The One-Eyed Gypsy Bar | downtown L.A.

A full rundown of what you need to know about the new, kind of 30s-carnival-themed bar/performance venue from the woman behind Villains Tavern (compliments of Thrillist.com):

• Though thematically similar, each room is decorated in its own style, with unique adornments like hand-drawn wallpaper featuring tiny pictures of Medusa, chandeliers made of Bedouin jewelry imported from Egypt, and a stage with a crescent-shaped Austrian curtain that looks like a waterfall when it opens.
• Scattered around the bar are old-school games the owner’s collected, including a Big-style fortune-teller, a love-o-meter, and two skee ball machines that distribute tickets redeemable for drinks & food.
• Because fairs traditionally have the best food, they’re got the Brite Spot guy slinging an extensive fried menu (corn dogs, sweet potato tots, funnel cakes, deep-fried Chocodiles, etc.) as well as share-eats like a reuben pizza with sauerkraut, corned beef, and thousand island.
• You can wash down those Chocodiles with drinks like a sloe gin float with cider/sweet & sour, and the vodka/red wine/blood orange/lemon & lime/bitters Riddler’s Punch from a dude who’s done time at Villains Tavern & 7 Grand.
• There’s never a cover for the entertainment, which’ll include up-and-coming indie rock bands (one-off 45s will be specially pressed for the show!) to ukelele players and magicians.

One Eyed Gypsy
901 East 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 | MAP

Since its November opening, a reservation for Thomas Keller’s Beverly Hills Bouchon Bistro is still elusive. That’s why the new (and separate) Bar Bouchon couldn’t come at a better time.

The ground-floor bar has only about 15 seats, with tables outside along the small park. It’s definitely a drop-in-anytime kind of place, albeit one with the Keller stamp all over it. And unlike the restaurant, it stays open between lunch and dinner.

This isn’t just an extension of the main dining room: Save for a few items, most dishes are exclusive to the bar. There’s earthy chicken liver mousse ($13) and bowls of pretty little pickled vegetables ($6). Butter-soaked escargot ($16), each crowned with an individual pastry puff, are some of the best in town.

As for the oeuf en meurette (pictured, $12.50), we’ll take that perfectly poached hen egg and its pool of dark, bordelaise-soaked du Puy lentils over “regular” bar food any day.

To drink, there are expertly made classic cocktails, and wines by the glass or carafe. Keller even does beer: The White Apron ($6), a crisp, pilsner-style beer, is custom-made for Keller by Russian River Brewing Co., and the dark, Belgian-style Blue Apron Ale ($24) was previously only found at Per Se.

Bouchon Bar, 235 N. Canon Dr., Beverly Hills; 310-271-9910 or bouchonbistro.com

The Tar Pit / 609 N. La Brea Ave / Los Angeles, 90036 / 323.965.1300 / www.thetarpitbar.com

The Tar Pit’s an intimate, ivory-toned ’30s/’40s-style cocktail-and-small-plates bar with dangling chandeliers and art-deco booth partitions, all from the Campanile guy, who decided to get into the cocktail biz after learning about mixology from his daughter, who’s obsessed with drinking in NYC. Bartenders hail from vaunted local spots like the Edison and equally reputable East Coast drinkeries like Milk & Honey, and go through a rigorous 3-week “bartender boot camp” in order to properly put together schmancy libations like “The Old Cuban” (aged rum mojito w/ Angostura bitters, topped w/ Champagne) the “Flame of Love” (invented for Dean Martin; bay leaf-infused vodka w/ fino sherry, and a flaming corkscrew orange peel), and the shaken, orange bitters and lemon-twist topped, 1/2 gin, 1/2 vermouth “Fiddy-Fiddy,” which apparently has given up on that bottle full of bub, mama. Food’s all shareable small-plates, with pairings recommended for each by the staff; options include pickled deviled eggs w/ Smithfield ham, a seared pave of salmon, and duck sliders w/ orange gastrique

When we are in a carnivorous mood, we sometimes daydream about Church & State, about wood-baked flatbread with Époisses and poached duck tongues, Santa Barbara spot prawns buried in drifts of finely diced cucumber, and giant, sizzling marrowbones, naked and split in two. Pig’s-foot fritters. Rabbit terrine. Pork belly with fresh peas. Garlicky snails baked under little caps of puff pastry. French fries seethed in pure lard. The whole, whirling carnival of meat. You may have been to Church & State in its earliest days, as a rough-edged artists’ brasserie built into a loading dock deep, deep downtown, music turned up high and lights turned down low; its most interesting features were the cocktails made by its weekend bartender, Michel Dozois. But when Walter Manzke took over the kitchen, fresh from a stint as the chef at Bastide, he transformed the dullish menu into a document guaranteed to dampen the eyes of even the steeliest gourmet. What the restaurant may remind you of is one of the bistros born from the ’90s recession in Paris, slightly grungy places opened by young chefs who had worked in the city’s grandest hotel restaurants, and who transformed simple dishes through hard-won haute-cuisine technique. Manzke shares some of their preoccupations: a fondness for pig parts; fetishes for farmers-market produce and for detail; and the adoption of technology when it suits his purposes. Is this the most refined bistro cooking in Los Angeles? Look at it this way: Manzke can make pig’s ears taste better than fries. 1850 Industrial St., L.A., (213) 405-1434, churchandstatebistro.com. Lunch Tues.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; dinner Tues.-Thurs., Fri.-Sat., 6-11 p.m. Full bar. AE, MC, V.

There’s a kind of amazing new Sunday Brunch in town—now available at the Hotel Casa Del Mar.

Under the soaring windows facing out onto the sand, the waves and the pier, you’ll settle in at the Veranda (some might call it the lobby lounge) for a three-course affair.  Shellfish and Avocado Salad to start, then some Lemon Ricotta Pancakes or Country French Toast With Honey Roasted Figs.  And as for that third course, well, it involves as much dessert as you can stomach.  Grand total so far: $29.

But here’s what just might make this your next great Sunday institution. Before you go, just text the word “Casa” to 21534, and they’ll send you a covert message back.  Flash that message to the staff upon arrival, and your meal suddenly also includes all the bubbly you can drink.  Grand total: still $29. 

Sunday Brunch at the Veranda
at Hotel Casa Del Mar
1910 Ocean Way
Santa Monica, CA 90405
310-581-7714 
http://www.hotelcasadelmar.com/

Sundays 11am-3pm, reservations at 310-581-7714, text “Casa” to 21534 before you go

Growing up in her parents’ Thai restaurant on Fairfax Avenue—Chao Krung, open since 1976—it’s not surprising that Katy Noochla-or owns four restaurants of her own. After all, the mangosteen doesn’t fall far from the tree.

While her parents, Boon and Supa Kuntee, focus on traditional Thai cuisine, Noochla-or (pictured) went more contemporary with her restaurants. She branched out with the diminutive Tuk Tuk Thai in 1999, then opened the sexy, boho Rambutan Thai in Silver Lake and Chadaka Thai in Burbank.

Her latest, Soi 56, is meant to evoke sights and smells from the streets of Bangkok. You’ll find crispy mussel crepes, fish cakes with kaffir lime, and skewered squid legs or beef tongue cooked over charcoal grills—street-market staples typically found all over Thailand.

The menus differ at all of her restaurants, but Noochla-or keeps close ties to family recipes. Some dishes, like gai yang, Soi 56’s tangy, grilled barbecue chicken wings, are served at every Kuntee family function.

And it’s no wonder: Two of her chefs are an aunt and a cousin, and other relatives help out when they can. “Working with my family makes me feel really secure,” says Noochla-or. “I’ve never worked with anyone else.”

Soi 56 - www.soi56.com
1556 N Cahuenga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028-7313
(323) 962-5656

L.A. Weekly’s Top 10: Fave French Fries in Los Angeles

The talk surrounding our current Burger Era seems unending. But what about the side dish that plays a crucial supporting role? Here are ten of our favorite places to celebrate a silent hero that’s overshadowed in the grind of this meat mania: French fries.

If your idea of a Moroccan meal involves belly-dancing, jangling chains and the sensuous wail of the oud, this sleek Fairfax District bistro might not be for you. But while Chef Adel Chagar’s lightened cooking may verge on the modern, his techniques come straight from the traditional Moroccan kitchen: b’stilla made with the tricky pastry leaves called warka; house-made couscous light as perfumed air; and lamb-shoulder tagines cooked until the meat almost dissolves into a kind of lamb-scented cloud. Chameau may describe itself as French-Moroccan, but the food is different from both the plain cooking you’ll find at Paris’ fashionable couscous cafés and the contemporary French menus that happen to feature a tagine or two. 339 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A., (323) 951-0039. Tues.-Sat., 6-10 p.m. Beer, wine. Takeout. Street parking. AE, D, DC, MC, V.

http://www.chameaurestaurant.com/

Good review and photos HERE

Serves an endless assortment of waffles and sweet grilled-cheese sandwiches.

From morning until midnight, you can sidle into this unassuming hideaway (wardrobe: T-shirt and jeans) to get your fix of Caramel Apple Pie Waffles. And Double Chocolate Waffles. And Raspberry Tart. Try them on their own with whipped cream and sugar, or match your choice with a deep selection of toppings and suddenly you might have a Tropical Coconut made up of a coconut waffle, lychee ice cream, pineapple and coconut flakes. You’ll probably want some coffee, or maybe a Habanero-Lime Iced Tea.

If you roll in for a breakfast dessert and suddenly you realize it’s already time for a lunch dessert, it might be time to try a Peach and Mascarpone Grilled Cheese, or maybe a Blackberry Grilled  with blackberries, Muenster and walnuts on Texas toast - from UrbanDaddy

Syrup Desserts
611 S. Spring St
(N. of 7th)
Downtown
Los Angeles, CA 90014
213-488-5136

See the full list of L.A.’s 99 Essential Restaurants - HERE

An essential restaurant is one that reflects Los Angeles in a startling and unusual way, that uses fresh local ingredients in a fashion that respects the land in which they were grown, that showcases cooking echoing both foreign-trained chefs’ region of origin and the hypercharged mosaic of the L.A. dining scene. An essential restaurant moves people, inspires them to think about food in a different way, inspires them to think about Southern California as a great agricultural region, a great port, a builder of the shiny symbolism that is a large factor in how the rest of the world thinks of itself. And it’s also a damned good place to eat. —J.G.

http://www.laweekly.com/content/printVersion/685208

White Truffles at Cecconi’s

Italy’s extremely rainy season means you get your white truffles early this year—even before the Italians, since it’s illegal to sell them there until September. Cecconi’s has them now, and will shave them over scrambled eggs in the morning, or later over gnocchi, or tagliolini, or risotto. Or all of the above. 

You had me at “will shave them (white truffles) over scrambled eggs in the morning”

You lost me when I ordered and realized it’s just 2 or 3 scrambled eggs with an extremely skimpy portion of shaved truffles, no sides, for $24.  And that’s the BLACK truffle version.  The WHITE Truffle eggs will set you back $84.

Cecconi’s
8764 Melrose Ave
West Hollywood, CA 90069
310-432-2000

http://www.cecconiswesthollywood.com/

La Brea Bakery Founder & Chef Nancy Silverton is going to open a new burger joint at the Farmer’s Market (more info HERE).

My friend Mattyshack (of DigLounge.net) had one of her “preview burgers” last night (photo above).  OMG does it look good.

2 new locations coming soon. Umami Owner Adam Fleischman hopes to open location two in early September, but this time around the Umami Burger space will enlarge to three times the size of the original and serve an expanded bistro-style menu with oysters, steak, “green” fried-chicken, plus those burgers. Another spin will be the added Japanese beer bar that seats 20 called Salaryman (the Japanese term for a corporate drone) which will be attached to Umami but also have its own separate entrance. As for location three, its slated to take over a dining space at Fred Segal in Santa Monica and hopefully launch in November. As far as layout and food, expect Umami at Fred Segal to mimic the upcoming spot in East Hollywood with beer/wine and the expanded menu, but an added bonus for Westsiders will be an outdoor patio area and breakfast. Look out for the breakfast burger…just kidding, but maybe… [EaterWire]

Original Location:

Umami Burger
850 S La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036-4810
(323) 931-3000

http://www.umamiburger.com/

Brace yourselves, more food on trucks….

The Frysmith truck serves fries that eat as a meal. How does that work, you ask? The scientific answer is: we throw stuff on top. Stuff like all-beef chili flavored with chocolate and beer or kimchi and heirloom pork under gooey cheddar cheese. It all gets piled on hand-cut Kennebec potatoes cooked in canola oil (the only oil good enough to be named after Canada).

Frysmith’s number one goal is to bring the fine folks of Los Angeles really good, really affordable food made with a modern twist and top-notch ingredients. 

http://www.eatfrysmith.com/

Where Mexican and Chinese food get together.  Wow, Mexican and Chinese; how’d they ever think of that?   Oh wait, Kogi is Mexican and Korean.  Nevermind, totally different.

http://www.donchowtacos.com/

Oh, I’ll still try it.  But somebody, please, stop with the fucking trucks already.