Sir Grubs A Lot: The Oinkster (LA)

I know a lot of folks who love to hate on Guy Fieri for reasons that include his overt enthusiasm and hair do, but I'll be the first to admit, I think the dude is completely lovable and has the best damn job in the world. I mean, really... he won a reality TV show competition and now travels around in a red '67 Camaro convertible shoving piping hot deliciousness into his mouth from greasy spoons across the country. Genius. How can you not be a little enviable, regardless of the fact that based solely on appearance, he looks like a total douchenozzle?

Thanks to Mr. Fieri I was introduced to The Oinkster via an episode of Diner's, Drive-In's and Drives and given its LA locale, it was going down. So on a gorgeous Sunday morning, two friends and I arrived.



We got there just a little after the 11am opening and it was already starting to bustle. The Oinkster is kitschy cute with a nice outdoor seating area and the staff was super nice and accommodating to us Oinkster newbies.



I started off the morning with an Arrogant Bastard Ale.  This beer is ridiculously good, you should drink it. Enough said.

Their Belgian fries are twice fried in beef fat and once in rice oil so vegetarians beware.



They were super good, had just the right amount of crisp to them and were aided in flavor by a nice selection of housemade condiments:



God, I love sauce.  I had to stay clear of their sweet hot mustard, it was way too strong, but the chipotle ketchup was awesome.  The real winner however was their garlic aioli. I could slather that stuff all over my body, lay out in the sun and call it a day.

The Oinkster Pastrami: two-week cured pastrami, Gruyere cheese, caramelized onion and a red cabbage slaw. I only had a couple of bites of this, as I opted for the pulled pork, but it was amazing. The meat was super tender and the combo of the cheese, slaw and onion was on point. The friend who chose this, chose wisely.



When I asked how he would describe it, he likened it to a "magical food wizard ready to put an enchantment spell on your flavor-buds."

Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of magical food wizardry going on with my BBQ pulled pork selection.  Don't get me wrong, I went to town on that sandwich, but I thought the pork was a little dry and I had to help bites out with more of their Carolina BBQ Sauce and the garlic aioli.



A little underwhelming, but I'll give it another shot as there will definitely be another trip to the Oinkster for me to try their Ube milkshake and have my own pastrami.

As I'm still reeling from the garlic aioli, I'll leave you with one of the best "would you rather" questions ever posed to me: Would you rather live in a world without boobs or without sauce?

Think about it.  It's a tough one.

THE OINKSTER
2005 Colorado Boulevard
Eagle Rock, CA
T: 323.255.OINK

*Chiara lives in LA with her cat Pinky, who does tricks for food. Similarly, Chiara will also do tricks for food and thinks about eating a lot.