Elina Shatkin

The Pacific Dining Car doesn't look like much from the outside. A white picket fence bordering some sort of nondescript building. Look closer. This former train car has been transformed into a velvety cocoon of old-world elegance. Dark wood paneling, dim lighting. We can imagine Don Draper's West Coast counterpart......

Australia's answer to In-N-Out is coming to the United States, and its first stateside location opens tomorrow in Rancho Cucamonga. Founded in 1986, Oporto, which serves Portuguese-influenced Australian fare, "supposedly has a cult following in Australia on the scale of In-N-Out in California." Except In-N-Out specializes in traditional hamburgers and......

Mario Batali is bringing his virtual orange Crocs to Foursquare, the handy smartphone app that allows tech-savvy thieves to follow your trajectory and rob your home while you're out. So we're a little paranoid. Batali, however, isn't. You can follow the larger-than-life restaurant impresario, who joined Foursquare last month, as......

Nearly every meat-eating Americanspeaks the language of burger. Whether it's a backyard barbecue or an upscale gastropub, the hamburger, once a practical way to make inexpensive meat more palatable, has become an art form unto itself. Our continuing online odyssey "30 Burgers in 30 Days" isn't a hard-and-fast ranking system......

As its name implies, Pie 'n Burger is known for two things, and you'd be remiss not to order them. But this very old school Pasadena eatery also dishes up a credible American breakfast: eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage and ham as well as cinnamon and pecan rolls. Don't worry,......

How do you go wrong with a Shirley Temple? This is and is not a rhetorical question. The Shirley Temple is the original -- and still pre-eminent -- non-alcoholic cocktail, sipped by generations of American children suffering in itchy formal wear through tedious adult parties. It requires only 7-Up, grenadine......

Writer Beth M. Howard has signed a book deal for Making Piece: A Memoir about Love, Loss and Pie, her story of traveling the country seeking pie stories after her husband's death. The book is scheduled for publication in June 2012. Howard hopes to have it finished within two months......

The first time we met Street Gourmet LA blogger Bill Esparza, we were about to dig into one of Antojito de mi Abuelita's bright red, guajillo chile-dipped pambazos with its guts of chorizo, potatoes, shredded lettuce and crumbled cheese nearly spilling out. "Are you shy about germs?" we asked. "If......

A woman in Collier County in South Florida has been arrested after brutally beating her roommate in a dispute over... Thin Mints? Yes, that's right. The most popular of all Girl Scout cookies, which we hoard in our freezer like Golem guarding his Precious, should promote honesty, responsibility and good......

Is Blue Dog a beer bar that happens to serve really good burgers or a burger bar with an impressive selection of craft beers? We don't know. Fortunately, we don't have to choose. This Sherman Oaks tavern -- dominated, not as its name might suggest, by the paintings of George......