The Best Burger I Never Ate

I am a big fan of the Food Network.  There's this show that comes on right about dinner time called The Best Thing I Ever Ate.  Now, usually the places on this show are in big towns.  New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.  But on this one episode of the show, about Hidden Treasures, Cat Cora told of a place that was almost local.  The Hitching Post II in Buellton, CA.  Apparently they take all their weekend, uncooked beef and grind it into burger meat.  Filet Mignon, NY  Strip, all the best cuts into one of the most fantastic hamburgers man has ever created.  Add two strips of thick, crispy bacon and some avacado, and, according to Cat, you have burger perfection. However, they are only available Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, or until supplies last.

As I have mentioned before, Aaron is a huge fan of hamburgers.  So on Monday we decided to head down to Buellton after I got off work (this was already about 1 in the afternoon).  No problem though, its only about an hour and a half, and there is rarely traffic, and I have a new Droid 2 phone for entertainment purposes (ie. Sudoku  <3).  So we head down to Buellton.

If you're a link clicker, you may have noticed The Hitching Post is only open for dinner.  Starting at 5.  So imagine our surprise when we finally show up for these fantastic hamburgers only to have our dreams crushed at 2:30 in the afternoon.  What to do...

If you're not familiar with the Central Coast, let me take a moment to explain the size of these towns.  They are small.  Like, 1 movie theater with 6 screens, 3 grocery stores, and 1 Target (although Atascadero has none) small.  You can drive through the entire town in 10 minutes.  There aren't a lot of choices for wasting a few hours.  Plus, we now hadn't had lunch and it was 2:30.

Luckily, Aaron knew of a place called Jocko's in Nipomo.  We had passed through Nipomo on our way to Buellton and at this point, I was just hungry.  So North we went.

I was reading some reviews online and everyone was raving about Jocko's steaks.  Delicious, "the best on the central coast" and other high praises were the norm, so I had high hopes.  One of my favorite reviews mentioned that "you don't go to Jocko's for the decor" (Although, what restaurants do you go to for the decor?).  It's even funnier when you walk in and see the place with it's 70's cafeteria style chairs and fantastic gingham curtains.

However, once your steak arrives... you're not looking at anything else anyway.  Although I have relatively decent descriptive powers, i took a picture of this steak because I'm not sure how to describe it.  I ordered a (small) steak sandwich expecting sliced steak on a french roll kind of thing. To your right you will see the giant slab of meat on two pieces of french bread that they call their Steak Sandwich.  And by the way, there's a Large one.

The meat is fantastic though.  Tender, flavorful.  I was going to eat just half, but I couldn't stop eating it.  It was the simplest, most delicious steak sandwich I have ever tasted.

On their menus, Jocko's advertises they cook over oak coals out on a barbecue which you can see from one side of the restaurant.  Apparently, they don't cook lunch on those grills (Which are about the size of a twin bed), only dinner.  So I think that means another trip.

All in all, it wasn't a totally fail trip.  No burger, but we did get amazing steak.  And Steak is good too.

Jocko's Steakhouse
125 N Thompson Ave
Nipomo CA, 93444