Sides Hardware & Shoes Lunch | Los Angeles

The first thing on our mind when we arrive in Los Olivos for a day of wine tasting is not, in fact, wine. It is lunch.

Problem is, a number of our favorite restaurants only serve dinner. Brothers Restaurant was one such dinner-only option, but its closure led to the advent of the new Sides Hardware & Shoes, a more casual affair from Brothers' brothers, Matt and Jeff Nichols. 

The approachable lunch menu is infused with a DIY ethos, best exemplified in the bacon burger ($16), which sports two thick slabs of smoky bacon, cooked more like braised pork belly than what you might eat with eggs. The smoked-shallot marmalade adds to the sweet, ember-licked flavor of the burger.

At dinner, you can eat fried pork tenderloin served with spaetzle, a dish with a decidedly Germanic air. But at lunch, the dish takes a different guise that shows its roots: The hard-fried cutlet (pictured; $14) is served on a roll, resembling the breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches popular in Iowa, where the Nichols siblings grew up.

Tackle any one of these sandwiches and you'll be more than prepared to face the wine-soaked afternoon to follow.

Sides Hardware & Shoes, 2375 Alamo Pintado Ave., Los Olivos; 805-688-4820 or brothersrestaurant.com