As 2010 comes to an end, I am enjoying some time off of work and decided to take a road trip with my girlfriend to the central coast of California. A few days of wine tasting, watching the sea lions at the beach and of course, eating. I spent a lot of time in this area during that wacky Michael Jackson trial that I covered in 2005 and during that time I ate a ton of beef. The folks on the central coast dish up some seriously good steaks, tri tip and burgers so when I discovered Hoover’s Beef Palace Restaurant, I got really excited. So excited, in fact, that I immediately called up Hamblogger co-founder Josh to tell him that I had found the house that the beef gods had built.

Hoover’s looked like it was going to be the ultimate place for anything and everything cow. The small restaurant shares property with the Templeton Livestock Market in Templeton, and cows could be heard mooing when we got out of the car. Templeton is just south of the emerging central coast wine region in Paso Robles. This is a fairly rural area that is seeing an explosion of new growth with the popularity of the wineries. The Beef Palace was here well before the wineries and caters mostly to farmers, cowboys and locals with a handful of tourists dropping by.

When I stepped into Hoover’s, I had a flashback to a small diner in the middle of Iowa that I had visited a few years ago. This place was a legitimate rural greasy spoon diner. Dudes wearing worn denim and cowboy hats sat at the counter while groups of workers on their lunch breaks filled tables. Pictures of Four H clubbers standing next to show worthy pigs adorned the dark wood walls and a small collection of John Deere tractor toys sat on a shelf above the window to the kitchen. There was also an entire wall of framed photos of guys in cowboy hats. I don’t know what their story was, but they looked like they knew a lot about cows. Maybe they were the winners of some Hoover’s Beef Palace eating challenge – like eat a 20 pound steak and get a t-shirt and your picture on the wall of fame. Who knows. All I know is that those dudes looked cool. My blood was pumping. This was going to be one hell of a burger.

We sat down at one of the light blue vinyl covered tables that had been set with heavy coffee mugs that featured ads for Ford power stroke diesel trucks. Our waitress, wearing denim and a rodeo style belt buckle to match the pendant around her neck with a bucking bronco, quickly came over and mentioned that it was “taco Thursday” and said she would return shortly to bring water and take our order. I scanned the menu (which is your standard greasy spoon menu with an emphasis on meat) until I found what I was looking for, the Hoover’s Hunk Burger ($8.99, includes fries AND a salad).

The whole time that I was waiting for the Hunk Burger, all I could think about was how fresh this burger was going to be and how the cooks in the back would be experts at cooking to the proper temperature. How could they not? This was the Beef Palace, the home of beef. I had half expected someone to come out and say “sir, are you ready to go to the livestock yard to pick out the cow to be used for your burger?” I dreamt of walking the aisles of mooing cows to find just the right one to make the perfect Hunk Burger. Not that I would have any clue as to what to look for in a cow, but it would have been a fun adventure.

Shortly after we ordered, our food was delivered to our table. The Hunk Burger was huge. The manly sized patty that was blanketed with melted cheddar protruded from the sides of the greasy plain toasted bun.  My salivary glands were kicking into high gear. The kitchen had added a glob of mayo to the bun and I threw on a handful of pickle chips to round it off. I maneuvered the Hunk Burger into my mouth and braced for beef nirvana.

Maybe it was the look on my face that prompted my girlfriend to ask if the burger was ok. Still chewing, I sort of nodded and lifted my eyebrows. She peeked over to see where I had taken my first bite. “It looks a little dry” she said. It was indeed very dry and cooked way too much even though I had requested it to be cooked to medium. I took a few more bites thinking that maybe that was just the edges of the patty and things would be turning pink any minute now. It never happened. This was definitely good quality beef and the handmade patty was very flavorful, but overcooking killed it. The only moisture came from the mayo and pickles.

I kept eating more because I was desperate for this to be a fantastic juicy burger. I gave up after I looked around the restaurant to see another man eating a Hunk Burger that had also been cooked to a grey center.Had this burger been cooked properly, I think it would have been awesome. Thumbs-up for the beef, thumbs-down for the cooking technique.

I had such high expectations for Hoover’s burger and was truly disappointed with how overcooked and dry it was. I assumed that if you raise cattle, live in an area that has lots of cows and your restaurant is right next door to a livestock market, that cooking beef with care would be a trade that is passed down from generation to generation. Despite the shortcomings of the burger, this is still a really cool place and I will say that the bacon sandwich that my girlfriend had was phenomenal. The bacon on that sandwich surely came from one of the pigs in the photos on the wall. The breakfast dishes also looked really good – big and hearty. Before leaving, we took some time to go visit the cows in the back that will soon be turned into Hunk Burgers and steaks to feed the hungry folks of Templeton.

RATING: 2 out of 5

Hoover’s Beef Palace Restaurant
401 N. Main Street
Templeton, CA 93465
(805) 434-2114
Hours: Seven Days a Week 6:00AM – 2:00PM