‘Tis a long and winding road that leads you to Wild Oak Café, in the hills above Glendale, just a few steps away from the Chevy Chase Country Club. So close, indeed, that I was surprised not to hear duffers yelling “Fore!” as they hauled off to wack a Titleist deep into the rough.
Rather, the dominant sound at Wild Oak is birds of every stripe and hue, twittering in the surrounding trees.
Like our several hidden-gem restaurants (Saddle Peak Lodge in Topanga comes to mind), Wild Oak is a Tolkienesque journey into the greenery. It’s not at the end of the road; Chevy Chase Drive continues for miles to Foothill Boulevard and the 210. But it’s far enough away from the land of malls and parking meters to be on the edge of Middle Earth, rather than a golf course. Where, as Mark Twain may (or may not) have said, players go to experience “a good walk spoiled.”
By contrast, at Wild Oak, diners go to enjoy a good meal made better by the setting. This is a much-loved breakfast and lunch destination of the sort that define neighborhoods all over Los Angeles. Except in this case, that ’hood is verdant and secluded, and not the sort of spot you might encounter after exiting a random freeway offramp.
This is a destination that’s well worth the drive, as the Michelin people like to say.
Wild Oak has a sense of country store, the sort of spot that back in the day, would have had a cracker barrel and a potbelly stove around which codgers gather to puff on corncob pipes and spin tall tales. You meander in, consider the menu for a spell, then place your order — including the sort of beverage those codgers couldn’t imagine.
This is a rustic hideaway that offers a rainbow latte, a digital latte, and a denture-rattling Armenian coffee (which should wake you up till the Second Coming!), along with juice mixes with names like Brain Juice (apple, carrot, kale and ginger), and Firecracker (apple, beet, jalapeño, lemon and ginger).
You want something thicker, there are smoothies — Kalicious (kale, spinach, pineapple, apple, coconut water), Chocolate Dream (banana, peanut butter, cocoa powder, agave and almond milk) and more. But mostly, there’s breakfast and lots of it. Breakfast that ranges from the familiar to the affably quirky. Without an eggs Benedict in sight. Eggs Benny are too froufrou for the hillside crowd. But steak and eggs — that’s just fine.
Actually, the steak and eggs are served as a steak and egg breakfast sandwich — a roasted slab of Harris Ranch sirloin with eggs (in my case over easy), grilled onions, roasted bell peppers, cheddar cheese, roasted poblano chili aioli, all contained within a crispy ciabatta bread loaf. This is a snappy feed, perhaps best consumed to celebrate dropping your handicap below 20. Consumed without a club house martini. Though a nice cold Arnold Palmer is always good.
For those who like their breakfasts simple, there’s a basic order of eggs, bacon or sausage and fried spuds. But that’s not near as much fun as the avocado toast lit up with a very snappy sriracha aioli. Or the Cali Bowl of roasted cauliflower, roasted tomatoes, shishito peppers, avocado, eggs, crispy fried shallots and pesto sauce.
There’s fried chicken with waffles, too. But if I’m ordering my chicken crispy, I’ll take it in the sandwich with gruyere, lettuce, tomato, red onion, applewood smoked bacon, mayo and ranch dressing. Which may be gilding the ciabatta. But what the heck — every bite is a creamy, crunchy indulgence.
It is, admittedly, a surprise to find a fried soft-shell crab sandwich on the menu, served on a brioche bun with slaw and Old Bay seasoning aioli. I’ve harvested crawdads in the creeks south of San Francisco. But I don’t think these are local soft-shells.
The beef used for the Harris Ranch BBQ burger had to travel a distance from the Central Valley, though it is a California essential. If you’ve ever driven past the Harris Ranch, you remember the experience. In this case, the burger is Wild Oak-ified with gruyere, grilled onions, applewood smoked bacon and crispy onion rings. Ranch dressing, too.
Get it with the house-made potato chips or the beer-batted sidewinder fries. It would taste good with a nice cold draft. But as with golf, bending an elbow is a reward after the 18th hole … or in this case, the last bite.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Wild Oak Café
- Rating: 3 stars
- Address: 3111 E. Chevy Chase Drive, Glendale (Adjacent to Chevy Chase Country Club)
- Information: 818-240-0792; www.wildoakcafe.com
- Cuisine: Cal-American breakfast and lunch dishes, along with sundry juices and smoothies, ordered at the counter, and brought to your table quickly, at this unexpected destination deep in the hills of Glendale.
- When: Breakfast and lunch, every day
- Details: Exotic teas and coffees and exotic soft drinks; no reservations
- Prices: About $25 per person
- On the menu: 15 Breakfast Dishes ($15-$19), 6 Breakfast Sides ($2-$5), 9 Sandwiches ($17-$20), 10 Lunch Sides ($2-$6), 2 Lunch Bowls ($17), 4 Burgers ($18-$19), 4 Salads ($15-$18), 7 Smoothies ($10-$12), 8 Pastries ($4-$5.50)
- Credit cards: MC, V
- What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)