R & D Kitchen (Santa Monica) 12/2010

We dropped into yet another bistro/cafe/wine bar/restaurant for a sandwich before heading to the local movie house. There are several of these R & D's scattered around California. They are owned by the same group that owns four or five Bandera and Gulfstream restaurants. They seem to have found some very successful formulae. There is no evidence of a recession judging by the packed restaurants where ever we go.
These, casual establishments all have TV sets over their bars, always showing sports channels, well stocked bars with seating and friendly, efficient servers. With almost no wages and 20% the expected tip of course they are nice to customers. There is an attempt to serve food attractively and serves are invariably large. We enjoyed a very well filled pork sandwich with cheese, onion, a mass of cilantro and lettuce. After scraping off most of the cilantro, which I like only in small doses, it became a fine sandwich.