700 W. 7th StreetIf you’ve noticed over the last few blogs, we hadn’t really eaten out at a decent sit down type of restaurants since our first night in LA. We didn’t have time or energy to put that kind of effort in to dinner most nights.
Our slowest work day was New Year’s Eve. We had a mid afternoon assignment just down the road from our hotel at USC then we came back to the hotel to finish up what we had to do for the evening.
I was hungry when we got back from USC though. We had plenty of time so I asked co-worker if he wanted to grab a really early New Year’s Eve dinner. I figured most places would have reservations seeing as it was the holiday so I wanted to go early.
We were just going to go to the restaurant in our hotel but when we got to the floor it was on, the doors were shut. I don’t know if they were closed for the holiday or we were too early and they weren’t open yet.
Co-Worker suggested we just go out to street level at our hotel. There’s a restaurant there and it didn’t look super busy when we drove in.
Joey DTLA is one of 30+ Joey Restaurants in the US and Canada. The chain is described as a “Western Canadian premium casual” group with headquarters in Vancouver. The US restaurants are in the Los Angeles area, Seattle, Miami, New York and Houston. This location in downtown Los Angeles is on the corner of 7th and Hope Street in The Bloc commercial complex.
We walked in to the restaurant around 4:00. There’s a large open air patio that you have to walk through to get to the host stand. There is then a dining room to one side and a large bar area to the other. It was pretty empty…but again, New Year’s Eve, so the host asked if we had reservations or were a walk-in. We were a walk-in so he told us it’d be about ten minutes. That was fine. We weren’t in a super big hurry. We were hoping to get seated at the bar anyway as there were some football games on and we just kind of wanted it to be a relaxed dinner.
It didn’t even take ten minutes for me to get a text message saying our table was ready. We were literally sitting right next to the host stand so I chuckle that I had to get up and show them my phone when I talked to the guy like 5 minutes before he sent me that text.
We didn’t get the bar area but instead were put in the patio. It was a comfortable night but they had the overhead heaters on anyway. Comfortable for a Michigander is not the same as comfortable for a Californian.
We both started with beers since it had been a pretty long week. The beer list wasn’t huge. They just had one beer listed under each style. I picked the “IPA” which turned out to be Orderville from Modern Times Beer out of San Diego…so at least it was a somewhat local beer. The pour wasn’t great. There was a lot of foam. I know a good pour needs some of that, but there was a lot for the size of the glass. I made sure to drink slow so I had some once my meal got there. Yes, the company was paying, but I always feel a little guilty spending too much at a meal and I knew this was going to be an expensive meal.
Again, not wanting to spend too much money, I stuck to a burger for dinner. I got the Hand Pressed Burger and added on cheddar cheese and bacon. The sandwich came with choice of regular or truffle fries. You know I wanted the truffle fries…but again, feel bad about spending too much and this was already a $25 burger.
The burger was actually really delicious. Yes, expensive, but also really, really good. The meat was really tender and had some delicious crispy bits around the outside. The bacon was crispy but still a little chewy and bacon-y. The cheese was melted in between the crevices on top of the patty and the brioche bun had a slight char around the edges. The sandwich came with a “secret sauce,” lettuce, onion, tomato and pickles. This was a solid burger and one I really needed after a long week of work.
I really, really wish I would have just sucked it up and ordered the truffle fries. The regular fries are fine. They’re crispy, skin-on potato sticks. They were fine but I know I would have been happier with the truffle oil.
They didn’t split the bill and since we were expensing it, I didn’t bother to ask. I just picked it up and put it on my card.
Co-worker got the Chicken Parmigiana (which looked freakin’ amazing, btw) so our bill came in a little high at about $80 before tip. For a fancier place in downtown Los Angeles, it’s probably not a bad price and no one questioned me when I turned in the expense report so we were alright.
We weren’t going to get dinner at Joey DTLA but it turned out to be a great meal. I have never heard the term “premium casual” to describe a restaurant before but I can see how that term is used. It’s not quite a fine dining establishment but it’s a lot more upscale than the typical sports bar….and the food was spot on.