Yesterday, my oldest daughter and I were lucky enough to be able to attend Johnny Rocket’s Shake Month celebration at the original restaurant (opened in 1986) on Melrose in Los Angeles. **We were provided all the food and goodies for free by Johnny Rocket’s, so that’s my disclaimer but all the opinions are my own!** This was my first visit to Johnny Rocket’s, and I was rather embarrassed to admit it — I am huge fry person and I’ve been missing out!
The trip to LA took us about an hour and 25 minutes; we’d run into two slow areas on the freeway, but considering it’s still hot out and Saturdays in the city are busy, we expected it and it wasn’t bad at all. Talk time!
The event started at 11am, and after finding two-hour parking, we got to Johnny Rocket’s in time to get seats in the shade. (But, that wasn’t difficult at all — the entire seating area was covered in big red umbrellas.) Right away, we were excited to find cool little goodies at every seat — sunglasses, pens, giftcards, and the cutest flash drive I’ve ever seen!
The agenda was simple — it consisted of a tour of how Johnny Rocket’s makes shakes (including their secret recipe), a behind-the-scenes glimpse of their food prep area, learning the shake dance, and enjoying their food and the company of their wonderful staff and other bloggers.
I neglected to take my notepad with me so I don’t remember his name, but I believe it was David (?? another blogger, can you help me out here?) and he’s a manager who happened to be walking by at the right time and obliged me with his big, friendly smile.
Then out came the food! I don’t eat red meat (I love it, but it hates me) but I did trytone of their regular burgers, shown below. Above is the veggie burger. Yum!
And the shakes!
That vanilla shake was fantastic!
Those french fries were perfect — crispy, fresh and just a bit salty, exactly how I like them! Everything we asked for, the Johnny Rockets staff provided. They were extremely attentive, never without a smile on their face.
If I got to dance as part of my job, I’d smile too! It was SO hot, but they sure didn’t let the heat bother them.
That guy smiled constantly, too! Air guitar, anyone?
Even more smiles! I was SO tempted to go make ketchup art of my own…which was an option!
This is Jericho, PR for Johnny Rockets, and David, another manager. (Again, if I’d had my pad, I’d be much better at putting names to faces.) She was great at meeting everyone and being sure everyone was happy.
You can’t go wrong when you make shakes with these quality ingredients. (We joked about who would put their mouth under the Ghirardelli Chocolate sauce and who would pump it…) They are a great reason for a real Johnny Rocket’s Shake Month celebration!
Things move quick here in Johnny Rockets! (Hence the blurry photo…) See that yellow sticker? That was a highlight for me — as a proponent of healthy, natural living, restaurants that take extra precautions go very high on my list. To be sure that there is no cross-contamination, when they make a shake with peanut butter in it, they use solely that one shake making spindle and separate utensils. Way to go, Johnny Rockets! While I don’t have a child with food allergies anymore, my oldest would had anaphylactic reactions to food items as a child (eggs, beef, wheat, milk) and my youngest, the little dude, had severe reactions to bananas, walnuts and latex. (Thankfully, they both grew out of them, but a lot of kids aren’t as lucky.)
Oh how I wish I could eat meat. Those babies had me thinking that a couple of days of severe nausea might just be worth it…then I remembered the pain that comes along with it and backed away. Sigh.
See that sign on your next trip, across town or elsewhere? Pull over, you won’t be sorry.
And in case you were wondering the reason behind the whole event? #Shakemonth means a new flavor debuting on September 16th. Get ready for a rockin’ M & M’s shake! I’ll be going back, what about you?
Johnny Rockets, we had a great time! Thank you for the opportunity to try all your delicious food and the Americana atmosphere. The jukeboxes on the table, the cool music and the vibrant colors — I’m looking forward to September 16th, we’ll be going back as a family to try that new shake!
You’re right – they’re fries ARE fabulous! YUM! Ugh, now I want *more* shakes!
I totally wish I’d realized they were making full-sized shakes if you asked!. (They are so good there, have I said that already?) I was so into the fries and veggie burger, I didn’t notice until too late…I could have eaten my weight in fries, and then some more.
Sounds like you had a yummy good time. I will think twice about our Johnny Rockets in the Victoria Gardens mall!!!
Definitely a yummy time. We are going to be hitting up the RC location on 9/16, gotta give the whole fam a shot at that M&M’s shake.
It was such a fun day, and we had a great turnout. So glad we got to meet finally… next time we’ll have to sit and talk more.
It was great to see so many bloggers! I look forward to talking with you more!
We missed our annual visit to Johnny Rockets this year :/ The closest one to us is in Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun casino- roughly a couple hours away. I am craving their bacon cheeseburger, and I honestly wanted to lick my computer screen when I saw the Vanilla Shake picture. It looks like you had a great time. Love your ketchup art 😉
That’s a long ways away for a burger! I’d have to go without too…I missed In ‘n Out so bad when I didn’t live locally, but Johnny Rockets, who knew? I have missed out on them the whole time! I don’t eat red meat so it’s awesome to know I can get an actual burger at JR, not just grilled onions and cheese. (While that’s good, it’s not the same!)
Whenever I read your posts I get so sad that I don’t live near anything FUN!! Haha! I’ve never been to a Johnny Rockets but… Ghirardelli Chocolate sauce? I want a ONE WAY ticket, please!
LOL, I felt that way when I lived in SC! They had enough tourist-y stuff down at the beach, but it was crowded and overpriced and after a while, the drive wasn’t worth it just to do the same thing over and over. Now that I’m back here, I feel like I’m the slow one…I used to watch everyone’s events on Facebook and get OH SO jealous. Now I need a second job to keep up but it’d be worth it! 😉 And I KNOW…I love Ghirardelli choc, we’ve been to the factory in San Fran and I bought so much candy….
Ahh darnit, you caught me dancing 😉 lol..
Such a fun day… will definitely be back for a Shake soon.
You looked like you were having a good time! I wish I’d been brave enough..I am not a dancer. (Well, until you catch me at a Halloween party after midnight maybe…) It was a blast, so glad we had the chance to go!
Believe it or not I’m not much of a dancer myself… but was feeling good and said why not.. 😉 they put on this great event so wanted to make sure the skills were put to the test hehe
I totally should have tried and am completely out of excuses as to why I didn’t. 😉 We had a great time! They put on the ritz and I’m so glad we went!