MY FAVORITE RESTAURANT OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES

HUMMUS BEN SIRA
3 Ben Sira, Jerusalem, Israel

There is not a more welcome sight in all the world to my heart, my soul, and my belly than the blue awning of Ben Sira.  It means home, it means, love, it means the best hummus in the world and definitely my favorite meal outside the USA.  It is so simple yet so perfect.  You sit down on picnic tables, order at the counter, and the magic begins.  You order at a bar, where three people are crammed behind preparing the culinary masterpiece.  You grab drinks from the cooler and await the feast.  Pickles, onions, felafel, tomatoes come as your salatim (appetizer), but one would be wise to save them for the hummus.  Hummus is the national food of Israel and the middle east, beloved by all, but argued about by all.  Everyone has their favorite place.  Every town claims to have the best.  Every city, every country.  Ben Sira is my vote.  What makes Ben Sira unique is that it is served warm!  You dip the warm pita into the warm hummus and top it with the salatim I told you to save. I prefer hummus basar which has perfectly season ground beef in it or hummus petriot which has mushrooms in it.

Ben Sira is a must stop for any traveler looking for an incredible home cooked meal.  Home cooked because dining there is like dining with family.  You can feel the love and care put into this place.

Pizzeria and Osteria Mozza

Pizzeria Mozza
641 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Best Pizza In America

http://pizzeriamozza.com/

Osteria Mozza
6602 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038
Manliest Restaurant in America

http://www.osteriamozza.com/

Three James Beard award winning chefs (Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich), two four star restaurants, two life changing, greatest meals of your life kind of experience, one building.

Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza are two of the finest restaurants and meals, not just Italian, you will ever experience in your life. Two of the finest and most beloved restaurants in a city bound by culinary excellence.

Osteria Mozza is as fine dining as it gets.  Open kitchen, mozzarella bar, the most experienced sommelier, and the finest ingredients and dishes.  I have been twice, and both times gotten the same thing, if it aint broke don't fix it.  In terms of Italian cuisine, both traditional or casual, its the finest meal I have ever had, one of the best overall meals of my life. We got Shaved Brussels Sprouts with mint, toasted almonds, pecorino & Parmigiano Reggiano for appetizer and it was phenomenal, Bufala Mozzarella with basil pesto, salsa romesco, tapenade & caperberry relish for our cheese course and it was unforgettable,  Tagliatelle with oxtail ragu for our pasta course and it was sublime and the  Grilled Whole Orata wrapped in radicchio with extra virgin olive oil and Grilled Leg of Lamb with insalata di fregola sarda, mint and yogurt for our main course are some of the outstanding dishes I have had in my life. Like I said the finest Italian meal of my life and one of the finest overall meals of my life.

Pizzeria Mozza is next door, and while it is more casual and hip, it is also one of the finest meals of my life, and easily the best pizza I have ever had.  This place is plain and simple.  Appetizers, salads, and incredibly mind blowing pizza with the best crust I have ever had. We got Fried Squash Blossoms with ricotta and I cannot stop thinking about them or drooling about the thought of them. 
Mozza Caprese for salad course which was simple and perfection on a plate.  Funghi Misti, Fontina, Taleggio & Thyme and a Mozzarella Di Bufala, Tomato, Genovese Basil & Extra Virgin Olive Oil pizza followed.  The cheese is perfection.  The sauce is perfection.  The toppings are perfection.  The pizzas are perfection in terms of doughiness and crunch.  Outstanding on every single level.  Like I have said before, the best pizza meal of my life and easily on the best meals of my life from start to finish! 

If you have the finances and want to experience the best Italian meal of your life and easily one of the best meals of your life, Osteria or Pizzeria Mozza is a cannot, should not be missed.

Billy Goat Tavern

 

 

430 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611

http://www.billygoattavern.com/

From Best Burgers in America

A simple burgers, chips, and soda shop.  A old school, dimly lit, under the radar, immigrant owned burger shop.  A typical and normal story.  Every town has one.  But one town has the one that started it all.  The Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago.  A local, national, and international icon and landmark is all that can be said about this dark, hidden, burger paradise, tucked underneath the busiest street of the magnificent mile of Michigan Avenue in Chicago.  A must for both locals and tourist.  A burger dive that is famous for its food as well as its overwhelming historical influence on entertainment and sports.  So if you are ever in Chicago, maxing out your credit card on Michigan Avenue, and you are craving a great midday snack, head down the random stairs into the dark, damp, cold underworld of Chicago to a burger paradise steeped in amazing history!

This place is the origin of the curse of the Billy Goat on the Chicago Cubs. "The tavern is also known for its involvement in the Curse of the Billy Goat (also known as the "Cubs Curse"). Owner Sianis brought a pet goat, a tavern mascot, to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series, a home game at Wrigley Field against the Detroit Tigers. Despite paid-for box seat tickets, Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley allegedly ejected Sianis and goat due to the latter's odor. Supposedly, Sianis placed a curse on the team that they would not win another pennant or play in a World Series again."

This place is also the basis for a very famous Saturday Night Live skit.  "Another sign reads: "Cheezborger, Cheezborger, Cheezborger. No Pepsi. Coke," These words, with Pepsi and Coke in reverse order, were originally spoken and immortalized by John Belushi in, "Olympia Cafe," an early Saturday Night Live sketch that was inspired by the tavern. Belushi said in an interview with Chicago radio icon Steve Dahl that he'd never set foot inside the Billy Goat. It was Bill Murray and sketch writer (and bit player) Don Novello who were the regulars at the Billy Goat."

But above all this place is famous for burgers. Cheeseburgers.  Specifically cheeseburgers only.  This place has a feeling of Wiener Circle.  The guys behind the counter yell at you for ordering wrong.  They have cheeseburgers (cheezborgers). Chips. And Coke.  Nothing else, nothign different.  The burgers are greasy, gooey, and incredible.  Its a institution, an experience, a land mark, and a cannot miss culinary and cultural experience in Chicago.

Fat Mo's

2620 Franklin Pike, Nashville, TN 37204

http://www.fatmos.com/

From Best Burger in America

Deep in the heart of Nashville, home of hot chicken, BBQ, fried chicken, southern cooking, and southern hospitality is a burger shop.  Now, if this was just a burger shop, it would blend in, but Fat Mo's is anything but your average burger shop.  This place is the ultimate American dream mom and pop burger shop. The burger destination is the home of the most well seasoned burger in America.  The home of two Middle Eastern immigrants who brought their family, the culture, and lucky for us, their culinary delights with them.  Each burger is seasoned with a plethora of 19...19!!!!! spices that make the smells coming from the bag a aromatic symphony of perfection. It is an experience in and of itself. Drive-thru only.  Bags clear with grease and oil.  Burgers stacked a mile high with dressings flying everywhere!  It is a culinary extravaganza that entices every sense.  The sight of the burger stacked high, the feeling of all the juices running wild with each bite, the smells of the spices and the hot french fries, the sound of the burgers cooking, and the taste.....do I even need to continue...a taste that cannot be replicated or duplicated.  This place is both unique and a landmark to Nashville.  In a town of all America foods from fried chicken to apple pie to BBQ...Fat Mo's puts a spin on the all-American meal...the burger and fries..and the most extraordinary spin it is!

Pie N' Burger

913 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91106

http://pienburger.com/

FROM BEST BURGER IN AMERICA

This place is old school.  They have a short, straight to the point menu with the old school prices to match.  They make their soda like it was supposed to be made, by a soda jerk who mixes the syrup with carbonated water.  Their burgers are simple and straight to the point delicious, their fries are perfectly cooked  This place is a landmark, an institution, and throwback to the old school burger shop, before there was gourmet, kale infused amuse bouche burgers, or fries dipped in duck pate burger shops, there was places like this place.  A throwback to the simple day, the good ole days, where your stomach and mind wanted just an amazingly cooked and prepared burger, a plate of hot fries right out of the over, still glistening in oil as hot as liquid hot magma , a piece of pie, and a homemade soda to wash it down.  Pie N' Burger is as good as it gets without being too much.  It is simple, American, incredible comfort food.

KENNY AND ZIGGY DELI

FROM DINER'S, DRIVE-IN'S, AND DIVES

2327 Post Oak Blvd, Houston, TX 77056

http://www.kennyandziggys.com/

This is a carbon copy of the large scale diner style Jewish deli.  GIANT menu, giant drinks, pickles on the table, broadway posters. Carnegie in NYC or Factors in LA. and it is exactly what it's suppose to be. Big portions fresh made everything. Houston is lucky to have this joint. This is the place to go for real deal deli and try something different. You will love this place. Mazel tov!!! 

Pequod's

From Best Pizza in America and Pizza Paradise

8520 Fernald Ave, Morton Grove, IL 60053

http://pequodspizza.com/mortongrove/

What they say: ""Deep Dish" (5-pound pizza with caramelized crust in a "seasoned" deep-dish pan, layered with mozzarella cheese slices, tomato sauce, giardiniera, pepperoni, mushrooms, green & red peppers and sausage, sprinkled with romano cheese and oregano); "Thin Crust" (dough topped with house-made tomato sauce, red & green bell peppers, black olives, then topped with slices of mozzarella, pepperoni, and chopped white onions)"

Chicago pizza is a unique artform.  It is also a polarizing gastrointestinal experience.  Either you love it or you hate it, there is no "It was fine" or "I don't care what we have for dinner…deep dish pizza. Sure" purgatory kind of response.  And like most heated food feuds and duels and wars, locals stake their claim to their favorite, all doing it the same, but a little different.  The cheese, the sauce (sauce or stewed tomatoes), the crust (corn or butter or none).  Each characteristic lends itself to the great debate of which is the best deep dish in Chicago.  The tourists take Uno, Gino, and Giordanno.  The family says Lou's.  However there is one pizza in Chicago that brings up memories of hanging out with friends before, during, or after a school event. Pequod's.  My father-in-law grew up down the block from Pequod's and one night, I asked him if we could go to Pequod's.  He smiled and said "Pequod's.  I havent been there in YEARS! Now you are talking!" Ranked with Lou's as the best deep dish in Chicago, Pequod's is a urban myth, legend, and rite of passage.  Two locations.  That's it.  A dive bar feel. Dingy, dark, plastic table cloths.  Drinks in large plastic cups.  It's your ideal pizza shop.  But the pizza…my god the pizza.   They do something no other place in Chicago does.  They dont fit the crust and dough to the pan, they leave about an inch of space…..to allow for a cheesy overflow.  When the pizza is perfectly cooked, the cheese overflows down this tiny crevasse and overtakes the back of the many times naked crust, and it gets burned and crunchy and delicious.  Every bite has a cheesy, crunchy, bite. It is a wonderfully amazing deep dish pizza. 

Want to be scoffed at by locals and called a tourist..go to Uno's, Gino's, or Girodanno's

Want to be beloved by locals…go to Lou's

Want to be respected by locals…go to Pequod's

Tony's Pizza Napoletana

From Pizza Paradise and Best Pizza in America

1570 Stockton St, San Francisco, CA 94133

http://tonyspizzanapoletana.com/

"Pizza Margherita" – (San Marzano tomato sauce with sea salt, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella fior de latte topped with extra virgin olive oil baked in a wood-burning brick oven) "White Pie" (pizza with clams and garlic), "The California" (pizza with mozzarella, a combo of Calabrese and Sorano peppers, caramelized deep-fried onions, hand-sliced Piave cheese and North Beach honey)"

Remember the origin of the list. The inspiration.  The muse.  My cousins Danny and Sarah?  Well, we met for pizza at this Pizza Paradise in the Golden Gate city! This place boasts 11 time world championship winning Margherita pizza.   This place is a pizza palace and paradise.  They have every regional speciality pizza from around the world.  Magheritta from San Marzano (which is easily the most outstanding pizza I have ever had).  Sicilian from Sicily.  White Pie from the northeast.  All with a NoCal spin.  This place is phenomenal and worth the very long wait.  99.9% of the time when you go for pizza, you are locked into the style that the emporium makes, yet at Tony's, the wide variety allow you to pick your favorite style of pizza and indulge on your favorite style of pizza made in world class form with world class quality ingredients and craft.  

*Go with a big group and get 3-4 different varieties because they are all so different and unique.

Pizano's

From Pizza Paradise

864 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610

"Chicago-style deep dish pizza – "Rudy Special" (2-inch thick crust, handmade dough, fresh whole-milk mozzarella cheese slices, specially-made sausage and mushrooms baked in aged cast iron pans), Chicago thin-crust pizza"

For a city that prides itself on its signature deep dish, Chicago has no shortage of thin crust too!  However, unlike its adversary in New York, which prefers a normal crust, when Chicago says thin crust..they mean THIN crust.  Cracker thin! Crispy!  With the perfect amount of sauce and cheese.  Chicago does pizza to both extremes….extremely thick or extremely thin! 

And when it comes to the extreme of thin crust, Pizano's is the best! Perfect crisp, perfect sauce, perfect cheese, well done and done well.

Oh, apparantaly they have deep dish too…but for that stick to Lou's

Burger UP

From America's Best Burger

2901 12th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37204

http://www.burger-up.com/menu

"What you're getting: "The Woodstock"  If you don't like their local beef topped with Benton's bacon, white cheddar, and Jack Daniel's ketchup, it would make me very sad. And angry. But mostly sad."

The Nashville I know is kind, gentle, calm, caring with a Southern twang, drawl, and spice.  I had grown used to the slower pace of life, the warm summers and mild winters, and the satisfaction that the best burger in town came from a dive or a walk-up stand where you get everything in a paper bag that becomes translucent within five minutes of recieving your order from the grease of the fries packed inside.....

That's the Nashville I knew...

And then the "Nashville is the hottest city in America" came out, and my beloved little country town became a hub and mecca of popularity, parties, and Southern draw.  The moment I had realized that Nashville was going through a major change in its personality was when Burger Up opened.  A once run down network, 12th avenue was once run down, grafiti filled, and ridden with poverty, but now, with Burger Up as its anchor, this place is the most popular neighborhood in town.  Burger Up was Nashville's first gourmet burger.  Farm to table.  Organic. Grass fed.  Made from scratch.  Craft beer.  Handcut fries.  Frankly, delicious.  Sometimes change is tough to except, but if change brings a place like Burger Up, I am all for it!

Dagwood's

From America's Best Sandwich Shops

116 S Indiana Ave, Bloomington, IN 47408

http://dagwoodsandwiches.com/menu.html

"You gotta get: The Dagwood. To share a name with famous glutton Dagwood Bumstead, a sandwich joint’s gotta have some serious chutzpah, and that’s just the case with this Indiana University fixture. The composition mayo-based “special sauce” is a source of constant debate, but every patron agrees that the stuff is “like crack” when added to their fresh-baked sandwiches, whose standard size is so behemoth that a classic BLT piled high with slabs of bacon is considered a snack. Also, it’s on campus. Wow."

All the great college towns must have a great local bar scene, great pizza, great burgers, and great sandwiches, and for my alma mater IU, Dagwood's fills the requirements for the great sandwiches.  In a town that can feel overrun by JJ and Subway, Dagwood's stands alone of Btown's premier local sandwich haven and heaven.  It is right on campus!  The bread is great, meat is piled sky high, and the options or toppings and sauces are endless.  A truly wonderful institution of gluttonous and gastrointestinal wonder among a truly wonderful institution of higher learning and socializing!

Rotiers

From America's Best Burgers

2413 Elliston Pl, Nashville, TN 37203

"What you're getting: Bacon cheeseburger on French bread
I once asked my Dad, a Vandy grad, if he remembered what I ordered the first time he took me to Rotier's in high school; the way he told me that I better have gotten the bacon cheeseburger implied I’d soon be disowned if that wasn't the case. The spot is famous for its meat-and-three, but the signature burger is still the main draw. It comes on fresh-baked, crusty French bread thats soft, chewy inside soaks up the gooey cheese and juices of the burger in a way that’ll make you'll start questioning why you always grab buns at the store instead. And while my dad's dating ritual of a burger, bottled Stroh's, and fries with my mom may be from the '70s, the meal is timeless."

I grew up in Nashville.  Born and raised there with a eight year layover in Louisville (also an incredible city).  I have, do, and will always love Nashville.  I loved Nashville when people would say "You're from Nashville.  I see you wear shoes and know how to use indoor plumbing" as opposed to the "OMFG I LOVE NASHVILLE I HAD MY BACHELOR/BACHELORETTE PARTY THERE! I WANNA MOVE THERE" craze of the last five years.

Nashville has its BBQ, soul food, and hot chicken.  Nashville has its institutions of each from Peg Leg Porker, Monells, Loveless, and Princes. But there is one restaurant that defines Nashville at its core, at its heart, at its soul. Rotiers.  A dark, dingy, dive pub that serves the most phenomenal cheese burgers.  When I met with my college counselor for the first time in high school, he asked me if I was to take someone from out of town to a restaurant in Nashville to define the city, what would it be.  I said "Rotiers" without hesitation.  Everyone has a Rotiers story.  Everyone has a Rotiers memory.  Everyone has a Rotiers moment.  Rotiers is perfect Nashville. Quiet, comfortable, loving, caring, Southern drawl and charm, with a lot of grease, a glass bottle coke, and a side of fries.

PS-I have been told that if you dare to wander away from the burger, the soul food is some of the best in the city.

The White Spot

From America's Best Burgers


1407 University Ave, Charlottesville, VA 22903

"What to Get: The Gus.  A cheeseburger with a fried egg on top is a simple thing, and in this glorious 2014 burger landscape, it barely constitutes a specialty. But White Spot, a greasy spoon tucked away beneath the train trestle on the lowest point of The Corner, has been serving that very combo to hungry Wahoos for over half a century. Here, it's called the Gus Burger, and it's required eating for fresh-faced first-years and washed-up alums who want to feel like first-years alike."

They say you always remember your first time.  Your first glass bottle Coca-Cola.  Your first McDonalds french fry.  Your first Frosty.  Your first Waffle House experience.  Your first Chik-Fil-A sandwich.  Your first spicy chicken.  Your first Chicago hot dog, deep dish pizza, Italian beef.  What first did you think I was talking about.

I will always remember my first burger with a fried egg on top, and it was at the White Spot on a school arranged college tour to the University of Virginia.  The Gus. It's everything I had both dreams and nightmares about...and it was nothing short of a dream!  This is the perfect greasy spoon diner where one erases a nights hangover or a days hunger with the perfect combination of breakfast (fried egg) and lunch/dinner (cheeseburger)