While staying in Hollywood while out in Los Angeles on a business trip earlier this summer, I had a long day of meetings and driving in between. I guess I thought I was used to driving in big cities like Chicago or Minneapolis, but driving in L.A. just wore me out each day. I needed something for dinner that night - something like a good burger and a good beer. I did a quick search and found a place that wasn't too far away from my hotel - Stout Burgers and Beers. That's where I decided to eat that evening.
Charles Lew was born and raised in Scotland. He ended up in Florida going to college in the late 90's and was accepted to law school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Lew traveled cross country in his pickup truck and worked a handful of odd jobs while going to law school in L.A., most notably as a bouncer at a bar where he met people from different walks of business life. It was then where Lew found himself turning into a serial entrepreneur coming up with a number of different business ideas.
After getting his law degree, Lew applied for a brokerage license to sell stocks. However, the 2008 recession nearly wiped him out and he was forced to go into the legal profession. He established The Lew Firm, a small law firm that represented people associated with the L.A. music scene, hospitality ventures, entertainment and sports. But Lew and a friend had an idea of a craft beer restaurant that sold upscale burgers.
Alex Kagianaris was a New York City native who was the son of Greek immigrants. After graduating high school at 16, Kagianaris went cross country to do his undergraduate work at the University of California-Berkeley where he focused on communications with an eye on sports broadcasting and possible sports management. After graduating from Berkeley, Kagianaris entered Loyola Marymount's law school and met Lew. The two hit it off with their love of craft beers and late night cheeseburgers after an evening of partying.
After graduating from law school, Kagianaris went to work as a legal counsel for a small independent record label with offices in L.A. and London. From there, Kagianaris worked on the in-house legal staff at Warner Music Group. While he liked his job at Warner Music, Kagianaris really wanted to do something that was more entrepreneurial in nature. Many times he lamented the lack of good craft beer places in Los Angeles, at least compared to other large cities around the nation. He talked about his dream of an upscale burger place with Charles Lew many times before the two decided to start their own place.
As the new venture was being formulated, Kagianaris hired a friend who was a trained chef to concoct the burgers for the menu. The only problem was that Kagianaris wasn't too enamored with the burgers the guy was coming up with. With Lew's blessing, Kagianaris decided to fire his friend the chef and work on the burger menu himself. Working as an attorney during the day, Kagianaris would come home at night and work on meat blends and how the burgers tasted with different types of cheeses, condiments and other toppings.
Pictured right - Charles Lew and Alex Kagianaris. Photo courtesy LAVoyage.
Convinced they had a winning combination, Stout Burgers and Beers opened in Hollywood in 2009. And it was a hit from the start. Within a couple years, the two decided to open their second Stout Burgers in Santa Monica. But before that happened, Kagianaris decided to quit his law practice and went to Le Cordon Blue cooking school to learn how to be a proper chef. These days, Kagianaris goes by the nickname "Chef".
Within a few years, Lew and Kagianaris opened more Stout Burgers and Beers across Southern California. In addition to the Stout Burgers and Beers restaurants, Lew and Kagianaris - under the KAGLEW Consulting Group - have established the Boomtown Brewery and The Morrison Pub (named after Lew's mother's maiden name) with locations in Atwater Beach and in Burbank. (Note - the Stouts Irish Pub locations in Clinton and Bettendorf are not affiliated with Stout Burgers and Beers.)
The weather during my time in Southern California was far from what one would think summertime weather would be for the area. Most of the days were damp with drizzle or spitting rain, cloudy skies and a brisk wind coming off the ocean. Many of the locals said talked about the "June Gloom" where it's cloudy and damp in the mornings from the marine layer coming off the ocean, but it usually lifts late morning for sunny afternoons. The only problem for the days I was out there, the marine layer hardly ever lifted. While it was cloudy and in the low 60's in Los Angeles, out toward San Bernardido - 60 miles from L.A. - the weather was sunny and warm.
And it was that way the evening I wanted to go to Stout Burger and Beers It was only about a 3/4 mile journey from my hotel to the restaurant, but it was A) spitting rain; and B) I didn't want to walk by myself back to the hotel after dark as Hollywood is pretty chancy in some areas. I found a parking spot just down the block from Stout Burgers and Beers located in an L-shaped strip mall at the corner of Selma Ave. and N. Cahuenga Blvd. (see map)
As I was walking through the parking lot of the strip mall, there were a couple other restaurants attached to Stout Burgers - 3rd Base, an upscale sports bar; and Trejo's Cantina, a Mexican restaurant owned by actor Danny Trejo. The exhaust smell of burgers cooking on the grill coming from Stout Burgers and Beers trumped anything those two places had to offer.
Now, I didn't know Stout Burgers was a chain when I walked into the building. It looked like it was a small neighborhood brick-faced burger joint that had been there for years. (Well, actually, they'd been there 14 years.) Inside, it featured a mish-mash of tables that didn't match along with metal chairs at the tables. Plastic covers were down over the usually open windows because of the cool temps and the off-and-on rain we were having in usually sunny Southern California that day. And interesting mix of music from the likes of Shania Twain, Ice Cube, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pat Benatar was playing on the restaurant's sound system in the background.
The semi-circular stone-topped bar was prominent in the corner with a handful of spigots on the wall behind the brick-faced bar. Those metal stools that I hate were what was all to sit on at the bar. I thought to myself that anyone who uses bar stools like these really doesn't want their patrons to linger at the bar too long.
I sat down at the bar and one of the bartenders was a lady by the name of Lauren. She was very neutral in her demeanor when she came over to great me. She was sort of doing two things at once when she picked up a table card with a QR code on it for the menu and plopped it down in front of me, pointing at it after she did so. "Know what you want to drink," she asked hurriedly. "Well, actually, no - this is my first visit," as I thought to myself, pulling out the my phone to take a picture of the QR code that took me to a web site with the food and beer menu.
Normally, I would post a link to the menus on this post, but there is no website for Stout Burgers and Beers. That's sort of strange they don't have a website or much of a social media presence considering both owners have their own personal websites.
The menu had, well, burgers and beers. I saw a hazy IPA from the Radiant Beer Company from out in Anaheim south and east of Los Angeles. It was a great beer and I definitely had more than one during my visit. I understand they have a guy who travels the country searching for interesting beers that they can serve to their customers at their restaurants. Man, how do I sign up for THAT job!
They had about six or seven burgers on the menu including a basic cheeseburger and a spicy-style burger. I seem to remember they had a couple of vegan burgers available, as well as a chicken sandwich. My burger choice that evening was the Truffle Shuffle burger - a burger patty topped with brie cheese, sautéed mushrooms and a truffle aioli. For sides I had choices of fries, onion rings and tots. Of course I took the tots. (I did note that they had loaded tots for an upcharge. They were tots with mixed with crispy prosciutto ham, chopped chives and topped with a mornay sauce (made with greyère cheese). And I was happy that they had Cholula to go along with the tots.
The Truffle Shuffle burger was one of those where I took the first bite of the burger and I went, "Mmmmm...." The burger was juicy and full of flavor. The brie cheese was light and didn't mask the taste of the beef, the sautéed mushrooms were a nice complement to the beef, and even though I knew it was on the burger, the truffle aioli wasn't forward or pronounced where it didn't overpower the other features of the burger. The bun held together with all the messiness from the cheese, aioli and the juiciness of the burger. It was simply a great burger.
The tots, well, they were tots. They were fine. There were way too many of them for me to eat given the size of the burger, but they were tasty.
Lauren's demeanor didn't change the whole time I was there - she didn't get friendly, nor was she snotty. I encounter those kind of servers or bartenders from time to time and I'm OK with it. It's tough as a single diner away from home, but as long as they take care of me and don't leave me hanging when I need something. I will say Lauren was efficient.
I wouldn't have guessed that Stout Burgers and Beers was a chain at any point during my visit. I didn't find that out until I was doing some research on the place on-line. But it was also tough to learn about the place as they really had no website or online presence. But the burger I had and the beer selections available at Stout Burgers and Beers spoke loudly. It was an excellent burger and one that was very memorable. I'm glad to hear there's a Stouts Burgers in the Nashville area as I'll be back there sometime in the near future. I'll have to check it out to see if it's as good as the original Stouts Burgers and Beers I tried in Hollywood.
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