BELCAMPO RESTAURANT AND BUTCHER SHOP OAKLAND

Several weeks ago was the Grand Opening of Belcampo Restaurant and Butcher Shop in the scenic Jack London Square of Oakland California. We wanted to wait a couple of weeks to bypass  the opening jitters  to  go try the thirty two dollar, 100 day dry aged, grass fed, beef burger. To you who have not heard of Belcampo they are a successful ‘farm to table’ meat company. They are not only selling you quality grass fed beef but a concept with C.E.O Anya Fernald words; “Our vision is bold; our ambition is to build an alternative meat supply system; real solutions are never simple fixes. Help us put health, taste and transparency first. Help us build a better cleaner world through meat.” She also has been quoted in the New Yorker; “We’re creating a product that is financially non-viable for a lot of people.” We are here to try the hamburger.

This is Jack London Square, so you park in the main parking garage. (Belcampo does not validate). We enter Belcampo to a bright, clean, modern and nice looking restaurant. We can see a small butcher shop in the back and a big bar on the right. This is a modern, urban setting with plenty of man-buns, skinny jeans, beards and hip looking servers and customers. We are seated immediately by the hostess and get menus. I do not see the 100 day aged burger on the menu. My server informs me they are out. We choose to order the 18 dollar 29 dry aged burger and another 12 dollar regular burger. Our server asked us if we wanted fries deep fried in beef tallow fat for an additional three dollars. We ordered both to compare.

Our burgers were cooked and delivered promptly. I ordered my burger medium but the image proves otherwise. It did have good beef flavor. I enjoyed it. This burger had caramelized onions as a topping which added a sweet component that was very desirable. I thought the aging process added a mellowness to the beef I can say that after tasting Ms. Goofy’s burger which had a sharpness and almost a gamy type of flavor. This should have been expected with this grass fed offering. We both enjoyed our burgers.

Both of our plates had a generous helping of fries. Ms. Goofy was supposed to have the beef tallow fried batch. We tried each other’s fries. We both scratched our head because they both tasted the same. Our server came by to check on us and asked us which fry we liked better? Apparently we had both got the regular fries and our server said she would bring us a batch of the tallow fries immediately. They arrived immediately after we had almost finished our burgers. They were limp and not even salted. Oh my!  Well, so much for our three dollar upgrade. 

I am not sure we will return to try the 100 day dry aged burger. We enjoyed our burgers, not the fries. Belcampo Oakland is a clean modern restaurant that is selling not only quality grass fed beef but a new modern concept in the beef industry. This Mad Meat Genius has just not yet jumped on the band wagon.