30 Burgers in 30 Days: Pretzel Buns at Hole In The Wall Burger Joint (Day 9)

By Elina Shatkin Fri., Feb. 11 2011 at 4:28 PM

Hole in the Wall Burger Joint: Burger on Pretzel Bun

"Beef!" "Beef!" "Turkey!" "Beef!" The cries ring out one after another as customers crowd Hole In The Wall Burger Joint at lunchtime. This hidden gem, opened a couple years ago by Bill Dertouzos and his ex-wife Susan McAlindon (they had split well before they went into business together) officially has an address Santa Monica Boulevard. Follow that you'll likely get lost. Hole In The Wall is, in fact, a hole in the wall on Bentley Avenue, tucked out of sight behind the Winchell's at the southeast corner of Sepulveda and Santa Monica boulevards. It hasn't been around long and is hard to find, but that doesn't stop people from descending on the place. They come for the perfect burgers, the freshly cooked fries and, most of all, the pretzel buns.

Meat & Bun: This is a coarsely ground, loosely packed, thick 8 oz. beef patty. Full of flavor and fat, it's got enough savory meat juice to moisten the bun without being too greasy. As a matter of course, they'll cook your burger on the rare side of medium but you can always ask for it less or more well done. This is perfection. At $7.95, it can stand up, proudly, next to Comme Ça's excellent $16 burger. Plus, Hole In The Wall has much better fries.

Other protein options include a turkey patty, a veggie patty and a crispy chicken burger, each of them 8 oz. They come with all the basics, your choice of cheese (cheddar, provolone, Swiss or pepper jack), spreads (onion, cranberry or chipotle mayo as well as ranch dressing) and veggies (lettuce, onions, tomato and house-made relish). There are, however, only two choices that really matter.

The first is the bun. Sure, you could get your burger on a standard hamburger bun. You could get a brioche if you're being fancy or a whole what bun if you're aiming for health. You could even get your burger in a bowl, if you're looking to cut carbs. For us, there's only one option: the pretzel bun.

This dark brown braided round has a crisp, shellacked exterior and a dense, chewy interior that provides an exceptional framework for the burger, both taste and structure. We've found ourselves sopping up the meat drippings with the bun, desperately dabbing every last drop of flavor from the oily wrapper, long after we finished our burger. (On a side note, we like that the cheese is placed under the burger, where it has unadulterated contact with the bun.)

Toppings: At Hole In The Wall, you order by checking off items on a menu sheet and wait for your name to be called over the mic. Currently, the house-made zucchini pickles have been replaced by a sweet relish. Though we normally despise relish, especially the jarred supermarket variety, this is one of the few we've ever liked. Perhaps its that hint of cinnamon, clove and sweet peppers, adding a sweet and earthy tang to the beef.

Extras like bacon, grilled onions, avocado, etc. are $1 each. This is the other crucial decision, though you really shouldn't need to think about it. Get the bacon, already. It's thick and brittle, with a crispness that lasts most of the way through the burger.

Sides: Unlike plenty of burger joints we've tried, including some expensive ones, Hole In The Wall They doesn't stop caring once the burger is done. Slightly thicker than fast-food fries, their Kennebec fries arrive piping hot, tasting as though they're fresh from the fryer. You have your choice of standard ketchup, a tangy and uncommon variation on ranch dressing or the housemade ketchup, more of a thick gazpacho. We keep trying other ketchups, but, once again, we prefer the Heinz.

Desserts: This is not that kind of place.

The Upshot: Get the beef patty on a pretzel bun. Even if you're not normally a fan of relish, consider trying it. The fries are well worth the extra $2.50. CASH ONLY! (Though they have an ATM on the premises.) Not simply one of Los Angeles' best burgers for the money, one of Los Angeles' best burgers.

Exercise: 45-min. elliptical trainer

Previously...

Day 8: Late Night Burgers at Eveleigh

Day 7: Apple Pan Keeps on Truckin'

Day 6: Perfection at Comme Ça

Day 5: The Fix Is In

Day 4: Fun with Buns at Rounds Premium Burgers

Day 3: Whipped Cream & Other Delights at The Counter

Day 2: Kimchi & Cultural Fusion at Kalbi Burger

Day 1: 30 Burgers in 30 Days: Alcohol & Excess at GO Burger.

Location Info

Venue

Map

Hole in the Wall Burger Joint

11058 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA

Category: Restaurant

1 user reviews	Write A Review
Save to foursquare

Tags:

30 Burgers In 30 Days, Burgers, Elina Shatkin, Hole In The Wall Burger Joint, Pretzel Bun, Pretzels

We Recommend

how to get rid of strech marks

The L.A. Weekly really needs to have a dedicated page for this project

Bmbard

Try the lamb burgers! Only available every few weeks but well worth checking out.

Chad in Phnom Penh

The L.A. Weekly really needs to have a dedicated page for this project (which is a great idea, btw). Would be nice to have a page that would feature the newest review on top and then have the option of clicking your way through the others. Right now, finding them is a bit scattershot. Anyway, cheers to the idea and the best burger city in the US.

S. Britchky

"At $7.95, it can stand up, proudly, next to Comme Ça's excellent $16 burger. Plus, Hole In The Wall has much better fries. ... Slightly thicker than fast-food fries, their Kennebec fries arrive piping hot, tasting as though they're fresh from the fryer."

Bit of a mystery here. Your review of Comme Ça (Day 6) described "limp, mushy fries, strikingly similar to the ones at In-N-Out." The similarity isn’t surprising, because INO abuses the vaunted Kennebec, which I assume is also David Myers's potato at CÇ. That's what he uses at Pizzeria Ortica in Costa Mesa. But, holy cow, Ortica’s fries are lightly crisp -- nothing like the canned-spaghetti texture you got from CÇ -- and they have a deliciously subtle potato flavor, accented by a sprinkle of fresh sage and balsamic vinegar. If Myers sold those fries with a CÇ-style hamburger at Ortica, Charlie Palmer’s new burger room down the street (DG) wouldn’t have lasted its first week. I’m hoping that you hit Comme Ça on a bad night for fries and that they’ll compare well with the ones at Hole In The Wall on future visits.

MadProfessah

Love this series..I presume you are gonna check out Lazy Ox Canteen's burger? And what about Five Guys Burger down in Redondo?

S. Britchky

Five guys has grown exponentially in California -- from just two rabbits a couple of years ago to 10, 346 as of noon today. Well, maybe not that many, but they have gone nuts with the Golden State market, and I'm not sure why, given our many other burger choices. I like their fries and peanuts, but the hamburgers are, to my taste, only marginally better than In-N-Out and not as good as Fatburger's. They're well below most of those covered so far in this series, which is too bad. When I lived in the Washington, DC, area during the Clinton Administration and FG had only a handful of places, the burger was much better, even if you did have to eat with bureaucrats.