E.R.B. - Strangely Spectacular

Aesthete · July 14, 2016, 10:50am

Everson Royce Bar had a blip for a happy hour a while back, but people seem to have forgotten about it. I was strangely starving the other night after a night of drinking at Bestia and then also ERB, and I sort of decided to order up a bunch of stuff.

They make a really intense michelada here. A little tomato heavy for my tastes, but they make it genuinely hot with a great spice mixture.

I think this was called a Mezcal Express and it was excellent in terms of balance and smoothness. Just really well constructed.

The burger came out first and was one of my favorite burgers that I have ever eaten. It looked quite terrible, but was utterly stupendous. It seemed to show off an incredible charcoal flavor with precisely right proportions of crisped bun, cheese and sauce. I am dissenting from everyone else, as I would rather eat this burger than Belcampo; it captured everything awesome about a basic burger and magnified it into something simple yet sublime. I was blown away.

You can really see it is just incredibly simple, so I don’t know how they make it taste so incredible:

I wish they didn’t charge so much for fries, but their fries are really tasty. Like what you wish In-n-Out fries were. Simple, crispy, and nicely salted with what seem like particularly wowing versions of ketchup and mayo. Very simple, but just truly grand, even if they aren’t mind-blowing.

A little closer shot:

Corn dogs come 2 to an order and are medium-sized. They are superb versions. Not overly complicated, just really awesome, perfectly fried, and made with good beef hot dogs. Paired with a nice hot mustard. For $7, really enjoyable.

Smoked Potato Taquitos were really nice. They showed off nicely crisped tortillas, lightly smokey potato puree, a zippy slightly spicy verde salsa, and a bunch of crumbly cojita cheese. My least favorite item I suppose as I just felt they were missing something, maybe spicier salsa, or avocado or something, I am not sure. Perhaps I am just too in love with Bar Ama’s taquitos. They were still enjoyable, if not great.

With their entire menu available until 1 am, it feels like ERB is quite possible the best bar you can eat in in all of LA late at night. The food achieves this kind of blissful simplicity that goes perfectly with alcohol. However, I genuinely believe it would be excellent even without alcohol. It’s actually a treasure of a spot, and very quiet on weeknights.

Maybe this won’t be anyone else’s cup of tea, but I walked away feeling really incredibly happy about the eating the food here, especially that burger, and normally I am very picky with my burgers. However, since most people love Belcampo more, I have to say, I might be alone on this one. I just thought it deserved a post.

Hungrydrunk · July 14, 2016, 4:17pm

one of my favorite places to drink in DTLA. Wine Wednesdays is a great time to go too, they have different wineries for the day and they serve food that is usually not on the regular menu. you get a flight of 3 different wines from the winery of the day to go along with your food. I don’t think it’s actually paired with the food but it is served as a combo.

Weekend nights can be fun. Park in their Valet lot, Eat and drink at E.R.B., Drink at Tony’s saloon, have a slice at/from Pizzanista (you can eat it at Tony’s). End the night with some tacos from the taco stand. and you just hit a Grand Slam. (4 places in very close proximity)

Srsly · July 14, 2016, 5:41pm

Great report, thanks for the update! I went once in their first couple weeks, liked my drinks but had terrible service (so bad we skipped eating there and got tacos instead) and haven’t been back. Always intended to, just haven’t made it, so this is good encouragement.

The burger definitely looks excellent but a long night of drinking & starvation has been known to grease the wheels for a ‘simple → incredible’ sublimation…

Hungrydrunk · July 14, 2016, 9:32pm

i’ve had the burger while sober and it is still a damn good burger. The biscuits are so good, they’re a must order, Look over their massive whiskey lists and enjoy a cocktail or two in their beautiful patio area.

Aesthete · July 14, 2016, 10:40pm

I admit that this is true, so the report has to be taken with a grain of salt. I wasn’t starving though. The reason I didn’t eat until really late (didn’t just eat at Bestia) is that I had had a massive lunch. I was not even planning on eating at ERB but the burger tasted so good I kept ordering more stuff. I thought I would take a bunch of stuff to go…but it all tasted so awesome I devoured it all hahaha

However, despite the drinking, I was not so out of it that I don’t recall the flavors of everything.

I am still craving that burger sober, so I will go back and try it before drinks at some point. It just had this magical kind of simplicity to it, not stemming from super high-quality beef either necessarily (I am sure it is good quality, but it is not like a thick patty of red beef where you just taste totally pure beef as in a Belcampo kind of burger for example…if that makes sense). I tend to mostly like burgers of that sort. It genuinely feels like the simple burger Ron Swanson makes in that show Parks & Rec to win the burger cookoff versus the super gourmet burger with like 15 luxury ingredients on it.

Aesthete · July 14, 2016, 10:41pm

Their mezcal list is worth checking out as well =)

Eater15 · July 15, 2016, 2:26am

If anyone didn’t get the reference, it’s a pretty genius scene.

Aesthete · July 22, 2016, 5:13pm

I went back to ERB last night because it’s hard to find anywhere else to eat past midnight on a Thursday.

Main confirmation is that that simple burger remains pure magic even totally sober. It really seems lifted out of that Parks & Rec scene. It is so simple and elemental that the powerful, masterful flavors defy rationality.

I also got the biscuits, which were a monumental miss last time. I figured they would be good, but these are almost obscenely good. hot, buttery, flaky perfection with a perfectly blended honeybutter. God DAMN are they good eats! These easily gave the famous MB Post biscuits a run for their money.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIKC3v2jRMa/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete

BBQ chicken thighs are a tidy portion of protein. Aggressively seasoned, quite smokey from charring on the grill, and perhaps not mind-blowing, but really tasty.

I also tried the pork chorizo burger. Really spectacular, lots of spice and heat; the chorizo patty is a bit crispy, the slaw is crunchy, and the chipotle aioli adds a creaminess, and another layer of heat. It leans more towards the “gets all over the place” kind of burger than the simple cheeseburger, and it is maybe slightly less magical, but it’s spectacular. The pickled jalapeno atop the burger was also a lovely counterpart to add even more heat and vinegary element.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIK_D62DiEK/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete

The bartenders are also top notch here, and really make well-constructed drinks out of whatever element you want: mezcal, egg whites, and guava here:

E.R.B. is a real treasure in LA.