A Bite at the Opera*

A week ago Friday I met the Colonel and my Giant seat mates Dale and Susan at Puccini and Pinetti's (129 Ellis) for lunch to split up our playoff tickets. We were all pretty upbeat that day, though at that point the regular season was still on. At that moment the Giants were 3 up with 3 to go. It got a little hairy when they lost the first two games of the Padres' series, but it all worked out as I've already written about.**

*My opinion (which makes it fact): A Night at the Opera was the funniest movie ever made. And it has a little baseball joke in there too - the orchestra during the opera, which is being sabotaged by the Marx Brothers, breaks out in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame. One of the biggest laughs in any movie ever.

And if you haven't figured out my theme here, Puccini wrote Pagliacci. For the record, the Marx Brothers lampooned Il Trovatore. I saw that once. I kept laughing out loud where all the jokes were in the movie opera.

**I'm going to write about going to game 2 last night, but it's still just too painful.

Anyway we had a pleasant lunch, and it occurred to me to give their cheeseburger a try. I was breaking my one per week quota, but what the hell.

I ate there once before. The Colonel is a regular there. They know him, though being a modest man, I don't think they know about his great bravery in defense of our country. I think he likes the drinks, and I think he likes that the young waitresses know him.

I can't imagine he likes the food. It's known for Italian food, and when I was there a year or so ago I ordered the chicken marsala. Feh. Let's put it this way. It wasn't as good as mine, and mine isn't all that good. It is better than the boss' version, but only because she doesn't know how to make it, and if I'm hungry, I guess I can try to gag the P&P bucket o' chicken down. I can't really believe anyone orders food at that place.

Their lunch menu does have the following item:

Pinetti Burger
gorgonzola, avocado, butter lettuce, tomato, onions, spicy aioli on ciabatta bun

There is a clue here. Puccini refuses to put his name on the house burger.

I asked the waitress how the burger was. She said it was great. I asked, "Great?" She replied, "Good."

Bad sign.

But I'm on a mission to my maker. I ordered it anyway. I specifically asked for medium rare. I always ask for medium rare. Good burgers are, by definition, medium rare.

Medium well.

To be honest, that's enough, but holy aioli, that sauce was pretty lousy. The onions weren't grilled. I didn't cut it, but it was still a mess to eat, because it just didn't fit.

I liked the bun. There, something nice.

It was $13, so although it wasn't stratospheric, it wasn't cheap. And it wasn't good.

Don't even think about it. I know why that clown is crying.

Connie told me she went to Epic Roasthouse with her mom today and ordered their highly touted cheeseburger. She refuses to write it up, but she said despite it being messy, it was delicious. I do see a lot of good comments, so it's definitely on my list.

By the way, I have a theory that the secret is the grind of the meat. I'm going to ask about that wherever I go, and I'm going to try some combinations at home. That said, I don't care what they grind at P&P.