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Maude 3.0

May18

Restaurant: Maude [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 212 South Beverly Drive. Beverly Hills, CA. (310) 859-3418

Date: October 6, 2022

Cuisine: French Californian

Rating: Great Theme

When it opened several years ago, Maude was a big deal on the LA restaurant scene. For quite some time they had a unique “one ingredient, one month” theme. I had gone in late 2014. But that was back several chefs ago, and then they moved to a “season” (of 3 months I think) with a wine theme and food to match. After the pandemic they pivoted yet again to a different chef and a different thematic style.

With its small indoor dining room, Curtis Stone was forced to pivot the space to Pie Room by Gwen during the bulk of the pandemic, focusing on savory and sweet pies plus a slew of other well-done baked goods. Now, he’s shifted back to the Beverly Hills space’s original purpose, marking yet another restaurant of note in busy Beverly Hills.

Stone has brought on fine dining veteran Osiel Gastelum, who trained at Dominique Crenn and was the chef de cuisine at Somni before coming to Maude, to take on the same title overseeing Maude. Gastelum will be infusing the tasting menu with ingredients like nopales and masa, reflecting his upbringing in Sinaloa and Southern California.

Testing the camera on the napkin.

Tonight’s menu.

2008 Veuve Clicquot Champagne Brut La Grande Dame. CW 90-92.

Welcome Cocktail (in jelly form). Delicious.

Potato Requeson Caviar. Mild but yummy.

Infladita. A powerful whallop of herring!

Mushroom Sfogliatella. The laminated mushroom pastry puff is dipped in the white puff of whipped cheese. Hard to manage, but tasty.

2001 Pierre Morey Bâtard-Montrachet.

Nopales, Jicama, Avocado. Lily’s Eggs, Farm Nopales, Jalapeno Cucumber Aguachile. This had a very lovely fresh “crisp” taste and that gloppy egg white texture from the cactus. The plating was so elaborate with the little cut bits and tweezered elements that they had to do part of it in advance of service.

Crisps to settle the tastebuds after the zing.

Corn Caviar and Corn Truffles. McGrath Farm Young Corn, Smoked Creme Faiche, Tamal, Egg Yolk Jam. The left hand thing with the caviar had a sort of tartar sauce texture but tasted of corn and caviar. The pretty thing on the right was a sweet corn custard with a smoky flavor and absolutely delicious.

Pescado Zarandeado. Tomato, Green Olives, Escabeche. More elaborate plating! The flish was very tender and lovely while the tomato thing with the carrots on top had the majority of the flavor.

Tomatoes & Oyster. Valdivia Farm Tomatoes, Morro Bay Golden Reserve Oyster. The center tasted like… oyster. There was a lovely tomato jelly underneath and very sweet little tomatoes around.

From my cellar: 2001 Mongeard-Mugneret Echezeaux. JG 90. I quite like Mongeard’s 2001 Echézeaux, which offers up lovely nascent complexity and fine balance in a medium-full format that simply needs a few more years to fully blossom. I most often cross paths with the Vieilles Vignes bottling of Echézeaux from this domaine, but the younger vine version is no slouch. The nose on the 2001 is a blend of cherries, red currants, raspberries, venison, herb tones, a bit of vinesmoke, a fine base of earth and a topnote of cedar. On the palate the wine is fullish, complex and tangy, and while rather closed on the attack, offers lovely length and grip on the bouncy, moderately tannic and complex finish. There is just a touch of wood tannin currently uncovered on the backend of this wine, but there is clearly sufficient stuffing here to absorb it with a few more years bottle age. Good juice. (Drink between 2011-2030)

House Made Bread and Butter. The butter was house made from Straus cream and very “cultured.” Tasted almost like Vacheron or some other mild cheese. Awesome actually. The bread was very chewy and lovely too.

Abalone. Suncoast Farm Beans, Clams, Ham Hock. One of the most tender abalones I’ve ever had had. Nice bit of bite. Pretty awesome dish actually.

1993 Domaine Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes. BH 95. Incredible spice, earth and game aromas are framed by still noticeable (but not dominant) oak notes that lead to powerful, wonderfully textured and precise flavors that offer incredible depth and simply superb extract plus length to burn. While the wood is somewhat stronger than I personally prefer, this has so much style and sheer breadth that it is virtually impossible not to be wowed by it. The wine also possesses near perfect balance, which should enable it to age for years, perhaps decades as this is one stunner of a wine. Multiple, and consistent, notes.

Duck. Figs, Mole, Hitlacoche. Duck was a bit undewelming. Duck might have been a bit overcooked. The mole was good but overwelms the meat.

Cheese. Brillat-Savarin, Pepitas, Ritzy Cracker. Sort of cheese and caramel? Interesting.

Down the Rabbit Hole. Wheat, Spiced Yogurt, Fair Hill Farm Plums, Praline.

Memories of Summer in LA. Champagne Mango, Jasmine, Coconut Tapioca, Herbs. Super creamy and quite lovely, although I would have liked a bit more punch to the flavors.

Peaches and Cream. Cajeta Mousse, Peaches, Sage Butterscotch. Textures were a bit disjointed as it fell apart when trying to eat it.

Mignardises. An incredible coffee truffle and a little s’more thing. Great.

Little shortbreads.

Notes.

The wine lineup.

I found this new format for Maude the best of the three. The food was good, the Mexican vibe was interesting. Some dishes were excellent, really good, and some just solid. The service was fabulous. Food still, for all its “fancy” is still slightly underwhelming. I mean it’s good, but things didn’t stand out in my memory — other than meeting James for the first time (in the pink between Erick and I). But it was certainly way better than some of the previous cerebral meals here. We don’t have that many high end tasting menu western style restaurants in LA, and it’s great to have Maude still going, but it’s never seemed up there with Melisse, Providence, or even some newcomers like Manzke.

Our wines were underwhelming as well. Not the restaurants fault in the slightly. We just didn’t have luck tonight with bottle variation.

I again loved the 2 locations thing and the loungey location upstairs. All in all a super fun evening!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Curtis Stone, Foodie Club, Maude, Osiel Gastelum

Burgundy at Maude

Aug02

Restaurant: Maude [1, 2]

Location: 212 South Beverly Drive. Beverly Hills, CA. (310) 859-3418

Date: June 20, 2018

Cuisine: French Californian

Rating: Great Theme

When it opened several years ago, Maude was a big deal on the LA restaurant scene. For quite some time they had a unique “one ingredient, one month” theme. I had gone 4 years ago in late 2014. But that was back several chefs ago, and now-a-days they have a “season” (of 3 months I think) with a wine theme and food to match. Reversing their early hesitation about corkage, if you bring on theme — you now get free corkage. yay! And when we went it was Burgundy!

It’s still located on Beverly in Beverly Hills.

It’s still cute inside.

Quite small with an open kitchen.

Here is the Burgundy menu.

Some Bruno Paillard Champagne Rosé Brut Première Cuvée off their list.
And a plate of canapes.

An asparagus tart, some kind of foie crisp. A delicious savory macaron, and gougers. All very lovely.

2004 Henri Boillot Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 96. This is gorgeously pure and incredibly focused aromatically with an incredible breadth of aromas, from white flower to ripe orchard fruits nuanced by a panoply of spice notes. The unbelievably intense flavors are deep and strikingly transparent yet the level of dry extract this enjoys is nothing short of remarkable. The crystalline finish doesn’t just end but rather its ends with one complex wave after another and the sense of energy and drive here is palpable. Flat out terrific.

Vegetables warmed with goat’s butter. Not the kind of dish I would ordinarily order, but these were lovely vegetables, blanched probably, crunchy, and made better by the light butter sauce.

From my cellar: 1995 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 94 points. A good bottle, with lots of creme brûlée.

Escargot in herb butter. I love snails, and particularly the classic presentation with lots of garlic (and butter). These were excellent.

Brioche to complement.

Fred brought (blind): 1979 Domaine Roulot Bourgogne-Aligoté. 96 points. Fred served this blind and we thought it was old chard — amazingly it was Aligote! And Roulot. Totally gorgeous even at almost 40 years! None of us had ever had an aligote this old.

1987 Louis Jadot Montrachet. Past it’s prime (by a lot).

Prawn Bisque. Gorgeous bisque. Rich and delightful.

1955 Jacques Arnoul Freres Clos Vougeot. 93 points. Still in really good shape. Tertiary, but delicious.

Turbot, ham, parsley. Interesting prep with the ham broth and parsley pesto.

1990 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny. 93 points. Bright disc with medium red/orange robe and orange rim. Absolutely beautiful nose of ripe plum, cherry, Asian spices and light cedar. Soft tannins, good acidity, medium-bodied on palate. Similar flavors as nose, essentially exploding at the mid-palate. Long, slightly acidic finish. This wine has evolved beautifully.

Charcuterie of Rabbit. And they REALLy mean rabbit — all of the rabbit!

Fred brought: 1992 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes Mares. 90 points. In a really nice spot right now. Nice spice and earth and bright cherry aromas. A little savory. Nicely resolved and no danger of decline.

From my cellar: 1998 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes Mares. BH 93. This may be one of the finest Bonnes-Mares I have ever tasted from de Vogüé and it’s as dense as the 1991. Packed with kirsch-laced fruit and possessing an intense sappiness with an almost painfully intense flavor precision and a forceful, not to be denied, persistence on the finish. I literally asked to pause a few minutes before proceeding to the Musigny, as the finish would not stop. Positively serene in its power and quiet understatement. In short, for all its greatness, it doesn’t shout at you, it just quietly and confidently delivers a remarkable performance. While the fruit and tannins have evolved somewhat, this still remains a baby and it’s quite possible that another 5 or so years will not be enough to really see this close to its peak.

Roasted Foie Gras with Peas and Morels. Excellent dish.

1996 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin. BH 91. An almost fully mature nose of earth and now mostly secondary red berry fruit aromas is followed by refined, succulent and balanced medium-bodied flavors of superior length. This is a successful ’96 that has aged well and has entered its prime drinking period which should last for the next decade, perhaps a bit longer. Consistent notes. One nit: the last 3 bottles that I have had were slightly cloudy and while it did not affect the nose or the texture, it could be a source of concern going forward.

Roast Lamb. Buttered Potatoes, spinach.

The lineup for the first part of the evening…

Then we moved upstairs. This is a new thing for Maude post format change and is really great. For cheese and dessert you move upstairs to the lounge.

Cheese board.

2011 Domaine Dujac Bonnes Mares. BH 94. This is highly expressive, indeed unusually so for very young Bonnes Mares, and offers up nothing short of a kaleidoscopic array of scents that include a wide range of floral, earth, stone and mostly red berry fruit aromas. There is fine if not special density and focused power to the big-bodied flavors that are overtly powerful and quite muscular yet there is no trace of rusticity or absence of refinement to the hugely long finish. This is a succulent yet formidable Bonnes Mares that should amply reward those who have the (considerable) patience to wait for its full maturity.

agavin: babykill, but we opened it anyway

Here was my cheese plate (part 1), we all got seconds!

We bought this unusual german pinot off the list — well right out of the cellar: 2007 Weingut Keller Spätburgunder Trocken ‘S’. 90 points. Could be 93 in a few years. Light red colour, cherry and rose petal nose, surprisingly strong and bold on the palate, again cherry notes and a little bit blueberry. Long finish of almost 50 seconds. Next one next year.

And we bought this too! 2002 Domaine Dujac Clos St. Denis. BH 93. A very floral and high-toned nose combines with aromas of earth, underbrush and a certain animale quality followed by rich, full-bodied, refined and notably elegant flavors that possess a subtle and understated complexity plus considerable grace. I very much like the balance here and this too is remarkably seductive yet sufficiently well structured to suggest up to a decade of potential improvement.

Now on to dessert. They have this gorgeous pastry buffet that you can help yourself too, repeatedly. Not that you paw over it. You point at stuff and the nice lady makes you a plate (or 2 or 3)!

Chocolate and hazelnut cakes.

Apple thingies.

Chocolate Tart — awesome.

A Vienna style torte.

A berry pastry thing.

Chocolate dipped Madeline’s.

Lemon Meringue Pie!

Mini macarons.

This was my first plate. I’ll be ashamed to admit it wasn’t my last!

Oh, and they have little “presents” for the morning.

I found this new format for Maude much more pleasant. The food was good. Some dishes were excellent, really good, and some just solid. The service was fabulous. We had incredible wine, a few from the list, most we brought. The whole no corkage thing is a welcome relief. I loved the 2 locations thing and the loungey location upstairs. All in all a super fun evening!

This was the first time in a while we had a near full complement of the Foodie Club, including regular members myself, Erick, Larry, and Fred but also with longtime core members like Walker and Amanda who always take it up a notch.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beverly Hills, Burgundy, Curtis Stone, Foodie Club, Maude

Grasping Gwen

Feb21

Restaurant: Gwen

Location: 6600 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 946-7500

Date: February 8, 2017

Cuisine: Butcher Shop modern?

Rating: not bad, but expensive and weird format

It seems everyone is opening a “butcher shop / restaurant” these days. Certainly Curtis Stone’s Gwen opened with a big splash last year but I didn’t go because they had a strict no outside bottles wine policy. I just don’t buy from wine lists, and certainly not high markup lists. That’s not saying there is anything at all wrong with selling wine at a restaurant — we sell wine at ours — but I just own too many bottles and need to work on “culling the herd.”

Anyway, recently our Hedonist group arranged a dinner at Gwen where we were allowed to bring our wines, so I was excited to try the place out. I enjoyed sister restaurant Maude, even if its annoying reservation system (and somewhat less strict but still irritating wine policy) has lead me not to go very often. Maude is so busy you have to call on a Saturday 1-2 months in advance and grab whatever you can. I don’t plan that far ahead :-).

The Gwen build out is very mid 2000 teens. Lovely though.

The meats certainly look “meaty” (and good).

It’s even got a real wood fired asador!

We dined upstairs at the well stocked bar.

Now the menu is odd. Curtis Stone seems to love weird formats. Maude has that one ingredient / one menu / one month thing. Gwen has an even stranger format. At the bar there is some ala carte ordering, but at tables you get a kind of unusual fixed menu. It reminds me slightly of Valentine’s day menus at fancy places. A bunch of courses, most of which are very small. Then there is sort of an “almost an entree” and the option to pile on some really expensive shared steaks. There isn’t a lot of flexibility.

NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. VM 94. The NV Grande Cuvée is absolutely stellar. This is one of the very best Grande Cuvées I can remember tasting. The flavors are bright, focused and beautifully delineated throughout, all of which make me think the wine will age well for many, many years. Lemon peel, white flowers, crisp pears, smoke and crushed rocks race across the palate in a vibrant, tense Champagne that epitomizes finesse.

Now bear in mind that we were a table of 10-12 people and that each of the pictured plates was shared by multiple people. I will designate the sharing factor. Technically each of these items is a “course.”

Pretzel Bread (one roll each). Nice bread (but it’s bread).

Chorizo spread (about 2″ in diameter, shared by 2-3 people). A decent meaty spread. A little heat. Not a ton of it, but considering the size of the bread… more than sufficient.

Dr. Dave brought: 2002 Jean Boillot & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. VM 93-96. Superripe, highly aromatic nose of cling peach and clove, with no obtrusive oakiness. Explosive, sappy, peachy fruit is superconcentrated and rich but impressively dry. Perhaps less expressive today than the Clos de la Mouchere but this has grand cru intensity and class, and great sappy freshness and energy. Extremely long and fine on the aftertaste.

agavin: great Burg for the price.

Jacob brought: 1999 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières. VM 92. Sexy nose of peach, butter and smoky oak. Rich, sweet and pliant but with firm supporting spine. Very silky wine enlivened by succulent acidity. Classic Folatieres, very long and firm on the aftertaste.

agavin: our bottle was a bit corky

From my cellar: 2006 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. BH 96. A reserved, indeed even reluctant nose of fresh and stony green fruit and citrus aromas that offer real depth leads to precise, minerally and exceptionally powerful full-bodied flavors that possess huge amounts of dry extract on the hugely long finish. This is still sorting itself out but the quality of the raw materials is impeccable and it possesses impressive potential, which will require at least a decade to realize. One of the finest examples from this appellation in the 2006 vintage.

agavin: nice, but still a bit hot and young

Duck Rillette, Tete de Cochon, Foie Gras Terrine, toast (shared by 3 people). These were all very nice bits of cured meats, but cutting them up 3 ways wasn’t the easiest. Plus I ran out of bread after about 2 of them. Note, sort of counts as “3 courses.”

Finoccina, Negroni, Coppa, Fuet? (shared by 3 people). Each salami was excellent, too bad they were about the size of a Necco Wafer.

From my cellar: 1993 Louis Jadot Bonnes Mares. VM 92+. Good deep youthful red. Quintessential briary Bonnes-Mares aromas of raspberry, roasted currant, mocha and menthol. Penetrating flavors of black cherry, flowers and mint; insinuating, ripe acids give the wine terrific verve and lift. Finishes long, vibrant and youthful, with firm but round tannins. Quite rich but not as concentrated or long as the ’96. “The crop size was down due to mildew. The aromas remind me of red Burgundies from 1953.

agavin: young and spicy

Seb brought: 2006 Marcassin Pinot Noir Blue-Slide Ridge Vineyard. BH 78. Here the nose offers a different aromatic composition of menthol and extremely ripe red pinot fruit though the same melted vinyl note is annoyingly present. There is fine richness and density to the round broad-shouldered and robust flavors that possess an admirable amount of dry extract but the finish is noticeably bitter and even warmer. An imbalanced and difficult wine to enjoy.

agavin: I didn’t hate it as much as Meadows, but still: “Fake Pinot!”

Jacob brought: 1986 Domaine Robert Jayer-Gilles Echezeaux. Nice

Salad (1 per person, about 3″ across), buttermilk dressing. The salad was tasty. Tiny, but tasty. I liked the buttermilk.

Yarom brought: 1960 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Ygay Reserva. 95 points. Great bottle. One of the best reds of the night.

Gnocchi, smoked ham hock, salsify, black truffle. (1 per person, about 2″ across).

Someone had raved about the (tiny) pasta course from a previous visit. This one was just nice. I prefer a real plate of soft gnocchi. This had nice flavors, but it was small.

We got our knives in a box.

2003 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 95. Dark red. Exotic, even flamboyant on the nose, which displays strong red berry preserve, candied cherry, mineral and floral scents. Round and juicy, with deep red fruit flavors and a strong note of licorice. This is showing even more energy today than it did on release. Lush and sweet on the finish, leaving behind spicecake and cherry notes. I rated this wine 94 points on release and now think that I was stingy.

2007 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape. VM 95+. Deep ruby. Powerful, pungent aromas of kirsch, dark berries, smoky herbs and spicecake, with notes of black olive and tobacco coming on with air. Chewy, palate-staining dark fruit flavors are complicated by bitter chocolate, licorice and black cardamom. Acts like a 2005 today, with serious structure but also superb depth of powerful, densely packed fruit. A hint of cherry skin adds grip and refreshing bitterness to the long, smoky, focused finish. Not an easy read right now: this demands cellaring.

2003 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle. VM 92. Deep, saturated ruby. Intensely spicy aromas of blackberry, bitter cherry, tobacco and minerals, with a complicating note of black pepper that became more pronounced with air. This is quite fresh and lively for the vintage, showing tangy red and dark berry flavors and a solid, chewy texture. Finishes with considerable finesse.

2003 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Le Pavillon. VM 95. Bright, deep red. Spicy, vibrant and tangy nose offers redcurrant, wild strawberry and minerally raspberry tones. Impressively fresh and nervy on the palate, with lift and thrust to the exuberant red fruit tones. As this opens in the glass, the fruit tones take a darker turn toward blackberry and cassis, also picking up notes of graphite and licorice. The deeply concentrated, spicy and wonderfully long, sweet finish is framed by huge but remarkably integrated tannins.

Ocean Trout. Finger lime, shiso, pumpernickel (shared by 5-6 people!). Now the size was a problem, and was probably the fault of our ordering. We should have had 2 of each type of entree for our table of 5, but we ordered 1 of each (don’t ask). As it was I got a morsel about the size of a piece of nigiri. It was very tender.

Boneless shortrib. Braised and grilled (shared by 5-6 people). Yep, tasty but not enough!

Fire Roasted Pork. Glazed cheek, grilled rack, smoked belly. (again shared by 5-6!). Hard to get a taste of everything except for the cheek.

Sides. (shared by 3 or more people). Cauliflower, smoky eggplant? These were decent, but again so little it was hard to remember the taste.

1997 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. VM 93-95. Healthy saturated dark red. Very deep, musky, alluring aromas of roasted plum, dark cherry, nutty oak, mocha, leather and truffle. A seriously outsized Napa Cabernet with a compellingly plush texture but still with a juicy shape to it. This slightly warm wine can’t quite match the 1995 for complexity or energy but it makes for a mouthfilling meal substitute. Slightly dusty tannins reach the incisors.

2000 Schrader Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon RBS Beckstoffer To-Kalon Vineyard. Big!

1985 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard. JG 96+. I can distinctly recall from my early days in the wine trade the release of the 1985 Martha’s Vineyard, which was eagerly anticipated after it was announced that this was the first vintage to be graced with a special label since the legendary 1974. This was at the height of the winery’s popularity and the 1985 Martha’s was an extremely difficult bottle to come by at the time of its release. Consequently, I had not seen a bottle in many years and was delighted to see it included in our vertical at the winery in June. The wine is flat out brilliant, as it soars from the glass in a mélange of black cherries, saddle leather, a great base of soil tones, eucalyptus, smoke, incipient notes of petroleum jelly and a very gentle framing of new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and powerful, with a rock solid core of fruit, great complexity, moderate tannins and a very long, perfectly balanced, tangy and palate-staining finish. This is a very intense vintage of Martha’s that is decidedly younger than the 1987 for instance, and still demands plenty of cellaring time. It will clearly prove to be a legendary vintage of Martha’s and certainly has earned its special label.

Bone-in Ribeye. 30 day dry aged Creekstone farms. (we had 3 for 11 people). This is what filled us up. And it was a great steak. Very medium in the middle, and nice and crispy (and salty) on the outside.

1999 Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos Szt. Tamás. 94 points. Great dessert wine. Sweetness and a nice acidity.

Yuzu pavlova. White chocolate, thai basil. Nice intermezzo. Great flavors and very bright.

Chocolate praline, caramelized banana, cinnamon. Tremendous dessert, and I don’t even like bananas. Along with the steak it was the best dish by a solid margin.

Petite fours. Gelee, truffles, caramel.

Chevy had a bad reaction to the garlic.

Overall, this was an “interesting meal.” Really, the rigid format is not designed for 11 rowdy Hedonists (and we are a handful). There wasn’t enough room on the tables and because of it I think they just put down less plates than they would have normally, and they rigidly put the same portions on the plates they usually do. The result was us splitting some very tiny things many ways.

Sommelier Fahara Zamorano is a real pro and is a gracious and highly skilled Somm — but Gwen isn’t used or our chaotic format and the need to get a lot of bottles opened and poured. With bringing 2 bottles a person and constant flights the wine we need to get the vino flowing and fast. Ideally we can use a ton of glasses, but we had 3-4 each. Our needs don’t allow time for the careful opening, glass selection, placement, pouring that Gwen normally does. The result is a bunch of impatient boys who want their grape juice. After a flight or two it got moving, but at the beginning there was a momentum problem. Hedonist dinners need to get stuff popped and poured ASAP to get through the mountain of wine. I’ve tuned my own Somm duties to these needs, by throwing out the niceties! I just pound through the corks and get the stuff out there.

Food was good, but only a couple of dishes blew me away: namely the steak and banana dessert. The rest were just good. Extremely well executed for sure. But the price is high and the expectations even higher, so I’m not sure what to make of it. Clearly Gwen is a place to go on a romantic meal or with two couples. It’s very much a couples place by portion and feel. The setting is lovely and romantic. And the guy can eat half his date’s food!

But a very fun evening and they really went out of there way to take care of us despite the total mismatch between the group (big and boisterous bordering on boorish!) and the format (designed for upscale couples).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: butcher shop, Curtis Stone, Gwen, Meat, Steak, Wine

Multitextured Maude

Dec17

Restaurant: Maude

Location:212 South Beverly Drive. Beverly Hills, CA. (310) 859-3418

Date: December 11, 2014

Cuisine: Modern

Rating: Good, but slightly deconstructed

I’ve wanted to try Maude since it opened last February, but the annoying reservation system turned me off. They open reservations by phone only on the first Saturday of the month before for the whole month. I spent 40 minutes autodialing with 3 people on 4 phones and we ended up with two completely random reservations. Ours was at 5:30 on a Tuesday. Really, they should raise prices or use the website or both.

Anyway, the restaurant has a very unusual format. All prix fix. Chef Curtis Stone sums it up as follows: “One Key Ingredient. Nine Courses. Twenty-Five Seats. My dream little restaurant.” Each month has a different ingredient and a single fixed menu. Ours was Winter Squash.

The interior is really cute. It reminded me more of New York or some other “classier” city than LA. It’s tiny, but filled with elegant (but casual) little details. It’s not modernist or particularly hipster (thank God).

The kitchen is open and busy. There’s even a small “bar” (think 4 seat sushi bar) looking into the kitchen.

Tonight’s menu.

Soapbox time! They do have one of those annoying corkage policies too. $50, which would be fine, except it’s one bottle per couple. Now this is far, far more sensible than the fixed number per table, as it works tolerably for 6-8 person tables (which they barely have), but still I don’t get it. I understand that restaurants need to make money off beverages. I understand that they have a cute little wine list. But $50 a bottle should cover it, and the limit isn’t going to make serious wine people buy off the list. They don’t and can’t possibly have a list that serves us. Not without investing a fortune. We brought 3 bottles per couple. My friend Michael brought the whites and I brought the reds. They don’t have and couldn’t reasonably have any Burgundy we’d be interested in on the list. Nor unless they priced them stunningly low would I buy them at wine list price. So why have the limit? It only discourages serious wine guys from dining. If anyone in the restaurant business has any idea why this increasingly common policy makes any sense, I’d love to hear it in the comments.

On the plus side, the Sommelier/wine director was extremely nice, friendly, and knowledgeable. Extremely nice. He did a great job.

Picking the white was tough. We also has a 2002 Jadot Montrachet and a 2000 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières! I went with the Coche because — well I love Coche, but Michael and I promised to save our respective other wines to drink with each other at a later date. Great deal!

2000 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Chevalières. Burghound 92. The tightest and most precise of the three 2000 Meursault villages wines of stunning intensity and simply unbelievable purity and this stains and coats the palate with wet stones and an interesting chalky texture. This will require time and should age well for at least a decade as the acidity is ripe and vibrant, giving the flavors real lift, especially on the wonderfully persistent backend.

Pumpkin Lardo. Pumpkin wrapped in pig fat. Yep, that white stuff is the white part off a prosciutto, or close. The dish was very soft and mild.

A vegetarian variant with just pumpkin.

Pillows. These had some kind of pumpkin/squash in them along with sesame or something? They tasted nutty. The out bit was crispy. Delicious.

Maude does have its rules. No flash too 🙁 I had to use an iphone to get a modicum of light. After this, I’ve now ordered a bigass LED light with 160 diodes! haha! It may not flash, but it will be bright! But until then, these photos have a pathetic depth of field.

Squash Salad. Duck breast, Farro, watercress, Pumpkin.

And a reverse shot of it that shows off the duck better. All the elements of this dish were very nice, and there were LOTS of textures going on. The foam. The sauce blobs. Shaved vegetable. Leaf. The dusty freeze-dried stuff. The meat. The problem was there was no was to get any great number of them in your mouth at once, so the whole thing felt a bit deconstructed and discombobulated.

Hiramasa Crudo. Bottarga, Pumpkin Cured Salmon Roe, Dashi Gel. This dish gelled better. haha. The hamachi, the tangy sauce, and the crunchy bits (probably the bottarga?) made a nice pairing.

A vegetarian substitute.

Striped Bass. Little gem. Anchovy. Chicken. I’m guessing the chicken was in the form of the cracklings (which were awesome), and the fish was nicely done. Although again it was a bit hard to get the other elements in one bite.

The consume for the next dish came out in this cool chemistry set.

Which continued to boil the broth up into the rosemary!

Consomme. Squid, Beech, Fennel. Here is the soup before the soup. You can see all the little bits

Then with the broth added. This was a nice dish and I’m a big fan of a good consomme.

I brought the reds. We also has a 93 Jadot Beze and a 98 Bachelet Charmes VV on hand.

From my cellar: 1997 Domaine Anne Gros Richebourg. JG 92+. Fresh, expressive and elegant aromas of cherries, black berries and pinot extract followed by medium weight, relatively fine, nicely detailed flavors that lack a bit of mid palate density. There is better acidity than most of the wines in this group and one is struck by the finesse, unusual for both the appellation at such a young age and certainly the vintage. In sum, this is beautifully detailed rather than dense with fine but prominent finishing tannins. While it could be drunk and enjoyed now, it should continue to improve.

Oxtail Raviolo. Spaghetti Squash, truffle, Rye Crumble. A tasty dish, it had a light foamy quality with an unusual mixture of textures that I’m now picking up as a Curtis Stone signature. The soft foam, the squirmy squash, the crunch crumble.

Pheasant. Kabocha squash, parsley root, pearl onion. Very tasty dish. The poultry was small but very tasty.

A vegetarian version.

Pork Foul. Beef Tendon, pomegranate, crosnes. The crunchy puffs were like chicharrones. Tasty dish, if somewhat obscured by the flashless photography.

Pumpkin caviar!

To go on this Vacherin blini. The texture was like that of a Chinese pan fried dumpling, but inside it was mildly cheesy.

A delicious pre dessert consisting of a soft meringue and that other thing. It was yummy.

Kuri Squash Beignet. Rice Sorbet, Carmel, Cinnamon. Nice fancy donut balls and accompaniments.

Petite Fours. Gels, little macarons, and some other pastry.

Pumpkin spice cake to go. A nice touch!

Overall, we had a great time. Our wine was fabulous. The atmosphere is wonderful, the staff warm, and the food extremely interesting. It’s a highly intellectual cuisine, playing off a lot of forms and textures. Nothing clashed or failed, but sometimes the dishes didn’t seem fully integrated. Mostly it was all those textures and separate elements. It was hard to see exactly how they combined. The flavors err on the subtle, which made them compliment extremely well with the Burgundy. I really want to go back — although I’m not thrilled at the idea of autodialing and having little choice about date!

And what’s with grandma’s old china? 🙂

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