Helping to Choose the New Johnny Rockets Vegetarian Menu & Giveaway!

Helping to Choose the New Johnny Rockets Vegetarian Menu & Giveaway!

By Erin

The other week I had the opportunity to participate in a unique focus group with other local foodies and bloggers for Johnny Rockets to taste test the entries in contention to become the next vegetarian burger for Johnny Rockets. Johnny Rockets  is famous for their delicious original hamburgers and fountain drinks and now they are working hard to create additional vegetarian burger options to add to their menu to redefine the burger experience. Johnny Rockets operates more than 350 franchise and corporate locations in 28 countries around the world. In one year, Johnny Rockets serves up 17 million burgers, 11.3 million soda pops, 8.3 million Shakes and Malts, 8 million pounds of Fries and 815,000 gallons of ice cream. That’s a lot of food and drinks!

Johnny Rockets Block at Orange

Johnny Rockets prides itself on bringing people together around hand-crafted burgers. Offering guests a classic, yet modern dining experience with a chef-inspired menu that showcases a passion for food with their burgers and sandwiches, fries, and hand-spun shakes made with premium ice cream. Cooking up made-to-order burgers with 4 protein options available: fresh, never frozen 100% domestic farm-raised beef, farm-fresh chicken, ground turkey, and Boca Burger. So, which one of these new vegetarian options is going to make the cut?

Each participant was given a score sheet to mark down the ratings and crackers to cleanse the palate. Each patty was so different, it wasn’t as easy at it may look!

JR Tasting Card

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Brunch at Saint Marc Pub-Cafe, Bakery & Cheese Affinage in Huntington Beach! | @SaintMarcUSA

Brunch at Saint Marc Pub-Cafe, Bakery & Cheese Affinage

By Erin

I’ve found a very tasty brunch spot in a beautiful location that you must try and they have a bacon bar! Saint Marc – Pub, Cafe, Bakery & Cheese Affinage at Pacific City in Huntington Beach, California, is a remarkable concept that offers exceptional, nostalgic Americana cuisine. Boasting both a very pet friendly and family friendly environment, Saint Marc does an excellent job of blurring the lines between kitchen, staff and customer, with all of its open spaces that reveal the restaurant’s heart and soul.  The staff is more than happy to give you their expert advice on Saint Marc’s unique selection of distinctive food and hydration available at your table or  you can choose to make your own selections from free-standing iPad stations at your table.

Saint-Marc-Huntington-Beach

The chefs, sommeliers, mixologists and hospitality industry mavericks, are all dressed to match in chef’s coats. Saint Marc offers a very unique, one-of-a-kind, 360° morning to midnight experience without the expense and exclusivity you might expect from culinary talents of this degree and with such high quality food and drink.

Bacon-Bar-Saint-Marc-Huntington-Beach

You are free to order what you want when you want it, free-flow bread from the bakery is available, over 100 cheese selections from boards to fondue, craft beers in a can, 32 wines on draught, with mixology served in Red Solo Cups and dishes served on faux paper plates, is just a small sampling of what makes Saint Marc so unique.

Drinks-Brunch-Saint-Marcs-Huntington-Beach

Located along the Huntington Beach coastline within the vibrant new Pacific City Marketplace, Saint Marc’s flagship establishment engages all of the senses, with worldly sights, sounds, aromas and flavors that invoke a five-star experience yet provide an environment as open and welcoming as home. As we were seated, we were welcomed with these light and refreshing Aperol Spritz.

Saint-Marc-Bacon

We had heard about the bacon bar here and were eager to try some of their delicious bacon creations. The bacon bar is open for to-go orders now too. The Bacon Bar offers 11 signature flavors of bacon ‘buy’ the slice — including the Baker’s Double Smoked Bacon, Garlic Parmesan Bacon, Paprika Slanina Bacon, Peppered Country Bacon, Tender Belly Maple Bacon, Baker’s English Style Bacon, Zoe’s Applewood Uncured Bacon, Apple Pie Bacon, Tender Belly Habanero, Logwood Double Cut and Coffee Rubbed Bacon. My favorite one of them all was the Apple Pie Bacon. At a close second were the Baker’s English Style Bacon and the Garlic Parmesan Bacon. This bacon bar is a real treat for all the bacon lovers out there! 🙂

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Would You Like That Burrito’d at Farrell’s| #Farrells @FarrellsIsBack

Would You Like That Burrito’d at Farrell’s!

By Erin

Farrell’s Restaurant and Ice Cream Parlours is celebrating Cinco De Mayo with the world’s first (as far as we know) “Would You Like That Burrito’d?” event. From May 1 through May 15 you can get almost anything on the Farrell’s menu, burrito’d. When we were invited to come in and try this concept out I was curious to see how this all worked and  was wondering what would be fun to try to get ‘burrito’d.’ The process of burrito’ing something is to take an item and wrap it in a large tortilla. The concept is pretty simple, but the results are lots of fun and, with most food items, surprisingly delicious!

Farrells Restaurant
We made our way on over to the Buena Park location to give the burrito’d thing a try. My birthday was in a few days, so we had an early celebration of that too. Why not right? As “Farrell’s is always about celebrating with family and friends, being unique, pushing the envelope, and having fun! So, for Cinco De Mayo we wanted to give people an alternative to the traditional trip to the local cantina for a margarita and chips.” Said Michael Fleming, Farrell’s CEO. Fleming continued, “When the idea first came up we all thought it was really funny, but after tasting some of our burrito’d items, they are really, really yummy! A few of my favorites were the Burrito’d BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger, Chili Cheese Fries, and Gastro sandwich. We hope our guests have as much fun with this promotion as we did when creating the different burrito’d items.”

Cherry-Coke-FarrellsWe needed something to wash down all the yummy ‘burrito’d’ items and you can’t go wrong with a cherry coke! So what did we get burrito’d?

BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger

The first thing that we got burrito’d was the BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger.

BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger Farrells

This was really good as a “burrito.” A 1/2 pound burger smothered with plum BBQ sauce, topped with melty cheese, onion strings, fresh produce and hardwood smoked bacon. Wrapped up in a tortilla to make it ‘burrito’d.’ This is a great savory option to have as a burrito.

Hula Girl Farrells

If you want a little sweeter option to get burrito’d, then you might want to try the Hula Girl as a burrito! A juicy grilled chicken breast with sweet, fresh grilled Dole pineapple, tangy sesame ginger dressing, swiss cheese, and produce on a whole wheat bun. I very much enjoyed this one!

Buffalo Mac N Cheese Farrells

If you really want to have something fun, then get this one burrito’d! The Buffalo Mac; Cavatappi pasta and tender grilled chicken mixed in spicy buffalo cheese sauce and covered with melted bleu cheese. Baked in the oven then topped with more buffalo sauce, their famous onion strings, ranch dressing, and green onions. You also get a side salad with this one. This one does have a bit of a kick to it, so if you like some spice, you will love this. 🙂

Ice Cream Nachos Farrells

What would a fiesta be without some nachos (and dessert)? To end our special adventure we had some delicious Ice Cream Nachos! Crispy tortilla chips (waffle cone pieces) for dipping into the mint chip, chocolate malted crunch and animal cookie ice cream. All topped off with hot fudge, caramel, marshmallow fluff, whipped cream, mixed nuts, and a cherry. Ole!

Even through Farrell’s will provide guests with a handout that explains the promotion and makes recommendations of food items to burrito, they say they will burrito just about anything on their menu. Some items they recommend not burrito’ing include fried pickle appetizers, pizzas, or any soup (for obvious reasons). They do recommend burrito’ing any of their burgers or salads and many of their sandwiches and appetizers. Farrell’s locations participating in this promotion include Brea, Buena Park, Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, and Sacramento. For specific store address, hours, or to make an on-line reservation visit FarrellsUSA.com.

What would you get Burrito’d? 🙂