Hi, I'm Chef Lee Burton.

I'm a chef and a culinary instructor.

But more than anything, I'm a supporter of everything local.

My passion and my palate usually lead me to a locally owned restaurant, because to me, they're the lifeblood of every community.

Melissa, great to be with you today.

You have three successful locations.

So proud of you.

What a great Redlands brand.

Tell us what inspired the Oasis location that we're in now.

It's kind of a crazy story.

We looked at this building years before we ever were able to open our original location, and I just thought it was such a cool kind of old Redlands feeling building, and it just wasn't ready then.

And years later on, the opportunity presented itself again and everything worked out.

So we were able to expand our company, come downtown and not only move the entire brewing system, enlarge it, get a better system, but then also add in the food aspect, which is always kind of been lacking at the other locations.

And to be able to design a menu that we thought went really well in our beers and having a full service kitchen, of course.

And what was behind the menu?

That concept.

The Detroit style pizza, now I'm a fan of that!

I never had thought I was a fan of Detroit style pizza until I had your pizza here.

Thank you.

It was something that we've kind of seen on TV that we hadn't really had exposure to out here.

So on some of our travels, my husband and I, Josh going around, we had the opportunity to try it and then it kind of became an obsession to try to find real Detroit pizza that was really good and kind of bring that to the area because nobody was really doing it.

But in the food industry, it was becoming this really exciting thing that was once just a regional Detroit thing.

It was kind of starting to sweep the nation in foodie places, and whats better with a brewery than pizza?

And everybody likes pizza.

Absolutely.

And that crunchy crust, the way it develops on the bottom light, like the caramelization and your flavors, your selection of flavors are really great.

I love it.

You have some vegetarian pizzas as well.

This is which one is this in front of us today?

So this is Get Shorty.

This is made with house braised short ribs, herbed ricotta of lovely garlic, drizzle, all those little crispy, crunchy, caramelized cheese edges.

They just kind of bring it all together.

And what drives your inspiration for the food menu?

How did you come about doing that?

Because I know you're a great brewer and you do beer well.

How did that whole concept develop as far as your options, which is a great menu?

We wanted something that was really comfortable, really approachable, but we can have a lot of fun with.

We like kind of unusual flavor combinations, both from our brewing.

We push a lot of boundaries.

We do a lot of things that aren't really very traditional, but also we wanted to do it in a way that was comfortable for people to try new experiences because, you know, sometimes escaping is trying something new and different.

So having, you know, something that we can showcase in a little bit different twist is really cool.

We like working off of seasonal items, things that are in season or something that's a little bit more unusual.

We have a great culinary team in the kitchen, so we all kind of bounce ideas back and forth to get some really cool, unique flavors.

And you mentioned the name Escape.

How did that come about?

Like, and you're located now by a train or train station.

How I deal with that.

But did you had no idea that that was going to evolve that way, or did you?

No, there was talk about the train coming back, but it was more like, oh, the train used to come through here.

And and actually this is the back of the building.

This used to be the front of the building because it faced the train tracks and now the train is back.

So it's kind of funny.

Escape was developed because everybody needs an escape and when we're working on the branding, on things that we read said, make them make a name that resonates with people, that's important to you.

My husband used to be a firefighter, so you always need to plan that escape.

But then at the same time, you also look forward to your escapes.

And, you know, sitting on the patio with a beer was a big escape for us, and You can't always go on a vacation, but you can sit down and kind of symbolically just relax, you know, have something that really makes you happy and just take that little moment of time.

So we thought that was a good thing to kind of expand on on.

And it's worked so far.

You know, everybody needs an escape.

Even if it's an hour and a half escape, right?

Exactly.

I feel like I've been transported to somewhere else.

And the experiences are always great here.

The service is always great.

I love the Detroit style pizza.

That is phenomenal.

I didn't know I was a Detroit style Pizza fan until I had your Detroit style pizza.

My favorite is the Hawaiian.

I never thought I was a fan of Hawaii having pineapple on pizza either.

It's a big topic.

It's a really big debate.

Yeah.

Um, I love pineapple on pizza, and I do think our pineapple is really special because it's fresh pineapple.

We don't use canned, and that was a game changer.

Uh, I don't think we can ever go back.

Even at home.

You can't.

You can't pineapple.

Because it's just so fresh and bright.

So it's just really fun.

so the flavors are going to be braised short rib tomato jam that we make.

Mozzarella, garlic aioli Italian herb ricotta.

And then we use Redlands hot sauce pizza topper for a little bit of spicy zing.

Love that..in house made tomato jam.

Love that.

Yeah, we condense it down.

Love all those layers of flavors.

All the aiolis are made here and infused with all those yummy flavors.

And if I can say, my favorite part is those crisp crispy edges and the brown bottom there.

There that like those edges, I always want a corner piece.

Always theres always, a fight over the corner.

Right, everybody wants the corner.

Alright you wanna dive in?

Let's do it!

Oh.

Mm.

Nice light and fluffy crust.

So good.

It hits us all those components, ricotta, all those layers of flavors, all in one bite.

Right?

It's kind of addicting.

You keep coming back for more.

And what a great pairing for having beer, you know, and having like and I bet people, like, have their favorites, right?

What are your biggest sellers of the Detroit style pizza, I would say are daily biggest sellers, is probably pepperoni Its classic pepperoni we use a really good pepperoni It has the the cupping look so it gets those little crispy crusty edges, all that luscious richness of pepperoni.

And the Detroit style pizza is like having the pepperoni top.

They make little cups?

I saw an Anthony Bourdain episode about that, like when he was touring the places, had this Detroit style pizza, but it's those crispy edges and then the brown bottom.

I love all of that.

Like Phenomenal!

So impressive.

And I'm so proud of you guys.

I remember you from the first location and when you were giving tastings for people before you had your license, you were giving people like tastings of the beer, but now the food is taking a whole nother level of an experience.

Plus, this beautiful building is amazing.

Yeah, this building is outstanding.

It was built in 1906.

It's been fully renovated.

The history of it is just incredible to find out all the different uses it's had over the years and then to be able to create a space that people can now come and use it and have their parties and celebrations and we can do our creative craziness.

It's been a really cool adventure and we Redlands love a historical structure that's been repurposed, which is the beauty of this building.

But it's such a special place and I'm really proud of you guys Thank you, I appreicate that!

You've talked about making it a family friendly place.

I know that's important to you.

Yeah.

The biggest thing when we started Escape is it had to be in Redlands because we live in Redlands.

We love Redlands.

And we have two small children.

They were really small.

We started, theyre bigger now, but we wanted a place that people could come together and just relax and hang out, creating that third space.

And I think there wasn't a lot of spaces then.

But now, with all these breweries opening that you can have a meal and you can have a drink with your friends and your family and just kind of relax, you can play Jenga or play some games.

I love all your games Isnt it fun?

It makes those special moments.

It's not just going to get something to eat, it's staying and hanging out and having that fun memory of this thing you did together.

And we have everything from birthday parties to baby showers, retirement parties.

We've got gatherings that are happy and sad that we hope that people, you know, they they enjoy being here because we want it just to be this place that everybody's comfortable.

And I was really important for us to have a lot of options for people, too.

So like the vegetarian stuff, the gluten free stuff, the meat centric stuff, having a lot of things that fit what people like, is really cool too.

Yeah.

Having that third space, I think that's really a good business model because it could be a corporate meet up, it could be a family get together, it could be a celebration, it could be a variety of different reasons.

You would come together and you have the beer and the food and the environment.

This historical building and so inspiring.

And I was just thinking about the impossible.

You have an impossible meat pizza, which I really like, and my vegetarian friends love that, too.

Not meat eaters, but you have the meat alternative.

You get the flavor on the pizza.

Yeah, the kitchen works really hard to get all those really full flavors.

I feel like.

Some you go that a vegetarian or dietary restricted, they kind of fall short of flavor but our beers are extremely flavor forward.

So it's really important that our food was too and it could stand up to the assertiveness of our our beverages.

So being able to create those things is been really unique.

So it's been how many years now since the first location?

It just turned eight.

Wow.

That's crazy.

Congratulations.

Yes.

I mean, we've known each other for ten years because it took two years just to get open.

I remember at one of the nonprofits that I do, cooking classes for the kids for that you were you were there doing tastings just to get like some feedback, which is really smart.

You know, before you were ramping up, you got some feedback on what really worked, what didn't.

And then now the foods taken to the level and I notice when I'm here, people come and linger and back to the third place idea that people come and linger and they stay here for a while, play your games or, you know, mix and mingle.

And your pet friendly too, which I love.

Yes, we love it when people bring in their little furry friends.

It means that we get to visit with them and there's even like puppy playdates.

We have dog training once a week.

That way people can help their dogs be a little better behaved.

We do a lot of adoption events I didn't know about the dog training.

Yup!

That's at the other location.

Okay.

Every month is a whole nother set of four week courses and it's a local trainer that works with our dogs.

People bring their cats in weve had a few parrots, but the cats You have cats too?

I swear the cats think they are dogs.

But it's really and then we do these rescue groups sometimes those rescue babies come back in here with our guest and then we get to see them again.

So it kind of helps them to get an escape out of them needing to have a home.

So it's important to be a member of the community and also have those events that are open to nonprofits.

I came to a car show here one time that I loved.

Sometimes you'll have other nonprofits you work with.

I know from my space, from working in the nonprofit area that you been very generous about donating to local nonprofits and being a contributor.

And that's that's what people love in Redlands.

It's important.

And without our nonprofits, I think there's so many things that a good community wouldn't have.

The nonprofits are often kind of not seen, and they're working behind the scenes to help so many different facets of what makes a really great community, whether it's cultural or helping scholarships or animals or saving, you know, a historical site, saving you know, orange groves.

So us being able to work with people who are so generous and giving themselves those are really awesome people work.

I like that, I like that!

Yeah.

Doing some really meaningful stuff.

As a business owner, you're contributing to that as well.

It's the little things that we can do.

Yeah, just to try to give people a spot.

Sometimes we just provide them with a room and they can have a fundraiser.

And it's really neat for us.

For our viewers that are in the Orange County area you have Laguna Niguel is your other location, which I've been to, which is fantastic.

And that's two years old now, if you can believe that.

Amazing and all successful.

It all started and it all sort of Redlands.

We love that Redlands Pride.

That's right.

Yeah.

So not that it matters that one doesn't have any meat.

Those have the meat, but... Oh, all right.

Well, Okay so, yeah, tuck that in.

Alright.

And you're going to do one too?

Sure.

Alright.

Oh, yes.

Look at that.

See, this is.

Look at that cour-.

Look at that!

Look at that.

The caramelization, the crispiness.

I feel like I want to bite the corner first.

Can I do that?

Yeah thats the best part!

Alright Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

Just keep comin back.

It's so good.

I am now a Detroit pizza fan.

Yes!

Totally.

You've adopted me.

You can't help it.

This is it so good!

I love it.

That crispiness, the flavors.

All of your pizzas have a great layer of flavor combinations to which I love you really thought about that?

You know, it's like I taste.

All those layers when I eat it, you know?

And then that crispy corner is always my favorite, too.

Yeah, Yeah, Just having a good balance of all those textures and flavors, that's what makes it fun.

You also have great appetizers and salads.

Your salads are stellar.

You wanna tell us a little bit about that?

So we have seasonal salads.

We usually have about three styles on average, and we try to change with the seasons depending on what's going to be available and really fresh.

Summertime we have the strawberry field salad.

We also get a lot of texture in salads too.

We do housemade croutons, housemade dressings like that, fresh greens.

Some of our greens even come from a local high school that grows them hydroponically for us.

Oh wow, and its a really cool program because it's teaching their students how to grow plants and all these different methods and it's something that they can actually take with them into their future.

Both is like a can do attitude but they can literally enter into all these different arenas of growing things and they know this crazy technology.

So that's like another With that experience, they can carry on and take on.

Our film crews all from Valley College.

From school.

Yeah!

So we're all about like supporting the students and they have, you know, brilliant young eyes and they've been a really important part of the show.

So as far as my partnership for the show, that's really important.

So let's see, what else can we talk about?

Like have the menu here?

There was a few other things.

You also have burgers.

Yeah, we've got smash burgers.

Smash burgers I love!

Theyre juicy.

Really flavorful.

It's two patties, all these patties that we have on the griddle.

Nicely seasoned.

Your classic burger with your lettuce, tomato, really nice, locally made bun.

We have that heat wave style that kicks it up a little bit more spicyness.

We like the heat.

House made sauce crunchy fried jalapeños.

There's also the availability of the impossible burger substitute.

We even have dog patties.

So for your little furry friends.

Oh, I did not know how nice!

And sammiches...good starters.

Well-rounded menu, I must say Desserts too as well.

And our furry friends.

And then we're going to take a tour of the back of the house and have some time with Chef.

Perfect!

I'm looking forward to that.

So thank you again, Melissa.

Great to see you again.

So proud of you and congratulations and thank you for being a part of the Redlands community.

Appreciate you for coming in here.

Chef Jose great to be with you today, Great to go to back of the house at Escape Brewery.

Excited to see you prepared the pizza that I just tried with Melissa the owner, which I thought was extraordinary.

What's the name of it again?

“Get Shorty.

” “Get Shorty ” love the name!

And tell us about the components that go into the pizza here.

Okay were going to start out mozzarella sliced cheese were just gonna go on each corner so you get those nice crispy edges.

That's what makes those crispy edges, I love.

Then we're going to take our par baked Detroit, which we also make it house every morning, and it's baked off every morning so that everything's fresh.

Fantastic.

Then take some parm.

And we go all the way around the rim and we take our take our tomato jam which is made in house with nice balsamic vinegar.

Tomato jam is awesome.

Yeah for sure!

You make that in-house every day Every day, for sure.

And then we're going to take some of our short rib here, which we also make in house Its braised for about 3 hours I love that you make these ingredients in-house.

There are all the layers of the flavoring for the pizza, which are stellar flavors, by the way.

And you gotta get every bite, just covered with short rib.

You know?

Is this one of the more popular pizzas?

Yes.

And it's more like mostly just decadence, in this pizza Its rich, its flavorfull.

Decadence, I love that.

And we're going to take some slice mozz.

Just run it around.

Nice!

Make sure we get all those corne Oh Im lovin the way this is looking already!

We've got to get those corners, you know?

Yeah, it's crispy edges-- The crispy edges are my favorite And then now we're gonna toss this baby in.

Take it baby in.

Alright, lets see it!

This oven is amazing.

Yeah, it's great.

Its totally great.

Pretty much.

It reaches up to 600 degrees and we get it hot every morning.

So we can get those par bakes in.

Pretty deliciousness Nice and golden brown.

On every edge, you know?

As I said to Melissa, I didn't know I was such a fan of Detroit Pizza till I had it here.

Oh, yeah.

It's one of our I say signatures here.

I mean, its delicious.

Pairs well with, the beer.

Yeah Exellent flavors Between the beer and the pizza and sometimes the burgers.

I mean, what else could you ask for?

What are your more popular ones that you sell?

We do sell..our pepperoni is fine obviously.

I mean everybody loves pepperoni Our Hawaiian is great.

It has pretty much just our regular pizza sauce.

And then we have pineapples and our pickled fresnels Which are great.

Its a little bit spicy with the sweat.

Sweet with the spicy, the balance.

Yeah and we top it off with a garlic aioli.

with a collaborate chili garlic aioli which makes it unique.

Which is a little bit more spicier than usual.

But yeah, with the sweet, it bounces off pretty nice.

And you have a good combination of vegetarian pizzas with the meat pizzas.

And everybodys happy right?

We find a happy-medium with, both, you know?

You got your meat eaters and you got your vegetarians.

And we like to pleased everybody around here.

So what can you go wrong with, you know?

So while our pizzas in Tell us about your experience.

My experience here at Escape, Ive been here for about a year and a half.

And Melissas been great, the staff has been great.

Everybody here has a good time, great time.

Nice owners Yeah, great.

For sure.

And you said you attended culinary school.

Yes, I attended Cordon Bleu for did their two year program, and that was a while back.

A little hiatus, but I mean otherwise than that, Im here.

Im excited to be here.

Everybodys great!

Everything you produce here is amazing.

You have a well-rounded menu to I noticed Salads.

Theres a little bit for everyone.

Pretty good appetizers.

Yeah right, great appetizers, sharables, anything like that, Sorry, just checking on the pizza!

Yeah.

The great thing about Escape is that we have a seasonal rotating menu.

So we change out every spring, fall, summer, and winter And you have your staples, that you keep like the Hawiian one I love.

So yeah, we do keep our staples, our pizzas.

We make sure that it is a high seller and if a crowd pleaser here, that it doesn't go away And we are able to keep that, You know, people happy.

Love that, love that.

And your POS you're system, do you get the alerts here?

What comes in the order?

Yes, we follow as soon as it gets ordered here outside, it comes up to us.

And then we start making it as it goes.

Very nice, cue it up over here?

They pick up over here?

Yeah , Expo picks it up.

You have a number and you pick it up there.

And enjoy your food!

It's a big kitchen too.

Yeah, it's a great kitchen.

It was designed by Chef Josh, which is, I mean, what can you ask for?

If you look back there we have everything that we need.

Im impressed with the size, this thing is amazing too.

Yeah.

So what's the temperature on this oven here-- Right now, were at 600 degrees.

We go any hotter than that, I think were gonna burn something Blow the tile off?

Lets just check on this real quick.

Now, were about almost ready.

Oh, its looking good!

Its getting these nice crispy edges that we want.

So Detroit style versus New York style, what's more popular?

I think the Detroit is just our staple, for now.

People really love it.

And its tasty its crispy.

like you got those golden edges you cant go wrong with it!

Love that, I always want the corners.

Yeah, everybody wants the corners, everybody fights over the corners.

Very cool.

Alright, so.

Think its about ready.

And there it is!

She's ready.

Look at her, yes!

Beautiful.

Okay Thank you to the people here at Escape Brewery, downtown Redlands, Oasis location.

That Detroit pizza was fantastic!

And always remember “Go Local Lee ” !