almost a month into the blog and Peter Geist is very pissed off. “First off, you didn’t even tell me when the blog began,” rants Peter “and secondly I haven’t even been featured yet!” Of course many more expletives were involved, but just typing them out wouldn’t do the rant justice.

Peter was about to ship off to NYC to tape the next season of “Celebrity Apprentice”, so we decided a roommate dinner was in order. The three of us, Jessie, Peter and I, moved in together about two months ago and have lived in “Three’s Company” bliss ever since. 

 

A reservation was booked for Comme Ca, a neighborhood French restaurant known for it’s creative cocktail mixologists and for their Comme Ca Cheeseburger. “How good can a French Cheeseburger be?” you ask? Unbelievably good…but we’ll get to that later.

 “First off some of this conversation has to be OFF BLOG,” Peter ruled. Woodward and Bernstein wouldn’t stand for such editorial decisions, but when roommates dish dirt…not all of it can be broadcast on the internets. However, just for fun I’ll provide snippets with no context:

“His face is busted!”

“You’re a girl, you don’t even poop!”

“There was definitely over-the-table hand holding.”

Before we get to the food, a note about the drinks. The best part about these concoctions (Jessie – “Besides the alcohol”) is the ice. Peter’s whisky based drink was served with an icicle inside, while my raspberry muddled mixture had the same kind of ice I used to get on the snow cones from the Mr. Swirly Ice Cream truck.

“There is a lot of things on this menu, but I feel like I cannot get in too deep,” said Jessie. So to simplify things, we ordered off the pre-fixe. Jessie and I would share a beet and goat cheese salad and steak frites, Peter went with the French onion soup and steak frites and one Comme Ca Cheeseburger for the table.

After settling on our “Celebs We Want to Sleep With” list (Jessie – Mark Ruffalo, Peter – Paul Rudd, Me – James Marsden Chris Pine), the appetizers arrived.

Appetizers – French Onion Soup & Roasted Beet Salad

Peter went to work right away poking and prodding at the cheese bumbling over the sides of his mini-crock pot of French onion soup. Slurping away, Peter didn’t have much to say which leads me to believe he enjoyed it very much. Meanwhile, Jessie and I happily devoured our salad. The dish included a mixture of deep red and burnt yellow beets accompanied by a hunk of goat cheese. The key here is to get each element, lettuce, beet & cheese, onto your fork in one fell swoop for the ultimate bite. Wrapping up all the flavors into one is the only way to go…which makes me believe Pepporoni Pizza Combos were way ahead of their time.

 

Satisfied with taste and color (Jessie – “I wish I had an outfit this color”) the beet salad was delicious, but I was more interested in finding out whether or not this illustrious burger was all that it was cracked up to be.

Entrée – Comme Ca Cheeseburger & Steak Frites

Speaking of cracked, that’s exactly what happens inside your mouth upon first bite into the cheeseburger. Cracked in a good way though as you bite into the just-charred-enough outer rim of the patty. Inside, however, is a different story – the cheeseburger oozes a mixture of dripping juices and cheesy goodness that bests In-and-Out any day of the week. Wedged between the patty and the bun is a layer of lightly dressed coleslaw that kicks a little sweet crunch into the dish.

“This is by far the best pLAte I’ve had yet,” I proudly exclaimed. I know, I know…we are only three in, but this cheeseburger certainly warrants making the list of the 99 best pLAtes.

Make no mistake about it, the steak frites was great too. I mean anything topped with herbed butter is going to taste pretty delicious, but the meat was cooked to our liking and dunking the frites in the house-made aioli dip “made it worth coming here” claimed Jessie (who suddenly was only speaking in Zagat sound bites).

The only “miss” of the meal was the Panna Cote we shared for dessert. While a slightly charred burger tastes delicious, a slightly charred Vanilla pudding tastes pretty terrible. 

And with another pLAte down and a roommate temporarily satisfied...Peter can move on from being pissed off about being unrepresented on the blog to being pissed off about being misrepresented on the blog. Love ya Puddles!

Comme Ca

8479 Melrose Avenue

West Hollywood, CA 90069

(323) 782-1104