The Ranch ~ 30843 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Westlake Village, CA 91362 ~ (818) 575-9033
The Ranch used to simply be the offices of a catering company when one day, not too long ago, chef/owner David Duimovich was fooling around in the kitchen and created humungoid buns that mushroomed out of giant ceramic pots like massive downy muffins. Sensing he was onto something, he nabbed two lunch-bound suits in the parking lot and forced them to sit down and scarf some burgers. The dudes came back with friends the next day, naturally wanting more burgers, and so on and so on until this strip-mall paean to the nation's favorite sandwich set its culinary roots down and overgrew the cubicles.
The Ranch is big on charm in a very small, atmospheric room with sunrise tones and dark wood furniture. The menu keeps it pretty simple though: burger, cheese steak, beef dip, and 3 chicken sandwich options, all in the airy massive buns, with a few salads that we weren't too super-keen on. Being my birfday and all, I went for a cheeseburger, having been lured in t by local legends that it was the best for miles. The deluxe "Duimo Burger", which has a Serbian forename I'm forgetting the meaning of, is crafted from certified Angus steak with two types of cheese, and a blended Ranch BBQ sauce, betwixt the giant pillows of love they call buns.