Oasis burger and why Facebook matters

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If you are in the mood for a satisfying non-gourmet burger, in Napa Valley you certainly head out to Taylors (now renamed to Gott's). On the SF peninsula, you head to In-n-Out Burger, but in Palo Alto, you go to a place you would drive by a million times and never pay attention, next to Stanford Shopping Center on El Camino, there is a buried Oasis, frequented only by locals in-the-know, a total dive of a place that's been there for 50 years and it looks it, with all the charm of a 50 year old rugged good-hearted sailor. (Reminds me of the Garret in Cupertino, but Oasis has more personality IMHO).

I came there for an el-cheapo burger and fries, but I hadn't expected the crispy, smoky bacon overload of the awesome Blue Burger (blue for cheese). Nice fries too. I brought my own bottle of vino - don't expect a place like that to have killer selection. For $10 corkage, you'll be the only person in the whole damn "beer garden", sipping wine. But so be it. Me, Josh, Ami, and even their toddler Simon enjoyed the vino (Simon dipped a finger and smelled it curiously and then went for another dip - a reassuring sign of a future wino). I finally put a Super Tuscan to use (2006 Badia di Morrona "Taneto" Toscana, a blend of Syrah, Sangiovese, and Merlot), but had I known how much bacon they would put on the burger, I would have surely opted for a Rhone red (both Northern and Southern Rhone would have worked in slightly different ways).



So now... my foodie-and-wino friend Sonia told me about this place. Then I looked it up on Yelp, and it satisfied my selection criteria (4+ stars, 100+ reviews). But I would have never looked for it on Yelp, had she not told me. The point? Your social network MATTERS, and increasingly so, through the power of my facebook news feed, I find all kinds of relevant good stuff that I would have never paid attention to (videos, wines, restaurants). Wake up, people, who think that you life is just fine with the same old pre-digital age ways!

As for me, let me go check what's new on facebook! (And oh yeah, I'll be back at the Oasis soon.)

Comments

kaname650 said…
It reminds you of The Garret cuz the same folks own The Garret, The Oasis, The Boardwalk, and the three Jake's Pizzas. I haven't been the the 'O' for years. Now I have to go have a burger!!!
September 27, 2010 at 8:01 PM
Iron Chevsky said…
Wow Kaname650, I didn't know it. No wonder!
September 27, 2010 at 10:59 PM
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