Pete Tittl: Moo Creamery is the next great Bakersfield dining mecca
| Wednesday, Jan 28 2009 08:52 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:31 PM
MOO CREAMERY
4885 Truxtun Ave., 861-1130
Hours:7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.
Prices:Burgers $6.75 to $9.25, soup and salad $3.25 to $9.25, sandwiches $3.50 to $11.50, sides $2.25 to $4.50. Child’s menu $4.25 to $5.25.
Payment:MasterCard, VISA, American Express and personal checks accepted. Does not accept Discover or The Californian’s Press Pass.
Dress:Casual
Amenities:Wheelchair accessible; beer and wine served; some vegetarian options.
Food:4 stars
Atmosphere:31⁄2 stars
Service:3 stars
Value:3 stars
Next week:House of Shabu
Images
Moo Creamery co-owner Richard Yoshimura, left, and his kitchen crew hustle to feel a lunchtime crowd.
Moo Creamery owner Jessica Pounds holds a barbecue chicken sandwich.
Moo Creamery co-owner Jessica Pounds returned to her hometown, armed with restaurant expertise learned in the fine kitchens of Los Angeles.
A selection of Moo Creamery desserts.
Customers line up for lunch.
Owners of Moo Creamery, and husband and wife, Richard Yoshimura and Jessica Pounds pose for a quick shot during a recent lunch rush at their new restaurant/ice cream place.
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I’ve read about the “brain drain” problem affecting Bakersfield. Our best and brightest get educated elsewhere and don’t return with their college degrees to help make our community vital and alive.
Moo Creamery is an example of the reverse brain drain. Native Jessica Pounds, a Garces graduate, goes off to UCLA, where she meets Richard Yoshimura. The two graduate and work in the restaurant industry down south, and he goes on to culinary school. She works in restaurants such as Clementine and Border Grill, and he is a pastry chef at Patina and Milk. But the pair, bound by a mutual love of hamburgers and ice cream, decide to move to Bakersfield and open their dream restaurant.
We’re the winners here, folks. This is a sparkling, charismatic, informal, impressive place, located in an out-of-the way location on the Truxtun Extension near Paragon Salon Spa, between Oak and Mohawk.
Some may quibble about the prices, but the quality of all the ingredients is so exceptional, the atmosphere so fun and inviting that I feel I got my money’s worth, and I will be back.
The menu is extensive: ice cream made from Strauss Family Creamery organic milk, sandwiches, hamburgers, salads and lots of pastries and fresh-made dessert confections. Think Rosemary’s or Dewars with better food. During our visit, we sampled a barbecue burger ($8.25), chili cheese fries ($4.25), a “24-hour burger” ($8.95), onion rings ($2.50), a Reuben sandwich ($8.50) and two of the cakes: a triple milk moo cake ($4.25) and an apple cake with maple whipped cream ($3.75).
What impressed me most was the quality of the ingredients, down to the slightest thing such as the bread and buns. The menu says they get those from the Great Harvest Bread Co. I love that place. My companion’s Reuben was made with thick slices of their rye marble bread. Perfect choice. The hamburgers were thick, still juicy (I love that the insides were pink — NOT overcooked!) and the ingredients first rate. My son was irked that his barbecue burger was poorly shaped — too thick in the middle, almost like a meatball, and thin on the outside — but mine was perfectly proportional.
My only real complaint was with the chili fries. The proportions were off. Too much chili, not enough fries and cheese. The chili was great — thinly ground meat, not too much grease. The fries are fresh cut (from local potatoes, according to the Web site), and I wanted more of them. They resembled those great fries at Wool Growers.
The simple touches impressed me the most. For example, my 24-hour burger had a fried egg, applewood smoked bacon, sharp cheddar (not the tasteless mild cheddar) and arugula — a lot of nice, quality greens. Everything was perfect. The onion rings had a crispy tempura-sharp beer batter on the outside and were perfectly done. The pastrami in my companion’s sandwich was similarly perfect.
In fact, everything is so good that a diet will definitely be needed after visiting this place. The “moo cake” was a sponge cake with a three-milk cream. Simple but wonderful. The dark apple cake was dense, thick with black walnuts and apple bits and perfect with whipped cream rather than a more fattening frosting.
There were many, many ice cream options that we didn’t try, but I noted that they include sandwiches made from homemade cookies.
I expect a lot of promotions, such as “family style dining” on Sunday nights (5-7 p.m.). Adults pay $18, 10 and under are $8, and the menu changes every week. On Jan. 18 it was an arugula and manchego salad, onion rings, grilled pastrami Reubens, Hawaiian teriyaki burgers, broccoli and cauliflower with pickled shallots and toasted almonds and chocolate bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. Reservations recommended.
There is a winding counter in the center of the room and tables both inside and out. There are treats visible in the refrigerator cases. Service was great. You order at the counter, and the woman who took my order patiently explained a lot of what I didn’t understand on my first visit.
Moo Creamery can be recommended for a fine dining experience. Visit one time. You’ll be hooked.
