Father's Office

Ever since I moved here people have been talking about restaurant and pub Father's Office. With a second location now open in Culver City (original location in Santa Monica), we finally gave it a try with a couple of our friends. While there were a lot of great things about Father's Office (i.e. ample free parking, tons of beers, I'll get to the rest later), the biggest inconvenience is the way you get in/get a table. Only a certain number of people are let in at a time, even though the place never seemed that crowded to me, and when they are at capacity, you have to wait in line outside to get in. Once inside, there is still no hostess, but rather community seating and you have to hover over people until they leave. Even if your friends have already gone inside and save a seat at a table for you, you still can't hop to the front of the line, but rather have to wait your turn with everyone else. And when you do get a table, be sure not to leave it unguarded because there are no waiters either, everything is ordered at the bar. The beer menu far outweighs the food menu here, but the food is pretty great for gourmet bar food. We all had the Office burger with the carmalized onion, applewood bacon compote, gruyere, blue cheese, and arugula, and of course, a side of sweet potato fries. Normally I feel like blue cheese overpowers whatever it's paired with, but apparently at FO it's mixed into the meat before they cook it, so it's pretty mild. Overall, the burger was fabulous and definitely worth the $12 or so that it costs (eat your heart out Carls Jr.). The bar has about 20 beers on tap and that's only the beginning. There is an entire selection of rare beers that come at rare prices (up to $75 for 750mL!). The strange thing is that a good portion of these pricey beers are described as "grassy." Yeah, not sure about that, and certainly not willing to spend $75 to find out. My advice for this place is to come early and don't come in a big group unless you intend to rent out the private space, otherwise, you'll never all be able to sit together.

http://fathersoffice.com/
http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/11416036#
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