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EATING LOCAL: Gjelina's rustic vegetable dishes and pizzas cooked in a wood-burning oven make this Venice spot stand out. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times) |
It's impossible to capture the delights and terrors of a year of eating out in Los Angeles in a single short list. Some meals I'd rather forget, thank you. But others, the ones that yielded dishes that are still fresh and vibrant in memory, are the ones I'd like to repeat given the chance.
Casting my mind back over the last year, when I think of dishes or meals I really would like to have again, I come up with a dozen that stand out. This isn't a listing of the best restaurants necessarily, or even the best dishes -- I didn't read back over the notes I'd made on the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dishes I tasted in the course of a year as The Times' restaurant critic. But these are the ones that stick out in my mind, in some cases even months after I tasted them.
Many of these dishes come from restaurants that opened this year. A few are from older, favorite places. The good news is that despite the economic downturn, 2008 saw a bumper crop of new and enticing restaurants with owners smart enough to know they need to offer something more than the same old-same old. And that's something to celebrate, along with restaurants that keep the faith of honest, soulful cooking.
Let's hope that all our favorites will manage to hang in until the good times roll around again. And that worthy newcomers, especially those opening up in downtown L.A. or anywhere else off the beaten track, will find an audience of enthusiastic eaters.
The Bazaar's Philly cheese steak
The ebullient Spanish chef José Andrés has blown in from Washington, D.C., to open the Bazaar by José Andrés (yes, that's the official moniker) in the new SLS Hotel on La Cienega Boulevard. And it's quite the movable feast, with a sprawling louche bar, two tapas bars (Rojo and Blanca, traditional and modern, respectively) plus a pastry boutique with a long table and throne-like chairs that could be the setting for the Mad Hatter's tea party. A specially outfitted cart turns out foie gras cotton candy, waiters proffer liquid "olives" to pop in your mouth, and the tapas bars have some really beautiful jamón. But for sheer magic, try Andrés' unique take on the all-American Philly cheese steak sandwich, this one presented on gossamer-light "air bread" filled with a light cheese foam and topped with paper-thin slices of barely seared Kobe beef. Just two or three bites, it's a wonderful introduction to the delights of tapas Jose Andrés' way.
The Bazaar by José Andrés, SLS Hotel, 465 S. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 246-5555, www.slshotels.com.
LA Mill's artful coffee
An ordinary cappuccino or latte seems so, well, dull, compared with the offerings at Silver Lake's LA Mill Coffee Boutique. Owner Craig Min brings a sense of fun and fantasy to the art of coffee, not only roasting his own beans, but also serving up a coffee menu that runs to pages. At this hyper-cool cafe, you can indulge in a cup of joe brewed to order in a pricey Clover machine, a perfect espresso or latte. Or a glass of coffee infused with orange and set, literally, on a pedestal. But my favorite is the Japanese siphon, "performed" by a waiter who boils water in a glass receptacle over a Bunsen burner until it rises into an upper chamber filled with ground coffee beans, mingles and then falls back into the bottom as perfectly brewed coffee. But LA Mill doesn't serve only coffee or pastries. There's also a menu of delicious breakfast dishes, salads and sandwiches conceived by Providence chef Michael Cimarusti plus ingenious desserts from Providence pastry chef Adrian Vasquez.
LA Mill Coffee Boutique, 1636 Silver Lake Blvd., L.A., (323) 663-4441, www.lamillcoffee.
Pizza contenders
Pizza lovers lead a charmed life in L.A. these days. First there was Angelini Osteria's authentic pies. Then came Pizzeria Mozza and Nancy Silverton's irresistible pizze from the wood-burning oven. Now Jason Travi of Fraîche in Culver City has thrown down the gauntlet at Riva in Santa Monica with his own interpretation of the beloved Italian pie. It's taken him awhile to get the crust right, but as of last week, he's very close. And with a topping of sausage, bacon, meatballs, pancetta, caramelized onion and tomato, his "molto maiale" -- lotsa pig -- is a clear winner, the sweet taste of pork fat melding with the tomato sauce and judicious amount of cheese into something very like pig heaven.
On Monday nights too, Nicola Mastronardi at Vincenti gets into the fray with his thin-crusted pizze. Keep a look out for the one topped with sweet pork sausage, caciocavallo cheese and either dusky fresh porcini or meaty shiitake mushrooms -- and, in season, truffles.
Riva, 312 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 451-7482,rivarestaurantla.com.
Vincenti Ristorante, 11930 San Vicente Blvd., L.A., (310) 207-0127, www.vincenti.
Gjelina's rustic vegetables
The menu at Gjelina on Abbot Kinney exhorts diners to "eat local." And you can do so most reliably by feasting on the rustic vegetable dishes chef Travis Lett turns out in a wood-fired oven. He does some terrific pizzas there too, but I find myself lusting after his baby beets and their greens drizzled in walnut oil and nestled against dollops of milky sheep's milk ricotta. Roasted eggplant and peppers in agrodolce (sweet and sour) -- cooked with raisins, a pinch of sugar and a splash of vinegar work a kind of magic too. And pairing the humble sunchoke with a vibrant salsa verde or artichokes with gremolata and Parmesan, well, that's just plain soulful.
Gjelina, 1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd. (at Milwood Avenue), Venice, (310) 450-1429.
Zoe Nathan's pastries
Casting my mind back over the last year, when I think of dishes or meals I really would like to have again, I come up with a dozen that stand out. This isn't a listing of the best restaurants necessarily, or even the best dishes -- I didn't read back over the notes I'd made on the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dishes I tasted in the course of a year as The Times' restaurant critic. But these are the ones that stick out in my mind, in some cases even months after I tasted them.
Many of these dishes come from restaurants that opened this year. A few are from older, favorite places. The good news is that despite the economic downturn, 2008 saw a bumper crop of new and enticing restaurants with owners smart enough to know they need to offer something more than the same old-same old. And that's something to celebrate, along with restaurants that keep the faith of honest, soulful cooking.
Let's hope that all our favorites will manage to hang in until the good times roll around again. And that worthy newcomers, especially those opening up in downtown L.A. or anywhere else off the beaten track, will find an audience of enthusiastic eaters.
The Bazaar's Philly cheese steak
The ebullient Spanish chef José Andrés has blown in from Washington, D.C., to open the Bazaar by José Andrés (yes, that's the official moniker) in the new SLS Hotel on La Cienega Boulevard. And it's quite the movable feast, with a sprawling louche bar, two tapas bars (Rojo and Blanca, traditional and modern, respectively) plus a pastry boutique with a long table and throne-like chairs that could be the setting for the Mad Hatter's tea party. A specially outfitted cart turns out foie gras cotton candy, waiters proffer liquid "olives" to pop in your mouth, and the tapas bars have some really beautiful jamón. But for sheer magic, try Andrés' unique take on the all-American Philly cheese steak sandwich, this one presented on gossamer-light "air bread" filled with a light cheese foam and topped with paper-thin slices of barely seared Kobe beef. Just two or three bites, it's a wonderful introduction to the delights of tapas Jose Andrés' way.
The Bazaar by José Andrés, SLS Hotel, 465 S. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 246-5555, www.slshotels.com.
LA Mill's artful coffee
An ordinary cappuccino or latte seems so, well, dull, compared with the offerings at Silver Lake's LA Mill Coffee Boutique. Owner Craig Min brings a sense of fun and fantasy to the art of coffee, not only roasting his own beans, but also serving up a coffee menu that runs to pages. At this hyper-cool cafe, you can indulge in a cup of joe brewed to order in a pricey Clover machine, a perfect espresso or latte. Or a glass of coffee infused with orange and set, literally, on a pedestal. But my favorite is the Japanese siphon, "performed" by a waiter who boils water in a glass receptacle over a Bunsen burner until it rises into an upper chamber filled with ground coffee beans, mingles and then falls back into the bottom as perfectly brewed coffee. But LA Mill doesn't serve only coffee or pastries. There's also a menu of delicious breakfast dishes, salads and sandwiches conceived by Providence chef Michael Cimarusti plus ingenious desserts from Providence pastry chef Adrian Vasquez.
LA Mill Coffee Boutique, 1636 Silver Lake Blvd., L.A., (323) 663-4441, www.lamillcoffee.
Pizza contenders
Pizza lovers lead a charmed life in L.A. these days. First there was Angelini Osteria's authentic pies. Then came Pizzeria Mozza and Nancy Silverton's irresistible pizze from the wood-burning oven. Now Jason Travi of Fraîche in Culver City has thrown down the gauntlet at Riva in Santa Monica with his own interpretation of the beloved Italian pie. It's taken him awhile to get the crust right, but as of last week, he's very close. And with a topping of sausage, bacon, meatballs, pancetta, caramelized onion and tomato, his "molto maiale" -- lotsa pig -- is a clear winner, the sweet taste of pork fat melding with the tomato sauce and judicious amount of cheese into something very like pig heaven.
On Monday nights too, Nicola Mastronardi at Vincenti gets into the fray with his thin-crusted pizze. Keep a look out for the one topped with sweet pork sausage, caciocavallo cheese and either dusky fresh porcini or meaty shiitake mushrooms -- and, in season, truffles.
Riva, 312 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 451-7482,rivarestaurantla.com.
Vincenti Ristorante, 11930 San Vicente Blvd., L.A., (310) 207-0127, www.vincenti.
Gjelina's rustic vegetables
The menu at Gjelina on Abbot Kinney exhorts diners to "eat local." And you can do so most reliably by feasting on the rustic vegetable dishes chef Travis Lett turns out in a wood-fired oven. He does some terrific pizzas there too, but I find myself lusting after his baby beets and their greens drizzled in walnut oil and nestled against dollops of milky sheep's milk ricotta. Roasted eggplant and peppers in agrodolce (sweet and sour) -- cooked with raisins, a pinch of sugar and a splash of vinegar work a kind of magic too. And pairing the humble sunchoke with a vibrant salsa verde or artichokes with gremolata and Parmesan, well, that's just plain soulful.
Gjelina, 1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd. (at Milwood Avenue), Venice, (310) 450-1429.
Zoe Nathan's pastries
