by Richard Foss
I was dining in a restaurant in Manhattan Beach last week that seemed to be overly air conditioned even though it wasn’t warm outside.
“This place is as cold as a meat locker,” I groused to my wife as I zipped up my jacket. She did a double-take and laughed. I realized we were dining in a meat locker – we were in the restaurant section of The Butchery, which is a combination meat boutique, specialty grocery, and café.
For those concerned about dining in a place where someone else in the room is hacking an animal into neat portions, I hasten to assure you that is not the case. The meats and seafood are in neat cases along the opposite wall, with the gourmet market in between. The café takes up about a quarter of the space and is next to the wine and beer section, so you dine with a view of bottle racks on two sides and fancy snacks on the other side. The seating is comfortable, with banquettes opposite chairs, and except for the room being cool it is quite comfortable.
The menu here is simple, mostly burgers and hot and cold deli sandwiches, with a few side items. There’s an otherwise blank section of the menu that says “specials coming soon,” and I waited to write this review in case they actually do start offering them. As of the day I’m writing, in early November, they haven’t. This is a lost opportunity, because The Butchery offers excellent sausages that are custom-made for them, but none are on the menu.
In three visits I tried a fair percentage of the things that are offered, and in general they’re good. A classic like a turkey, bacon, and avocado sandwich is elevated by high quality bacon, Havarti cheese instead of the usual provolone, and a fresh, lightly toasted ciabatta bread. They pile it high, so unless you have a very hefty appetite, you’ll probably take half home. The pastrami is an even better bet because their meat comes from the same specialty producer that serves Langer’s and other classic delis. It’s far more tender than most, with a nice tang of coriander and pepper. I ordered mine light on the mustard because I wanted to savor it. You should have a little mustard, and some pickles of course, but anything extra is superfluous.
The smoked brisket sandwich here is another safe choice, though you should know that it’s a delicious mess. The very moist brisket is topped with creamy slaw, barbecue aioli, habanero pickled onion, and jack cheese. And while that complex blend of flavors makes for a delicious sandwich, it is more than the structural integrity of the bread can bear. Even a pretzel bun, which has a more dense interior than most other breads, is not up to the challenge and turns into a soggy mess. A delicious soggy mess, I should add, but you should have a fork ready.
In any restaurant I pay attention to items that are the house specials, figuring that they’re a point of pride, and here that’s a sound strategy. The house sandwich is steak tips sauteed with grilled onions and bell peppers and white American cheese on a grinder roll, and it’s excellent. The marinated meat is very tender and has some grill smokiness, and the vegetables have plenty of textures and flavors to enjoy.
I was less enamored of the smashburger and the house chicken sandwich for different reasons. The smashburger was made with good meat but lacked the tasty caramelized crust that is the main reason you order one of these. Without that, it was just a smallish burger with grilled onions and white cheese, not bad, but not as good as everything else I’ve had here. The grilled chicken sandwich was much better, the meat flavorful despite being made with breast meat and the addition of arugula, sauteed onions, and tomato lending some additional flavors and texture. The problem? It too was on the small side, and unlike almost all the other sandwiches, it didn’t come with fries. Those fries are one of the attractions to dining here, as they are cooked in beef tallow, which can be brought to much higher temperatures than most vegetable oils without smoking or breaking down. This means the fries are crisper – beef tallow was the secret method at McDonalds for decades until an outcry from vegetarians who had been eating their fries forced a change. They’re up front about the tallow here, and besides, nobody goes to The Butchery expecting a vegetarian meal.
They can get two vegetarian items, a green salad and their potato salad. The green salad was the standard item, offered with either a commercial ranch dressing or housemade lemon shallot or garlic herb vinaigrette. It’s a good standard salad and generously proportioned, and while both house dressings were fine, I suggest the lemon shallot. I preferred the potato salad as a side because it’s made in the German style with dill rather than the American style loaded with mayo and mustard.
The Butchery has an impressive variety of bottled and canned soft drinks and beers, plus a few wines and beers on tap. I tried a “pub ale” from Pure Project brewing out of San Diego that was a German-style festbier that had flavors of baking spices front and center. It’s something I’d definitely order again. It came from the tap at near-freezing temperature, so had to warm up for a while in order to appreciate the aroma. Their wines have the same problem – from the counter I could see that their wine storage is at 35 degrees, which shows that whoever is in charge here does not know wine. The Raeburn Chardonnay was pretty decent once it warmed by about 20 degrees, but that takes a while since, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the room is rather cool. The beverage temperatures are an easy thing to fix, and it’s an odd lapse in a place that does so much else right.
Our table had a good view of racks of pretzels, chips, snacks, and chocolates, which were our only choice for dessert, but we resisted. The Butchery is on my radar for a fairly quick lunch or dinner in a nice environment. Sandwiches with fries start at $16 and are a full meal – bring a jacket because the place is cool, and if you order the brisket wear an old shirt, because unless you’re careful some of the sauce will end up on it. Doing the laundry will be worth it.
The Butchery is at 1121 Artesia in Manhattan Beach. Open daily 9 a.m – 8 p.m., kitchen closes at 7 p.m. Free parking lot. Wheelchair access good, wine and beer available. (310) 374-3671. Butcherymeats.com. ER
Not “cool” for the butchered…
exactly !!
The fact that hey have the animals they butcher on the sign outside is the most disgusting and ignorant example on how people don’t have any idea what horrendous lives these poor animals live with industrialized farming being one of the most cruel, criminal industries in this world , destroying the environment , air, water and rain forests !