![]() The rest of the dining experience is inside the 5,500-square-foot, two-story restaurant.įurniture and tabletops are made with from old farmhouse barn doors and fallen trees from Torrey Pines in San Diego. In Costa Mesa, customers will order from an outdoor counter facing 17th Street. The first San Diego restaurant was born in 2015 from a converted corrugated metal shed next to Juniper & Ivy. Rosen said he could have knocked down the old bank building on 17th Street, but that’s not how The Crack Shack rolls. Like the menu, the dining room decor and atmosphere evokes authenticity with a splash of modernism. It’s an affordable luxury.” Decor with purpose “But we’re providing fine dining quality food. I can go to KFC for a lot less,'” he said. “There are people who look at our prices and say ‘It’s expensive for fried chicken. And he believes The Crack Shack is a bargain considering it employs the same food standards as a white tablecloth restaurant. Rosen, who worked in the financial services sector before hooking up with Blais to open Juniper & Ivy, said diners get what they pay for. Family-size servings of fried chicken are $15 (5 pieces) or $29 (10 pieces).įor $8, diners can share a large tray of loaded “Mexican poutine” fries topped with chunks of spicy marinated chicken and slathered in house-made jalapeño “cheese wiz” sauce. ![]() Salads are $8 to $9 with an up-charge for adding a protein options such as grilled chicken, fried chicken, smoked white meat or fried thighs. “I like to think of our french fries as being given a spa treatment,” Blais said of the “thrice cooked” French method.īut incorporating premium ingredients with such labor-intensive food handling comes at a price. On the other side of the kitchen, even more tender-loving care is bestowed on a large bin of hand-cut Russet potatoes.The skin-on fries - some as long as Bic pen - are soaked 24 hours then blanched and twice fried, resulting in a fluffy center and crispy outside texture. “I think the term chef-driven gets used a lot when it’s not the case, but here it’s absolutely true,” Blais said. ![]() The buttermilk recipe uses spices formulated by Le Sanctuaire, a San Francisco supplier of herb and spice blends to Michelin-ranked restaurants. ![]() On a typical day, Blais said workers bread about 600 pounds of bone-in, antibiotic-free Jidori chicken. The all-day breakfast sandwich is stuffed with chicken sausage, a sunny side up egg and smoked cheddar. The muffins are used for one of Blais’ favorite dishes, The Royale. An affordable luxuryĭressed in a black zip-up jacket and camouflage shorts, Blais enters the kitchen to showcase the love behind The Crack Shack menu.Ĭosta Mesa’s kitchen, Blais said, is the “Taj Majal” compared to the flagship San Diego restaurant - a walk-up shack with only outdoor seating.īut one thing remains the same at each location: Everything is made from scratch by five cooks and kitchen staff who previously worked at Juniper & Ivy in San Diego’s Little Italy.īlais proudly points to a cooling rack layered with dozens of large English muffins – all made in-house. “We think this community is seeking out high-quality innovative concepts,” Rosen said. ![]()
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