Scowley's Burgers

Hey, folks, we'll be closed on December 24 and 25, and December 31 and January 1, aside from our usual Monday closing. Lots of days closed, but we'll be back to our full schedule after the New Year. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all of you! And furthermore, since it's so cold, and pretty dead, I'm closing at 7pm tonight. See y'all on Saturday.

I spent years in film school, a decade in the film business, and I still can’t take food pictures that I like. But here’s one of our double cheeseburgers with fries. One day I’ll get the pictures right.

Testing out two new salads. One is a vegan version of our Arugula and Goat Cheese salad, in this case Arugula and No Cheese, with a vegan rice wine and chile vinaigrette. The other is our Caesar salad with Ashley Young’s great croutons and our garlicky dressing. Okay, the Arugula vegan version is okay...but I miss the goat cheese. The Caesar is excellent. I’ll put it on the menu next week, once I get my block of grana padano cheese, and more of Ashley’s croutons.

For those asking about e-Gift cards to Scowley's, you can order them by going to our website, scowleys.com, selecting Order Online, and then BUY AN E-GIFT CARD. Or, if you select TAKE-OUT, there's a button on the top right "Buy a Gift Card".

I'm replacing my chopped salad with a new one, one that I had in my Berkeley restaurant for years. It's an Arugula and Goat Cheese Salad, with arugula, Laura Chenel goat cheese, chopped dried figs, pepitas, and honey mustard dressing. The salad is $8. In another week or two, I'll finally put out my Caesar Salad. I'll let y'all know as soon as it's ready.

So, in the interests of full disclosure, I've made an executive decision on our menu. My initial desire was to make fresh, hand cut fries, and I kept with that decision...until yesterday. To make hand cut fries you have to wash them, cut them, rinse them, soak them overnight, blanch them, and then do a 2nd fry to order. It's not only a lot of labor, but it takes up a ton of room in my walkin. So, I decided to use frozen fries. Now, just calm down...these are the best fries yo...u can get, in my opinion. They taste better than the fresh potatoes I was using, and they stay crispy longer. But all they are are russet potatoes blanched in oil. That's it. We got our first batch today, fried them up, and I think they're awesome. I'm really happy with them, even though a part of me is bummed that we couldn't do the hand cut fries. But, hey, it's 2020 so stuff happens. So the fries are good but I really want to concentrate on our burgers (Stemple Creek, folks), sausages (Yanni’s and Caggiano) hot dogs, and later on, great fried chicken sandwiches, brisket, pulled pork, and meatloaf sandwiches. They will all come in time, once we've perfected previous dishes. I think maybe fried chicken sandwiches will be the next thing we add. So, as I said, we're not open yet, but very soon. We'll do a couple more days of cooking for firefighters, and then may do a really soft opening on Saturday. Damn, I'm nervous.

Latest update - Yeah, we're not yet open...but we're getting very close. Just doing final training for the staff. I can't begin to list the challenges we've had trying to get this place ready and open in a pandemic. If it had happened last December, I would have just walked away. But we're almost done. Today and tomorrow, we're making burgers and fries for evacuees and first responders. It's great training for the staff and it's always good to help out during a disaster. I'll announce on this page as soon as we open. I'm really sorry for all the delays and I appreciate everyone's patience. I'd just love to get a good night's sleep again.

Just got my Beer and Wine license yesterday. I'm only waiting on final health department approval and I'm pretty much set to go. I'm looking at September 15 opening, if not a couple days earlier. My initial opening days/hours will be Tuesday through Sunday, 11am to 9pm, except Friday and Saturday where I'll close at 11pm. The goal is to move within a couple of months to 11-11 every day. But I'm starting off with a small crew and we'll build from there, if business warrants it.

Before and after pics of my floor. It took eight months to figure out what to do with the floor. I think I made the right choice. ABC license and health permit should be in my hands in a few days. I’ll be opening up somewhere around the 14th, it looks.

Another item checked off my To Do list. It’s a mural by the very talented local artist, Maxfield Bala. Max is a great guy and I’m lucky I was able to get him to do this. Thanks to Brenda Anderson for introducing us. Only a few more major items to complete, then a bunch of small ones, and we’ll soon be cooking.

I'm pretty amazed at the number of people who come by the restaurant to wish me good luck and to find out when I'm opening. They constantly tell me they can't wait for me to open and that they think I'll do killer business...so to speak. That's a big difference from when I was opening my restaurant in Berkeley. I don't recall too many words of encouragement and good stuff like that, but I do recall the kid who walked by and said, "Fuck Bobby G's!" to his friend who read our C...oming Soon sign. I laughed my ass off when I heard it. But I also recall numerous people coming by and saying, "Yeah, nobody ever makes it in this space. It's a dry hole." I would laugh at those statements as well and tell them I thought we'd do alright. Fourteen years later the restaurant (with new owners) is still going strong. I'm going to love doing business in Petaluma, and I can't wait to meet everyone in town.

Another step closer. Man, pushing that thing into the kitchen was like trying to move a battleship. This is the range/flattop that I hope to grill a lot of burgers on. Next up is the chargrill.

The sign is going up. Still a lot of work to do, but I’m looking at the second week of July to open...I hope.

Well, one little baby step towards opening. One sign is up and I hope to get the permit for the big sign, soon. There’s still plenty to do, but I’ll be back at it next week. I’m hoping for an early June opening...but it could slip until July. I wish all the opened restaurants, who are working hard to survive, the best of luck.

Just a quick update on Scowley's Burgers at 229 N. McDowell Blvd. in Petaluma. The whole process has gone slowly...but we're finally moving along. We'll be painting next week, then putting in new equipment. At this time, tentative opening date is April 1, because it's the perfect date on which to open a restaurant, since all independent restaurant owners are fools. And I don't say that in pejorative way, just having some fun with the difficulties of opening and running a restaurant. I'm looking forward to making great burgers, fries, and sandwiches from local ingredients, and serving great local beers and beverages. See you soon...