Highland Cafe

Thanksgiving 2010

Highland Café, Oildale:

Where to go on a business lunch when your guest does not want ethnic food?  During the short Thanksgiving week, I suggested the Knotty Pine on Norris Road that is close to the office, so we headed that way.  As we got there, we both thought of the Highland café at the same time.  In the old days, the Highland café was a BBQ joint that had great BBQ, the coldest beer in town and lots of people from the Kern River oilfield went there during lunch.  I could always see someone I knew and the tables down the middle of the dining room, or bar, had a low divider that connected 2 parties.  So I might see someone I know and sit adjacent to them and visit.  That was pretty cool in the old days.  And I remember the waitress in the old days.  She was kind of a rough and tumble Oildale type lady that didn’t take any crap off anyone.  I had gained some respect for her when I learned that she had a son or daughter, I don’t remember which, was going to Cal Tech to be a rocket scientist.  When the placed closed a few years ago and relocated on 30^th street, the Highland was vacant for a while. 

It reopened a couple years ago under a new owner and was remodeled.  I’ve been thare a couple of times and the food is good.  It’s not so much a BBQ joint anymore.  As there is no BBQ sauce on the table.  The last time I was there I had a nice salad with BBQ Tri-Tip on it.  I enjoyed the salad but noticed that another table was having the hamburgers.  Man, that looked good.  Why am I always looking to see if someone else is eating something better than me?  So, this time I ordered the Ortega Cheese Burger and the mac and cheese.

The burgers are $10.  And the Ortega burger was $10.50.  That’s lot for a burger. And I could get an Ortega burger at John’s for about $4.  But at the highland café, there is a nice booth to enjoy a business meeting.   And the burgers at the highland are made with a big thick patty of top quality beef.  It’s served with all the fixin’s and they cook it to order.  I ordered mine medium and it’s still nice and juicy.  The Ortega chile part was a spoonful of chopped Ortega chilies.  I prefer the whole chile laid out over the meat like they do at John’s or the McKittrick Hotel.   I was disappointed in the mac and cheese.  It was served as a square next to the burger on the same plate.  When I think of mac and cheese, I think of gooey, creamy, cheesey, needing a dish of it’s own just to contain it.  This seemed like it was made a while ago and sitting in a pan waiting to be ordered.  The cheese was cheddar and it was hard when I got it like it was melted at some point, but it was not melted on my plate.  And there seemed to be a lot of egg in it keeping it in the square shape.  I say substitute the cheddar with Velveta.  I need the recipe from the Sears employee cafeteria where I used to work in 1979.  It was the best. 

The Tri-tip sandwich looked good at the Highland café.  Maybe I’ll try that next time.   And thinking of my next meal there means that the Highland deserves a 3 * star rating- looking forward to my next meal.

And thinking of the McKittrick Hotel’s Ortega-bacon-cheeseburger makes that a 3 * star rating and I haven’t even been there this year yet. 

Wine review(s):

Thanksgiving dinner deserves a special bottle of wine.  And since Dana is also a Le Cuvier member, she is worthy of sharing the Le Cuvier 2004 Chardonnay.  Le Cuvier makes their Chardonnay and other white wines in the same way that they make their red wines.  The Chardonnay is fermented with the skins and further fermented in the barrel.  The aging continues in the barrel for at least 3 years.  The barrels are neutral so the wine does not pick up oak flavor.  It is straw colored from contact with the skins.  The wine is very smooth and complex and may have been too much wine for the turkey dinner.  I made the mistake of not planning ahead better.  I opened the bottle as we were sitting down to eat.  Remember that these great wines from Le Cuvier are best when decanted for at least 2 hours ahead.  At first the wine tasted very tight, in that there was not much bouquet and the high alcohol content (15.2%) was very dominate on the palate.  But half way through dinner and about 15 minutes, the wine changed.  The bouquet blossomed and the alcohol smoothed out and the fruit came forward.  Wow, what a great chardonnay.    I saved some in the bottle and the next day it was still wonderful, even be itself.  I have one more bottle of this 2004 Chardonnay.  I’ll be thinking what to have it with.  Maybe BBQ baby back ribs or salmon with a nice spicey sauce or mango salsa.  Maybe I’ll take the last bottle to Cabo on vacation.   Jim at Le Cuvier says there is a Le Cuvier disciple that owns and cooks at a restaurant in Cabo San Lucas called Solomon’s Landing.  Maybe I’ll take the 2004 Chardonnay to him and have him fix a meal for Betty and me that will pair nicely with it.  Stay tuned.

Recipe:  Inspired by the food channel and a Sheppard’s pie recipe, I want to make the following with Thanksgiving leftovers; a layered casserole with mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy, dressing and green bean casserole on top.  Our green bean casserole has cheddar cheese on top so I think that will make a good top layer.  Don’t forget the cranberry chutney on the side.  How can this turn out bad?