The gorgeous Spanish-style continues on to the interior of the Brown Derby with checkered-tile floors, exposed beams, and sweeping arches. Celebrity caricatures line the mission-colored walls; and it's a fun a game to try and guess all the old stars as you wait for your food to arrive. It does seem fairly sophisticated for a theme park, which I find to be a welcome and cool respite from the frantic pace and crowded lines that dot the rest of the park.
The menu (and prices) reflect the upscale atmosphere. This isn't really a restaurant to grab a quick bite and head back out to the rides; this is definitely a sit-down meal, at a more leisurely pace. I prefer to have at least one sit-down meal while at the parks because I enjoy the break from running around after my daughter, and from zipping from one Fast Pass line to another.
The Brown Derby is famous for the invention of the Cobb Salad, by Bob Cobb (thanks Curb Your Enthusiasm), full of bacon, egg, tomato, avocado , and chopped turkey. But I'm not much of a chopped salad fan, so I usually order their alternative salad, which is a mix of lettuces; topped with fruit such as peaches or blueberries, aged goat cheese, and candied pecans dressed with a champagne vinaigrette. It's a surprisingly delicious and filling salad for being so unassuming. The different flavors and textures play so well off of one another; the sweet meatiness of the candied pecans, mingle with the sweet-tart, crisp flavor of the fruit, and the soft yielding texture and herbaceous notes of the lettuce. The cheese is just a delicious, salty bonus.
I like to pair it with whatever seasonal soup they have on the menu, which does seem to change from time to time. The Roasted Zellwood Corn Soup is amazing; it's like slurping liquid velvet. It's somehow both airy and rich, simultaneously. I highly recommend trying it whenever they have it on the menu.
A note about the plating: I find it to be thoughtful, but not over-done. The colors are reminiscent of a fall day, which is a nice tie-in for the seasonal corn being featured.
My husband is a pretty big carnivore, especially when we eat out, because we have mostly vegetarian, chicken or fish dishes at home, so he tends to order something big and beefy at restaurants. And boy, he hasn't stopped raving about the Hollywood Brown Derby burger since he got it. It is massive and loaded with toppings and accoutrements that spill over the edges of the patty. A knife is inserted through the center as some sort of cutlery tent post just to keep the thing from toppling over. It's bursting with Gruyere cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, pastrami (!), and a fried egg, that creates another oozy sauce that drips down the burger as you tear into it. And if that weren't decadent enough, the brioche bun is smeared with a cognac-mustard aioli, which was my personal favorite ingredient of the dish. I'm still trying to figure what is in that mustard sauce, because it would really be great on any number of sandwiches. It comes with hand-cut potato wedges that were quite satisfying. And they just don't serve enough potato wedges at restaurants, in my humble opinion.
As for dessert, I love it when a restaurant offers some kind of dessert variety plate. At the Brown Derby they have six mini desserts to choose from to create any number of trio combinations. The grapefruit cake is a must if you like the sweet-tart flavor of citrus desserts, which I find myself craving more and more. They have a standard-issue creme brulee, a blueberry cobbler, and a few more intriguing choices like like the Chocolate-Mascarpone Sphere or Banana Toffee Cake with strawberry banana pearls, which are kind of like those things you find floating in that bubble tea.
The Hollywood Brown Derby is a restaurant full of nostalgia and character. Their refined food is a welcome surprise from the pizza and fries of the quick-service commissaries that pepper the Studios. But it is also priced accordingly. It's certainly a pleasant place to relax, to feel like you might rub elbows with a star at any moment, and slow down to enjoy the atmosphere of old Hollywood.
No comments:
Post a Comment