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Shunji Second Stage

Jun16

Restaurant: Shunji [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 3003 Ocean Park Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 826-4737

Date: October 19, 2021

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: First rate omakase

I’ve been going to Shunji for years in its Pico Blvd location but very recently, during the pandemic in fact, he’s moved to a new space over on Ocean Park. So of course we had to go and include him in our Sushi Series of top LA sushi places.

The outside is nearly anonymous.

But inside the whole format and layout is totally different. Gone is the bigger space of tables and now there are two extremely elegant rooms with small gorgeous sushi bars. Each space has its own chef, Shunji himself in this case, and the format of the menu has been vastly simplified. No ala carte at all. Just omakase. Which is how I like it.

New Shunji was so new that all the flowery Japanese congratulation signs were still up.

Even the wood of the sushi bar is stunning.

2002 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Chetillons. VM 97. The 2002 Brut Cuvée Spéciale Les Chétillons, the original release and aged on crown seal, is tremendous. Wow. Ample, sweeping and dramatic, the 2002 is utterly captivating. Smoke, graphite, ash, apricot jam and pastry are some of the many nuances that come alive in the glass, with a top note of reduction that is very appealing. On this day, the regular release is just a touch ahead of the Oenothèque. It’s hard to say exactly why that is, but I suspect that the post-disgorgement time is optimal. This is the finest bottle of the 2002 I have ever tasted. Disgorged July 2010. (Drink between 2018-2028)

1996 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. JG98. I had not drunk a bottle of the 1996 Krug in several years, as I had deemed the wine still in climbing mode and I am not generally in the business of drinking Krug before its time. But, a friend recently opened a bottle and I was very impressed with how the wine is evolving in the bottle since its release. The bouquet is now starting to show some lovely secondary layering of complexity in its blend of apple, peach, a touch of sweet walnut, patissière, a refined base of minerality, caraway seed and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine flavors on the attack echo the nose nicely, with the wine’s full-bodied format sporting excellent depth at the core, still plenty of the vintage’s snappy acidity, great focus and grip and a very, very long and utterly refined finish. Though this remains quite racy structurally, I really like the point it has reached in terms of aromatic and flavor complexity and it is really not a crime to be opening bottles up at this point in its evolution, though it still has room to grow with further bottle age. A great, great vintage of Krug. (Drink between 2019-2060)
Vegetable purée. Uni caviar. Egg. This wasn’t one of my favorite dishes as it had a very distinct “Shunji” vegetal taste. Sort of a mellow carby flavor that distracted a bit from the uni/caviar.

Matsutaki mushroom Faux Chawanmushi. Winter melon. Eggs. King crab.

Halibut sashimi. Sauce of sake and salt. Shredded Plum. Very mild “salty” taste.

Sake sauce.

King mackerel. Seared skin side. Smoked with green tea. With sea salt and wasabi.

1999 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 93. Bright, pale golden yellow. Pure but subdued nose shows sexy floral, truffle and balsamic hints, plus a hint of mocha. Juicy and delineated more than thick on the palate, with its strong citrus and floral flavors given cut and lift by brisk acidity. Boasts terrific energy for a 20-year-old white wine. Quite penetrating and long on the aftertaste, dominated by citrus fruits. Perhaps not quite as complex as the ’00 but this wine offers broader appeal. (the yield in ’99 was 60 hectoliters per hectare) (Drink between 2019-2028)

2008 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 96. Bright yellow with a green tinge. Classic Montée de Tonnerre aromas of lemon ice, crushed rock, iodiney minerality and white flowers. floral, lemon ice, straight and classic. Tactile, juicy and utterly gripping–in fact still almost painful today. Powerful salty minerality and penetrating acidity currently dominate the wine’s lemon oil, grapefruit and floral flavors, with the wine showing a weightless impression. The dusty mineral-driven finish stains the palate and builds inexorably. (When I first tasted this wine from the barrel, I suggested that it might be the longest Chablis premier cru of the vintage.) Drink the 2010 for lunch now but hold this magical wine for another couple years, as its spring is still tightly coiled. This was my favorite wine of the tasting. The 2014 and 2010 vintages may be richer and deeper, as Isabelle Raveneau suggested to me three years ago, but this ’08 is utterly classic. (12.69% alcohol; 3.14 pH; 4.4 g/l acidity; the days were sunny but the nights were quite chilly during the relatively early harvest of 2008, which concentrated the sugars and acidity, noted Isabelle Raveneau) (Drink between 2021-2042)

Fall bonito. Nori.

Shunji at work.

Abalone sushi with liver sauce.

2006 Louis Jadot Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. VM 96+. Full yellow. Broad, deep and initially quite closed on the nose, this opened to show white peach, crushed stone, and fresh hazelnut and almond. Then powerful, vibrant and palate-staining, with terrific cut to the flavors of white peach, lemon, liquid stone and white flowers. Wonderfully tactile wine with an almost painful intensity. Finishes with superb cut and length. This has only 3.8 grams of acidity yet conveys outstanding balance and verve. “If we had allowed the malolactic fermentation to finish, the wine would have ended up with less than three grams of acid,” Lardiere observed. A great 2006.

2006 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 94. Aromas of white peach and crushed stone. Sweet, dense and powerful, with strong minerality giving it a strong sappy quality. The ripeness here is almost exotic, and yet this very sweet, long wine comes off as young today. I’d wait four years. Interestingly, winemaker Philippe Prost believes that the ’06s are both riper and more primary than the saline, creamy ’05s, and that they need a bit more time in bottle than the earlier set of wines.

Sweet white miso soup with shrimp in two textures and yuzu. Lotus root for crunch.

2008 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 94. An almost completely inexpressive but relatively high-toned nose of lemon rind, acacia blossom, ripe peach and apricot gives way to almost painfully intense full-bodied and overtly muscular flavors that offer exceptional richness on the magnificently long, mouth coating and palate staining finish that is wrapped around a very firm core of ripe acidity. Chez Pernot, I typically prefer the Bienvenues but as good as it is, and it is very good, in 2008 I give the nod to the Bâtard, if only by a nose, no pun intended. (Drink starting 2016)

Monkfish liver “pate” with toast.

Duck.

Prepping for the sushi.

Ginger.

Red snapper.

Goldeneye snapper.

Snapper.

Pomfret.

Shima aji (Japanese Mackerel).

Blue fin tuna.

Toro.

O-Toro.

Hokaido Uni.

Sea Perch.

Baracuda.

Shirako with uni rice.

Wild yellowtail from Hokaido, 10 day aged.

Salmon Eggs (Ikura).

Artsy Japanese ceramics.

Sweet shrimp cured with kelp and dusted with botarga.

Toro handroll.

Eel. Super soft. Nice Japanese flavor.

Tamago.

Enoki mushroom miso.

Japanese Pears and Grapes.

Roasted Tea Ice Cream.

Roasted Tea.

The wine lineup.

All and all Shunji is rather fantastic, easily in the large repertoire of top LA sushi restaurants. His move to the new location and increased focus on omakase has only improved his already great food. The meal is much more precise and orchestrated now with a natural progression of different techniques and seasonal ingredients. His very fine nigiri continues to shine. Just plain excellent.

And the whole setting is much more pleasant and calm without the bevy of tables behind you.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Foodie Club, Omakase, Sashimi, Shunji, Sushi, Sushi Series

Old California at 71Above

Jun04

Restaurant: 71Above [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]

Location: 633 W 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071

Date: October 12, 2021

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Awesome in all ways

71Above is one of my favorite LA restaurants and I’ve been many times. In fact there are 10 previous write ups! Original Chef Vartan Abgaryan has moved on to his own new place, Yours Truly (which the pandemic has sadly done in), and 71Above is now seamlessly helmed by his disciple, Chef Javier Lopez. Today the location plays host to a special old California dinner owner Emil Eyvazoff organized with an equally special menu. This dinner is the spiritual sequel to a much older Old California dinner back in 2015.

Besides being located on the 71st floor (950 feet up!) of the US Bank building, being the highest restaurant west of the Mississippi, it’s owned and operated by my friend Emil Eyvazoff!

On one of these visits, Emil gave me a quick tour of their new “patio” on the 70th floor below where they are serving up Mezzes and drinks.

Gorgeous build out upstairs for the main event.

Look at the crazy view and the crazy fog on this weird spring night.

We set up shop for this evening in the private room.

Just a few glasses at the ready.

Our special menu.

The wine list.

Bread and butter.

1984 Mayacamas Vineyards Chardonnay.

1985 Kalin Cellars Chardonnay Cuvée L. JG 93+. The Cuvée L chardonnay hails from a warmer section of Long Vineyard in Dry Creek Valley, where the sun in principally of the afternoon variety, and like the cooler section where the “Cuvée LD” comes from, this is planted with Wente clones. The 1985 Cuvée L is a lovely bottle, with a slightly more fruit-driven personality from the predominance of afternoon sun in this section of the vineyard. The bouquet delivers a fine blend of fresh apricot, baked peaches, a nice touch of soil, a bit of citrus zest and a topnote of toasted walnut. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and seamless, with a lovely core, a very refined personality, great balance and a very long, refined finish. This is more elegant than the 1986 Cuvée LD served alongside of it (differences in vintage character?), but the 1986 Cuvée LD is the slightly more complex of the two wines today. (Drink between 2016-2035)

1985 Kistler Chardonnay Kistler Vineyard.

Yellowfin Crudo. Mango, avocado, passionfruit, daikon, cucumber, habanero, Thai basil. Bright and full of flavor.

1987 Hanzell Chardonnay.

1989 Mayacamas Vineyards Chardonnay. 92 points.

1985 Kalin Cellars Chardonnay.

Charred Avocado. Sungold Tomatoes, uni, trout roe, za’atar, lime, mints. 71Above excels at this sort of unusual combo. Totally worked.

1961 Hallcrest Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. 91 points.

1966 Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon California Mountain.

Crispy Octopus. Shishito, almond, sprouting cauliflower, polenta, meyer lemon gastrique.

1968 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve. VM 98. Medium-deep red with a greenish-amber rim. Highly complex aromas of raspberry, cherry, mocha, dark chocolate, celery seed and balsamic cedar, with a hint of volatile acidity contributing personality and lift. This legendary wine still boasts bulletproof fruit and a compellingly juicy texture, with a sexy hint of truffle adding interest with air. A wine of great class and balance, finishing subtle, fresh, firm and very long, with sweet, fine-grained tannins. André Tchelistcheff called 1968 his greatest vintage and this wine is still going strong a half century later, with no end in sight. Its balance of sweetness and acidity is stunning. This wine was full-bodied in the early going, in contrast to the initially austere ’69, according to current winemaker Trevor Durling. (12.5% alcohol) (Drink between 2019-2038)

1973 Simi Cabernet Sauvignon Special Reserve Alexander Valley. 88 points.

1974 Beaulieu Vineyard Red Blend.

Cavatelli. Poblano Mascarpone, corn espuma, ramps, pepita breadcrumbs, squash. Awesome.

1974 Charles Krug Winery (Peter Mondavi Family) Cabernet Sauvignon. 92 points.

1974 Mount Eden Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. JG 94. The 1974 cabernet from Merry Edwards’ first vintage at the helm at Mount Eden is drinking beautifully out of magnum today, and though it is a bit more powerful in personality than the 1973, it is still a superb example of the vintage. The bouquet is deep, complex and now wide open, offering up scents of cassis, pomegranate, a touch of mint, cigar ash, chipotle peppers, dark soil tones, a touch of spice (vaguely reminiscent of nutmeg) and cedary wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and beautifully balanced, with a rock solid core of fruit, fine focus and grip, tangy acids and a long, complex, still gently tannic finish. This is a beautiful wine with decades and decades of life still ahead of it (particularly in magnum). (Drink between 2016-2050)

1973 Mount Eden Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. VM 96. The heady, full-bodied style was unmistakably Napa Valley. The 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from Mt. Eden was equally brilliant. It was perhaps a touch richer, deeper and more powerful than the Sterling, but what stood out most was the wine’s intense, brooding personality.

1978 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve. JG 86. Of all of the great cabernet producers of this era, Beaulieu Vineyards was probably one of the few wineries that did not really capture all of the potential of the vintage. I have been drinking this 1978 since the mid-1980s and while many bottles were quite tasty back in the day, I have never hit a truly exceptional example. Back in this era, I have always found that BV was more successful in the vintages of 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976 and 1980 than they were in the more famous years of 1978 and 1974. The only caveat one needs to mention about the great wines that Andre Tchelistcheff fashioned at BV in the decade of the 1970s is that their style has not proven to be quite as ageworthy as many of their contemporaries, and most of these beautiful wines are now in varying stages of decline. This most recent bottle of the ’78 Georges de Latour was okay, but starting to get fairly oxidative and was a bit past its best, offering up scents of black cherries, plums, chocolate, a nice touch of Rutherford dust and coconutty new oak underneath the touch of cookie dough-like maderization. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and plush on the attack, with a solid core and still a touch of backend tannin on the long and moderately oxidative finish. The oxidation here is not yet so bad that the wine is undrinkable, but it is ever present on both the nose and palate and detracts a tad from the enjoyment of the wine. (Drink between 2016-2025)

1982 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain. JG 92+. It had been at least a dozen years since I last tasted the 1982 Dunn Howell Mountain, and the wine remains still a tad young for primetime drinking, but it is getting closer to its apogee and has been progressing very nicely in the right direction over the last decade. The wine has dropped most of what was a fairly formidable wall of tannin while retaining its substantial core of brambly mountain fruit. The bouquet is quite complex and is now blossoming very well, as it offers up a complex mélange of black raspberry, red currant, stony minerality, woodsmoke, gentle notes of fresh sage and a bit of petroleum jelly in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and quite soil-driven, with a lovely base of minerality, still a touch of tannin to resolve and a long, complex finish with fine grip but with a slight edge of austerity. This is a very good bottle that may even move up a bit in score as it fully blossoms. If the wine eventually loses the slight edge of austerity it currently displays on the backend, then my score will seem conservative. But a fine bottle in any case. (Drink between 2009-2035)

From my cellar: 1984 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain. VM 88. Healthy full red. More reticent on the nose than the ’83, showing a touch of cardboard and an earthy quality, if not an obvious TCA smell, along with its cherry, redcurrant, plum and earth aromas. A step up in texture from the ’83, but less juicy in the middle palate and even drier on the finish. This doesn’t have the personality of the ’83 and it turned drier with aeration. (I’ve had better bottles of the ’84 in the past, although I hadn’t sampled this vintage in at least five years.) (13% alcohol) (Drink between 2018-2024)

1986 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve. 89 points.

1986 Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon Signature. 89 points.

Grilled Ribeye. Charred Broccolini, crispy shallot, date puree, jus.
With the jus.

Cheese Plate. Julianna, 1655 Gruyere, Ameribella, Seasonal Accompaniments.

This is a signature Sweet Milk flavor — Italian Lemon Cookie Meringue Pie — Limoncello Zabaione base with lemon cookie flavor mixed with Italian Lemon Creme Cookies and Sicilian Candied Lemon and topped with house-made toasted Meringue — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato) — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #lemon #LemonCookie #cookie #Sorento #Limoncello #Meringue #LemonMeringuePie

The extensive wine lineup.
And the gang.

Heading down!

Overall, 71Above is just a seriously well conceived and executed one-of-a-kind restaurant. Really, it’s more like a NY, Singapore, or Tokyo kind of concept. First of all, the view is just awesome. I can’t wait to come back on a really clear day. Particularly once they begin brunch service, a nice winter day will offer an observation deck like panorama.

But then Emil and crew built out such a lovely space to capture the drama. It’s modern, but welcoming. Not too loud, you can hear the conversation and the music both. And from when you enter off the double elevator ascent it folds from one experience to another: lounge, dining room, more intimate corridors, chef table, quiet and romantic view areas in the back, and a series of two adjustable private dining rooms. The attention to architectural detail is amazing.

Today’s dinner excelled on all counts. Service, food, company, and of course the wines. I’m not normally a California wine guy, but these older wines are much softer, nicer, and more Bordeaux-like.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 71above, BYOG, California Cabernet, DTLA, Emil Eyvazoff, Foodie Club, Gelato, Wine

Mucho Matu

May31

Restaurant: Matu

Location: 239 S Beverly Dr Suite 100, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (424) 317-5031

Date: October 5, 2021 & August 9, 2022

Cuisine: Wagyu Steakhouse

Rating: Tasty and share-plates format an upgrade over steakhouse

My 2021 Matu visit was one of the first “new” (aka post lockdown) restaurants I’ve tried since the “before days.” We returned about 10 months later in 2022.
They describe themselves as a “different take on what a steak restaurant can be” which is pretty fair.

It’s located in the heart of Beverly Hills, on Beverly.

The buildout is very contemporary. Neither large nor small inside. A lot of brick.

The menu.

We started by getting the “Wagyu Dinner”, the specifics of which varies by day. Of course then we supplemented by adding about double that amount of extra al a carte dishes.

Georges Laval Champagne Premier Cru Brut Nature Cumières.

1989 Château Lynch-Bages. VM 96. The 1989 Lynch-Bages is one of Jean-Michel Cazes’s triumphs. At three decades, it shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. Blackberry and cedar soar from the glass just as they did from the bottle last year, and touches of graphite develop, all beautifully defined and focused. As I’ve proclaimed before, there is such energy and vigor here! The palate is medium-bodied with a fresh, minty opening. The cedar element is a little stronger than the previous bottles that I have tasted, yet there is still that symmetry and focus. This particular bottle shows a touch more development on the finish compared to others encountered over the years, with great structure and grip, notes of tobacco and just a hint of morels surfacing on the aftertaste. A remarkable Lynch-Bages that is at its peak. As an aside, Jean-Michel Cazes mentioned that there are few bottles of the 1989 remaining in their reserves. A break-in during the 1990s saw robbers of good taste steal much of their stock. Tasted from an ex-cellar bottle at the château. (Drink between 2019-2040)

From my cellar: 1996 Château Lynch-Bages. VM 91+. Dark ruby-red with a hint of garnet. Cabernet sauvignon-typical aromas of blackcurrant, violet, tobacco, dried herbs and minerals, complicated by a touch of smoky oak. In a distinctly firm, structured style, but with juicy acidity intensifying the dark berry and mineral flavors. Building flesh and sweetness on the back half counterbalances the wine’s firm spine, spreading out nicely on the lingering finish. Though currently a little clenched and austere, this wine offers excellent precision and wonderful balance.

1989 Château La Fleur de Gay. JG 93+. Out of the blocks the 1989 La Fleur de Gay was one of the most opulent and ostentatious wines to be found in the vintage, but a solid decade in the bottle has allowed the wine’s constituent components to be better heard through the blaze of fruit. In fact, the fruit bomb this wine was in its youth has been replaced now by a wine of impressive depth and complexity, with a reticence that augurs very well for the serious longevity of this vintage. The nose offers up a complex melange of dark berries, eucalyptus, coffee, strong herb tones and nutty, vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is medium-full, deep and tightly-knit, with a rock solid core of fruit, impressive intensity, and a very long and moderately tannic finish. The tannins here are very well-integrated into the body of the wine, making it drinkable now, but it is still so primary that I would strongly suggest burying it in a cool corner of the cellar for another half dozen years or so. (Drink between 2007-2035)

2008 Giuseppe Quintarelli Cabernet Alzero. 95 points. This wine is a blend of 20% Merlot with the 80% (split evenly) of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. This wine is produced in the same manner as Amarone, in the appassimento style. The wine is then aged in French barrels for three years, then racked into Slavonian oak barrels for four more years. In the glass this wine is deep with a stunning Tyrian purple hue. Aromas show amazing complexity with notes of chocolate, bruised mint, tobacco, spice cake, plum, candied fruits, balsamic and hints of floral pastilles. The wine is smooth and velvety across the palate and the acidity keeps it from being overweight. The high level ABV is nicely tucked in and not a burner. All the flavors come with intensity and linger through the extremely long and unforgettable finish. Absolutely stunning and unique.

NOTE: this was the bottle that a table neighbor gave us for free at Miyagi.

Beef broth made from simmering Wagyu bones for 24 hours. This was the first course of the “dinner.”

Braised Beef Croquetas served over celeriac puree. Sort of like a fried meatball?

Fazzoletti (fresh pasta from UOVO) with braised beef ragu and parmigiano. Very soft.

Hand-cut Tartare Piedmonte style – parmigiano and lemon.

Baby Iceberg lettuce with “Japanese” Caesar dressing and steak cooked on the plancha. I guess this is supposed to be a “wedge and steak” or something.

The “full” version of the caesar.

Maitake Mushrooms with butter and thume cooked over the wood fire. Very good.

Beef tallow french fries with parsley.

8-hour braised beef cheek over celeriac puree. The return of the celeraic puree!

I think this was the last course of the “wagyu dinner.” I can’t remember for sure. The rest was probably al a carte. We rolled backward a bit in menu progression.

Lobster Tails cooked over the wood fire with yuzu-kosho garlic butter.

Ribeye cooked over the wood fire.

Picanha. Lots of flavor.

Baby cauliflower (caultini) with garlic, red pepper flakes and fonduta. Awesome.

Hand-cut Tartare with a Japanese accent (vaguely like the Korean/Japanese type).

Tenderloin Carpaccio with parmigiano, arugula, and lemon.

Flourless chocolate cake with sea salt.

Arturo’s Panna Cotta with macerated strawberries. Scrumptious.

ARTURO’S PANNA COTTA, CAFÉ CON LECHE.

Matu was interesting. First of all, we had a great time, the service was great, and the food overall pretty delicious. Basically, they have many of the classic items from a steak house menu, but they have altered the style and format a bit. Fundamentally gone is the (annoying) steak house format of each person ordering a plain steak and adding a bunch of communal sides. Instead we have more of an adaption of the modern share plates formula — this I like much better and we struggle at steak houses to do this even when it’s not inherently in their nature. Secondly, they have focused the meat a bit more on wagyu — and this is subtle because it’s not the really decadent “real” Japanese wagyu, but a grass fed New Zealand variant. It’s good meat, full of taste, and more suited to western steak style, but just isn’t the same thing as “Kobe Beef” or “A5.” Totally different beast. hehe.

So overall I thought this was a great place. But being so beef focused, and with a pretty small menu, most of which is basically beef tartare and steaks, this doesn’t feel like a place one would repeat too often — particularly given that we ordered basically everything both times. You have to be down for the cow fest. But that’s fine and it certainly pairs well with a wide variety of red wines.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.

More awesome wine from the 2022 dinner:

The 1983 Margaux was one of the best Bordeaux’s I’ve had in years. Absolutely perfect.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Foodie Club, Matu, Steak, Steak House, steakhouse, Wagyū, Wine

Kato West Final Act

May24

Restaurant: Kato [1, 2, 3]

Location: 11925 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (424) 535-3041

Date: October 1, 2021

Cuisine: Omakase Asian

Rating: Really interesting and different

It’s hard to describe Kato. Located in one of the ubiquitous Santa Monica Blvd mini-malls it serves a sort of modern Asian omakase/kaiseki. It won a Michelin star recently and at the 2021-22 junction moved downtown. Now this last bit I’m bummed about as I loved having it on the westside. But their audience is predominantly young hip Asian couples who mostly live in the SGV. Sigh.

Given what was in the fall of 2021 an imminent move much further, Erick and I went twice to collect the tasty memory data from the late period at this westside location. This is the final report (before heading downtown to try the new spot).

Fit in there with the Mexican places, the cheap sushi, the massage joints.

The decor is minimalist but attractive. The crowd is young and predominantly Asian.

The menu tonight.

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 96. The 2002 Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart is outrageously beautiful. The ripeness of the Chardonnay is front and center in a Champagne that delivers the goods, big-time. An infusion of apricot, orange peel, crème brûlée, chamomile, hazelnut and honey give the 2002 its racy, exotic personality. I enjoy it most with bottle age, but the 2002 is undeniably beautiful right now. The 2002 is a stunning NFB. The blend is 60% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne and 40% Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, done partially in oak (20%). Dosage is 4 grams per liter. (Drink between 2020-2030)

From my cellar: 2002 Bruno Paillard Champagne Nec Plus Ultra. JG 97. The newest vintage of Bruno Paillard’s N.P.U. is utterly brilliant and a glorious example of the magical vintage of 2002. The bouquet soars from the glass in a very refined blend of apple, white peach, stony minerality, hazelnut, fresh-baked bread and a lovely touch of orange peel in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and displays marvelous mid-palate depth, with racy acids, very elegant mousse, laser-like focus and a very, very long, complex and simply stunning finish. This wine is young, precise and so beautifully balanced that it is already a joy to dink, though it is clearly built for the long haul and its true apogee is at least a decade down the road! Stunning wine. (Drink between 2017-2075)

2010 Domaine Leflaive Meursault 1er Cru Sous le Dos d’Âne. VM 92. Bright yellow with a green tinge. Very ripe aromas of yellow fruits and nut oils. Broad, sweet and fruity, offering lovely volume without excess weight. Silky-smooth and rich but kept fresh by harmonious acidity (4.6 grams per liter, according to winemaker Remy). Long on the aftertaste. A very good vintage for this bottling.

2010 Jean-Marc Roulot Meursault 1er Cru. Very rare bottle.

Tapioca, brown butter, uni. This dish started out with us wanting to do something with milk and tapioca and eventually led to a savory dish. We also try not to have dairy in the majority of the menu so when we do we get to use it, it’s a treat. We think the uni pairs well with the different textures, temperatures and forms of dairy.

Tuna, 3 cup. The flavors of Thai basil, sweetened soy and sesame oil are so emblematic of Taiwanese cuisine so I can see why 3 cup chicken is so beloved. This version is with pacific big eye tuna that’s lightly cooked so it kind of looks like the chicken in 3 cup chicken.

Kanpachi, cucumber. This is one of the first dishes we were really known for. We wanted to revisit it with our new pantry and style of cooking. We smoke pacific amberjack and serve it with a vinaigrette of charred negi and a cucumber relish as well as a bonito vinegar gelee.

Caviar, geoduck, koji butter. We source caviar through Astrea (our friends Eve and Reisa), their Kaluga hybrid is one of my favorites that I’ve ever tasted. The only inspiration for this dish is the quality of the caviar and the rest of the ingredients serve to highlight it.

Egg custard. Whenever I was sick as a child my mom would steam egg custard with black vinegar. It’s still one of my favorite dishes to this day. This dish is our egg custard, a sauce of kelp and black vinegar, a few different shellfish, Brentwood corn and Aaron’s negi.

Bread!

A spread (for the bread).

Chinese style steamed fish. Every regional cuisine of China and every home has a version of this dish. The most recognizable would be the Cantonese version where a fish is steamed whole and dressed with soy, ginger and scallion to which scalding oil is poured over the top. Our version has loup de mer and we cook each element separately and assemble it to service. The soy is traditionally unadorned but mixes with the fish jus in the steaming vessel. We take sea bream bones and make a tisane and season it with different rice wines and soy sauces to emulate the traditional technique.
Short rib, pear. We’re working on doing a throwback menu to our favorite dishes from 5 years. This dish isn’t Taiwanese or Chinese but it reminds us of eating in Los Angeles and our first year of opening. It’s a dish of short rib cooked with pear then grilled. We serve it with matsutake and some of the pear cooking liquid.

But it was a bit different with some rice.

Yogurt, plum. The only dessert I’ll ever go out specifically for is frozen yogurt. This version is served with a shaved ice made from tisane of lemon verbena that Girl and Dug is growing and emerald plums since it’s stonefruit season.

Boniato yam tapioca, fresh cheese, sable. Here’s our other longest standing dish, our ode to arguably the most popular thing to ever come out of Taiwan, boba milk tea. We make tapioca balls out of an Asian roasting yam, similar to the sweet potato or taro ones you’d have in Taiwan. We make a fresh cheese and foam it and we shave frozen brown butter sable so it gives the feeling of eating shaved ice. We think that the flavors range from milk tea shops to shaved ice stands.

A bigger group this time.

Overall, a very interesting and different meal. Very light, bright flavors and the whole thing tasted great but left one feeling not in the least “bombed out” which is actually kinda nice. Extremely modern too and straight up ready for instagram!

Tonight’s (final) meal was pretty similar to the August one.

Service is great, if a bit fast! Like just over an hour! It’s also, for gluttons like Erick and I, not nearly enough food, so despite ordering all the supplements we have always gone for “second dinner.” But this time we went down the street to Sasaya, a local Izakaya.

Open late into the night with ipad ordering.

Crab rice.

Korean style short rib.

An egg dish.

Grilled eel.

Check out more epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Foodie Club, Kato, Sasaya, Second Dinner, Taiwanese Cuisine, Wine

Kaneyoshi Take 1

May17

Restaurant: Sushi Kaneyoshi [1, 2]

Location: 250 1st St B1, Los Angeles, CA 90012. (213) 277-2388

Date: September 24, 2021

Cuisine: Omakase Sushi

Rating: Lean mean and awesome

Our Foodie Club “Sushi Series” continues with not one but two visits to LA Omakase newcomer Kaneyoshi. This dinner was sort of a half “Foodie Club” and half Sage Society dinner (in my mind). Mostly it’s just my serious sushi friends which happen to overlap into those two realms.

Kaneyoshi is tucked away in the basement of a Little Tokyo mall/garage building. It’s fairly hard to find. The first time we located the sign but it took us 15 minutes of hunting around to actually find the restaurant (you go up a sketchy stairs, enter a lobby, ask the bored guard, take an elevator down to…

This glamorous “service corridor” — they don’t let anyone in early.

Inside, however, it’s very attractive. It’s just a single 10-12 person seat sushi bar L and a some space around it.

The chefs prepping away.

Liz brought us a little gift.

Cute!

1995 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 94. The 1995 Krug is gorgeous. I chose it because one of my guests loves Krug and I thought the 1995 would have the right amount of complexity to pair beautifully with the smokiness in Saison’s caviar. Although the 1995 Krug is not a truly epic wine, it is in a sweet spot right now. (Drink between 2018-2023)

Belt fish Tempura, Salt and Caviar.

The stain.

1997 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. BH 95. An elegant and very fresh but distinctly yeasty nose of stupendous breadth leads to incredibly intense, pure, detailed and vibrant flavors that possess superb depth and simply knockout length. This is a powerful Salon and even though it doesn’t have the solid acid spine of the very best vintages, this compensates by its approachability and terrific mouth feel. This could be drunk now or aged, depending on one’s preference. If you can find it, I would lay in a case and drink it selectively over the next 20 years.

Chawanmushi with Japanese Hairy Crab and Kani Miso (crab brain).

Japanese Kinki (Rock Fish) Shabu Shabu with Monkfish Liver Sauce (beneath).

2004 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut Rosé La Grande Dame (from mag). VM 94. Vivid orange-pink. Seductively perfumed aromas of ripe red berries, Asian spices, rose and smoky minerals. Densely packed and palate-staining, offering vibrant red and dark berry flavors, along with floral pastille and buttered toast qualities. The strikingly long finish repeats the red fruit and mineral notes and lingers with serious tenacity.

1996 Ruinart Champagne Dom Ruinart Brut Rosé. VM 95. A head-turning beauty, the 1996 Dom Ruinart Rosé boasts gorgeous, resonant fruit to match its considerable structure and intensity. Although quite pretty and expressive, the 1996 has enough balance to develop gracefully in bottle for years to come. (Drink between 2014-2024)

The next dish is presented like a magic trick.

Smoked Skipjack Tuna with Onions. Lovely smoky flavor.

And the prep for the next.

Sea perch. Torched. In nori. Bit of shiso. Kaneyoshi uses some really stunning nori, particularly crunchy. They have this sort of “open hand roll” too.

1990 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 97. 1990 is one of my favorite vintages ever for this storied cuvée because while the vintage was on the riper side the high yields allowed the fruit to retain a very good level of acidity which made for balanced and ageworthy wines. While I have had the pleasure of tasting the ’90 on a number of occasions since its release, the last time was alongside the 1985 and the 1988, and as admirable as those two vintages are, the 1990 is head and shoulders above them to my taste. The fantastically complex nose is comprised of an abundance of yeast and toast characters that don’t completely dominate the essence of apple, pear, citrus, spice, acacia blossom and discreet orange peel scents. There is equally good depth to the delicious, full-bodied and powerful flavors that possess a lovely sense of vibrancy thanks to the still firm but fine mousse that shapes the delineated, delicious and impeccably well-balanced finale. In my view 1990 is one of the greatest vintages for this wine of the last 25 years and one that is still drinking well. While there is no additional upside development to be hand, neither is there any rush to drink up as this should continue to hold effortlessly for years to come. (Drink starting 2015)

From my cellar: 1969 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97. The 1969 Dom Pérignon (Original Release) is fabulous. Aromatically, this bottle is perhaps a touch advanced, but the wine’s inner sweetness and textural depth more than make up for that. In the glass, the 1969 is ample, creamy and incredibly inviting. Hints of orange peel, crème brulée, hazelnut and honey blossom in this super-expressive Champagne. The bubbles have mostly receded, and yet all the elements are impeccably balanced. (Drink between 2017-2022)

More delicate work.

Ankimo Monkfish Liver, Salted Santa Barbara Uni, and Sweet Shrimp cured in Kombu.

2011 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc. VM 95. Light yellow. Intense scents of nectarine, pear skin and lemon curd, with complicating floral and mineral notes gaining power with air. Broad and fleshy but tightly focused, offering vibrant orchard and pit fruit flavors and a refreshingly bitter note of citrus pith. Dry and nervy on the penetrating, powerful. sharply focused finish, which leaves sexy honeysuckle and ginger notes behind. I suspect that this wine will age gracefully on its tension and balance.

Seaweed and Melon. Very dashi!

1999 Domaine Jacques Prieur Montrachet. BH 93. Young Montrachet can often be quite austere yet this is forward and flashy with expressive aromas of oak spice, orchard fruits and a background note of acacia blossoms followed by large scaled, relatively dense flavors of remarkable complexity and a fine minerality that continues on into the intense and remarkably powerful finish. A very impressive effort. (Drink between 2009-2020)

2015 Domaine Michel Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 93. This too was quite heavily reduced and again I strongly recommend allowing this 30 minutes or so in a decanter first if you’re going to crack a bottle young. The powerful and impressively concentrated broad-shouldered flavors brim with both sappy dry extract as well as plenty of minerality that suffuses the wonderfully complex and persistent finish. I wouldn’t describe this as a typical Niellon Chevalier but it is certainly a dramatic and high-quality wine. (Drink starting 2021)

2011 Louis Jadot Montrachet. BH 94-97. Here the nose is notably more reserved with aromas of citrus zest, spice, wood toast, fennel and spice hints. This is also a very imposingly-scaled wine with its big, muscular and wonderfully complex flavors that culminate in a long, focused and explosive finish of breathtaking length and intensity. This overtly powerful effort should reward at least a decade in the cellar and drink well for another. A ‘wow’ wine. (Drink starting 2023)

Baby snapper.

Grouper.

Black Perch with a bit of char.

Japanese Jumbo Clam.

Sweet Shrimp.

King Mackerel.

Scallop with eel sauce.

Da da! This is one aged block of tuna.

Aged Maguro. Spectacular.

Aged O-Toro. Even better.

Hokkaido Sweet Shrimp nigiri.

Hokkaido Uni “hand roll.”

Same uni, but as a tiny baby nigiri.

Sea Eel.

Monkfish liver and cucumber hand roll. Super crispy nori. Very lovely interplay and unusual too.

Red Miso Soup.

Futomaki. I haven’t had a real Futomaki in years and I have always loved it. Although oddly, this is what passes for dessert at Kaneyoshi.

The chef enjoys some wine.

Our lineup.

The sushi at Kaneyoshi was really awesome. They specialize in a style of “cured and aged” sushi and it’s all very straight up showcasing the fish. The flavors are subtle and spectacular. It’s not particularly stunty or overdressed at all. And service is really good. The space, while far away and hard to find, is quite lovely once you get inside. We had the whole place taken over of course. The food is light, however, and by the glutton standards of Erick and I this is definitely a “second dinner required” meal.

Our wines were curated by Liz and therefore amazing as always :-). The company was great too.

Like almost all high end Omakase places Kaneyoshi isn’t cheap. The base was $250 back then (it’s now $300 as of May 2022). They charged a lot of corkage too. Probably at least $100 a bottle. The total was hefty.

Erick and I rolled off in search of second dinner. Annoyingly on this particular night I had the super hiccups which just kept on going and going for about 4 hours!

We found a little izakaya type place.

Plastic samples.

Regular miso soup.

Chicken Katsu Curry with egg.

Pork Katsu Curry with egg.

BBQ Eel box. Needed some fat and carbs!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more sushi meals click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Champagne, DTLA, Foodie Club, Kaneyoshi, Omakase, Sage Society, Second Dinner, Sushi, Sushi Series

Brothers Sushi Two

May04

Restaurant: The Brothers Sushi [1, 2]

Location: 21418 Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91364. (818) 456-4509

Date: September 14, 2021

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi Kaiseki

Rating: Really wonderful modern style Kaiseki

This dinner is part of a “Sushi Series” (the others being here) in a vast array of epic Japanese sushi and/or Kaiseki dinners post lockdowns that all included myself, Erick, Joe and Bonnie — and often Larry, as is the case tonight. Herein we “endeavor” to visit or revisit most of the top sushi spots in LA.

Larry has been coming to Brothers for years, but in 2018 recently Chef Mark Okuda took over and totally transformed the place into one of the Valley’s — and LA in general’s — top omakase destinations. Larry took us on a foray a couple weeks ago, but we immediately set up a giant even longer one for more people a few weeks later (this meal).

But the inside is attractive and there is a large patio and this interior with an extensive sushi bar and a few tables.

1990 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut La Grande Dame. VM 94. The 1990 La Grande Dame is a shock to the palate after all the older wines in this tasting. Candied lemon, rosemary, dried flowers and spices are all super-expressive in the glass. The 1990 retain a good bit of brightness, especially for its age. The citrus flavors have still not moved into realm or more orangish tonalities, as is likely to happen over time. The 1990 can be enjoyed now and for the next 20 years or so. (Drink between 2015-2034)

From my cellar: 1996 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 97. Taittinger’s 1996 Comtes de Champagne is another highlight. The flavors are only now beginning to show elements of complexity, a great sign for aging. Gently spiced and buttery notes suggest the 1996 is about to enter the early part of its maturity, where it is likely to stay for another decade or so. (Drink between 2014-2026)

1995 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 95. Wonderfully subtle, complex aromas of white flowers, acacia honey, minerals, nuts and mushroom, with musky and leesy nuances. Oily, rich and smoky but with terrific verve and lift. Quite substantial and chewy for a young D.P. but not at all heavy. Yellow plum and strong soil tones in the middle and on the palate-staining finish. Offers a rare combination of richness and finesse. (Schieffelin & Somerset, New York, NY)

2009 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. BH 93. Subtle wood sets off aromas of flowers, oyster shell and tidal pool that complement perfectly the racy, pure and strikingly well-detailed medium plus weight flavors that brim with minerality on the delicious, mouth coating and impressively long finish. This beautifully vibrant and concentrated effort should drink well young and age well too plus it’s more classic in style than many wines from this vintage. (Drink starting 2016)

2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre. VM 92. Fruit-driven aromas of peach, apricot, pear and flowers. Then juicy and tight in the mouth, with strong citrussy acidity leavening the wine’s mid-palate sweetness. The long, peachy finish shows lovely finesse for this bottling.

2011 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne. VM 96. An utterly mesmerizing wine, the 2011 Corton-Charlemagne conquers all of the senses with its grace and harmony. Lemon oil, white flowers, pears and crushed rocks are some of the many notes that are woven together in the glass. The 2011 is perfumed, sublime and drop-dead gorgeous from the very first taste. With time, though, the wine blossoms beautifully as it fills out its broad-shouldered frame with tons of style. (Drink starting 2018)

Marinated Jellyfish from Okinawa.

3 Week Dry Aged King Salmon, Marinated Tomato and Burgundy Truffle.

Smoke!

Smoked Dry Aged Amberjack Kanpachi.

Sautéed Hudson Valley Foie Gras with Ikura and Mango. Amazing texture difference with the crunchy shell and soft interior.

Sweet Corn Chawanmushi with Santa Barbara Uni and Japanese Watercress.

Japanese Milk Bread, Toro, Takuan, Sweet Onion, and Caviar.

Black Abalone with wasabi.

Risotto (with the abalone).

Monkfish Liver with a very sweet glaze.

Steamed Hairy Crab from Hokkaido.

Sweet and tangy sauce for the crab.

Fried River Crab (eaten whole).

Ginger.

Hokkaido scallop and shimiaji dry aged 1 week from Japan.

Japanese sea perch and golden eye snapper.

Otoro and chu toro from Spain.

Uni. Santa Barbara, Hokkaido, and Red Sea urchin from Japan

White shrimp from Japan and Wagyu.

Green tea cheesecake.

Tea.

Blue Cherry Gelato – a blend of Morello Cherry, intense Amarena Cherry, and Blueberry fruit make this dairy gelato really pop — topped with Candied Amarena Cherries — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #amarena #morello #cherry #blueberry

Burnt Basque Cheesecake Gelato — Milk steeped with Tahitian Vanilla Beans and Valencia Orange Peels and then blended with Cream-cheese and Egg Yolks, layered with house made “burnt” Caramel and topped with house-made Caramel Brittle, finished with the torch! — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #basque #cheesecake #caramel #brittle #orange

The wine lineup.

Some of the gang with Chef Mark in the mask.

I was really impressed by Brothers. Not only was the fish superlative and the dishes every inventive, but Mark has a really refined sense of balance to his flavors. Nothing was overly sweet, or overly salty, or overly tangy — but instead hovered in that lovely space where all of the flavors hang in proper harmony.

Bravo! I’d highly recommend Brothers as one of the best “modern style” Omakase places in the city.

This second (even bigger) dinner was just as good, if not even better, than the first visit. Really really great place. I’ve been back a couple times for lunch since but have been waiting (for six months since this dinner) for their long awaited Santa Monica branch to open!

For more LA dining reviews click here.
Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.
Or for more Sushi Series dinners, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brothers Sushi, BYOG, Champagne, Foodie Club, Gelato, Mark Okuda, Omakase, Sashimi, Sushi, Sushi Series, White Burgundy

Soko Sushi

Apr27

Restaurant: Soko

Location: 101 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401 (inside the Fairmont). 310-576-7777

Date: September 10, 2021

Cuisine: Sushi

Rating: Great for hotel sushi, but flavors a bit weird

Right in the middle of our 2021 “Sushi Series” (when we visited lots of great LA sushi places) Jeffrey kept egging us to try the new “micro sushi bar” inside the Fairmont Hotel — which he’d hit up a lot since it’s right between his work and home.

This is a tiny little spot inside the hotel with pretty much one employee. Maybe there was a server taking drink orders.

Hand ground wasabi.

1996 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. JG 98. I had not drunk a bottle of the 1996 Krug in several years, as I had deemed the wine still in climbing mode and I am not generally in the business of drinking Krug before its time. But, a friend recently opened a bottle and I was very impressed with how the wine is evolving in the bottle since its release. The bouquet is now starting to show some lovely secondary layering of complexity in its blend of apple, peach, a touch of sweet walnut, patissière, a refined base of minerality, caraway seed and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine flavors on the attack echo the nose nicely, with the wine’s full-bodied format sporting excellent depth at the core, still plenty of the vintage’s snappy acidity, great focus and grip and a very, very long and utterly refined finish. Though this remains quite racy structurally, I really like the point it has reached in terms of aromatic and flavor complexity and it is really not a crime to be opening bottles up at this point in its evolution, though it still has room to grow with further bottle age. A great, great vintage of Krug. (Drink between 2019-2060)

2002 Dom Pérignon Champagne P2. JG 98. Somehow, I never managed to cross paths with the initial disgorgement of the 2002 Dom Pérignon, so I was delighted to see the coming P2 version waiting in the wings in our tasting lineup in March at the Abbé d’Hautvillers. It would be fascinating to compare the P2 with the first release of the 2002 Dom Pérignon, in much the same way I tasted the two 1996 versions side by side, as this is a great Champagne vintage that dovetails so beautifully with the house style of this bottling. The 2002 P2 delivers a stunning young nose of pear, apple, stony minerality, iodine, dried flowers a touch of nuttiness, menthol and gentle upper register botanicals so emblematic of this cuvée as it starts to first stretch its wings. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and absolutely rock solid at the core, with lovely mousse, laser-like focus again and stunning backend mineral drive on the very, very long, perfectly balanced finish. The 2002 Dom Pérignon P2 looks to be almost unreachable by the passage of time and could easily last a century. (Drink between 2022-2095)

From my cellar: 2008 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. JG 94. The 2008 Pucelles was very closed and reserved, but with great underlying elements that promise a profound glass of wine down the road. The superb nose offers up scents of lemon, orange, fresh pear, beautiful, chalky soil tones, vanillin oak and a pungent topnote of lemon blossoms. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and tightly-knit, with great mid-palate depth, superb focus and great length and grip on the zesty and reserved finish. This will be just a classic vintage of Leflaive Pucelles. (Drink between 2014-2040)

agavin: this bottle of mine was pretty advanced (so I opened the roulot), but it was marginally drinkable.

2007 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. BH 94. Initially this is still restrained but after only 10 minutes or so it becomes quite expressive with a nose that is airy, ripe, elegant and strikingly pure as it combines plenty of Chablis character that includes sea breeze, citrus and green fruit aromas that precede the delineated and equally pure flavors of stunning depth and intensity, all wrapped in a hugely long finish. Like the nose, the minerality seems subdued at first yet arrives in a real rush on the finale. A genuinely great wine that is a study in harmony and grace as well as one that should age effortlessly for many years. I have advanced the suggested drinking window by one year as this can already be drunk with pleasure even though it is still on the way up. In a word, stunning. (Drink starting 2013)

From my cellar: 2011 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Tessons Clos de Mon Plaisir. VM 92. A statuesque Burgundy, the 2011 Meursault Les Tessons Clos de Mon Plaisir is all class. Nothing in particular stands out, so impeccable is the wine’s balance. The depth and intensity of the fruit is apparent, but readers will have to give the 2011 at least another year or two before the elements start to truly come together. The 2011 is impressive for its depth and stuffing. (Drink starting 2014)

2007 Pierre Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 93+. Pale, bright yellow. Knockout nose combines underripe pineapple, crushed stone and a flinty nuance. Big, rich and voluminous, but with lovely penetration and purity to the pineapple and crushed stone flavors. Wonderfully sweet, tactile wine with outstanding density and breadth for the year. This very long, scented wine remained on my palate for minutes. From very old virused vines in a spot that’s protected from wind by walls on three sides, notes Morey. But the yield in 2007 was still a solid 45 hectoliters per hectare. Wonderfully powerful, youthful Meursault that should reward a decade of aging.

Yam cake, spinach, tofu sesame paste, carrots. Weirdly sweet.

Steamed monkfish liver.

Beans & tomatoes with sesame paste. The dressing was a bit oddly sweet.

Sashimi.

Sardine.

Kohada.

White salmon from Alaska and Barracuda.

Uni, Quail egg, Toro, Flying fish egg. Excellent.

Braided kohada.

Toro negi hand roll. Very good.

Keto roll. No rice. Really good, but not as acidic.

Sunomono with radish.

Taco (Octopus).

Tai and sardine.

Ikura uni roll. Best thing of the night.

Red roll (3 kinds of tuna). Very tasty.

House made tamago.

Special tamago and unagi.

The wine lineup.

While this was pretty good for hotel sushi and some of the dishes were great, the overall mix was a little weird. Most of the non nigri / non roll dishes were oddly sweet and desperately laking in acidity. Some not really pleasant at all because the cloying quality was just odd. But most of the rolls were great and the nigiri pretty good. However, the mix of nigiri was really peculiar as well. It was dominated by marinated “sardine-like” fishes. Now I actually like these quite a bit, but it was an odd balance and there was very little “whitefish” or “tuna” type nigiri.

Anyway, it was certainly a fun evening. Wines were great of course.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Fairmont Hotel, Foodie Club, Santa Monica, Sushi, Sushi Series, White Burgundy

N/Naka Again

Apr18

Restaurant: N/Naka [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Location: 3455 S. Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034. 310.836.6252

Date: September 3, 2021

Cuisine: Modern Kaiseki

Rating: Awesome

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The Foodie Club returned to N/Naka in September (having been last in June).

The busy street corner on National.

The empty interior.
Our table — before we got to it.

Our menu for the night.

1971 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97. This bottle of 1971 Dom Pérignon, the second that I have tasted, was an original disgorgement and slightly paler than the Cristal 1971 served alongside. It has a devastatingly gorgeous bouquet, intoxicating from the get-go: grilled walnuts, dried honey and even a hint of marmalade, all delivered with exceptional delineation. The palate is beautifully balanced with perfect acidity. There are subtle notes of citrus peel, mandarin, crushed stone and honeysuckle, though these are discrete. It is rather the tension and precision that elevates this magnificent Champagne. Tasted at Christies/Fine Wine Experience 1971 dinner. (Drink between 2021-2030)

1990 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 97. 1990 is one of my favorite vintages ever for this storied cuvée because while the vintage was on the riper side the high yields allowed the fruit to retain a very good level of acidity which made for balanced and ageworthy wines. While I have had the pleasure of tasting the ’90 on a number of occasions since its release, the last time was alongside the 1985 and the 1988, and as admirable as those two vintages are, the 1990 is head and shoulders above them to my taste. The fantastically complex nose is comprised of an abundance of yeast and toast characters that don’t completely dominate the essence of apple, pear, citrus, spice, acacia blossom and discreet orange peel scents. There is equally good depth to the delicious, full-bodied and powerful flavors that possess a lovely sense of vibrancy thanks to the still firm but fine mousse that shapes the delineated, delicious and impeccably well-balanced finale. In my view 1990 is one of the greatest vintages for this wine of the last 25 years and one that is still drinking well. While there is no additional upside development to be hand, neither is there any rush to drink up as this should continue to hold effortlessly for years to come. (Drink starting 2015)

1998 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. BH 94. An elegant but austere wine that is almost as reticent as the ’96 with pure citrus and floral aromas that continue onto the crisp and still very tight medium-bodied flavors that are beautifully precise and impressively delineated on the gorgeously long finish. This is a long way from being ready and I wouldn’t touch a bottle for another 5 to 7 years.

Sakizuke. Aji, Snap Pea, Bell Pepper Gelee.

A welcome drink.

Zensai. Nasui Yasai, Corn Tofu, Oyster Lime, Shishito White Fish Tempura, Unagi Avocado, Fig, Wagyu Nikogori.

Nasui Yasai.

Unagi Avocado.

Corn Tofu.

Shishito White Fish Tempura.

Fig.

Pickles.

Shrimp with caviar.

Modern Zukuri. Roasted Tomatillo, Chili Sauce, Hokkaido Scallop, Finger Lime, Chayote, Turnip, Kohlrabi, Lemon Verbena Oil

Can’t remember, but it was good!

2002 Ruinart Champagne Dom Ruinart Brut Rosé. VM 95. Light, bright orange-pink. Heady mineral- and yeast-accented aromas of dried red berries, blood orange, buttered toast and tea rose. Densely packed and expansive on the palate, offering intense raspberry, cherry compote and floral pastille flavors and a smoky overtone that gains strength with aeration. The mineral quality comes back strong on the silky, focused finish, which goes on and on. An outstanding blend of power and finesse. Disgorged September, 2012.

2002 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 96. There is a subtle phenolic character to the secondary-tinged yet super-fresh nose reflects notes of baked bread, yeast, pear, baked apple, spice and a hint of citrus. The bold and full-bodied flavors possess superb complexity while being underpinned by a notably fine but dense mousse, all wrapped in a gorgeously persistent finish. This full-bodied effort is seriously impressive and one that is aging effortlessly though for my taste, it could certainly be enjoyed now. (Drink starting 2020)

Owan. Tai, Eggplant, Green Bean

Sake we bought from them.

Otsukuri. Traditional Sashimi.

Yakimono. Ayu, Duck Liver, Smoked Cherry.

Mushimono. Tomato, Lobster Shinjo, Tomato and Fennel Mochi.

From my cellar: 2011 Etienne Sauzet Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 94. A pure and elegant if very restrained nose reluctantly offers up notes of white flower, lemon zest, wet stone and an herbal tea hint. There is an equally stony character to the beautifully detailed middle weight plus flavors that possess real verve and superb depth on the gorgeously textured and markedly firm finish. This does a slow build from the mid-palate to the explosive and palate staining finish. A Zen wine of considerable understatement that will require all of a decade to arrive at its full potential. (Drink starting 2021)

2013 Etienne Sauzet Montrachet. BH 93-96. This is markedly more restrained with its reserved aromas of spice, white and yellow orchard fruit, acacia blossom and a broad array of citrus nuances. There is seriously impressive richness to the overtly powerful full-bodied flavors that possess an admirable plenitude of dry extract that completely drenches the palate on the driving and hugely long finish. As one might reasonably expect this is presently very, very backward and while this may be fully ready 12 years hence I would not be surprised if it required more like 15. Either way, this has terrific upside development potential. (Drink starting 2025)

Shiizakana. Spaghetti, Abalone, Picked Cod Roe, Truffles. Awesome as always.

Niku. A5 Miyazaki Wagyu Beef, Baby Corn.

Sunomono. Nopales, Golden Kiwi, Cucumber, Aloe, Chia Seeds.

Yuzu juice intermezzo.

They brought us some giant bottle sake.

Shokuji. Nigiri Sushi.

And more sushi, including uni/ikura.

Miso Soup.

Blue crab Hand roll.

Mizumono. Lychee Sorbet, Shiso Lime Granita

Mizumono. Ginger Poached Plum, Lavender Ice Cream, Wasabi Mochi, Honey Crumb, Tuile

Blood Peach and Ume Sorbetto, Chocolate Peanut Cream Gelato, and Caramel Fudge Marshmallow Gelato made by me for @sweetmilkgelato.

Take home gift.

Roasted green tea.

Pretty chocolates.

The setting is elegant, minimalist, and very Japanese. N/Naka really is a very special place. All the meals I had here were spectacular. Plus we even did an amazing all foie gras meal here once. The place keeps getting better and better. This is thrice wonderful because often one finds a slight bloom to come off a place on repeat meals. At N/Naka everything is seasonal and constantly rotating.

Coming back to N/Naka after the pandemic I thought they were really firing on all cylinders. This was the best meal I’ve had there since the incredible Foie meal. I think her sushi has gone from “okay” to “great” and with regard to other dishes she has toned down a bit of the “theatrics” slightly but really upped the flavor balance and intensity. There weren’t some of the more interactive dishes of years past, like cooking your own item on hot stones, but the cooking was even more on point.

Service is also spectacular, highlighted all the more by the extremely low understaffed standard currently found in LA.

Click here to other LA Japanese restaurants.

Or other Foodie Club extravaganzas.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Champagne, Foodie Club, Gelato, Japanese cuisine, N/Naka, Niki Nakayama, Sushi, Wine

Kato West Penultimate

Apr04

Restaurant: Kato [1, 2, 3]

Location: 11925 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (424) 535-3041

Date: August 31, 2021

Cuisine: Omakase Asian

Rating: Really interesting and different

Given what was in the fall of 2021 an imminent move much further, Erick and I went twice to collect the tasty memory data from the late period at this westside location.

Fit in there with the Mexican places, the cheap sushi, the massage joints.

The decor is minimalist but attractive. The crowd is young and predominantly Asian.

The descriptive but cryptic menu.
From my cellar: NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé Edition 21eme. JG95+. The Krug Brut Rosé “21ème Édition” is from the beautiful base year of 2008, with the oldest reserve wine in the blend going back to 2000. The wine was disgorged in the spring of 2015 and is a blend of fifty-one percent pinot noir, forty-one percent chardonnay and eight percent pinot meunier. Ten percent of the pinot noir in the blend is still red wine from Krug’s own parcels of vines in the village of Aÿ. The blend is a slight departure from many releases of Krug Rosé, as hail in the village of Ste. Ghemme in 2008 dramatically cut back the quality of pinot meunier from this vintage, so that Chef de Caves Eric Lebel opted to use all reserve wines for the pinot meunier portion of the blend. The very complex wine offers up the characteristically refined and gently exotic bouquet that this cuvée is cherished for, wafting from the glass in a blend of cherries, a touch of pomegranate, orange peel, beautiful, savory spice elements, rye bread, a complex base of soil tones , dried rose petals and incipient smokiness. On the palate the wine is full, complex and still quite youthful in terms of structure, with vibrant acids, a lovely core, elegant mousse and a very long, perfectly balanced and seamless finish. This is already beautifully complex, but I would love to revisit it five to ten years down the road and see what the passage of time does to this beautiful constellation of aromas and flavors. (Drink between 2018-2050)

Erick brought: 1976 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. Amazing! We bought multiple bottles of this at a fantastic Loosen dinner.

NOTE: I’ve used the restaurant’s notes, so they are in written from the chef’s point of view.

The rectangular one was: Tapioca, brown butter, uni. This dish started out with us wanting to do something with milk and tapioca and eventually led to a savory dish. We also try not to have dairy in the majority of the menu so when we do we get to use it, it’s a treat. We think the uni pairs well with the different textures, temperatures and forms of dairy.

The rounder one is: Tuna, cilantro. I’ve been trying to make our cold dishes feel like the cold side dishes you would get whenever you eat at casual Chinese noodle houses. The dish is based on a smashed cucumber salad. It’s an onion croustade with roasted chili jam, cilantro condiment and minced bluefin tuna.

3 cup abalone. The flavors of Thai basil, sweetened soy and sesame oil are so emblematic of Taiwanese cuisine so I can see why 3 cup chicken is so beloved. My mom used to stir fry sea snails or clams in the same sauce. We decided to recreate that by reducing 3 cup sauce into a syrup and marinating California abalone in it. The dish is dotted with an abalone and sesame oil emulsion so there’s extra notes of sesame.

Tomato. Aaron from Girl and Dug Farms has a huge selection of tomatoes right now. They all taste different so we wanted to do a dish that showcases all of them. It’s a salad of all of Aaron’s tomatoes, tomato consommé, semi dried sungold tomatoes and a vinegar gelee.

Caviar, geoduck, koji butter. We source caviar through Astrea (our friends Eve and Reisa), their Kaluga hybrid is one of my favorites that I’ve ever tasted. The only inspiration for this dish is the quality of the caviar and the rest of the ingredients serve to highlight it.

Shrimp Toast. We’ve been serving a bread course for a long time now because we really like the milk bread recipe that we developed. We’re starting to realize that a bread course doesn’t make sense in the course of our menu but we still wanted to use our milk bread. So we decided to use it as the base of a shrimp toast done in the style of honey walnut shrimp to pair with the custard course.

Egg custard. Whenever I was sick as a child my mom would steam egg custard with black vinegar. It’s still one of my favorite dishes to this day. This dish is our egg custard, a sauce of kelp and black vinegar, a few different shellfish, Brentwood corn and Aaron’s negi.

Chinese style steamed fish. Every regional cuisine of China and every home has a version of this dish. The most recognizable would be the Cantonese version where a fish is steamed whole and dressed with soy, ginger and scallion to which scalding oil is poured over the top. Our version has loup de mer and we cook each element separately and assemble it to service. The soy is traditionally unadorned but mixes with the fish jus in the steaming vessel. We take sea bream bones and make a tisane and season it with different rice wines and soy sauces to emulate the traditional technique.

Short rib, pear. We’re working on doing a throwback menu to our favorite dishes from 5 years. This dish isn’t Taiwanese or Chinese but it reminds us of eating in Los Angeles and our first year of opening. It’s a dish of short rib cooked with pear then grilled. We serve it with matsutake and some of the pear cooking liquid.

Rice dishes are traditional finishers in Asia.

Yogurt, melon. Frozen yogurt is hands down my favorite dessert to eat. I’m not a sweets person but I’ll always make room if there’s frozen yogurt promised. Dessert doesn’t play a huge part in a coursed Taiwanese meal but tea and fruits always cap a meal. Weiser farm melons right now are at their peak so we wanted to incorporate that so we made the juice of 3 different melons into a granita and there are also pieces of mush melon as well. We think it tastes like a melona bar, a staff favorite.

Boniato yam tapioca, fresh cheese, sable. Here’s our other longest standing dish, our ode to arguably the most popular thing to ever come out of Taiwan, boba milk tea. We make tapioca balls out of an Asian roasting yam, similar to the sweet potato or taro ones you’d have in Taiwan. We make a fresh cheese and foam it and we shave frozen brown butter sable so it gives the feeling of eating shaved ice. We think that the flavors range from milk tea shops to shaved ice stands.

Overall, a very interesting and different meal. Very light, bright flavors and the whole thing tasted great but left one feeling not in the least “bombed out” which is actually kinda nice. Extremely modern too and straight up ready for instagram!

Service is great, if a bit fast! Like just over an hour! It’s also, for gluttons like Erick and I, not nearly enough food, so despite ordering all the supplements we have always gone for “second dinner.” In this case right outside to Monte Alban (a Oaxacan Mexican place).

Chips and salsa.

Chilaquiles. Crispy corn tortillas pieces in spicy tomato sauce, sprinkled with cheese, onion, sour cream, and green salsa, with your choice of protein.

Tacos Enchilados, mole negro. Three soft tacos rolled with chicken or cheese covered with red or black mole and sprinkled with fresh cheese, onion, and parsley. Served with rice.

Check out more epic Foodie Club meals, here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Foodie Club, fusion, Kato, Krug, Loosen, Second Dinner, Taiwanese Cuisine

Intercrew with the Crew

Feb16

Restaurant: Intercrew

Location: 3330 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010. (213) 878-1201

Date: August 19, 2021

Cuisine: Club Food

Rating: Style over substance

Erick used to go to the “original” Intercrew back in the 80s when he was in high school, so when it recently rebooted in a new night club format we went out to try it.

It’s located right on Wilshire in the heart of KTown. It used to be some kind of underage club. Or at least a club that didn’t card.

Now it’s a snazzy new ktown super club. There was live music, but it’s essentially a restaurant.

The menu.

From my cellar: 2006 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. VM 96. The 2006 Clos des Goisses is stellar, but it is also going to need quite a bit of time to come into its own. Powerful and ample in the best of the Goisses style, the 2006 hits the palate with serious intensity. Orchard fruits, lemon oil, white flowers and almonds are some of the many notes that open up in the glass, but, as is often the case with young Goisses, it is the wine’s gravitas that is front and center. Even with all of its overtness, though, the 2006 retains striking, crystalline purity. I imagine the 2006 will reward Champagne lovers with many decades of truly exceptional drinking. The only thing the 2006 needs is time. The question is: How much? (Drink between 2020-2046)

2012 Domaine Ramonet Puligny-Montrachet Les Enseignères. BH 89. A perfumed and softly spicy nose of white peach, acacia blossom and pear aromas is trimmed in a deft touch of oak. There is a bit more concentration and certainly more depth compared to the villages Puligny and I very much like the mouth feel of the medium-bodied flavors that display good balance and fine persistence. A quality effort that is worth your attention; moreover it will be approachable young yet should age well too. (Drink starting 2018)

1999 Domaine Michel Gaunoux Pommard 1er Cru Les Grands Épenots. BH 95. This really hasn’t changed much since my last review in 2011, which was: A perfumed, complex and mostly still primary nose offers up earthy red berry fruit, underbrush and a touch of animale that can also be found on the generous and quite fleshy flavors that possess excellent volume as well as buckets of dry extract that almost render the firm and ripe tannins invisible on the massively long finish. Wow, this is a stunner of a wine with still plenty of upside potential remaining. (Drink starting 2019)

Burrata Toast. Honey truffle gastrique, burrata, brioche. A bit sweeter than I might have liked.

Hamachi Crudo. Brulee blood orange supreme, ponzu, caper, wasabi, serrano, puff amaranth.

Australian and Japanese Wagyu Sampler. Australian wagyu 6oz, Japanese Ozaki 2oz. Not a format that shows off wagyu.

Pan Roasted Dry-aged Duck Breast. Yukon gold mash, duck and garlic jus, mustard frill.

Wagyu Bolognese. Dry-aged wagyu, tomatoes, garlic, pappardelle. On their website they had this great looking tortelloni, alas, this was the only pasta on the menu tonight.

Roasted King and Maitake Mushroom. Potato fondant, seasonal herbs, calabrian chili vinaigrette, sea beans.

Caesar Salad. Gem lettuce, parm, fish sauce, bread crumbs. This was actually one of the best dishes.

Seafood Paella. Catch of the day, black tiger prawn, littleneck clams, pork, soondubu base.

Ice Cream Sandwich.

Basque Cheesecake. Salted honey chantilly, charcoal smoked strawberry, crumble.

Intercrew was a bit disappointing. The buildout was cool, and it was a touch loud, but mostly the menu was just “safe.” Execution was solid but not great on the dishes, but there was nothing interesting about any of them. Just a bit of this and that from popular mainstream items. No zing. Still, we had a fun time.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Foodie Club, Intercrew, Ktown

Food as Art – The Brothers Sushi

Jan23

Restaurant: The Brothers Sushi [1, 2]

Location: 21418 Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91364. (818) 456-4509

Date: August 13, 2021

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi Kaiseki

Rating: Really wonderful modern style Kaiseki

This dinner is the third in (the others being here) in a vast series of epic Japanese sushi and/or Kaiseki dinners post lockdowns that all included myself, Erick, Joe and Bonnie — and often Larry, as is the case tonight. Herein we “endeavor” to visit or revisit most of the top sushi spots in LA.

Larry has been coming to Brothers for years, but in 2018 recently Chef Mark Okuda took over and totally transformed the place into one of the Valley’s — and LA in general’s — top omakase destinations. Larry took us on this particular foray for a “regular” jumbo omakase, but we immediately set up a giant even longer one for more people a few weeks later.

The outside shows off this ugly 1940s or 50s valley building.

But the inside is attractive and there is a large patio and this interior with an extensive sushi bar and a few tables.

On the right is Chef Mark.

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. 96 points. The 2002 Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart is outrageously beautiful. The ripeness of the Chardonnay is front and center in a Champagne that delivers the goods, big-time. An infusion of apricot, orange peel, crème brûlée, chamomile, hazelnut and honey give the 2002 its racy, exotic personality. I enjoy it most with bottle age, but the 2002 is undeniably beautiful right now. The 2002 is a stunning NFB. The blend is 60% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne and 40% Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, done partially in oak (20%). Dosage is 4 grams per liter. (Drink between 2020-2030)

2011 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre. VM 90+. Good bright yellow. Deeply pitched aromas of ripe peach, pineapple, hazelnut, smoke and vanilla, plus a hint of orange blossom (Lafon used no new oak for this wine). Then firmer and less round on the palate than the basic village wine, with an edge of acidity giving the finish a leaner, slightly boney impression. This needs at least a couple years of cellaring.

2015 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons. VM 90. Pale, bright yellow. Very ripe but slightly muted aromas of citrus fruits, white pepper, honey and oatmeal. Quite concentrated but comes across as a bit youthfully aggressive and dry following the set of 2016s here, offering flavors of grapefruit, lemon drop and minerals. Offers noteworthy inner-mouth tension and dusty minerality but this citrussy premier cru will need time to harmonize in bottle. Didier Séguier bottled the 2015 crus in December of 2016 and January of this year. (A second bottle of similar quality was a bit sweeter and more pliant in the middle palate.) (Drink between 2019-2025)

From my cellar: 1996 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. 93 points. Dark yellow, straw. Honey, toasted grain, flowers, straw nose. Lemony acidity, some caramel, baked apples, rich texture. A singular and beautiful bottle.

Seaweed, cucumber, jellyfish. Bright vinegar flavors.

Sweet Corn Chawanmushi.

Smoked Amberjack (dry aged 10 day).

Hudson Valley Foie Gras (Jeff Bovon), ikura, takuan, rice crisp “sandwich”

The outside is a crispy rice disk and the inside was fantastic.

3 weeks dry aged salmon. Summer truffle, pickled tomato, arugula. Very balanced.

Tuna. River crab. Caviar. Tuna is almost sweet.

Abalone from Japan. Tender. Wasabi. Truffle.

Monkfish liver marinated with mirin and brown sugar. Seared. Super tender and sweet.

Soft shell crab miso sauce.

Ginger.

Kohada gizzard shad.

East coast 1 week dry aged snapper.

Seafood chowder.

Washington jumbo clam.

Sweet shrimp.

Shrimp heads return fried.

Spanish toro.

Japanese sea perch.

Toro, uni (stored in sea water and steamed), shiso, takuan hand roll.

White shrimp shiro ebo Japan.

A5 Miyazaki nigri, seared.

Japanese green onion. Never had this nigri before!

Miyagi uni (not from either Hokaido or Santa Barbara).

Golden eye snapper.

Green tea cheesecake.

Tonight’s wines.

The fish locker.

The knives did in this tired staff member.

Bravo!

We immediately setup another even bigger omakase for just a couple weeks later!

For more LA dining reviews click here.
Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.
Or for more Sushi Series dinners, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Brothers Sushi, Champage, Foodie Club, Kaiseki, Mark Okuda, Omakase, Sashimi, Sushi, Sushi Series, White Burgundy, woodland hills

Go Go Gozen

Jan19

Restaurant: Gozen Sake Bistro

Location: 521 N La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90048. (213) 308-9393

Date: July 30, 2021

Cuisine: Japanese Kaiseki

Rating: Very good, but not mind blowing

This dinner is arguably the second in (the first being here) in a vast series of epic Japanese sushi and/or Kaiseki dinners post lockdowns that all included myself, Erick, Joe and Bonnie — and often Larry, as is the case tonight. Herein we “endeavor” to visit or revisit most of the top sushi spots in LA.

Gozen bistro.

A cozy looking spot for being right on La Cienega.

Fairly large and stylish interior.

We had a private room with a cool dragon decor.

The menu — lots of options.

Larry brought: NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé Edition 21eme. JG 95+. The Krug Brut Rosé “21ème Édition” is from the beautiful base year of 2008, with the oldest reserve wine in the blend going back to 2000. The wine was disgorged in the spring of 2015 and is a blend of fifty-one percent pinot noir, forty-one percent chardonnay and eight percent pinot meunier. Ten percent of the pinot noir in the blend is still red wine from Krug’s own parcels of vines in the village of Aÿ. The blend is a slight departure from many releases of Krug Rosé, as hail in the village of Ste. Ghemme in 2008 dramatically cut back the quality of pinot meunier from this vintage, so that Chef de Caves Eric Lebel opted to use all reserve wines for the pinot meunier portion of the blend. The very complex wine offers up the characteristically refined and gently exotic bouquet that this cuvée is cherished for, wafting from the glass in a blend of cherries, a touch of pomegranate, orange peel, beautiful, savory spice elements, rye bread, a complex base of soil tones , dried rose petals and incipient smokiness. On the palate the wine is full, complex and still quite youthful in terms of structure, with vibrant acids, a lovely core, elegant mousse and a very long, perfectly balanced and seamless finish. This is already beautifully complex, but I would love to revisit it five to ten years down the road and see what the passage of time does to this beautiful constellation of aromas and flavors. (Drink between 2018-2050)

5 Good Things.

Marinated fish and onions.

Taco (octopus).

Monkfish Liver with Caviar.

Seaweed salad.

Steamed sesame tofu with uni.

Marinated tomato.

Dashi-maki Tamago (Japanese egg omelet) with Mountain Vegetables.

Salmon roe in a lemon.

Young Peach with Wine Jelly. Sure looks pretty.

2007 Domaine Ramonet Bâtard-Montrachet. VM 94+. Bright, pale yellow. Rich aromas of stone fruits, yellow currant, lees and iodine, plus a complicating whiff of rye bread. Dense and powerful but not at all heavy. Quite youthfully closed but aeration brings up captivating inner-mouth floral character and penetrating talc-y minerality. Wonderfully precise, classy Batard with uncommon complexity.

2007 Domaine Ramonet Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 96. Given the almost extreme reticence of the Bâtard, I was moderately surprised to see how wonderfully expressive this positively brilliant wine is already. The nose is simply stunning with a supremely elegant and kaleidoscopic range of spice, floral, citrus, stone and pain grillé notes that is the perfect complement to the racy, detailed and equally complex middle weight flavors brimming with the underlying minerality advertised by the nose, all wrapped in a driving, delineated and explosive finish. As good as the Ramonet Chevalier is, in the 10 vintages that it has been made, I can’t think of one where it’s the equal of the Montrachet. However, 2007 just might be that vintage. (Drink starting 2015)

From my cellar: 2008 Domaine Ramonet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 94. Soft if not invisible wood sets off strikingly pretty and solidly complex honeysuckle, white peach and spiced pear aromas that give way to intense, delicious and equally complex middle weight flavors that possess ample concentration and outstanding balance and length on the palate staining finish. This is really classy juice and quite stylish as well. (Drink starting 2016)

Sashimi “plate”.

Chawanmushi Steamed Egg Custard with Japanese Sea Urchin.

Softshell Crab Tempura.

Three kinds of nigiri sushi. Toro on the left.

Uni, Ikura, and rice.

2001 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Richebourg. BH 94. While this has certainly matured since I first saw it from bottle in 2004, the original note still largely captures the wine with its deep, complex and spicy old vine aromas that are slightly floral in character. This brilliant introduction is followed by wonderfully harmonious and quite powerful middle weight flavors that are beautifully delineated and perfectly balanced while delivering superb length. In sum, this ultra-pure effort offers reference standard quality with more refinement than young Richebourg usually displays – plus it’s approaching readiness for prime time and could easily be enjoyed now though for my taste another 3 to 5 years would serve it well. Tasted twice in the last few months. (Drink starting 2015)

A smoked dish.

Roast Duck with Mashed Potatoes.

Raspberry Granita.

Red miso soup.

The grilled meat dish.

Yogan-Yaki A5 Japanese Kobe Beef.

Condiments for the beef.

Kamameshi (Japanese seasoned rice in a small pot) with Tuffles.

We had several bowls each (I love good fried rice).

Black sesame ice cream. Looks almost like a B&W photo!

Matcha Tiramisu. Delicious.

Our wines for the night.

Gozen was quite good. It’s tonally very Japanese and quite reserved. I probably prefer a slightly flashier style. Not all the way to Nobu style mind you, that’s too disconnected from the Japanese sense of balance, but maybe I like a touch more acidity and punch. And Gozen is expensive (as all top kaiseki and sushi places are). It does give you a lot of variety in flavors, ingredients, and style, but not very much actual nigiri (which I do love).

The wines were really singing too, particularly the Ramonets. Overall, a great evening.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for epic Foodie Club meals, here.
Or for more Sushi Series dinners, click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Champagne, Foodie Club, Gozen, Japanese cuisine, Sashimi, Sushi, Sushi Series, White Burgundy

Cache of La Tâche

Oct27

Restaurant: Montage Loft

Location: 30801 Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA 92651. (949) 715-6080

Date: June 17, 2021

Cuisine: California Cuisine

Rating: Great food but incredible wine

This epic wine week in June 2021 culminates down in the OC — so Kent can join — in an incredible and special La Tâche dinner.

It’s always a little bit of a challenge to find a location for these dinners as we need a spot in the OC willing to accommodate our wines and “relaxed” pacing. This time around we settled on a custom dinner at the Montage Laguna Beach — a lovely hotel I’ve stayed at a couple of times. We basically had a whole room in the dining room to ourselves. Inside dining was minimal because of the pandemic.

Our custom menu.

Fred brought: 1976 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 94. Krug’s 1976 Vintage, tasted from magnum, is rich, deep and powerful, with Riesling-inflected veins of minerality that run through a core of orange peel, ash and dried flowers. A deeply Pinot leaning wine, the 1976 offers notable richness and breadth throughout. The 1976 vintage in Champagne is remembered for a hot, dry growing season with an early harvest that produced intense powerful wines. Krug’s 1976 Vintage is now fully mature. Well-stored examples should continue to drink well for a number of years, although there is no upside from cellaring bottles further. Interestingly, this 1976 magnum was aged on cork, rather than crown capsule, like the 1979 tasted alongside it. (Drink between 2015-2018)

Bread.

Butter.

MZ brought: 1993 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne. BH 95. A softly perfumed and now fully mature nose that still possesses plenty of youthful vibrancy leads to elegant, precise, chiseled and seductive flavors of superb elegance and plenty of power before culminating in a superbly long and mineral-infused finish. The ’93 remains extremely impressive and delivers everything that one expects from a great Corton-Charlemagne. Perhaps even more remarkable is just how youthful this still is because even though there is no further positive development in the offing, it should be capable of holding at this plateau for years to come. In a word, marvelous. Multiple, and consistent, notes.

agavin: one of the best white wines I’ve ever had — just stunning

Kushi Oyster. Pernod, Smoked Trout Roe, Fennel.

Hawaiian Kona Kampachi. Santa Barbara Sea Urchin, Kaluga Caviar, Sudachi Gelee, White Miso.

Hudon Valley Foie Gras. Toasted Almond Milk, Almond Torte, Summer Grape, Minus 8 Vinegar.

2005 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche. VM 100. The 2005 La Tâche is simply magnificent. There is not too much I can add. Deep, powerful and richly textured, the 2005 simply has it all. Time in the glass releases the aromatics, but it is the wine’s pure sensuality I find most enticing. A host of dark red and blue stone fruits, hard candy and wild flowers take center stage. Even with all of its intensity, the 2005 retains striking freshness and purity. Can it get better than this? (Drink between 2020-2055)

agavin: stunning, but very young still. Not sure I’ve had a Burgundy who’s paper scores are this high (99-100).

1999 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche. VM 100. The 1999 La Tâche Grand Cru can be a perfect wine. This was very similar to the bottle opened in 2015. The bouquet sends you straight to heaven with so much purity and detail that frankly it is difficult to put into words. Fleeting glimpses of redcurrant, then pomegranate, broom and wilted rose petals, later more earthy scents, autumnal. The palate is perfectly balanced with filigree tannin, a symmetry that is utterly entrancing and precision second to none. Hints of black plum and blood orange, that mineralité returning towards a finish so tensile you risk cutting yourself. I would have given this my second score had the 1999 Romanée-Conti been in the next glass. Tasted at the 1999 DRC dinner. (Drink between 2020-2065)

agavin: sadly this bottle was a little weird. Hard to tell if it was very slightly corked, just in an odd spot, or had some other flaw.

House-made Agnolotti. Awesome!

Maine Lobster. California Citrus Butter, Sicilian Pistachio, Farmer’s Market Beets, Potato-fennel Tuile.

A bit of fruit sorbetto.

1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche. BH 99. A stunning, massive, full-on and completely classic La Tâche nose that displays almost unbelievable complexity so with many different elements that it is impossible to even begin to describe them all; the primary components include ethereal and still fresh pinot fruit, clove, knock out spiciness, anise, hoisin, soy and a trace of earth but these elements only hint at the sheer depth. The flavors are big, rich, refined, classy, penetrating and superbly powerful yet everything is in perfect balance and there is more than sufficient sève to balance off the still considerable tannins. The finish is intense, pure and so long that it is haunting; I could literally still taste this wine days later after I had it because it had such a dramatic and emotional impact. In its youth, this was one of the finest young Burgundies that I have ever been privileged to try and it only seems to get better with each passing year. For my taste, this is getting close to arriving at its peak but it’s not quite there though again, I stress that this is to my taste and some may find it to already be in its sweet spot of maturation. In short, this is absolutely brilliant. Note that while I have had relatively consistent notes, I have had two bottles that were a bit astringent on the finish and not in the class of what I describe above. (Drink starting 2015)

agavin: incredible wine. Big, complex, oppulent.

1978 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche. VM 98. The 1978 La Tâche Grand Cru is a wine that it took me almost 20 years to taste and then two came along within the space of a few months. This example was almost identical to the bottle previously tasted in Hong Kong in 2016. Again, it delivers a bewitching bouquet with traits of undergrowth and fern that intertwine with the precisely defined red fruit. It takes a little time for the subtle ferrous note to emerge. The palate is medium-bodied, multi-dimensional and conveys presence rather than mass or density, which I suspect it did in its youth. Symmetrical with disarming focus, you are taken aback by the way it fans out and persists in the mouth. It is a ballet dancer performing a perfect Swan Lake. Stunning. Tasted at the La Paulée in Beaune. (Drink between 2018-2035)

agavin: red wine perfection. Just so perfect!

American Wagyu Beef Loin. Sunchoke Two Ways, Veal Sweet Bread, Mustard Seed, Mosel Mushroom, Sauce Perigourdine.

Kent brought a bonus: 1990 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques. BH 91. Rich, ripe but not roasted with elegant, full-bodied flavors that display good density, power and outstanding length. Lovely, complex and still quite young.

agavin: very good, so good it was dancing not far off from the 90 LT!

Cheese plate.

Salted Caramel Coffee Sphere. Hot Cognac Chocolate & Madagascar Vanilla. Really excellent dessert.

Vietnamese Hazelnut Coffee Gelato — Cafe du Monde coffee milk with Piedmontese Hazelnut Paste swirled with Sweetened Condensed Milk — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #vietnameseCoffee #coffee #CafeduMonde #SweetenedCondensedMilk #hazelnut

Matchacchio Latte Gelato — Ceremonial Matcha Green Tea and Sicilian Pistacchio di Bronte DOP gelato base. I was skeptical the first time I made it, but it turned out to be a lovely flavor. And the green is all natural! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pistacchio #bronte #matcha #GreenTea #Sicily

This was an incredible evening. I was very pleasantly surprised how good the food was. Not mind blowing, but Fred did an excellent job producing the menu and we had a lot of good sized and delicious dishes shooting way over the level of typical hotel fare. The “we have half the dining room to ourselves” vibe was amazing.

But what really stood out were the wines. It’s a bit of a shame that the 99 was weird, and the 05 was too young, but wow wow with regard to the 90 and 78 LT and the 93 Coche!

Previous diners in this week included Providence and N/Naka.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more Foodie Club meals, see here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Foodie Club, Gelato, La Tache, Laguna Beach, Orange County, Red Burgundy, Vosne-Romanée

J Zhou Prequel

Oct22

Restaurant: J Zhou

Location: 2601 Park Ave, Tustin, CA 92782. (714) 258-8833

Date: June 17, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Amazing (if pricey) crab

Today is the third day of our epic Foodie Club June mega week, and tonight is a special La Tâche dinner deep in the OC, so we wanted to “warm up” (sans wine) with a bit of Orange County Chinese food.

J Zhou is the fanciest of the OC’s big Cantonese palaces and I’ve heard good things about it for a long time.

There were 3 of us, but we had our own private room as Fred is friends with the manager.

The daytime dim sum menu.

Seafood dumpling in egg wrapper. These were delicate and delicious!

XLB. A decent, but not amazing version of this classic.

Roast Squabs or Quail. I thought these were some of the crispiest and meatiest little roast birds I’ve had in a long time. Delicious!

We pre-ordered a huge king crab and they prepared it 3 days. This first way was just simply steamed with a bit of vermicelli underneath soaked in crab juices and soy. Incredibly fresh and sweet — hey they did bring in the live crab a few minutes before!

King crab typhoon style. Crispy and amazing.

King Crab Brûlée. Egg custard in the crab shell was also silky smooth.

We didn’t sample that many dishes because we had an epic wine dinner just a few hours later, but what I had was all excellent. The crab in particular was amazing, but it was full premium price per pound — no super steal discount at all. I would like to come back and try a full dim sum spread.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Cantonese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Dim sum, Foodie Club, J Zhou, King Crab, Orange County, Tustin

N/Naka on the Nose

Oct18

Restaurant: N/Naka [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Location: 3455 S. Overland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034. 310.836.6252

Date: June 16, 2021

Cuisine: Modern Kaiseki

Rating: Awesome

ANY CHARACTER HERE

N/Naka served as the host location for the second of our 3 epic June “Fred” dinners, this one being themed around Coche-Dury Les Rougeots.

The empty interior. This was actually the first night that N/Naka reopened after the long lockdown closure.

Our table — before we got to it.

1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. BH 97. A distinctly reticent but elegant nose with a purity of expression that is truly impressive to experience as it’s relatively high-toned and while the yeast comes up with air, it’s relatively muted at presence, combining with intense, precise and superbly detailed and complex flavors that culminate in an explosive and wonderfully long finish. This may very well rival the sublime ’90 in time even if it’s not quite as concentrated. This is still a baby so there is absolutely no rush whatsoever.

2015 Hubert Lamy Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Cuvée Haute Densité. A rare bird!

2005 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 94. A strikingly pure nose of white flower and spice aromas complements perfectly the delicious, intense and stony flavors that are wonderfully vibrant and gorgeously detailed on the transparent and equally pure finish that explodes with more minerality. This is beautifully balanced and understated with a Zen-like sense of calm. I very much like this and it’s very Perrières in character. In a word, brilliant. (Drink starting 2013)

2007 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 94+. Bright pale yellow. Soft citrus fruits and crushed rock on the musky, slightly reduced nose. Rich, perfumed and tightly coiled, with a terrific core of acidity intensifying the orange, floral and mineral flavors. Offers compelling cut and concentration but this infant will require several years of aging. Wonderfully refined Perrieres of grand cru class.

1993 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Rougeots. 94 points. Signature coche gunflint, popcorn, dried extract, and smoked yellow fruit on the nose and palate. While the mid-palate did not have lots of substance, the flinty and popcorn-ish palate more than offset that shortfall. With the fresh acidity in the backdrop, the wine stayed energetic and interesting throughout dinner.

1996 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Rougeots. VM 94+. Complex, lively aromas of lime, minerals and vanilla. Structured and almost shockingly intense; great material here. A step up from the ’97 in density. Extremely fresh and vibrant. A tactile, mouthfilling wine to drink and to eat. Palate-staining finish. I kept raising my score as I came back for more.

2000 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Rougeots. BH 93. A completely different expression than any of the foregoing wines, which is interesting since the vineyard abuts Chevalières. This is classic Meursault in style with round, rich, generous, “warm” fruit and flavors, offering toasted nut and butter aromas plus fresh sliced peach, apricot and apple scents but gorgeously complex, intense, refined and beautifully precise flavors of terrific focus and cut. But it is the superb depth on the finish that really set this apart and this delivers such quality that it is almost a match for the Perrières, a compliment in anyone’s book. Simply beautiful wine that has just now arrived at its apogee though it should be capable of holding here for at least a decade. Tasted several times with consistent notes. (Drink between 2008-2010)

2008 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Rougeots. VM 92+. Classic aromas of lemon, lime, minerals, hazelnut and grilled almond; smells rich in dry extract. Then dense and superconcentrated, with terrific inner-mouth energy to the flavors of peach, orange blossom, lemon and crushed stone. Time-capsule Meursault, finishing with superb length. This too should age very well.

1972 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes!

Our menu.

Starter Tea.

Sakizuke. Uni, Cauliflower Puree, Carrot Coconut Ice, Trout Roe, Nori Sable.

Zensai. Uni, Eggplant Dashi, Kabocha Roll, Oyster Lime, Flounder Hasamiage, Wagyu Beef Roll, Cucumber, Cauliflower, Carrot, Burnt Chickepea and Miso Puree.

Uni.

Wagyu Beef Roll.

Cucumber, Cauliflower, Carrot, Burnt Chickepea and Miso Puree.

Eggplant Dashi.

Oyster Lime.

Kabocha Roll.

Flounder Hasamiage.

Modern Zukuri. Japanese Fluke, California Nori, Pistachio.

Owan. Hope Ranch Mussel, Summer Squash, Citrus Fern.

Otsukuri. Traditional Sashimi.

Yakimono. Tasmanian Sea Trout, Artichoke, Preserved Meyer Lemon.

Mushimono. Tomato, Lobster Shinjo, Tomato and Fennel Mochi.

Shiizakana. Spaghetti, Abalone, Picked Cod Roe, Truffles.

Niku. A5 Miyazaki Wagyu Beef, Baby Corn.

Sunomono. Nopales, Golden Kiwi, Cucumber, Aloe, Chia Seeds.

Yuzu juice intermezzo.

Pickled Ginger.

Miso soup with shrimp heads.

Nigiri sushi flight 1.

Nigiri sushi flight 2.

Blue crab handroll.

Mizumono. Lychee Sorbet, Shiso Lime Granita. Super bright and delicious flavors with a really nice textural contrast.

Mizumono. Peaches, Caramelized Pastry, Lavender Honey Ice-Cream, Hojicha Jelly.

Petite Fours.

So pretty!

Roasted green tea.

Burnt Basque Cheesecake Gelato — Milk steeped with Tahitian Vanilla Beans and Valencia Orange Peels and then blended with Cream-cheese and Egg Yolks, layered with house made “burnt” Caramel and topped with house-made Caramel Brittle, finished with the torch! — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #lemongrass #ginger #CremeBrûlée #basque #cheesecake #caramel #brittle #orange

Vietnamese Hazelnut Coffee Gelato — Cafe du Monde coffee milk with Piedmontese Hazelnut Paste swirled with Sweetened Condensed Milk — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #vietnameseCoffee #coffee #CafeduMonde #SweetenedCondensedMilk #hazelnut

A little take home snack for the morning.

Post dinner lethargy.

The setting is elegant, minimalist, and very Japanese. N/Naka really is a very special place. All the meals I had here were spectacular (here for the first, here for the second, here for the third). Plus we even did an amazing all foie gras meal here once. The place keeps getting better and better. This is thrice wonderful because often one finds a slight bloom to come off a place on repeat meals. At N/Naka everything is seasonal and constantly rotating.

Service is also spectacular, highlighted all the more by the extremely low understaffed standard currently found in LA.

And what can we say about the wines? Awesome labels, awesome wines. All the coches were flawless, although the 93 was my favorite. So good!

Click here to other LA Japanese restaurants.

Or other Foodie Club extravaganzas.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: BYOG, Champagne, Coche Dury, Foodie Club, Gelato, Japanese cuisine, Les Rougeots, N/Naka, Niki Nakayama, Sushi, Wine

Power Providence

Oct15

Restaurant: Providence [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Location: 5955 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 460-4170

Date: June 15, 2021

Cuisine: Cal French

Rating: Best meal I’ve had at Providence

I usually make it to Providence about once a year, and so we return with the Foodie Club for a small, epic main dining room. After a long time off (for the pandemic) the core gang of myself, Erick, and Fred met up, joined by Michael Z wanted to really up the game and we focused on the awesome white Burgundy wines from d’Auvenay and Coche-Dury.

The space used to be Patina in the 90s.

While the colors are different, Providence still looks a lot like Patina to me — as the layout is basically the same.

This is the view from the chef’s special tasting room — adjacent to the kitchen in it’s own little nook.

Our special menu tonight.

One of the few places in town that still has elegant table wares.

2000 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières. BH 95. Very Puligny in style with discreet white flower, pear and apple aromas with flavors that are so powerful that the palate experiences them in waves as they roll from the mid-palate to a thundering, top grand cru finish. Yet this is by no means monolithic as there is detail and subtle gradations of wet rocks, minerals, earth and an indefinable crystalline essence. I literally had to pause for a minute due to palate fatigue as this both stains and saturates the palate yet it remains perfectly balanced. For a premier cru, this is a veritable tour de force! A brilliant wine. (Drink between 2008-2020)

2000 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Caillerets. BH 93. This has now peaked and is drinking beautifully with a fully mature nose of honeysuckle, peach, apricot and very subtle spice notes that can also be found on the enveloping flavors that possess a wonderfully seductive mouth feel and ample dry extract that both completely buffers the still firm acid spine and coats the palate on the long, lingering and strikingly perfumed if ever-so-slightly warm finish. One character that Coche seems to consistently be able to achieve is how his wines are at once generous yet retain a fine sense of focus and precision and this wine certainly displays this. Lovely stuff that is perfect now. Tasted thrice with consistent notes. (Drink starting 2016)

1999 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Meursault Les Narvaux. VM 92. At nearly twenty years of age the 1999 Meursault Les Narvaux is just starting to enter its early plateau of maturity now! Exuberant and powerful, the 1999 possesses off the charts intensity and a level of pure class that is far beyond the realm of most village crus. Time in bottle has started to bring out slightly tropical overtones that add complexity to the yellow orchard fruit character. Readers lucky enough to own it can look forward to another 20 years of exceptional drinking. (Drink between 2018-2038)

2005 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières. VM 96. The 2005 Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières 1er Cru has a multidimensional bouquet that delivers intense honeycomb and brioche intertwined through the mineral-rich citrus fruit. The palate displays a perfect line of acidity, a brilliantly poised and tensile Folatières from Lalou Bize-Leroy that unlike the 1999 just builds and builds towards a focused and electrifying finish that shimmers with energy. Frankly, I cannot think of many Puligny Premier Crus that have surpassed this astonishing wine. 897 bottles produced. Tasted at Carré des Feuillants restaurant in Paris. (Drink between 2018-2038)

From my cellar: 2009 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Meursault Les Narvaux. 95 points. Rich quince, citrus, popcorn, crème brûlée, and minerals galore backed by abundant acidity. Fantastic wine, and will last a long time.

An amuse of crisp with seafood.

And amuse of toro tartare.

A third amuse of shellfish “tart”.

The final amuse of scallop with contrasting fruit.

With a bit of sauce. Super zingy and delicious.

Bald Point Oyster. Gently warmed, with golden kaluga caviar.

Tai Sashimi. Seville sour orange, rosemary, ogo.

Uni Egg. Sea urchin, champagne beurre blanc, brioche croutons.
Maine Lobster. Favas, daikon, ramps.

Special bread.

And French butter with salt.

Farfalle. Box and dungeness crab, uni, geoduck, basil. Amazing flavors with a strong Thai basil character.

Black Cod. Black truffle, dutch white and green asparagus.

Australian Black Winter Truffle. Porcini Cannelloni.

Australian Black Winter Truffle.

All put together it was spectacular.

A5 Wagyu. Potato, morel, watercress, bordelaise.

Fried Wagyu lump, amazing.

Rhubarb, citrus, almond.
With sauce and very refreshing.

House-made Hawaiian Chocolate. Chocolate gelato, whiskey.

Sauce for the chocolate.

Tea.

Petite Fours. I love some good fancy candies.

This was by far the best main dining room and probably the best Providence meal I’ve ever had. They had just recently reopened post-lockdown and had clearly spent the time well retooling the menu. Service was exceptional as well which was very nice, particularly in contrast with so many “middle end” places that are short staffed right now.

There was a little take home goodie too, but I forgot to photo it.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Burgundy, coche, Coche Dury, d'Auvenay, Foodie Club, Providence, Seafood, White Burgundy, Wine

Yasu a Year Yater

Sep24

Restaurant: Yasu [1, 2]

Location: 265 S Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (424) 355-0257

Date: May 27, 2021

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Awesome ingredients and technique. One of the best sushi places we’ve found in a while

Back right before lockdown Foodie Club co-founder Erick and I — along with last minute addition Jeffrey — hit up Yasu, a then new sushi bar.

We had a great time and meal and so eagerly decided to return once it was viable again. And with dinner we begin a new dinner series, one I’ve nicknamed Sushi Series, that explores some of the best sushi and kaiseki places in LA.
This photo shows our 2020 visit, but in early summer 2021 no one was allowed to sit at the sushi bar and so we were seated at a table instead (to the left, against the wall).

The restaurant “raison d’etre.”

Paul brought: 1996 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. JG 98. I had not drunk a bottle of the 1996 Krug in several years, as I had deemed the wine still in climbing mode and I am not generally in the business of drinking Krug before its time. But, a friend recently opened a bottle and I was very impressed with how the wine is evolving in the bottle since its release. The bouquet is now starting to show some lovely secondary layering of complexity in its blend of apple, peach, a touch of sweet walnut, patissière, a refined base of minerality, caraway seed and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine flavors on the attack echo the nose nicely, with the wine’s full-bodied format sporting excellent depth at the core, still plenty of the vintage’s snappy acidity, great focus and grip and a very, very long and utterly refined finish. Though this remains quite racy structurally, I really like the point it has reached in terms of aromatic and flavor complexity and it is really not a crime to be opening bottles up at this point in its evolution, though it still has room to grow with further bottle age. A great, great vintage of Krug. (Drink between 2019-2060)

2001 Domaine Ramonet Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 95. Incredibly beautiful and elegant aromas of white flower and citrus softly introduce steely, gorgeously pure and delineated medium full flavors that seem as though they’re chiseled directly from solid rock. This is much more mineral driven than the typical Bâtard, and blind I would have mistaken it for a classically styled Chevalier. There is plenty of punch and racy supporting acidity plus simply knockout length. Of all these impressive attributes though, it’s the stunning purity and overall harmony of expression that make this one of the wines of the vintage. Interestingly, this is not a dramatic wine in terms of sheer size and weight but the focus and sneaky length make this a wine that is impossible not to be struck by its intensity. In short, this is one of the best examples of young Bâtard that I have ever had and one that will age for at least a decade. Don’t miss it! (Drink starting 2009)

From my cellar: 2016 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Clos des Bouchères. VM 92. (Roulot picked these hillside vines on the first day of his harvest; aged in one-third new, one-third once-used and one-third twice-used barrels): Bright, light yellow. Inviting musky aromas of yellow peach and hazelnut. Intensely flavored and sweet, with harmonious acidity energizing the flavors of lemon, orange oil and spices. Finishes suave, savory and aromatic, with surprising energy. The Charmes possesses more grip but this wine is more charming today. A very good choice of harvest date here! The first vintage for this wine was 2011, and since 2015 the estate has begun to reap the benefits of the work it has done in these vines, which were planted in the 1950s, the 1980s and around 2000, according to Eric Baudin. (Drink between 2021-2029)

2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 96. Lafon’s 2010 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru is simply breathtaking, the sort of wine we all dream of when we put a few bottles away in the cellar. I bought the 2010s on release in Burgundy and have tasted them together only once since then, when a friend opened the Goutte d’Or, Charmes, Perrières and Genevrières about five years ago. The wines were spectacular on that night. The 2010 Charmes was fabulous last fall, so I had high hopes. Upon first opening, the 2010 is very tight. The color is perfect, though. Two thousand ten is a vintage with lower-than-average yields, but relatively high levels of both ripeness and acidity. There is obviously a lot of wine here. I have never been a huge fan of decanting reds, except to remove sediment, but as I have gotten older, my preference is to nearly always decant whites. Time in the decanter releases a whole range of Perrières signatures – lemon confit, orchard fruit, mint, white pepper, flowers and a hint of reduction – all gently softened by the slow passage of time. More than anything else, though, I love the wine’s energy and tension. This is classic Perrières. There were a lot of wines on the table, so we did not finish the 2010. I poured the rest of the wine back in the bottle and tasted it the next day. There was no degradation at all of color, while the wine itself was even better. More aromatic, more vibrant, more finely cut and more Perrières. This is why we buy and cellar wines…for moments like these. Readers who own well-stored bottles of the 2010 are in for a spectacular drinking experience. I can’t wait to taste the 2010 again in another few years’ time. Bravo! (Drink between 2020-2030)

2010 Domaine Jacques Prieur Montrachet. BH 94-96. This is ever-so-slightly riper than the Chevalier and a bit more aromatically complex as well if not more elegant. There is outstanding richness, volume, muscle and unconcealed power to the large-scaled heavy-weight flavors that somehow manage to avoid any sense of undue ponderousness before culminating in a massively long finish that is almost chewy and tannic. This will require plenty of bottle age but it should be great in time. (Drink starting 2022)

From my cellar: 2009 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. BH 94. A much more reserved nose of fresh, cool and restrained green fruit, sea breeze and wet stone aromas precedes detailed, minerally and impeccably well-balanced and gorgeously persistent flavors that are Zen-like in their sense of harmony. There is a real sense of energy and flat out terrific length. (Drink starting 2016)

Sashimi. “Spanish” Mackerel (from Japan), Hokkaido Scallop and Uni, Snow Crab.

Because we were at the table, we received our sushi in pairs (two types) each, which isn’t bad for sushi at the table — although at the bar is always preferable for that minimum time form hand clap to mouth.

Shima Aji.

Goldeneye snapper. A touch of char.

Pair 2.

Firefly squid with a touch of miso paste.

Baby sea bream.

Pair 3.

Japanese Taco (octopus).

Skipjack, seared.

Pair 4.

Hokkaido Uni.

Sea perch.

Red miso with fish bone dashi.

A trio of tuna, all from the same fish.

Lean part of the tuna from near the backbone.

chu toro.

o toro!

Another pair.

Baby aiyu.

River trout (fresh water).

Toro and Ikura.

Anago Japanese Sea Eel and Tamago with fish dashi.

Another pair.

Hokkaido Scallop.

Amberjack.

Seared otoro with uni.

Final pair.

Aji (horse mackerel).

striped jack.

Yuzu sorbetto. Very refreshing, with that slightly icy Japanese sorbetto texture.

Overall, this was some absolutely first rate sushi. I’d call it modern traditional in style. It’s not “newfangled” at all with ponzu or very many toppings. Instead it showcases first rate seafood from all around the world, each treated delicately but with great respect in a way that really brings out the flavors. This is my favorite type of sushi as it’s very Japanese and extremely “pure” in its expression of the seafood. Besides the awesome eats, the service was really really nice and friendly. The chef was very chatty and our young (to me) server was fabulous as well. Of course our Champ and Burgundy went great too. We will try to go back, although there is a rumor that he doesn’t want outside wine anymore — which will of course knock this out of our rotation.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more Sushi Series dinners, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Champagne, Foodie Club, Sushi Series, White Burgundy, Wine, Yasu

Reaching New Heights at 71Above

Aug16

Restaurant: 71Above [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Location: 633 W 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071

Date: May 4, 2021

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Awesome in all ways

71Above is one of my favorite LA restaurants and I’ve been many times. In fact there are 9 previous write ups! Chef Vartan Abgaryan has moved on to his own new place, Yours Truly (which the pandemic has sadly done in), and 71Above is now seamlessly helmed by his disciple, Chef Javier Lopez.

Our return here is in fact the day of their reopening after 15+ months shuttered and for a special dinner arranged by own Emil Eyvazoff.

Besides being located on the 71st floor (950 feet up!) of the US Bank building, being the highest restaurant west of the Mississippi, it’s owned and operated by my friend Emil Eyvazoff!

Before starting our dinner Emil gave me a quick tour of their new “patio” on the 70th floor below where they are serving up Mezzes and drinks.

Gorgeous build out upstairs for the main event.

Look at the crazy view and the crazy fog on this weird spring night.

We set up shop for this evening in the private room.

Our menu for the night.

NV Taittinger Champagne Brut Réserve / La Française. VM 89. Light gold. Poached pear, peach, orange and honey on the fruity nose. Broad and fleshy on entry, then tighter and more tangy in the mid-palate, offering juicy citrus and orchard fruit flavors with subtle ginger and toasted grain nuances. Shows a supple, round character on the finish, with the ginger and peach notes repeating. Note that this bottling is labelled as “Reserve” for every country aside from the United States. In fact, I tasted a bottle labeled as such here in New York this fall, from Lot L3348NA9200. How it wound up here, I’ve no idea.

2000 Dom Pérignon Champagne P2. VM 96. The 2000 Dom Pérignon P2 is striking. More importantly, it is absolutely delicious right now. Baked apple tart, brioche, spice, vanillin, ripe pear and crushed rocks all flesh out. Creamy, layered and inviting, with soft, voluptuous curves, the 2000 offers a lot of sheer pleasure. Although, perhaps not quite as complex or structured as the very best P2s, the 2000 is wonderfully alluring. Interestingly, in 2000, the Blanc and P2 are not as different as they typically are. The P2 has a bit more volume and freshness than the Blanc, but both wines share a distinct toasty, slightly reductive character. (Drink between 2019-2040)

NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé Edition 23eme. VM 94. The NV Rosé 23ème Edition is wonderfully nuanced and layered, with lovely richness to play off a core of bright red berry fruit. Although not especially complex in this release, the Rosé offers lovely immediacy and tons of pure pleasure. Crushed berries, chalk, mint and white flowers are nicely softened in this super-expressive, beautifully persistent Rosé. A few more years in bottle will only help. The 23ème is a Champagne of pure and total pleasure. This release is based on 2011, with reserve wines back to 2000. (Drink between 2021-2041)

Bread and butter.

From my cellar: 1996 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 94 points. Golden hue, good lustre. Fresh, fruit and spice, soft aged characters, honey and grilled nuts. Fleshy, full flavoured, long smooth palate. Fruit, cream, toast and honey, nothing oxidative. Very clean finish, pure and fruit driven, gentle acidity, carries its sweet aged fruit very well.

2014 Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons. BH 92. This too is distinctly cool and reserved with its pretty, spicy and airy array of citrus, iodine and ocean breeze scents. There is beautiful intensity and delineation to the delicious and energetic medium-bodied flavors that deliver solid richness and persistence on the well-balanced finish. This excellent effort should amply reward 6 to 8 years of cellaring. (Drink starting 2021)

2010 Joseph Drouhin Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 93+. Pale bright yellow. Very stony aromas of peach, apricot and grilled nuts. At once thoroughly ripe and quite dry, with its primary fruit flavors currently dominated by a strong dusty stone element. This very backward but scented Perrieres saturates the palate with spices and minerals.

Yellowfin Crudo. Jicama, Avocado, Lemongrass, Charred Serrano Oil, Lime, Mint. Super zingy flavors. Really awesome.

2009 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. VM 96. Another vibrant, precise wine from this often misunderstood vintage, the 2009 Corton-Charlemagne boasts stunning precision and class from start to finish. Citrus, pears, white flowers and crushed rocks are some of the many nuances that vibrate on the bright, crystalline finish. In this tasting, the 2009 Corton tastes like it has barely budged over the last year. It is far too young to even consider opening. (Drink starting 2015)

2013 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Corton-Charlemagne. BH 92-94. A shy, indeed almost mute nose only grudgingly liberates its cool aromas of green apple, white fruit, spiced pear and wet stone. The intensely saline and stony big-bodied flavors are supported by a firm spine of citrus-inflected acidity that shapes the powerful finish that delivers outstanding complexity and persistence. I very much like the balance and this will need plenty of time to realize its full, and considerable, potential. (Drink starting 2025)

2018 Joseph Drouhin Corton-Charlemagne. VM 92-94. The 2018 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru comes from east-facing vineyards within the Les Languettes, a small production of six barrels. It has a closed and stubbornly backward bouquet that is outflanked by the Clos des Mouches Blanc. The tensile palate delivers good acidity and notes of orange zest and light peach notes, quite pure, and a spicy stem ginger and salty peanut finish. Very fine. (Drink between 2022-2040)

Farm Salad. Lettuces, Market Vegetables, Labne, Meyer Lemon, Parmigiano-Reggiano. To be honest this was one of the best salads I’ve ever had. Super herby with a really strong (and wine marginal) vinaigrette. Great texture and incredibly refreshing.

1996 Serafin Père et Fils Charmes-Chambertin. VM 94. Good full ruby color. Perfumed, highly expressive black cherry, currant and licorice aromas. Great sweetness in the mouth; thick and layered yet beautifully detailed. Finishing fruit really stains the palate, overwhelming the ripe tannins. Very primary and likely to age slowly. An impeccably proportioned wine that shows none of the acid edge that characterizes many ’96s. Serafin’s late harvesting strategy in ’96 paid major dividends.

1996 Jean-Jacques Confuron Romanée St. Vivant. VM 93. Saturated ruby. Multidimensional nose of black raspberry, cocoa, minerals and subtle, smoky oak. Reticent but very deep on the palate; in comparison to this wine, the Clos Vougeot is much more open today, not to mention fruitier. But this is more complex. Really seamless and impeccably balanced. Finishes with suave, evenly distributed tannins and great subtle persistence.

1997 Domaine Francois Lamarche La Grande Rue. BH 88. The initial hints of secondary aromas, including a somewhat surprising trace of sous bois, combine with pretty red and black fruit aromas that are notably ripe and framed in obvious wood are followed by moderately austere flavors (particularly so for the vintage) that offer better than average precision while being supported by medium firm finishing tannins that display just a touch of the greenness that many ’97s do at this point in their evolution. This is a bit one-dimensional relative to the best here and I would suggest drinking it over the next 5 years or so as the fruit risks drying out before the structure resolves itself.

1998 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes. BH 91. Exquisitely complex yet rather reserved fruit with medium weight, very earthy flavors of excellent depth and outstanding length. There is plenty of structure here and superb balance overall and I very much like the overall combination of density, purity, elegance and impressive length. While this is certainly approachable now with food, it will be best with another 3 to 5 years of cellar time, perhaps a bit longer. (Drink starting 2008)

Steak Tartare. Onion Vinaigrette, Bulgur, Parsley, Shallot, Turnip, Lavash Crisp. There is a clear “origin” here with the classic Lebanese/Armenian raw beef with bulgur.

Lavash crisp.

From my cellar: 1999 Denis Mugneret Père et Fils Richebourg. BH 92. Fascinating interplay of black fruit, earth, tobacco and Vosne spice framed by discreet hints of oak toast followed by sweet, supple and very intense flavors that last for minutes. This is not quite as ripe or opulent as most of the wines in this group though it sports excellent acid/fruit balance as a result. I like the more reserved style of this.

agavin: a touch bretty at first, but opened and was then stunning. My WOTN (of course I’m biased).

2002 Gros Frère et Sœur Richebourg. VM 95. Medium red. Highly perfumed, ineffably complex aromas of strawberry, currant, bacon fat, cocoa powder, gunflint, coffee and smoked meat. Dense, sappy and wonderfully intense, with exhilarating flavors of smoked meat, spices, minerals and underbrush. Conveys a powerful impression of soil tones. Builds almost freakishly on the back end, finishing with a kick of spice and a flavor of pink peppercorn. A wonderfully suave, extremely long Richebourg that offers great early appeal but has the spine to develop in bottle for 10 or 15 years. (A Patrick Lesec Selection; importers include Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; Fine Vines LLC, Melrose Park, IL; The Wine Warehouse, Commerce, CA; Domaine Select Wine Estates, New York, NY )

2001 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Echezeaux. VM 90. Medium red-ruby. Cool aromas of cassis, black plum and minerals, lifted by a peppery nuance. Supple, minerally and sweet, though still youthfully closed; slightly medicinal fruit is not yet expressing itself. Finishes with nicely ripe tannins and very good length.

Grilled Octopus. Almond Gastrique, Chile de Arbol, Castelvetrano Olive, Fennel. Jokes about the Netflix film were lighting up the table.
2001 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline. VM 96. Dark red color. Pungently floral aromas meld smoky red berries, exotic rose petal, dried lavender and magnolia blossom. Dense and extremely sweet, showing an explosive array of red fruit flavors along with exotic floral and sweet tobacco tones and an overlay of smoky bacon and bonfires. A bright mineral tone sharpens the fruit, adding focus and precision to the flavors. The finish builds and deepens but maintains superb elegance and silkiness of texture, finishing on notes of wild red berries and rose oil.

1994 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque. 94 points. Gorgeous nose. Blueberry, mulberry, cigar, tobacco. Moderate structure, medium body – think this would have been bigger and better a few years ago. Fruit fading now, with a dry finish. Long and complex.

1997 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque. VM 92-95. Good red-ruby. Perfumed aromas of cassis, violet, lilac and brown spices. Lush and aromatic in the mouth; the combination of a bit more acidity than the Mouline and its mineral and gunflint elements gives this wine noteworthy elegance and firm shape. Tannins are quite fine.

Spring Lamb. Charred Broccolini, Yellow Beet, Rhubarb Mostarda, Green Garlic, Jus. The lamb and the room have been silenced. This went perfect with the LaLa’s!

2005 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage. VM 97+. Inky ruby. Hugely aromatic bouquet of red and dark berries, cherry, Asian spices, fresh flowers, minerals and cured meat; smells like a great grand cru from Vosne-Romanee but with a wilder side. Flat-out gorgeous wine, with remarkably deep but fresh red berry and cherry flavors that stain the palate. Seems to actually expand on the finish, picking up exotic spicecake and rose pastille character and leaving a sweet trail of smoky red fruits behind. “If you insist on drinking this young, do it now,” says Chave, “because it will close up in about two or three years and not be open again for a long time.” You’ve been warned.

1989 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle. JG90+. After a few absolutely desultory bottles of the ’89 La Chapelle, I was very pleasantly surprised to hit a very good bottle of this wine. My last several examples prior to this bottle had been overripe prune juice that was already getting quite oxidative, but this bottle was very good and a far cry from those previous examples. As readers may know, there were multiple bottlings of La Chapelle back in this era, so there are some distinctly different wines out there under the same label and vintage banner. In any event, after several very disappointing bottles, I finally got a good one this last time around. The deep, complex and meaty nose offers up scents of ripe cassis, black pepper, grilled meats, smoky overtones, a touch of balsam bough and incipient notes of chipotle peppers. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and fairly roasted in personality, but, with a good core of fruit, moderate tannins and good focus and grip on the complex and gently tangy finish. I imagine that this is what sound examples of the better cuvées of this wine have shown consistently, and why folks with these bottles in the cellar thought I was completely off my rocker with my notes on less enjoyable bottles. This example is a good, solid Hermitage at its apogee, but with still a couple of decades of life ahead of it- though not quite in the league of the 1988 La Chapelle in terms of complexity and elegance. (Drink between 2012-2030)

Wagyu Short Ribs. Pea Tendril Salsa Verde, Potato Espuma, Carrot, Spring Onion, Jus.

Cheese Plate. Julianna, 1655 Gruyere, Ameribella, Accompaniments.

And a second cheese round with the special shaved cheese.

Chocolate Cherry Bite – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate with a pinch of Malabar Black Pepper and then layered with Cherry Coconut Vanilla Cream! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #creamcheese #ganache #icing #pepper #cherry

Our epic lineup.

Some of the carnage.

The lovely ladies of the evening.

Heading down!

Today’s dinner excelled on all counts. Service, food, company, and of course the wines. Post pandemic as it is everyone really stepped up big time!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 71above, BYOG, DTLA, Emil Eyvazoff, Foodie Club, Gelato, hedonists, Wine

Heroic Bordeaux

Aug06

Restaurant: Heroic Deli and Wine Bar [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 516 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 490-0202

Date: April 28, 2021

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: 1982 is still going strong

My friend Jeffrey, owner of Heroic Italian, was trying to set up this 1982 Bordeaux dinner before the pandemic, but it ended up getting “postponed” for over a year!

We situated ourselves in their upstairs private room — where all three light bulbs again function.

a “measly” rose to start things out: 1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon Rosé. 94 points. Another example of this era, the 1996 Dom Pérignon Rosé offers plenty of energy and tension, both signatures of the vintage. At the same time, though, the fruit never fills out, which tilts the balance to acidity and austerity. Frankly, I liked the 1996 more when it was younger. Today, the fruit has either begun to drop out or is simply less expressive. I look forward to checking in on the 1996 soon to see if this may have been a less than perfect example. Disgorged 2004. (Drink between 2015-2022)

Amuses.

Pig and Caviar Blini.

And a less porky version.

2015 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux. VM 93. Pale yellow. Subtly complex aromas of quinine, lemon, mint and crushed stone; even more minerally than the Monteé de Tonnerre. Offers the most inner-mouth tension by far to this point, showing a sharply chiseled quality to its grapefruit and mineral flavors. (“This site does great in warm years,” noted Raveneau, as the portion of the vineyard at the rather flat top of the lieu-dit faces slightly northeast.) Fined-grained, dry and classic, but with the richness of the vintage.

Frittata with Toum. The frittata was nice, but the toum (garlic paste) really took it up about 10 notches.

Grilled Roman artichokes with confit tomatoes. Really spectacular actual Roman artichokes pair very nicely with the sweet and tangy tomatoes.

1982 Haut-Brion. RP 95. Though having tasted the Haut-Brion 1982 on numerous occasions, it is still a divine Pessac-Léognan to cherish. Here at The Glasshouse restaurant, it has that lovely warm gravel on a summer’s day bouquet, brown autumn leaves, bay leaf and here= a slightly more conspicuous note of black olive than I have noticed in the past. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, again a little more diffuse than its fellow 1982 First Growths, but with just as much charm. If anything, it feels a little tighter and more backward than previous examples, perhaps suggesting that bottles of excellent provenance will last many years. It is a wonderful 1982 First Growth, not a pinnacle of the vintage, but disarmingly and utterly charming.

1982 Lafite Rothschild. RP 75-100. The 1982 Lafite possesses a dark, dense ruby/purple color with only a subtle lightening at the rim. Spectacular aromatics offer jammy cherry and black fruits intertwined with lead pencil, mineral, and smoky wood scents. Powerful for a Lafite, this wine unfolds to reveal extraordinary richness, purity, and overall symmetry in addition to stunning flavor depth and persistence. The finish lasts for nearly a minute. Plenty of tannin remains, and the wine displays a vibrancy and youthfulness that belie its 18 years of age. The modern day equivalent of Lafite-Rothschild’s immortal 1959, the 1982 will enjoy another 30-70 years of life! An amazing achievement! Anticipated maturity: 2007-2070.

Morel mushrooms and Polenta.

And then slices of black truffles.

From my cellar: 1982 Latour. RP 100. 1982 was a great vintage—relatively warm and prolific, producing wines of richness and depth. The 1982 Latour has a medium garnet-brick color and then pow!—it belts out powerful notes of star anise, dried roses, sandalwood and new leather with a core of kirsch, blackberry tart, dried mulberries and blackcurrant pastilles. Full-bodied, rich and spicy with bags of fruit and tons of savory fireworks, it finishes with epic persistence.

agavin: my wine of the night

1982 Château Margaux. RP 97-98. Consistently scoring between 98-100, the superb 1982 Margaux may be slightly bigger, bolder, and more masculine than vintages produced over the last 15-20 years. Its dark plum/purple color is followed by notes of melted tar intermixed with sweet cassis and floral underpinnings. Very full-bodied and dense for a Chateau Margaux, with a slight rusticity to the tannins, it boasts blockbuster power, richness, and impressive aromatics. It appears set for another 30-40 years of life.

agavin: sadly a bit flawed

Mushroom, foie gras and black truffle pasta. A light — but delicious — pasta.

1982 Ausone. RP 90-93. A pleasant surprise when I think of what proprietor Alain Vauthier has done over the last decade, the outstanding 1982 Ausone exhibits plenty of licorice, fruitcake, mineral, kirsch, and black fruit characteristics. Medium-bodied and elegant with a touch of austerity at the finish, it should be consumed over the next 10 years.

1982 L’Evangile. RP 98. A blockbuster, dark plum/garnet-colored wine, the 1982 L’Evangile reveals a decadent, extravagantly rich nose of caramelized fruit, plum, licorice, smoked meats, and toffee. This opulent, full-bodied Pomerol caresses the palate with layers and layers of glycerin and fruit. The tannin is barely noticeable in this massive, rich, gorgeous effort. The complexity of the nose alone is worth a special admission price. It is close to full maturity, and is capable of lasting another 20-25 years.

Cioppino. Delicious rich tomato and garlic broth with various fresh seafood.

Garlic bread.

And then more toum, which when smeared on the bread and soaked in the sauce was incredible. Perhaps some might consider it a bit much for wine, but I enjoyed.

Toum and another tangy herby sauce.

1982 Mouton Rothschild. RP 100. Medium brick in color, the nose of the 1982 Mouton Rothschild is a little closed and sluggish to begin, offering earthy, cigar box, iron ore, star anise and dusty soil notes with a fruit core of kirsch, dried mulberries, blackcurrant pastilles, figs and prunes emerging after a few minutes. The palate remains a blockbuster—full-bodied, rich, opulently accented and unquestionably hedonic, possessing a mid-palate that is jam-packed with notions of red and black fruit preserves. The satiny texture/ripeness of tannins is simply incredible! It delivers a very long licorice-laced finish.

1982 Trotanoy. RP 96. Tasted at the Trotanoy dinner at Sketch in London. This bottle of 1982 Trotanoy repeats the performance of the one served at Zachys 1982 dinner in Hong Kong. It has a wonderful Merlot-scented bouquet that is floral and exuberant, though intriguingly it develops more Cabernet Franc/meaty aromas with continued aeration. It becomes rounded and sensual with roasted chestnuts emerging with time. The palate has a sweet entry, as one would expect for this vintage. It is plush, smooth and rounded in the mouth with dark plum and mulberry notes, a saline tincture and that chestnut motif continuing right to the youthful finish. After 30 years, this still has many years ahead. Tasted September 2012.

Meat feast platter (caveman mode). A pile of various meats, sausages, and a few veggies.

Showing the bone who’s boss.

Heroic Deli carries my own line of world class artistinal gelato.

Double Mint Oreo — Base made with Fresh Spring Mint infused milk and then laced with Crushed Mint Oreo Thins and Chopped Valrhona 70% Chocolate! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — lovely strong mint flavor and color is all natural — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #mint #valrhona #chocolate #oreo

Cioccolato Fondente Ruby Stracciatella Gelato — My most advanced super-dark chocolate formulation, squeezing the most chocolate humanly possible into a dairy gelato with a blend of 70% Cocoa Valrhona and 100% Callebaut Cocoa Mass — Then I melted Callebaut Ruby Chocolate stripes throughout — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #chocolate #valrhona #Callebaut #Ruby

An awesome dinner indeed. Most of the wines showed great, particularly the Latour, alas the Margaux was flawed. Still, when in good condition the 1982 Bordeaux are drinking impeccably.

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By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 1982, Bordeaux, Foodie Club, Gelato, Heroic Italian

Sushi Miyagi Apres

Jun29

Restaurant: Sushi Miyagi [ 1, 2 ]

Location: 150 S Barrington Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (323) 382-5635

Date: Spring 2021

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Top Shelf Omakase Sushi

Great sushi is always a good excuse to pull out the beloved Champagnes.

I went a bunch of times before lockdowns to this awesome high end place in Brentwood, and ordered takeout a couple times during, now since Erick and I have both passed our “two weeks” we decided to celebrate with that most elusive of creatures at home: freshly packed nigiri.

The space is small but attractive (these are pre covid pics).

This is chef focused serious sushi, and so we pre-ordered the largest omakase possible — Erick even egged them on to a larger than offered menu. This picture is also pre-covid, post there is a plexiglass barrier across the bar and no bar seating.

Chef Shinichi Miyagi says about himself on his website:

Born in Osaka, the art of sushi mesmerized the chef at an early age and decided to devote his life as a “Decchi” (apprentice) under Master Higuchi at the age of 16. He opened his first “Kappo” (traditional style of cooking in front of a crowd) restaurant at the age of 25, and moved to LA at 29, working in numerous well known Sushi restaurants in West LA, Beverly Hills, and San Diego.

Through managing a Sushi restaurant in Manhattan Beach (i-naba), now in present day, he found an opportunity to try his skills as an executive chef in Brentwood/Los Angeles. The chefs many years of experience in choosing the freshest fish, will surprise even the most sophisticated pallets of this beautiful city.

His methods and techniques in preparation follows the traditional Japanese style, bringing out the true flavors of the fish. The chef also prepares two styles of rice, AKAZU SHARI (Red vinegar sushi rice), and SHIROZU SHARI (White vinegar rice). The SHARI (Sushi rice) will alternate depending on the fish being prepared, and we hope you enjoy the eclectic flavors of the different vinegars being used.

Erick brought: 1975 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97. The 1975 Dom Pérignon (Original Release) is fabulous. Rich, explosive and incredibly inviting, the 1975 possesses magnificent depth and pedigree to burn. The very first hints of aromatic nuance are starting to develop in a wine that comes across as remarkably youthful. Over the course of several hours, the 1975 loses some of its intensity, but it remains superb. This is a tremendous showing. (Drink between 2017-2027)

From my cellar: 1985 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. BH 95. At 30 years of age many ’85s in fifth are now tiring but the same wines in magnum are often still singing beautifully and the ’85 Dom is just one of those beauties with its elegant and highly complex nose that displays mature aromas of yeast, toast, baked apples, citrus, spice and soft floral nuances. The delicious and equally complex middle weight flavors are still supported by a firm but balanced mousse where the mouth feel is quite fine before culminating in a long, toasty and regal finale. This has arrived at its peak and should probably be drunk up over the next decade or so absent one having a preference for post-mature aromas and flavors. That said, anyone lucky enough to have this in magnum is in for a real treat! (Drink starting 2015)

From my cellar: NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. A demi-bouteille of Billecart-Salmon Rosé: a safe option, but it does the job, even though I would say that a full bottle is better. (Drink between 2018-2025)

“starter plate” with Monkfish liver, Sawagani crab, oyster with caviar, firefly squid. All awesome.

Flash fried Sawagani crab from Miyazaki Japan. You pop these whole guys into your mouth and crunch. Incredible. We got more later (see below).

Trigger fish. With liver of same. Chive and roe.

Ayu fish grilled. Vinegar. Classic Japanese dish.

The special vinegar.

Red snapper shirako with truffles. The ever “popular” sperm sacks. Incredible!

Minuchi from Hokkaido. Lemon and salt.

Red snapper.

Hokkaido scallop. salt.

Shimaji. Stripped jack.

Clam.

Norwegian Salmon. There is this urban legend that the Norwegian trade board convinced the Japanese to start eating salmon. It’s not entirely true or untrue.

Spanish mackerel from Japan.

Taco (octopus) suckers, grilled.

Orange clam.

Blue fin tuna. 5 days aged. Incredible.

O Toro. Melts in your mouth.

Kohada.

Bonito. Garlic.

Seared Baby barracuda.

Sea cucumber with ponzu. Jellyfish like texture. Excellent.

Sweet shrimp from Santa Barbara.

Sword fish.

Santa Barbara uni.

Buterfish.

Crab hand roll. I think this is where our mega omakase ended, but we weren’t even close to done after such a long time away from such great sushi, so we told him to just go nuts.

Second round of the shirako.

Black cod. Yuzu. Baby peach.

Fried smelt.

Anago liver. Shirako. Very interesting “deep” Japanese omega 3 flavor.

Marinated Sardine. Incredible.

Kanpachi.

Kinchi. Japanese rock fish.

Another sardine.

Negi toro cut rolls (chopped toro and scallions).

Firefly squid with miso paste.

The bowl of live little crabs.

We eat went for 3 more Sawagani crab.

And another blue fin tuna.

Second o toro.

Eel.

And finally some truffle ice cream, made by Miyagi (not me this time).

Sushi Miyagi is exactly the kind of sushi place I like best — all omakase and very traditional. This is some seriously good fish. Mostly just straight nigiri and a bit of spectacular sashimi and a handful of cooked dishes. This is really really good and instantly catapulted into the top westside sushi joints. Very friendly too. Intimate as well. Sushi at this level is all about the chef and Shinichi Miyagi is very talented.

Not for the sushi neophytes and roll loves, but fabulous for those of us who really enjoy great fish being showcased in a straightforward and delicious manner.

This was the perfect place to return to sushi post lockdown!

For more LA dining reviews click here.