Burgers and Beer With Local Flavor at The Golden State

How did you get this space?

JS: A family friend of mine owns this building. We knew this space was going to become available. We really liked this location a lot. We started brainstorming what would work best in the neighborhood. Jason has a lot of friends who live here. We asked them what they thought would work on this neighborhood. Something of good quality and also good value. Everything we serve is $10 or less with really fresh, quality ingredients.

What do you like about the Fairfax neighborhood?

JS: There are two things we like about it. We like the traditional Jewish roots here. It's a place our grandparents used to come visit and where our friends live now. We like that duality.

JB: Frequently you have areas in any city that are really touristy and others that are really insidery. This area is very historic and significant and wears its history on its sleeve. It's also very modern and culturally relevant. So if you go to the Grove and the Farmer's Market, Angelenos shop next to tourists from Ohio. I don't think you have that same phenomenon if for example you go to Hollywood and Highland. Fairfax felt like that great way to welcome people to California and make them feel at home here, as well as making a place that really fit in with the vibe of the area. We had to play a lot with that in the decor and ambiance. How do we make something that feels both at home and really new? We tried to do it on a shoe-stringy budget. We tried to fit in with the area. Seeing Animal come in was really great. This street really feels like a city. I live in Koreatown now, and it's one of the thing I like about living in the city.

Do you have a favorite Korean BBQ?

JB: I like Parks at 955 S. Vermont. Parks is the only restaurant, aside from this one, that I know the address for. I like Cham Sut Gol on the corner of 4th Avenue and Olympic. Those two are pretty solid. And Soot Bull Jeep on 8th Street.

Can you talk a little bit about developing the menu with Samir Mohajer?

JB: The menu was sort of developed twice. The first time with Samir, because we were two knuckleheads who didn't know how to run a restaurant. First we met with Samir for ideas, but a lot of the menu changed and developed when we started working with Rene. He deserves a lot of credit too. A lot of the menu items came with Rene Lopez. He runs the kitchen now. (Jason points out Rene in the kitchen.) Like the BLT. We had this really great bacon from the Farmer's Market and thought, "what do we do with it?" It's one the burger, but we wanted to do something to feature it. He suggested doing something really simple like a BLTA. He is responsible for that and the lamb burger and for the fish 'n' chips. James played basketball with Samir. He was so warm and open. At the time he was leaving a restaurant to open a restaurant very similar to ours. We worked with him for about six weeks while he showed us the ropes, taught us how to operate a kitchen.

There was a Jonathan Gold article where he talked about The Golden State and referred to amateur restaurants. How did you feel about that?

JB: I think it is great. The attitude that he came in with was the attitude we would love everyone to come in with. There isn't a lot of showmanship here. We possess a certain amount of knowledge, but our menu is more curatorial. It's created out of love. Fundamentally I think our job is to get really good ingredients and not screw them up.

Talk a little bit about how you chose the meat for the burgers and Let's Be Frank Hot Dogs.

JB: Every aspect of the menu was chosen by James and myself. We would sit down and try things with Rene or Samir. For the burgers we tried about five or six different blends of beef.

JS: With the beef and the hot dogs, they already they already had that recognition. Our families shopped at those places. I had Let's Be Frank hot dogs at my wedding. Those were things that were close to us before we opened this place. We wanted to share that familiarity and that family feeling from those vendors and products with our customers.

JB: We said that from the beginning. We are doing less of running a restaurant than we are running a talent show and trying to host these people and showcase the food. I guess we are producers.

How did you approach Tai Kim from Scoops and convince him to let you sell Scoop Ice Cream at The Golden State?

JS: We asked him, "If we open a place, can we sell Scoops? He said, "Sure." I don't think he ever thought that 10 months later he'd be standing here. Many other people have asked to sell Scoops.

JB: We were already really good friends with Tai. The funny part is until about eight months into construction, Tai had agreed to do it from day one , but one day he walked in to see the place and said, "Ok, you guys are actually doing this."

JS: We just started out as Scoops customers. We would go there all the time. We became friends with him. We know people approach him often.

JB: During construction I didn't have another job. So I would roll, over to Tai's and help him scoop three days a week there. A guy came in here last week and asked me, "Weren't you just scooping at Scoops? How did you get the money to open a restaurant?"

Does Tai choose the flavors or do you?

JB: It is collaborative, especially when we have really new beers. We have worked at the Craft Beer Fest together. Usually Tai rolls by with whatever he wants. He created a Sour Cherry Dill ice cream to pair with our Ommegang Rouge.  The cherries were marinated in brandy and he added a little bit of dill. He also did a Jim Beam nutmeg ice cream for a beer float, too.

Explain the beer float phenomenon to people who can't imagine beer and ice cream in the same glass.

JB: We definitely are not the first people to do the beer float thing. I am confident in saying we are the first ones to have Old Rasputin and Scoops. Actually, when we were doing it at the house and we were futzing around with it, we started with a carbonated beer, but it really comes into its own when we use a nitrogenated beer. It has a very silky mouth feel to it.

JS: It already has that natural creamier texture.

You focus on local foods for the menu. Are all the beers local?

JS: Right now seven out of the eight draft beers are local. We want to offer the best and when we can source it out of California we are going to do it.

JB: The cod for the fish n chip is not caught off of the Santa Monica Pier. It's line caught wild Icelandic cod. It couldn't be further from California if we tried, but it is really good.

So local with a few exceptions.

JS: The cod is beer battered with local beer.

JB: California produces a lot of great beer, but James and I like a particular kind of beer called Saison and it is not produced frequently in California. So we did put a Saison Dupont on the menu. We have had some local Saisons. Sometime we have to go elsewhere to get it.

How did you decide on counter service for ordering instead of having waiters come to the table?

JB: When I am taking orders at the counter I have had several people comment. "Hey, you really know a lot about this place." I say, "I am the owner." People are surprised to see us taking orders and wiping down tables. It's made it really efficient. When we designed the place we wanted to make sure every table is visible from the central vantage point at the cash register. We want to be able to see everyone, to see if they need anything. So I take order, fill drinks, and act like a waiter for the tables. It is counter service, but we take care of bringing the food and the personal interaction. That's the part I like the most. I love to recommend what beer will go best with the meal.

You have become pretty popular with some people in the restaurant business. We have seen Joan McNamara from Joan's on Third here and hear that Nancy Silverton is a fan. Where do the two of you eat when you have time off?

JB: I go to El Torino and Jitlada. El Torino is on Olympic and Hoover at the edge of Koreatown.

And Jitlada is a Jonathan Gold favorite. How how about you James?

JS; I eat Cup of Noodles and Top Ramen at home or I will save up money and go eat sushi.

Where is your favorite sushi place?

JS: I can't tell you. I don't want anyone else to know. I save up enough money to eat at that one sushi place about every three months.

How long have you both lived in Los Angeles?

JB: My whole life. I grew up in Beverly Hills and went to college up north at UC Berkeley. James went to UC Santa Barbara. We went to high school together at Crossroads. Now I live in Koreaown.

JS: I live in Carthay Circle.

Favorite unique place to visit in LA?

JB: I remember loving the Griffith Observatory when I was a kid. I want to get back there to see the renovation. I haven't had time. It looks so gorgeous from down here.

JS:  I remember loving going to place I called Camel Park. There was a sandbox with statues of camels in it. It was near Aaron Spelling's house in Westwood. That's probably not the real name- just what I called it when I was a kid.

JB; When I was a kid I spent a lot of time at the Farmer's Market with my grandma. We went there every week.

JS: And I always loved going to Rite Aid for ice cream.

And now you serve Scoops. This space use to be Nova Express.

JB: It was an intergalactic coffeehouse with cosmic pizza. It had an eight foot drop ceiling. It was exclusively lit by black light. We ripped up the floors, added a bathroom, expanded the kitchen, added gas- it was all electric. We couldn't afford an architect or a general contractor. That was really an adventure. We couldn't afford an expediter, the person you pay ten grand to push your alcohol permits through. So we had to go before the zoning boards and the city council and to the zoning administration. We put on suits and ties.

So I guess now putting on a Golden State shirt and serving beer is pretty cush.

JB: Yes we've been wearing our Golden Shirts every day for a while now.

Who designed the t-shirts?

JS: A guy named Lando Ettrick.

JB: We wanted kind of a Saul Bass look.

JS: I used to work in advertising and I use to work with him. He lived downstairs. Jason and I went out to dinner one night and told him about what we were thinking. A sort of Saul Bass font meets Doris Day/Rock Hudson Calligraphy.

What has surprised you the most about owning a restaurant?

JB: We thought, "Let's create a place that we would like and our friends would go to." Friends are coming in and friends of friends. My mom comes in and says, "It is nice to see faces in here that I don't recognize." I said to her, "Well, it is a restaurant." People always talk about how hard it is to run a restaurant. I was prepared for it. I am not saying it's not hard, but I think about what makes me feel tired and beleaguered and run down and it is certainly not running this place. What I hated was building a restaurant. The construction, dealing with the city, permits, the nightmarish bureaucracy, and the departments that don't agree with each other. I was surprised that that was the horrifying part.

JS: I guess I was surprised that people actually come here. They come back. They seem to like it. I don't know if we expected to open our doors and have the kind of response we have had so far. Jason and I both feel really lucky to have this clientele base that we really like. People are appreciative. People seem to be happy. It's refreshing and it's nice to see.

Head over to The Golden State to see the shirts, eat the food, and meet Jason and James. They are located at 426 North Fairfax Avenue across from Canter's Deli. They are open noon -10p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.