La Grande Orange

La Grande Orange

The day before leaving Salt Lake City for a Phoenix business trip, my wife and I went for a drive up into the Suncrest neighborhood in Draper, Utah.  The view from South Mountain was like looking out of the plane of a window down towards a thick layer of clouds, only we were not in a plane, but looking down on the Salt Lake Valley.  The inversion pollution was so dense, it was like a huge dirty blanket, preventing anyone from even seeing the valley floor.  In contrast my first day in Phoenix, I enjoyed record highs of near 80’s with clean dry air to breath in.  Those two factors alone put me in a great mood down here in Arizona, but of course being the foodie I am, it would not have been enough to achieve complete happiness.  La Grande Orange absolutely completed my trip to Happy Town.  I’m going to resist the urge in this post to throw out the “Best I’ve ever had” phrase, because I feel like I’ve used it too many times last year.  Besides, words can’t really describe just how delicious this place is.  I’ll do my best to do LGO justice.  I even have a short video clip for your enjoyment.

La Grande Orange is packed full of stuff.  Books, shirts, and toys in the middle.  Some of the best squeezed orange juice I’ve ever tasted to my right along with a pretty full wine selection.  In Phoenix, there are orange trees everywhere, so I expected the fresh squeezed O.J to be top-notch.  It was more than that, it was orange heaven.

Fresh O.J and a blueberry almond dumpling

I want to give the man or woman who made this dumpling a hug.  I could eat these and nothing else the rest of my life, and live completely happy until I die.  I admit that it didn’t look like much before I took my first bite, but it was filled with gypsy tears and cocaine.  Perhaps there was some blueberry and sugar in there too.  I felt a rush of goose bumps go through my entire body.  It was the closest to an out-of-body experience I’ve ever come to.  This thing along with the O.J. was pure bliss.  I don’t know how there are other breakfast options in Phoenix if I have to be truthful.

The Oldtimers

Not sure where the name “Oldtimer” came from.  Maybe it has something to do with the death of the Hostess Ding-Dong.  I would probably name this the Ding Dong Frankenstein’s Monster.  These things are like Ding Dongs on steroids, the Arnold Swartznegger of Ding Dongs if you will.  They are at least 2 times bigger, and the chocolate cake inside is about 5 times as moist.  Oh and the inner creme?  Not your lame-o creme, we are talking about rich buttercream.  I’m really sad I’m not in 80 degree Phoenix temperature, but even sadder I can’t buy a Oldtimer.  For those of you landing in Phoenix, just pray you are in terminal D, because there is a La Grande Orange store there, and they sell the Oldtimer.

Here is a short video of my first Oldtimer.

Oh by the way!  LGO also does breakfast sandwiches.  They start by picking quite possibly the perfect breakfast sandwich bread.  Not a bagel, or a croissant, or some homemade bread, which all 3 are excellent choices, but they start with a home-made gigantic English muffin.  Oh man are they big and fluffy and delicious!   Then they fill it with eggs, cheese, and your choice of meat.  Here are a few options:

The Commuter Sandwich with Turkey Sausage

The Commuter Sandwich with Bacon

La Grande Orange is the Mecca of the breakfast world.  I’m really curious to try their pizza and chilaquiles.  I guess it is for the better that I don’t live in Phoenix, because I would probably be broke and 700 pounds right now.  So my official recommendation is go there and grab some fresh O.J, a commuter sandwich with bacon and avocado, along with a dumpling.  Then grab a Oldtimer to go, and just feed on it the rest of the day.  Glorious!