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Billie's
updated: Oct 30, 2010, 9:00 AM
By Ms. Lemonjelly
I remember hearing of Billies opening on lower State Street, where Lettuce B. Frank was, but hadn't felt hugely compelled to check it out. But friends have influence, and after receiving several very enthusiastic reports, I popped in for lunch on the weekend.
The interior makes me think of a converted garage, where friends hang out after school or on the weekend. The walls are decorated with dozens upon dozens of 80s album covers. Test yourself to see how many you remember! Then there are the vintage pinball games in perfect working order - Star Trek, Playboy and KISS. I think I saw a Ms. Pacman 2-person table game too. The floor's a slightly spruced up concrete - again going with that converted garage theme. All that was missing was a beat-up old sofa with a remote wedged in the cushions and a little laundry on the floor. The tables seemed sparse, and the most comfortable looking seats were the bar stools near the door, which were all taken at the time I visited.
I think this plays well to the late night audience, as a place to kick back, have a brew or a bar snack after a party. It's open until 3 am.
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However, going there sober may reveal some of the special touches about the food, and I was very pleasantly surprised. It's bar food, right? Presumably nothing fancy. But they grind their own beef for the burgers, the onions by default come grilled, they make their own ketchup, fries are prepared fresh to order. The kitchen is out in the open and you can watch them prepare things.
I tried the cheeseburger, the sweet potato fries and a cup of chili.
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The cheeseburger was great. Like I said earlier, the ground beef is done in-house. The cheese options are pepper jack or cheddar. It's grilled medium rare to rare. If you like it more well done than that, it'll be good to specify. If you like it with lots of pink, say nothing. The price was $6, or $5 without cheese. The double cheeseburger option is the official "Billies Burger" and costs $7.50. That's a lot of burger, so I'm more than happy with the solo patties.
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The sweet potato fries rung up in the $6.50 range, which initially sounded high, but the fellow taking the order said it was a large portion, good for two people. No lie! Two of us couldn't finish it. It comes with chipotle mayo, and this is a good time to request the house made ketchup as well. These sweet potato fries are my new favorite in town.
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The chili was the biggest surprise; it was a meat lover's dream. Half the cup of chili was tender chunks of pork shoulder. It was topped with cheese and diced spring onions, served with some packets of saltine crackers on the side. The cup was about $3.50; the bowl was $6.
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The budget-wise may like the happy hour menu, which knocks a couple bucks off the beer prices and serves up a $5 food menu. I wasn't there during a happy hour time, but sharing the burger, fries and chili with one other worked out to under $10 a person after tax and tip. Not bad at all for the extra effort of making so many of the dishes from scratch.
There aren't many places in town, for example, for good fried buttermilk chicken, and Billies offered three pieces for $10. It's already been struck from the menu from lack of interest, but if you want to try the white meat only version, the fried chicken tenders are still available. So I worry that the audience Billies wants to appeal to isn't the crowd that would be the most appreciative or even aware of the details. Time will tell.
Billies
413 State St
Cross St Gutierrez
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
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