Duroc Stuffed Pork Chop

DUROC STUFFED PORK CHOP
Brie, Granny Smith Apple, Caramel Apple Sauce, Sweet Potato Puree

A pork chop is pork – meat from that magical animal that also gives us bacon, ham, and baby back ribs – that’s been chopped at a 90-degree angle from the spine of the swine. Depending on the chop, you’ll find a vertebrae or rib bone to provide a nice hand-hold for eating your delicious dinner.

But you probably know all of that. The odds are pretty strong that you’ve had a pork chop some time. Come to 320 Main, and you’ll be eating Duroc pork chops.

Durocs are a breed of red hog that was developed in New England around 1820. Legend says that the hogs are named for their breeder’s favorite horse, whose name was Duroc. The breed quickly caught on as a show pig as well as a source of good, lean pork. Famers, like the Compart Family Farms where we source our pork chops, gravitated to the hearty swine with a reputation for excellent marbling and low drip-loss.

Thinking of pork chops will inevitably lead to thinking of apples or applesauce. In fact, pairing pork with apples is about as natural as food pairings come. You can go as far back as the 1^st Century in Rome and find recipes like minutal atianum, a ragout made with pork and containing apples.

The 320 Main pork chop is stuffed with Brie and Granny Smith Apple, topped with a caramel apple sauce, and served over a sweet potato puree. The massive chop is loaded with flavors: rich, crisp, savory, and sweet – and pairs beautifully with a classic like an Old Fashioned or a signature cocktail like the Crippled Creek.

December Centerfold: Red Dragon Burger

Guilt-free Holiday Feast with Beach Fitness

Now at 320 Main, we specialize in American food which brings to mind hearty comfort food- Mac & Cheese, Meatloaf, Steak & Potatoes, and we have that, oh boy do we have that! BUT like anything in life, dining is about moderation and balance. We love our new Walnut Pesto Caprese and Ahi Poke dishes and so do our trainers down at Beach Fitness. Bryce and Barbara, owners of Beach Fitness here in Seal Beach, have become great friends of ours and many of their hard working clients are loyal guests of 320 Main. With the holidays approaching, we teamed up to present the Guilt-free Holiday Feast, a four-course holiday inspired meal, with a dose of healthy holiday eating tips from Bryce Turner.

Bryce & Barbara

In true 320 Main fashion, the event started off with a delicious Pisco Punch featuring Encanto Pisco, fresh lemon & orange, clove, pineapple shrub & sparkling wine. 

Pisco Punch

Our first course was Quinoa Walnut Stuffing & Kale Chips with a bacon-wrapped date. Beach Fitness is a proponent of the Paleo diet so Head Chef James Wilschke created a menu that followed the basic principles of Paleo and featured the following- meats, fish, nuts, leafy greens, local/seasonal vegetables and seeds. Walnuts are an Omega-3 rich food and were featured throughout the meal.

Quinoa Walnut Stuffing

The Ginger Squash Soup was made with our housemade chicken stock, fresh ginger and butternut squash. Bryce educated the crowd with good advice for sticking to a healthy diet during the holidays. Tips included pausing between meal segments to avoid over-eating, looking for healthy substitutions when cooking classic recipes and if headed to a party, offering to bring a dish that fits your diet.

Ginger Squash Soup

Next up we enjoyed a Waldorf Salad with bibb lettuce, grapes, celery, apples & honey walnuts with a champagne vinaigrette.

Waldorf Salad

The Main Course featured a 320 Main favorite, the Surf & Turf. This dish features marinated Prime hanger steak, black tiger shrimp, spicy seafood cream sauce and ratatouille.

Surf & Turf

One of the best pieces of advice for the night was to have less food but use higher quality ingredients. We all like to celebrate with our family and friends and indulge during the holidays but that does not have to mean over-indulging. Keeping this in mind will help you enjoy the holiday season & make your CrossFit trainers proud! 

We finished up the evening with a cocktail, the Rusty Nut- Walnut Liqueur, Benedictine & Pampero Rum.

Jason Preparing The Rusty Nuts

The night was a blast for us at 320 Main, Chef James Wilschke and the kitchen staff had a great time developing and serving the menu and the guests enjoyed a sumptuous feast and walked away guilt-free!

Tiki Tuesdays

BBQ pork belly and pineapple sandwich

Being a classic cocktail bar is serious business. Why else would it seem like any bar or restaurant that’s adhering to the tenants of classical mixology is decorated in browns and blacks with bartenders featuring collared shirts and various styles of facial hair?

Of course the entire point of having a cocktail is to have a good time – to escape from the rigors of the day and find just a little piece of zen. It’s about letting your hair down, taking off your jacket or loosening your tie, unbuttoning your collar, and enjoying life.

Even stuffy classical bartenders like to let down their hair from time to time. That’s why 320 Main has made it a habit to host occasional Tiki Nights, complete with guest bartenders, DJ’s, and special hot dogs a few times per year.

Unfortunately, “a few times a year” doesn’t seem to slake the thirst of our patrons when it comes to tropical tinctures with rum and coconut cream. The most common refrain we hear after finishing a Tiki event is, “When are you having another one? You guys need to do this more.” 

Three Dots & A Dash

Message received.

Now you can tropically tipple every Tuesday night, as 320 Main has introduced Tiki Tuesdays.

Every Tuesday night we roll up the red carpet and replace it with a bamboo mat and a special menu with $8 drink specials including the Three Dots & A Dash, Planter’s Punch, and Navy Grog. If you’re looking for something a little more adventurous, you can hack your way through the jungle to find Painkillers, Martin Cate’s famed Pampanito, or even a Zombie if you’re feeling particularly brave.

And because nobody likes tropical getaways without great food, you can pair your cocktails with some delectable dishes from our kitchen. Enjoy BBQ Pork Belly and Pineapple Sandwich or other tropically-inspired specials from our head chef, James Wilschke. 

So now every Tuesday be sure to join us pau hana¹ as we say ‘Okole maluna!²

<sup>1 “After Work”

2 “Cheers!”</sup>

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Matt “RumDood” Robold is a bartender at 320 Main and, in his spare time, runs RumDood.com, where he writes about rum, rum cocktails, and rum history.

The 35-day Dry Aged Rib Eye

According to Wikipedia, the rib eye steak is “a beef steak from the rib section.” It also says that the cut of meat spans ribs six through twelve and includes the longis...a whole bunch of muscles.

Let's take a different tack here. Rib eye steak is delicious. It's one of the more flavorful cuts of beef because it's from around the ribs, where the muscles get a lot of use and the fat gets marbled in such a way as to basically beg to be slow-roasted or grilled. All-told, most chefs will tell you that it's pretty hard to screw up a rib eye.

Of course, just because it's hard to screw up doesn't mean you can't do it really, really well.

Chef James Wilschke takes dry-aged rib eyes to build the rib eye entree at 320 Main. “That's really the key to how we make an awesome steak,” says Wilschke. The beef that gets picked to serve has been dry-aged for 35 days. That's 35 days of letting the beef hang in a “hot box” (which is actually cold inside, but who can worry about semantics when you're dealing with a massive side of beef?) so that the natural flavor of the meat is allowed to concentrate. This is an expensive process and one that is only ever performed on the choicest cuts of beef.

Once Chef Wilschke has his cuts, he cooks them (at 12 ounces a piece) with a rub of spices and sea salt. After the steak is cooked to perfection it is laid atop a bed of oyster mushrooms and fingerling potatoes. The final touch is a tarragon compound butter laid atop the steak to add an extra dimension of herbal and savory notes.

The rib eye is succulent and rich, complemented exquisitely by the potatoes and mushrooms – and probably with an excellent cocktail like the Earl Grey Martinez or a Manhattan.

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Matt “RumDood” Robold is a bartender at 320 Main and, in his spare time, runs RumDood.com, where he writes about rum, rum cocktails, and rum history.

Baby-Back Ribs

Baby-back ribs. The mere mention of these delectable treats is enough to get many a mouth to water as thoughts of slow-cooked, succulent pork ribs dance about.

Baby-back ribs are a cut of pork ribs from the loin. They are actually named “baby-back” ribs because of their size – you aren’t eating baby Piglet. Depending on the butcher, the ribs will be cut on a rack of about 10-13 ribs, running from the shorter 3-inch ribs to the longer 6-inch bone at the other end.

via Full Custom Gospel BBQ

The preparation of baby-back ribs varies by region and is debated with a ferocity nearing that normally reserved for political or religious debate. The ribs can be slow-cooked, barbecued, smoked, braised, or even boiled, and you’ll find a cult-like following for each. In the US there tends to be great debate between Chicago style baby-backs and St. Louis style baby-back ribs.

At 320 Main, our baby-back ribs fall into the St. Louis side of the debate. The ribs are slow-cooked before being covered in our homemade barbecue sauce. When I inquired with the kitchen staff about how we make our sauce for the ribs I was rebuffed with “it’s a secret.” After much cajoling I was able to determine that the sauce, created by our head Chef James Wilschke, is concocted using more than 50 ingredients, including curry powder to give the sauce a rich, unique taste.

We serve the ribs over a bed of creamed corn that has been spiked with spices like smoked paprika and a side of lightly sautéed broccolini. Add a smoky and spicy cocktail like the Hu Hu Hala-Kahiki, made with tequila, mescal, and our homemade pineapple shrubb, and you’ve got a combination that’s guaranteed to have you coming back for more.

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Matt “RumDood” Robold is a bartender at 320 Main and, in his spare runs RumDood.com, where he writes about rum, rum cocktails, and rum history.

New York Steak

In Europe they call it a Club Steak. In Australia they call it a boneless sirloin. In North America it's been called the Shell Steak, Kansas City Strip, Strip Loin, Hotel Steak, Ambassador Steak, and contrefilet – but most people call it the New York Steak. 

The New York Steak, or New York Strip Steak, is cut from a little-used muscle of the cow near where the cuts are made for the rib eye and tenderloin steaks on the back of the beast. Because the muscle is not used very much by the cow, the New York cut is generally very tender. 

Of course it is nearly impossible to pinpoint the first time someone first cooked a certain cut of beef. However the strip loin first became “a thing” in the 1820's in – where else – New York City. It was there that the famous Delmonico's prepared the cut of strip loin by sauteing it in skillets over a wood-burning stove. 

In the 1880's the steak took on it's most common nomenclature when a chef named Carl Luger featured a cut of grilled strip loin on his menu at Carl Luger's Cafe, Billiards and Bowling Alley (apparently Carl wasn't into brevity) and named it the New York Steak. By the turn of the 20th Century, New York Steaks were showing up on menus all over the United States. 

320 Main's take on the New York is served bone-in and weighs in at a hefty 14 ounces. The steak is grilled to perfection before being laid upon a bed of beet and potato red flannel hash. It's a hearty meal of succulent steak and starchy, tangy hash that is certain to sate the appetite.

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Matt “RumDood” Robold is a bartender at 320 Main and, in his spare runs RumDood.com, where he writes about rum, rum cocktails, and rum history.

The Banh Mi

320 Main's Banh Mi.

Technically, Banh Mi isn’t a sandwich – it’s just bread.

Good luck convincing anyone of that in the US, where the French-style baguette from Vietnam has become synonymous with the sandwiches that are made with it. Indeed, drive through any neighborhood with a large Vietnamese population (such as Garden Grove, right up the 22 freeway from Seal Beach) and you’ll see plenty of shops advertising Banh Mi sandwiches. Usually these sandwiches are labeled as Banh Mi with whatever their filling may be. For example, you’ll see things like Banh Mi Thit – meaning a Banh Mi baguette filled with meat (pork belly being the most common).

As with so many sandwiches, there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to good Banh Mi. There’s a mix of cultures going on here, and so we find that French baguette a necessity – and little else. Typically you’ll find some other French influences like mayonnaise and maybe even pate paired with cilantro, peppers, and pickled vegetables. This fusion of East and West in sandwichular form (this is our blog and we’ll make up our words as we see fit) has been called “the world’s greatest sandwich” as well as “the world’s greatest street food.”

With so many accolades being thrown about, how can 320 Main not indulge in trying our own hand at the Banh Mi?
We take a French roll and fill it with kurobuta pork belly, cucumber, jalapeños, cilantro, and pickled carrots and onions. Add some Sriracha hot sauce and jalapeño aioli in the place of regular mayo to the mix and you’ve got a sandwich that packs a wallop of flavor. Paired with our Sriracha coleslaw (if you wanted some more spice) or our house French fries and a cool cocktail like our new Gimlet, this sandwich will definitely help you relax into summer .

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Matt “RumDood” Robold is a bartender at 320 Main and, in his spare  runs RumDood.com, where he writes about rum, rum cocktails, and rum history.

The Pato Cubano

The 320 Main Pato Cubano

The Cuban Sandwich is both well-known, and yet, still rather mysterious. These sandwiches, originally called mixtos in Cuba, made their way to Florida when travel between the US and Cuba was frequent and easy. It is believed that it was in Florida that the Cuban Mixtos made their transition to the standard Cuban Sandwich of today: pressed Cuban-style bread, ham, shredded pork, swiss cheese, mustard, and dill pickles.


Of course, this is a sandwich we’re talking about, so rules tend to be more like guidelines. According to the city of Tampa, FL, the Tampa Historical Cuban Sandwich is the original and official Cuban Sandwich (their City Council said so). It’s very close to the formula above with salami added for good measure. Ask anyone in the Cuban community in Miami if that’s a Cuban Sandwich and you might get a knuckle sandwich instead, followed by an explanation of the fact that salami has no place in the sandwich, and that the heathens in Tampa probably don’t even make their bread properly.


Seal Beach is a long way from Florida - and even farther from Cuba - but that doesn’t mean that we at 320 Main can’t steal a little inspiration from a sandwich that is so beloved to try to make it our own.


320 Main’s Pato Cubano (Cuban Duck) replaces the ham of the traditional Cuban Sandwich with smoked duck, matches that with braised pork, tangy dijon mustard, swiss cheese, dill pickles, and fresh tomatoes - all on a pressed Cuban roll. Have one with our house fries or Sriracha coleslaw and - to stay with the Cuban theme - wash the entire delectable affair down with a hand-shaken Daiquri #3.


Pairs well with: Daiquri #3


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Matt “RumDood” Robold is a bartender at 320 Main and, in his spare time, runs RumDood.com, where he writes about rum, rum cocktails, and rum history.

Prime Rib Thursdays

What better way to ring in Friday and the start of the weekend than with 320 Main's Prime Rib special on Thursday nights?


The tender 12 oz. horseradish and garlic crusted Beef Prime Rib cut is served with horseradish cream sauce and beef au jus. On the side comes green bean almondine (aka green beans sauteed with almonds giving them a deliciously salty yet light flavor with an added crunch) and a baked potato with loaded compound butter. What is loaded compound butter, you ask? The butter of all butters, we say. This butter contains bacon, garlic, shallots AND chives. All this for only $28. 


Swing by, order a Crippled Creek or a Michigander, and let the woes of the previous week dissipate over a tender cut of grade A prime rib prepped to perfection by Head Chef James Wilschke. But don't be too lax in getting over there, because this crowd pleaser usually sells out by 8:00!


Pairs Well With: The Crippled Creek

Fried Chicken & French Toast Brunch

Fried Chicken & French Toast Brunch $16. Available Sat and Sun from 11:30am-3pm (shown above with "the works"- add Fried Egg $2, add Black Forrest Bacon $2)

After discussing the merits of a good Bloody Mary with brunch a couple weeks ago, we would be remiss if we didn't delve deeper into the singularly spectacular french toast and fried chicken brunch at 320 Main. That's right, you heard us right folks. French toast and fried chicken married happily together on one plate in an unlikely, but nonetheless delicious dish. 


Strange as it may sound, this concept is not new. Chicken and waffles has been a favorite soul food dish for years in places like Well's Supper Club in Harlem (R.I.P.) and Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles locally in LA and Long Beach. One legend of its beginnings traces all the way back to the New York jazz scene of the 40's and 50's and features the likes of the great Thelonius Monk. After performing all night, Monk would head to the diner in the wee hours of the morning and order chicken (for his missed dinner) and waffles for his bread. Monk's genius for music apparently transferred over into food as well, because people have been enjoying this savory sweet breakfast for years since. 


320 Main took this soul food classic and put their own spin on it. The classic waffle is swapped for french toast made with fresh brioche bread from Melrose Bakery in LA (delivered fresh daily) and sprinkled with powdered sugar, fresh blueberries and raspberries. Even the fried chicken gets an update in this rendition of the dish, breaded with 320 Main's signature home made spicy cayenne breading. Get it with the works for just $4 more and atop the chicken lies a handful of thick cut, naturally raised, juicy strips of black forest bacon cooked to perfection - not too crispy, not too chewy. It's finished off - yes there's more - with a fried, farm raised, Grade A egg. 


One might think that chicken and french toast don't go together. Dinner food with breakfast food? But cut off a bite of each, add a bite of bacon, swirl it around in your broken fried egg, and then dip it into the maple syrup - when the savory and sweet flavors meet in your mouth, what once sounded so wrong on paper begins to feel taste oh-so-right. Don't believe us? Drop by 320 Main one Saturday or Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and see for yourself. 

The French Dip

The French Dip - hearty, satisfying and with a history shrouded in mystery and feuding parental claims. The popular sandwich has long been the center of an argument between Los Angeles restaurants Philippe and Cole's. 

Philippe's restaurant has two versions of the story of how the French Dip came to be: firstly that in 1918 a chef or waiter accidentally dropped a roast beef sandwich into a dish of meat drippings, and the second as recalled by Philippe's grandson, that founder and restaurant namesake Philippe Mathieu concocted the sandwich and accompanying "au jus" to appease a patron fireman who had complained about the dry and stale state of his sandwich roll. Doubts have been cast as to whether Philippe did in fact create the recipe after he gave a differing story in an interview in 1951 in which he said that he made the original sandwich using pork and gravy drippings for a hungry police officer. One day another customer asked for roast beef gravy, and it caught like wild fire, thus giving birth to the French Dip. 

On the other side we have Cole's, who claims their French Dip recipe precedes  Philippe's by ten years and was dreamed up to accommodate a customer with sore gums in 1908. The feeble man asked the chef to dip his sandwich into the juice because the crusty French roll was too hard for him to chew on. Word spread and the sandwich became popular. This story too has its share of "ifs". When the owner of Cole's, Gitti Beheshti, was interviewed in 1997 about the origin of the famous sandwich, he explained it almost exactly like Phlippe's version, that a chef dropped a sandwich into the beef juice. 


The truth about the French Dip's origins may never truly be known, but one thing you can be sure of is that 320 Main has concocted a recipe for this sandwich as legendary as its history. Jason was inspired to add this item to the menu after experiencing it in LA while he was at Cole's Red Car Bar. In fact he thinks he has improved the original recipe.


"I have always enjoyed the French Dip but, really never gave it too much thought, until the first time I visited Cole's in downtown Los Angeles. Something about the atmosphere opened my mind and gave the whole idea of a French Dip a certain "new life" that I had never realized. It was like stepping back in time. I could see Men in suits and brimmed hats sitting at the bar with a dip in one hand and the paper in the other. The French Dip was this amazing new food adventure that had such a colorful background, it's like I was enjoying it for the first time. That's when I knew I had to put it on the menu at 320. I LOVE the French Dip! Ours is a combination of the styles of Philippe's and Cole's. The rolls we use are moist on the inside and dry on the outside, so you can dip it in au jus, but you don't have to. We also serve ours with Swiss cheese, which isn't traditional." 


Served with horseradish dijon, it's a delectable spin on the original, perfect for lunch or dinner. 


Pairs well with: Bloody Mary