Archive for Foodie Club – Page 8

Marino Ristorante

Sep15

Restaurant: Marino Ristorante [1, 2]

Location: 6001 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 466-8812

Date: August 2, 2017

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Awesome. One of the best Italian meals I’ve had in LA

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Restaurants in Los Angeles are constantly changing, opening, closing etc. One of the recent changes I miss the most was the shuttering of Il Grano — certainly West LA’s best Italian, particularly in the fancy/modern department. I really miss it – as it was one of my favorites and has 9 write ups on the blog (I think the most of any restaurant).
But the amazing chef/owner Sal Marino has relocated (back) to his original family haunt, venerable Marino Ristorante on Melrose and continues to cook up his unique blend of amazing modern Italian. And if anything, he’s gotten even better. Wednesday during summer is always tomato night, so tonight’s tasting menu is heavily tomato focused.

NV Jérôme Prévost Champagne La Closerie Extra Brut Les Beguines. VM 94. A more than worthy follow up to the spectacular 2009, the Jérôme Prévost’s NV (2010) Brut Nature Les Beguines, is stellar. Bright, clean and focused, the 2010 stands out for its delineation and energy. Some of the more slightly oxidative overtones that are often found in the Beguines are absent, at least today. Instead, the 2010 is all about mineral-infused cut. Both bottles I have tasted so far have been outstanding. Prévost describes 2010 as a very difficult year with significant disease pressure. I am not sure how he did it, but the 2010 Les Beguines is fabulous. Cellaring for another few years will only help, but the truth is that this is am impossible wine to resist today.

NV In Florescence Champagne Champagne Blanc de Noirs Brut. 90 points. Not a formula Champagne. Small medium quantity bubbles. High quality. Golden yellow color. Enjoyable with or without food. A bit pricey but special.

Tomato “sushi.” Slices of heirloom tomato on Italian rice.

1989 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. BH 88. The nose offers lovely complexity followed by precise, somewhat angular flavors that unfortunately lack mid-palate density. The finish is also distressingly short and while this could still use some time to resolve itself fully, the absence of sufficient sève does not bode well for significant future improvement. In sum, this is perfectly good but hardly special.

agavin: our bottle was great and very young

Tuna tartar with tomato powder.

From my cellar: 2012 Azienda Agricola Valentini Trebbiano d’Abruzzo. VM 93+. Light orange-yellow. Forward but racy aromas of tangerine, ginger, white flowers, sweet spices and medicinal herbs on the complex nose. Rich and round, but with lovely acid lift and energy to the concentrated flavors of apricot, pear and botanical herbs. Finishes long and pure. Not the most concentrated young Trebbiano d’Abruzzo from Valentini, but has a rich, ripe seamless personality that is hard to resist. Good to go right now but ought to age for 15 years at least. Really lovely wine.

Yellow tomato gazpacho.

2006 Remoissenet Père et Fils Bâtard-Montrachet. BR 90. As a contrast to the Bienvenues, the Bâtard has deeper but much tighter aromas. In the mouth likewise, it’s hiding it’s complexity. If there is one area where this pulls rank, it is the intensity of the mid-plate, but overall this is showing in a very tight way so gives an ‘easy win’ to the Bienvenues for drinking today.

agavin: our bottle was premoxed

Red tomato gazpacho.

Tomato and scallop.

Tuna and tomato.

Yellowtail sashimi with, you guessed it, tomato!

1999 Maison Leroy Bourgogne. BH 85. An expressive and nicely complex nose that is now beginning to turn to secondary with earth and subtle spice nuances that complement rich, round and sweet flavors that offer good punch and while this will be capable of additional aging, it is essentially ready now despite the still moderately firm finishing tannins.

Apulian burrata and tomatoes.

1998 Domaine Michel Gaunoux Pommard 1er Cru Les Arvelets.

Pizza with fresh ricotta and tomatoes.

1996 Domaine Denis Bachelet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Corbeaux Vieilles Vignes. BH 88. Old vines intensity shows beautifully elegant and pure Gevrey fruit mixed with intense earth notes which lead to very rich, delineated and exquisitely long flavors. This is not an especially big or concentrated wine but it is classic Bachelet in that it is perfectly balanced.

Fresh sardine, red peppers, and tomato.

Erick brought: 1983 Domaine Jean Gros Richebourg. 96 points. Very bright, no sign of rot, very powerful but not heavy, silky texture, great length. A wonderful complex Richebourg which could last for ages but drinks well now.

1993 Jean-Pierre Mugneret Echezeaux. 92 points. Medium red color – no bricking. PNP, drank 1 glass over an hour plus. This was the second time having the pleasure to drink this beauty in a short time. This bottle was just as good as the last IMO. Just great nose, so complex, earthy, funk, horse, so much forest floor here, rose, some metals, and deep red fruits. and spices The palate has great minerality, metals, savory, sauvage, spices, horse, deep red fruits, well integrated.

From my cellar: 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.

Tomato, pork, and rapini pasta on the left. Ravioli in a candy-shaped twist-shape on the right — fresh tomato sauce.

1994 Gaja Barbaresco. 91 points. brillant red color , red fruits and spices , after half hour also come the coffee and chocolate . On the palate is round with smooth but still perceptible tannins , it seem younger , great and vibrant acidity .

1998 Gaja Barbaresco. VM 91. Good deep medium red. Deeply pitched aromas of plum, mocha, licorice and dried flowers. Dense and chewy with extract; compelling, sweet flavors of currant and licorice. Tannins are sweeter than those of the ’99 Barbaresco. Finishes with a suggestion of nutty oak.

Swordfish with tomato puree.

From my cellar: 1982 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo Riserva Granbussia. 95 points.

2000 Domenico Clerico Barolo Percristina. VM 90. The 2000 Barolo Percristina has held up well. It shows considerable freshness in its dark red fruit, leather, licorice and sweet spices. The French oak remains very much present. It’s hard to see the fruit lasting long enough for the oak to every truly integrate.

Octopus with squid ink and tomato.

1977 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. 94 points. The 1977 Montepulciano from Emidio Pepe is absolutely stunning and at its peak of brilliance at age thirty-seven, soaring from the glass in a magical aromatic blend of red and black cherries, wild fennel, botanicals, a touch of discreet tariness, roasted pigeon, a dollop of menthol and a topnote of woodsmoke. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and exquisitely balanced, with a rock solid core, still a bit of remaining, buried tannin, great interplay of bitter and sweet and stunning length and grip on the resolved and still very vibrant finish. A great wine that is absolutely à point today.

1983 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. 95 points. The 1983 and 1985 vintages from Emidio Pepe make great bookends, as both wines are fully mature and drinking at their peaks today. The ’85 is perhaps a touch more elegant, with the ’83 a shade deeper at the core and a bit more structured for the long haul. The stunning nose of the 1983 offers up scents of red berries, forest floor, botanicals, lovely spice tones, a fine base of soil, an autumnal touch of acorn, dried herbs and a topnote of spices meats. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and complex, with a fine core, tangy acids, beautiful balance and a very, very long, poised and classy finish that closes with excellent grip and bounce. Another absolutely classic vintage for the Pepe Montepulciano.

Wagyu beef with peppers and crushed tomato.

1961 Château Pape Clément. flawed.

1988 Château Rieussec. VM 90. Deep, oaky aromas of honey, coconut, vanilla and creme brulee Sweet and plump in the mouth; the flavors of coconut and tropical fruit are initially dominated by spicy oak notes. Finishes with slight heat (the alcohol is a relatively high 14.7%) but also excellent persistence of flavor. This showed more development of flavor as it opened in the glass.

Some gelati I made and brought from home: Cioccolato e Vaniglia Fiorentina “Old Fashioned” Gelati – a pair designed together with a shared double entendre. The vanilla is from a 500+ year old recipe, milk steeped with vanilla and orange peel. The chocolate is made with 100% Valrhona cacao and infused with Knob Creek bourbon and Angostura bitters.
The normal Marino menu looks great, but is certainly more classic than Sal’s special dinner fare like above. If you like adventurous modern Italian, I’d see if he can do a special tasting menu — likely he’ll be up for it. Or several people could put together something really interesting from the regular menu if they think outside the normal appetizer, entree, dessert box. But it’s with this kind of special dinner — and not to mention the great crew and our awesome wines — that Sal’s cooking really knocks your socks off. He is a nut for detail and ingredients. He grows tons of stuff at home — like over a 100 varieties of heirloom tomato — and really knows how to adapt and pair with wine.

Now I’m not normally a huge raw tomato fan, but I actually managed to eat and enjoy all these dishes which is a testament to how good Sal’s cooking is.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or experience my gluttonous month-long food trips through Italy.

Or more crazy Foodie Club meals.

Related posts:

  1. Molti Marino
  2. Eating Milano Marittima – Ristorante La Frasca
  3. Eating Parma – Cocchi Ristorante
  4. Italian House Party
  5. Sauvages 2 at Upstairs 2
By: agavin
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Last Minute Shunji

Aug07

Restaurant: Shunji [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 12244 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. (310) 826-4737

Date: June 28, 2017

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: First rate traditional sushi

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A last minute cancelation changed up the Foodie Club dinner plans — so we gathered up some Burgundy and headed out for Shunji’s omakase!

Shunji, which took over for the “Mr. Cecil’s BBQ” in this oddball looking building on Pico has developed quite a reputation.

At night, Shunji offers an amazing and advanced mix of traditional and modern raw and cooked dishes.

 

Chef Shunji Nakao was an opening chef at Matsuhisa in the day, then opened Asanebo, then The Hump (one of my old favorites). It has quickly risen to the top of the LA Japanese scene.

Fred brought: 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.

Marinated vegetables and jellyfish. Before we went I predicted marinated vegetables and dashi gel — this pretty much qualifies. But it was pretty tasty in a sunomono way.

Ikura. Shunji’s salmon roe is unusually sweet and delicate. Lovely.

Goldfish sashimi with radish. Yep, goldfish. Mild, but nice.

Seasonal fig, cauliflower, and okra. On the right, Opal eye sashimi.

A trio of Toro (in the back), blue fin tuna, and chibiki. The last was unusual, all three were great.

Gorgonzola tofu, honey, and cherry tomato. I’ve never had gorgonzola tofu before. It totally worked. Nice soft texture.

From my cellar: 2004 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. BH 94. This is a much different and classically styled with an ultra pure nose of ripe but austere green fruit brimming with oyster shell and seawater notes that introduce elegant, pure and sweet flavors all wrapped in a beautifully balanced and wonderfully detailed finish that also displays some austerity. This is built on a base of pungent minerality and will require ample time to come around. A Chablis lovers Chablis.

Fred brought: 2004 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot. BH 94. Fairly strong wood spice and vanilla presently mark the nose, framing the otherwise pretty white flower and floral aromas though there is plenty of mid-palate density to the rich, round, intense and powerful medium full flavors that despite the richness retain a fine sense of finishing detail. There is good minerality, buckets of dry extract and fine balance with almost painful intensity and superb finishing persistence.

Grilled ayu. A traditional sweet river fish of the smelt family. There was even an instructional video on how to debone it! Which actually helped. Delicious and sweet meat.

Our chef prepares the truffle rice.

Erick brought: 1978 Camille Giroud Beaune 1er Cru Grèves. 93 points. In fabulous shape.

From my cellar: 1997 Joseph Drouhin Romanée St. Vivant. 96 points. Bright shimmering ruby appearance in the glass. Ready from the moment opened, and didn’t really change much over the course of several hours. Enticing nose of red fruit and sweet grilled herbs, a touch perfumed as well. Great purity and class in the glass, with loads of mature Pinot flavors alongside a gentle smokiness that added heft to the wine. A great showing for the vintage, no doubt.

Truffle rice! Both white and black truffles. Very mild and lovely.

Marinated egg.

The egg notches up the truffle rice.

Wagyu sukiyaki. Delicious!

House-made ginger. I probably ate a pound.

Needle fish or trumpet fish.

Here is the head to prove it.

Sweet lips. Ugly fish, tasted good.

Hokkaido flounder.

Amber jack.

Porgi. As you can see Shunji really knows his “white fish.”

Shimaaji (mackerel).

Sweet shrimp. Succulent.

The heads look on in horror.

Then become shrimp miso soup.

Seki aji (premium Spanish mackerel).

A rare fish comes with a serial number!

Stone snapper or maybe sea ball belly.

Belt fish.

Scottish salmon.

Barracuda. A bit smokey.

Chu toro. Melt in your mouth delicious.

Kohada. A bit marinated.

Tasmanian trout. Amazing, but like salmon.

Hokkaido scallop in nori.

O-toro. This bad boy was stunning.

Dueling uni. Santa Barbara on the left, Hokkaido on the right.

Roasted tea.

Seasonal fruit plate, includes mulberries!

Truffle ice cream and chocolate mouse.

Midori melon.

All and all Shunji is rather fantastic, easily in the large repertoire of top LA sushi restaurants. This was a really great take on sushi kaiseki style dishes, combining both innovations with a solid grounding in traditional Japanese flavors and seasonal ingredients. There was some really unusual stuff too. I prefer Shunji at the sushi bar with a smaller group — and more nigiri — which this awesome dinner bore out. Sometimes the (non sushi) vegetable dishes are a bit too subtle, even if I appreciate them for their delicate dashi-scented ways. But Shunji is a master of the white fish and he has an exceptionally wide variety of mouse watering nigiri.

Service is attentive and excellent. Be prepared to open up the wallet as this is premium sushi — in a completely different league than your average Spider Roll — particularly if you go for the truffle rice.

For more LA sushi reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. More Shunji Omakase
  2. Shunji Sushi – Nonstop Nigiri
  3. Shunji Super Omakase
  4. Gasping Fish Shunji
  5. Artsy Toppings – Sushi of Gari
By: agavin
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Newest Oldest Sushi

Jan20

Restaurant: Ginza Onodera

Location: 609 La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069. (323) 433-4817

Date: January 18, 2017

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi

Rating: Fabulous nigiri, expensive, not enough food

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Los Angeles’ amazing homegrown sushi scene has recently been invaded by high end entrees from outside the city. I recently visited Sushi of Gari for some new style sushi, and Ginza Onodera is a Tokyo import using ultra traditional methods.

The decor is clean. Not as neat looking or stylish as Gari but bright and attractive.

The pottery is very artsy Japanese.

For wine, our small party, organized by Liz Lee of Sage Society, brought all high end late disgorgement champagnes.

Erick brought: 1990 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut Collection. 97 points. Like a Grand Cuvee on fire. Rich, vibrant, with a complex maturity.

The sashimi dipping sauce.

Halibut sashimi.

From my cellar: 1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon Rosé P2. 97 points. Floral aromatic start with red berry, red cherry, and ripe apple. Similar flavors with intense concentration, finishing with energizing minerality. In fact very similar to the 1996 “P1” in the next glass, but with just “more” of almost everything good.

Liz brought: 1995 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon Rosé P2. VM 95.5. The just-released 1995 Dom Pérignon Rosé P2 is stunning. Young, delicate and vibrant in the glass, the 1995 has it all; expressive aromatics, crystalline fruit and fabulous overall balance. Cranberry, mint, hard candy, cinnamon and dried rose petals are laced into the super-expressive finish. The 1995 P2 is sweet and layered, but with lovely veins of chalky minerality that give the wine its sense of energy. A delicate, floral finish rounds things out nicely.
Comes with a super fancy box.

Blanc and rose.

Smoked mackerel sashimi. Lovely smoky flavor.

The chefs hard at work. Despite a frenzy of effort the sushi was so labor intensive it was about 20 minutes between morsels!

Baby barracuda sashimi. Certainly the best bit of barracuda I’ve had.

Out comes a typical Japanese ceramic container.

Caviar and uni custard. Egg custard is a classic Japanese dish and I love it — this one was particularly decadent with the caviar and uni!

Hokkaido taco (octopus). Very tender, with a nice bit of chew.

Monkfish liver. This monkfish liver was DEEPLY marinated in a sweet soy. It was probably the softest and arguably most delicious version I’ve had. Melted completely in your mouth.

Cod Sperm Sack Tempura. Soft and delicate with that fluffy brain-like texture of the cod sperm. Pretty delicious if you don’t think about what you are eating.

House made ginger. Very sweet and soft. I love ginger and this version was almost like a candy ginger. Delicious.

Goldeneye red snapper.

TLiz generously opened this second bottle:

1990 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon P3. 99 points. Spell binding bottle of Champagne. Disgorged in 2014, there was so much brioche here, I thought I was in bakery. There was a vibrancy and energy to the wine that keep all that pure fruit right out in the front. The effervesce was exactly what it needed to be with textures that promoted its beautiful finesse character. Worthy the money? That is another issue. But price aside, this is in contention for one of the best bottles of Champagne I have ever tasted.

Sardine with ginger. Very pickled and super delicious (if you love vinegar like I do).

Buri wild yellowtail.

Kohada gizzard shad. Another very marinated cut.

Fermented squid gut. Like a pasta in uni sauce. Very strong earthy fermented taste. A bit sweet. I thought it was delicious, but if you don’t like umami “aggressive” Japanese fermented seafood flavors and slimey texture it might freak you out.

Razor clam nori taco. Like a hand roll with no rice. Very much a charred flavor with a constrast between the perfect roasted nori and the crunchy/chewy clam. Very interesting and nice.

Blue fin tuna.

Two kinds of marinated fish roe with slices of daikon. Almost like charcuterie — fishy charcuterie. A touch sweet and quite salty. I loved these. Great texture contrast to between the crunchy daikon and the chewy dried roe.

Chu toro. Amazing.

Collar toro. A special cut from the collar (kami toro). They only get 2-4 prices out of the whole fish!

Chefs plating the next dish.

The covered bowl of miso.

Red miso soup. Earthy and appropriate on a rainy winter night.

Hokkaido uni sushi. Fabulously soft.

Eel sushi. The dry sea eel type I think, with salts and eel sauce. The eel sauce was incredibly sticky and caramelized.

Omelet is considered the measure of a traditional sushi chef.

Tamago (omelet). Very light and fluffy.

Green tea and sesame pudding? Whatever it was exactly it was delicious with a very strong wonderful macha flavor.

Special roasted Japanese tea.

Bags of pickled ginger to go.

Our executive chef, Yohei Matsuki!

Overall Ginza Onodera has a very strong distinctive traditional style. The rich is basically oozing with red vinegar and has a strong assertive quality — but it does stay together well. The fish was very aged and marinated and each piece of nigiri crafted so as to balance with the particular qualities of the fish. I can’t fault the taste, texture, or presentation of nearly any of the dishes. They were pretty spectacular. And I love straight nigiri. Individually these are much more enjoyable than the odd combinations at Sushi of Gari for example.

And service was warm, very Japanese, and excellent.

My issues with Onodera are a high price point (about $300 for food) / quantity ratio. The price itself is high, but not outrageous at all given the labor involved (and certainly not offensive like Urwasawa). But there is also a fairly slow rate between pieces (at least 15 minutes), and not ENOUGH pieces for my big nigiri appetite. I could easily have eaten 2-3 times as many. They might as well have just served me pairs. I would say that for pure nigiri QUALITY in volume this is the best I’ve had outside of Japan. Yamakase has some fabulous nigiri too but you only get a few (plus a whole lot of other dishes). Now I may be biased, but Yamakase is a “better deal” in that you get about 4X the calories for similar money. But it’s really a totally different (if both Japanese) cuisine as Onodera is pretty much straight straight sushi and Yamakase a modern creative Kaiseki. Still, if you want to experience the exquisite art of perfectly crafted nigiri — Onodera is the top right now in LA.

But we were so hungry we went afterward (after midnight!) to Korea Town for some hearty stew!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

The full wine lineup.

Related posts:

  1. Artsy Toppings – Sushi of Gari
  2. Sushi Sushi – Small Omakase
  3. Food as Art – Sushi Sushi
  4. Mori Sushi – A Top Contender
  5. Shunji Sushi – Nonstop Nigiri
By: agavin
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Good Vegan? – Is that Possible?

Jan10

Restaurant: Erven

Location: 514-516 California State Rte 2, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 260-2255

Date: December 30, 2016 & January 9, 2017

Cuisine: Modern Vegan

Rating: Best Vegan I’ve had

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Real Food Daily has been a Santa Monica Vegan staple for twenty-ish years, but it closed recently (I was not sad, it tasted weird and gave me gas). Instead, the brilliant Saint Martha chef has taken over, rebooted it into a market restaurant, and voila: Erven.

I went twice here in short order. The first time with my wife where we had 5-6 things and the second time with 7 Foodie Club members where we ordered the entire menu X 2!

The frontage is much updated.

There is now a trendy market counter with vegan treats for sale.

The two floor interior looks way updated as well, and stylishly, if economically.


Corn nuts. Came for “free.” These had a strong flavor.A pre meal snack. Very strong intense flavor, not super to my taste.

The menu. Reading this was hard for me because I usually look at the protein types — but here that was all pretty irrelevant!

Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 94. The NV Brut Rosé is brilliant and finely-sculpted in the glass, with floral aromatics, pulsating minerality and chiseled fruit. Less austere than it can be, the Rosé impresses for its combination of tension and textured, phenolic weight. There is so much to like. This release (ID 213027) is based on the 2006 vintage. The blend is 59% Pinot Noir, 33% Chardonnay and 8% Pinot Meunier. Disgorged Spring 2013.

Savory donut holes. of sauerkraut and smoky applesauce. Interesting. Like jelly donuts too (filling was inside).

Black garlic-chickpea fritter. with yuzu and Aleppo pepper.

2006 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut Rosé La Grande Dame. JG 95. For both the vintage-dated and the Grande Dame Rosé bottlings, Veuve Clicquot uses their parcel of Clos Colin in the village of Bouzy for the still red wine that is used to add color to the final blend. The ’06 Grande Dame Rosé is comprised entirely of chardonnay and pinot noir, with thirty-three percent of the blend the former and sixty-seven percent of the blend the latter (with fourteen percent still pinot noir). The dosage is eight grams per liter and the wine is outstanding, offering up a pure and complex bouquet of tangerine, desiccated cherries, chalky minerality, orange peel and plenty of smokiness. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and complex, with a superb core, lovely focus and grip, elegant mousse and a very long, zesty and wide open finish. This is drinking beautifully right now, but will age very gracefully as well. (Drink between 2016-2035)

Fried date pickles with Sumatran curry, pine nut and maple. Really interesting fried, tangy, sweet, combination. My wife liked them a lot too.

2002 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Steely, penetrating aromas of minerals, crushed stone and vanillin oak. Wonderfully dense and broad, with a dusty, tactile texture and powerful underlying spine. Shows a superripe note of crystallized pit fruits, but the wine’s powerful acids give it great precision and penetration. A great young Corton-Charlemagne.

Hearts of romaine. with dill-tofu ranch, kohlrabi and poppyseed ‘persillade’. Salad.

Tiny beets with avocado mousse, curry-almond streusel and cilantro. Beet sorbet. Quite nice and interesting beet salad. The sorbet even added a temperature variance.

2004 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Pale, bright color. A quintessence of Corton-Charlemagne dirt on the nose: stone fruits, lemon, iodine, ginger, minerals and mint, all complicated by a musky, leesy note that reminded me of a Coche-Dury wine. Then compellingly dense and penetrating in the mouth, with captivating, soil-driven flavors of raw pineapple, white peach, white flowers and crushed rock; a sulfidey complexity and a saline element add to the wine’s spectacular subtle complexity. Hardly a blockbuster but conveys an impression of great solidity. This remarkably precise wine coats the palate with dusty stone and leaves behind a suggestion of honey. My sample at Bouchard in early June was painfully young and closed though obviously outstanding, but this bottle, tasted in New York in August, was spectacular. (Incidentally, my following notes on the Chevalier-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte and Montrachet were from bottles tasted at Bouchard-also quite backward at the time-and I would expect my scores to prove to be conservative.)

Soft tofu with brussels sprouts, pickled garlic ponzu, lime cured onion and popcorn. I love this kind of soft tofu and this was like a combo of a traditional Japanese/Korean soft tofu and a Gjelina brussels sprouts dish.

 

Korean ‘gnocchi’. with chickpeas, okra, purslane and tomato-kimchi soup. The gnocchi was a little dense.

From my cellar: 2006 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. JG 94. The 2006 Pucelles is by a good margin the most sophisticated and pure of these premier crus, and seems to have avoided the ripe excesses of the vintage better than most of the wines in the cellar this year. The nose is deep and fresh, as it offers up a beautiful mélange of lemon, pear, white peach, spring flowers, a touch of both bee pollen and incipient notes of beeswax and a nice framing of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, silky on the attack and utterly refined, with a lovely core of fruit and no signs of heat on the long, crisp and very long finish. This is a beautiful bottle in the making.

Falafel. with apricot-ginger mostarda, dried olive and smoked paprika. A hair dry.

Onion bread pudding with mushroom chili, broccoli and spicy squash spread. Another interesting textural dish, nice flavors too, although I didn’t anticipate the beans.

Roasted carrots. with coconut, crispy lentils, Thai herbs, and tamarind sriracha. I really liked the frozen coconut on top and the vaguely Thai flavor profile that fell out of that.

1996 Joseph Drouhin Romanée St. Vivant. JK 94. Airy, pure, elegant and extremely expressive as the aromas just float from the glass with rose petal and assorted floral notes. The mineral-infused, racy and finely delineated flavors are nuanced and textured though the backend has a somewhat dry and edgy quality to it that is highlighted by the racy finishing acidity. This is still entirely primary and should age well for a number of years.

Farro and black eyed pea ‘hot pot’. with braised greens, shishito, preserved tomato and onion jus. Tasty enough, but needed a braised meat!

Spaghetti. with baby shiitake mushrooms, brassicas and yeast broth. More like a vegan ramen or Asian noodle soup. The broth was good and the noodles nice.

2005 Louis Jadot Charmes-Chambertin. BH 94. An interesting nose of menthol, underbrush, warm earth and relatively high-toned red pinot fruit leads to fresh, rich, full and almost tender big-bodied flavors that are supple on the mid-palate before tightening up on the delicious, powerful and mouth coating finish. A quality effort that is more impressive than it usually is and worth a look.

Shredded cabbage pancake. with braised eggplant, chili hoisin. The waitress said it had the best hoisin ever — well no, not even close — but it did vaguely induce a feeling of Peking duck. Made me want some Peking duck!

Kale cavatelli with squash, oyster mushrooms, pear and tom yum gravy. Loved the yom yum flavor. Texture was great too with the bitey cavatelli. Really a pretty great dish.

Beer battered tofu sandwich with slaw, thick pickle and manchamantal. Kinda like a tempura fish sandwich without the fish. But nice and tangy and great texture. Really quite excellent.

Chocolate ‘liquid’ donut. with frozen peanut butter brittle ganache, huckleberries, and potato chips. Pretty good. I liked the peanut butter tone.

Black sesame cake. with passionfruit custard, cilantro sorbet and coconut meringue. Really nice and I didn’t even miss the dairy!

Chocolate cookie and frozen cinnamon custard ‘sandwich’. with toasted meringue and graham crumble. That “cream” was pretty good without dairy too.

The wine lineup, not bad for 7 at a vegan restaurant!

 

Overall, Erven was pretty cool. It felt light, and fundamentally the introduction of modern textural play and Asian flavors with the vegan concept really brought the flavor level up. There is so much mouth fireworks going on that it distracts from the lack of protein or fat — wow!

Be warned though, there is a lot of fiber. I’m writing this at 4am because the bloating is keeping me up! Erven will not only tickle your palette, but keep you regular too!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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Molti Marino

Dec19

Restaurant: Marino Ristorante

Location: 6001 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 466-8812

Date: December 14, 2016

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Awesome. One of the best Italian meals I’ve had in LA

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Restaurants in Los Angeles are constantly changing, opening, closing etc. One of the recent changes I miss the most was the shuttering of Il Grano — certainly West LA’s best Italian, particularly in the fancy/modern department. I really miss it – as it was one of my favorites and has 9 write ups on the blog (I think the most of any restaurant).

But the amazing chef/owner Sal Marino has relocated (back) to his original family haunt, venerable Marino Ristorante on Melrose and continues to cook up his unique blend of amazing modern Italian. And if anything, he’s gotten even better.

The menu for tonight’s special Foodie Club year end dinner.

1996 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut La Grande Dame. VM 95+. Deep, highly complex aromas of citrus skin, nutmeg, porcini mushroom, toasted almond and clove. Rich, dry and impressively deep; superconcentrated and oily. A chewy, spicy Champagne that seemed to grow fresher as it opened in the glass. Really explosive on the aftertaste, finishing with a clinging quality and powerful spicy, nutty flavors. A major mouthful of Champagne, at its best at the dinner table. Displays the combination of high ripeness and high acidity of this vintage at its best. This thick, rich, very powerful wine is still a bit youthfully disorganized and will be even better for a few years of additional aging. One of the standouts of my recent tastings.

Mexicola avocado and Dungeness crab. Eaten skin and all! Like a super fresh Italian California roll.

Snapper Tartar.

Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. VM 94. The NV Grande Cuvée is absolutely stellar. This is one of the very best Grande Cuvées I can remember tasting. The flavors are bright, focused and beautifully delineated throughout, all of which make me think the wine will age well for many, many years. Lemon peel, white flowers, crisp pears, smoke and crushed rocks race across the palate in a vibrant, tense Champagne that epitomizes finesse. This release is based on the 2005 vintage and was disgorged in winter 2012/2013.

Amberjack & white truffle.

2002 Pol Roger Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 95. Pale gold. Intense, mineral-dominated aromas of candied citrus fruits, pear, anise, smoky lees and chamomile, plus a sexy floral nuance and a hint of sweet butter. Palate-staining orchard and citrus fruit flavors show outstanding depth and energy, picking up chalky mineral and spice notes with air. Strikingly concentrated and precise wine with strong finishing punch and noteworthy persistence. This concentrated, deftly balanced Champagne is built for a long, graceful evolution.

Sawagani – wild river crab. These little fellows were live and scampering in the bowl.

Then flash fried. No longer live, they are eaten as a whole bite and had a touch of spice. Amazing crunch and flavor!

From my cellar: 2010 Borgo del Tiglio (Nicola Manferrari) Collio Friulano Ronco della Chiesa. VM 94. Borgo del Tiglio’s 2010 Ronco della Chiesa shows what this hillside site in Cormons can do in cooler vintages. Still bright, focused and intensely saline, the 2010 bursts from the glass with grapefruit, lime, mint and crushed rocks. The 2010 will probably be appreciated most by readers who like tense, vibrant whites. Next to some of the other vintages, the 2010 lacks a little mid-palate pliancy, but it is quite beautiful just the same. I especially like the way the 2010 opens up nicely in the glass over time.

Nantucket Scallop Crudo, citrus salad. Delicious bright. Awesome pairing.

Buri Crudo. Amazing Italian/Japanese slices of large Buri.

Persimmon & Burrata. Best Persimmon I’ve ever had. Sweet and soft and non of that weird dusty finish. Amazing with the cheese too.
From my cellar: 2001 i Clivi Brazan. 93 points. Geraniums and menthol on the nose. On the palate, pear, apricot, white flowers, and notes of pineapple and lemon on the medium finish, with good acidity. Unlike a previous bottle, this didn’t show any significant oxidation, and it held up well over two days without fading. Well-stored bottles with good corks should be good for at least a few more years.

Hokkaido scallop, sea urchin, caviar. Amazing combo of umami and rich flavors.

1976 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Clos Vougeot. 95 points. Amazing shape for the vintage. Lots of cherry.

1983 Domaine Pothier-Rieusset Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens. 92 points. For a Burgundy that should be over the hill it’s drinking nicely. Crystal clear and very light ruby color. Poured straight from the bottle but with a little glass time it really started to show its stuff. Quite fruity and approachable. Has notes of cranberry cocktail with a twist of lemon.

Pizza al tartufo bianco.

With shaved white truffles!

This was one amazing pizza slice. I could have eaten the whole pie. Super soft (fontina?) cheese.

1996 Domaine du Clos de Tart Clos de Tart. JK 94. Fairly closed and tight nose of spicy black fruit framed in subtle new wood followed by medium weight, intense, relatively powerful flavors yet the tannins are elegant and quite fine. The overall impression is one of discreet breed and this delivers impressive if not incredible persistence. For the patient.

2003 Domaine Anne Gros Clos Vougeot Le Grand Maupertui. VM 91+. Full red-ruby. Brooding, superripe aromas of medicinal black cherry and cassis. Huge, chewy and backward; boasts impressive flesh and phenolic material but quite closed today, and not particularly sweet. This very rich but youthfully sullen wine finishes with substantial tannic spine. “Jammy but not cooked,” notes Gros.

Black Bass, stinging nettle, dehydrated olives. Great piece of light fluffy bass. As good as bass gets.
1982 Leoville-Las Cases. Parker 95-100. I have had perfect bottles of this cuvee, but, perplexingly, the bottles from my cellar tend to be broodingly backward and require plenty of coaxing. This huge wine is, in many ways, just as massive as Leoville Barton, but it possesses a greater degree of elegance as well as unreal concentration. Classic lead pencil, cassis, kirsch, cedar, and spice characteristics are abundant in both the nose and full-bodied flavors. The tannins are still there, and, at least from my cellar, this 1982 does not appear to have changed much in the last 10-12 years. One wonders how much patience admirers of this brilliant St.-Julien will continue to exhibit. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2050.

From my cellar: 1985 Gaja Barbaresco. ? points. This was stewy and very “mature.” I liked it, but many at the table considered it totally flawed — which it probably was — I just kinda enjoyed it.

Black tagliatelle Lobster. Home made squid ink pasta with chunks of moist lobster. Amazing.

Chef Sal Marino shows off his pasta dough. Eggy!

1998 Azienda Agricola Montevertine Le Pergole Torte Toscana IGT. JG 91. The 1998 Pergole Torte is a bit deeper-pitched and more black fruity than the more vibrant and red fruity 1999, but despite its slightly “cooler” profile, this too will be a fine bottle of wine at its apogee. The nose is deep and complex, as it offers up scents of black cherries, plums, a touch of bitter chocolate, herb tones, road tar, damp earth and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and still quite tannic, with fine focus, a solid core of fruit and very good length and grip on the firm, chewy and well-balanced finish. The 1998 does not possess the same generosity of youthful fruit as the 1999 or even the 2001 for that matter, and hence would be a bit more difficult to drink before it reaches full maturity, but with its sound acids and lovely complexity, it will be a delightful drink once it reaches its peak.

Cassonetti, celery root filled ravioli, black winter truffle.

With the truffle. This was an absolutely amazing pasta. The melt in your mouth shells, and the slick buttery sauce with the truffles. 11 out of 10!

1985 Antinori Solaia Toscana IGT. VM 94. The 1985 Solaia kicks off a flight of Early Classics. I have had the 1985 twice recently and it has always been impressive. It is also very much a wine of its era, which is to say if anything, it is too polished. This was an era in which wines were squeaky-clean. Well-stored bottles still have plenty of fruit although further upside appears to be limited.

1990 Antinori Solaia Toscana . VM 94. Tasted next to so many other great wines, the 1990 Solaia actually suffers a bit. I am sure it would be magnificent on its own, but here it comes comes across as a bit one-dimensional, with less opulence than vintages like 1994 and 1997, but less structure than the 1988 tasted immediately before. Overall, the 1990 is a hugely attractive wine that stops just a touch short of being truly profound.

agavin: both were great, but I liked the 1990 better.

Chicken & Polenta. Local farm polenta and chicken. Super moist and soft. Usually chicken doesn’t have enough flavor to handle this kind of treatment, but this certainly did.

2002 Tua Rita Redigaffi Toscana IGT. Parker 94. The 2002 Redigaffi is sweet and balsamic in its expression of jammy plum fruit, elegant and ample on the flow and with an expanding volume, firmness, and grip which should guarantee maximum pleasure for another decade and a half.

Lamb Ossobuco. This was bone sucking good. Super rich, stewed and fatty. Ron and I were literally gnawing on the bones.

Wagyu tagliata, sunchoke, pea tendrils. East meets west version of the New York strip, but with Japanese breed beef. Grilled bread was amazing too.

Sal through in: 2004 San Michele Appiano (St. Michael-Eppan) Sanct Valentin-Comtess Passito. 96 points. Awesome complex sticky.

Panettone. This ain’t your grandmother’s panettone. It was more like bread pudding.

Ramen Roll Gelato, made by me. I brought these in but Sal’s crew plated them. In the front is Macha White, green tea with white chocolate. In the back my amazing Hazelnut Caramel with pure traditional hazelnut (made from Italian Hazelnut Regina paste) and house made caramel.

The normal Marino menu looks great, but is certainly more classic than Sal’s special dinner fare like above. If you like adventurous modern Italian, I’d see if he can do a special tasting menu — likely he’ll be up for it. Or several people could put together something really interesting from the regular menu if they think outside the normal appetizer, entree, dessert box. But it’s with this kind of special dinner — and not to mention the great crew and our awesome wines — that Sal’s cooking really knocks your socks off. He is a nut for detail and ingredients. He grows tons of stuff at home — like over a 100 varieties of heirloom tomato — and really knows how to adapt and pair with wine.

I had a lot of great meals at Il Grano, but this was probably the most on point of all of them. Every dish was pretty much a knock out. Bright fresh ingredients coupled with bright fresh flavors. I’m still dreaming of that truffle Cassonetti.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or experience my gluttonous month-long food trips through Italy.

Or more crazy Foodie Club meals.

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By: agavin
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Artsy Toppings – Sushi of Gari

Nov18

Restaurant: Sushi of Gari

Location: 6201 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 400-6300

Date: November 16, 2016

Cuisine: Japanese Sushi (new influences)

Rating: Good, but new style is different

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Sushi of Gari is that rare bird in LA, a New York Japanese food import! They have a couple of high end branches in Manhattan and have now ventured back to the serious sushi town.

It’s located in the heart of Hollywood — on the Blvd. Bold location for an expensive Japanese omakase restaurant.

The interior has a very high end and modern Japanese build out.

Tonight just the core original Foodie Club founders went: Erick and I.

From my cellar: NV Jacques Selosse Substance Blanc de Blancs. VM 93. Selosse’s NV Substance, based on 2007, is remarkably fresh considering the solera style that goes back to 1986. Candied lemon, white flowers and herbs are fused together in an ample, creamy Champagne. The classic Substance breadth is there, but in this release, the wine is a bit less overtly oxidative in style than it can be. Disgorged October 2015. Dosage is 1.3 grams per liter.

agavin: maybe a tiny touch advanced, but drinking awesomely.

Erick brought: 2002 Louis Jadot Montrachet. BH 96. Jadot has seriously upgraded the quality of their Montrachet over the past few vintages and while it’s always been good (consider the incredible ’96), the last few efforts have been at another level. The ’02 offers sublimely complex aromas of white flowers and citrus wrapped in a gentle hint of wood spice followed by sappy, powerful, mouth coating, pungent flavors of superb density and weight. Ripe and vibrant acid keep everything in perfect balance and this should drink well for a long time. In short, this is class in a glass and a knockout effort.

agavin: this needed more years, still pretty closed.

Our itamae for the night.

Cute custom chopstick rests and wrappers.

The menu, almost all sushi.

Kuromutsu Nanbanzuke. Our only non-sushi. deep-fried halibut, marinated in sweet vinegar. Dashi, ginger, and crunchy glassy noodles. Very interesting (and fun) texture.

Maguro Tofu Raya. Tuna with creamy tofu puree. The tofu was very mild, but right off the bat it set the night by distracting a bit from the gorgeous fish. Not that it was bad, but the rice here isn’t very assertive (low vinegar), and the topping complicates the tasting of the fish.

Tai Salad. Japanese red snapper topped with seasoned baby greens, roasted pine nuts, and crispy lotus root with hint of wasabi olive oil. This was interesting and quite a bit of basil, but again I wasn’t sure it paired to the improvement of the fish.

Amaebi Yuzu. Sweet shrimp with yuzu miso. This had a slightly bitter finish but was overall a slightly better compliment.

Yellowtail Belly Jalapeno. Like a nigiri version of the Matsuhisa classic. Much better pairing.

Sake Yaki Tomato. Salmon with sautéed tomato. This is one of their signatures. The salmon was fabulous, and with the tomato made for an interesting interplay, but the fish is slightly lost.

Nama Hotate Ume. Hokkaido scallop with umeboshi plum sauce. This was a good pairing and the plum didn’t overwhelm the scallop.

Kamatoro with wasabi. Awesome piece of toro. This is from the collar, like the giant whole collar we had the other night. Pretty straight up without a weird topping (that was just wasabi).

Yuki Masu Ringo Sauce. Snow trout with apple sauce and sprigs of radish. There was a smoked quality to the piece. I’m not sure the sweetness of the apple actually goes with the marinated vinegar tone of the fish and rice.

Mackerel with shiso and marinated daikon. Interesting, and certainly colorful.

Ika Broccoli. Squid with broccoli! The squid was very tender with a char flavor. This actually paired well with the broccoli and didn’t distract.

Zuke Kinmedai. Goldeneye snapper with dried kelp. A great pairing. The kelp isn’t very strong and it added some extra interest and texture to a fabulous piece of fish.

Zuwaigani Uni. Snow crab with uni sauce. Quite charred. Good though, although I kind of like my crab cold and less crispy.

Hirame Truffle. Charred halibut with quail egg and truffle oil. This one was very good. I love egg yolk. Combo was “interesting” but it worked.

Yaki Hokkaido Bafun Uni. Charred Hokkaido search urchin. Very straight up and without a sauce. Worked better than most of the sauces. There was a bit of char to the uni too — very good uni.

Maguro Carpaccio. Seared tuna with onion, seaweed, breaded flakes, garlic chip, and ponzu. Nice nigiri. Also tasted like a Nobu dish.

Aji Miso. Spanish mackerel with cream cheese miso. Hmm. Miso distracted a bit.

Yaki Sawara. Charred kit mackerel with mushroom sauce. One of these very charred fish bits. The mushroom wasn’t so distracting but I’m not a super lover of this sort of “dried” (aka charred) sushi bits.

Lobster. Marinated lobster with sea salt. Excellent.

Nodoguro. Charred rosy sea bass. No sauce, but quite charred.

Yaki Sake. Seared marinated salmon. This was an awesome piece with more of a vinegar flavor than most things tonight.

Nama Saba Goma. Japanese mackerel marinated with sesame soy sauce. Very interesting strong nutty tone from the sesame. Quite good.

Clam Parsley Sauce. Chew giant clam sautéed in butter and served with a garlic-parsley sauce. Like escargot! Nice chew too.

Maguro Yukke. Shredded lean blue fin tuna marinated with Korean-style sweet sesame oil sauce on a bed of crispy nori seaweed with pine-nuts and scallion. This was very interesting and I liked it a lot. I liked that it was soft and marinated. The crispy (and it was quite chewy) bit of seaweed was interesting too.

Baby baracuda. Another fairly “charred” piece, but good for barracuda.

Toro Taku. Chopped fatty tuna with Japanese yellow pickles. This one was great. Interesting we are in parallel working on a very similar handroll at Ramen Roll — maybe the toro and pickles is a classic pairing.

Needlefish with shiso and plumb sauce. Interesting marinated sushi note.

Ikura. Salmon eggs. Straight up — but I love salmon eggs.

Hamachi Yubiki. Poached yellowtail with sesame sauce. Different. The sesame worked. Tahini basically, so felt slightly middle eastern.

Kohada Rakkyo. Shad with shiso and onion. Very marinated. Tasted almost like pickled herring!

Yaki Kamatoro. Kamatoro (collar toro) is always great. I prefer (as usual) the fully raw version, but the seared one is good too.

Avocado sushi with eel and cucumber. Interesting. Tasted exactly like a caterpillar roll — but as a nigiri.

Foie Gras Nashi. Foie gras with poached pear and red wine jello. Unconventional but awesome. What’s not to like about foie gras and fruit?

Anago. sea eel. A nice chunk of sea eel. Not very sweet with a distinct charred fat flavor.

Tomago, shiso, and sour plum handroll. Very traditional with the shiso/plum thing. A good palette cleanser and fairly bracing.

Crab handroll. Very nice crab, but plain like this it’s pretty subtle. I prefer blue crab.

Okay, so how was Sushi of Gari? I’d say that the decor was awesome. The service was awesome. The sushi chef’s really nice and very skilled. Two we knew from Mori. The build out is really swank as well, although for me the location is FAR. Not as far as oo-toro — but far enough. The fish quality was absolutely first rate. The price wasn’t even that bad (considering how much we had).

But how was the overall effect?

Gari has a very distinct style. The rice is very low vinegar. A LOT of nigiri (and we tried EVERYTHING THEY HAD tonight) are charred. A little too much for my taste, sort of the opposite of the Sasebune or Zo style where there is a lot of ponzu and things are very wet. Here many nigiri were quite dry and partially cooked.

Then there is the sauce/topping/modern thing. Overall I would have to say it distracted and made for novel, but inferior tasting nigiri than a more conventional approach. Now they were interesting, and some succeeded well like the truffle egg, kelp, or parsley clam, but many of my favorite pieces were the ones without heavy/unusual toppings. Like the marinated salmon or the kamatoro. So what does that tell you? If they dropped most of the gimmicks they would have to stand out on the quality of the fish — but I think they actually have that, and I might enjoy it even more.

We lasted past 3 different normal Omakases and were the last guests at 11:30 — I think they wanted us out of there and didn’t offer us dessert. So we went next door to shake shack!

I photoed the concretes, which is what we ordered.

And the simple but well done interior.

Sunset Grind. Cookie custard, Stumptown coffee beans, marshmallow sauce and Cofax spiced crumb donut. These things are like gelato softserve crossed with Cold Stone creamery. The hugely sweet infusion of stuff makes for a yummy mix, but it’s hardly subtle or elegant. And it sits VERY heavy.

Tinseltown Toffee. Chocolate custard, peanut butter sauce, chocolate toffee and Compartes dark chocolate chunks. Peanut butter chocolate with chunks. What’s not to like? Pretty decadent.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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The High Life – 71Above

Sep16

Restaurant: 71Above [1, 2, 3]

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

Date: September 12, 2016

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Awesome in all ways

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This is my second visit to one of LA’s latest and hottest event restaurants, 71Above. The first can be found here.

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

This is no casual opening, but a massive (and gorgeous) multipart buildout that encompasses the entire floor. Above is part of the lounge/bar.

And behind that is the stunning dining room with its computer controlled auto tinting windows. Beyond that the view continues all the way around with the chef’s table and several more intimate private dining areas.

The view alone is worth the price of admission, and offers varied sights depending on your 360 degree angle. Notice how even the second tallest building downtown (seen under construction here) is below eye level! On a clear day you can easily see the vast sweep of the Pacific and several mountain ranges.

1996 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. BH 97. One of the greatest examples of the ’96 vintage, this wine has it all with elegance, intensity, subtlety and grace, not to mention buckets of unrealized potential that will enable this beauty to improve for at least another decade and perhaps longer. I can only imagine just how good this would be from magnum format! The nose is discreet, reserved and pure with lemon, green apple and layers upon layers of fruit framed by just the right amount of yeast influence that continues onto the exceptionally dry and tight flavors that are crisp and refined as well as superbly intense yet through it all there is this underlying sense of harmony, as though all of the elements are working in concert. The greatest wines, at least those cut from classical cloth, persuade through the subtlest means and so it is with the ’96 Goisses, which is indeed a great wine by any measure. While it is drinkable now, for my taste preferences a lot of potential would be left in the glass and I wouldn’t start in earnest on this for another 5+ years.

Tease, we didn’t open this bottle.

1992 Louis Latour Montrachet. BH 93.  exotic aromas merge into powerful, intense and long medium-bodied flavors that offer excellent length and vibrancy, especially in the context of the vintage. This is really quite good with ample density and plenty of refinement. Moreover, it exhibits no signs of fatigue, at least when the bottles have been impeccably stored.

agavin: In pretty great shape. Not a ton of fruit, but a lot of body and complexity.

Savory Canelé. Looks just like the not so savory kind, and has the same wonderful texture, but instead offered an evocative warm taste of rosemary and maybe cheese.

2008 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest. VM 93+. Bright, pale golden-yellow. Sexy aromas of orange, honeysuckle, hazelnut and toast. Big, silky, rich and deep but not especially showy today as its stony minerality currently dominates the palate. A downright profound premier cru with outstanding persistence. It will be interesting to taste this next to the superb ’07 in about eight years.

2003 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bourgogne Blanc. 90 points. Very pale gold in appearance. The nose was very pure, clean, elegant and full of white flowers. On the palate, minerally with good acidity. Peach, yellow fruits like kiwi and a hint of rocks and stone. This was definitely a Puligny wasnt it? Table was torn between Meursault and Puligny, some were on a 1er or Grand. When Wayne revealed it was a Bourgogne, it could only be Vogue, and what an experience. The only discouraging note was that the wine lacked the structure and also had a tad of bitterness and roughness at the end. Nevertheless, it was extremely enojoyable and in a good drinking window.

From my cellar: 2011 Prager Riesling Smaragd Wachstum Bodenstein. VM 92. Initially reminiscent of slate and fresh rain, the nose evolves toward apricot and peach fruit along with caraway seed and lemongrass. Bracing lively acidity gives a weightless quality to the intense flavors of yellow plum, wild spice and abundant minerals. Seductive and stylish, with noteworthy grip and persistence, this is an excellent 2011. Some may prefer it, but the lower alcohol and marvelous freshness speak for 2012 as the slightly better of these two excellent rieslings.

Oyster. Poached, Uni, Caviar, Tarragon, Champagne. A super yummy bite of umami goodness. Very bright with strong flavors from the tartar-like sauce.

2014 Albert Grivault Meursault Clos du Murger.

1999 Henri Boillot Chevalier-Montrachet. 90 points. Had a steeliness on the palate that seems typical of 99. As the night went on, I felt like the power that H. Boillot is known for was trying to peek out as you can start to taste that density of fruit but the wine just needed time. There was a zest in the background, but still needing more time. I was actually very surprised how little it was giving up as the 00/02/04 chevs have been drinking wonderful in the past year or so.

1990 Pierre Bitouzet Corton-Charlemagne. JG 93.

Shrimp. Mango, Avocado, Fresno Chile, Sorrel, Chicharrón. Also extremely bright. A little heat, and very tangy. Loved this slightly Vietnamese-inspired sauce.

1976 Mayacamas Vineyards Chardonnay. 88 points. Dark yellow. Some peaches underlying moderate oxidative aromas. Actually on the palate, the wine was not bad. Amazing that a California chard could show this well at 35 years.

1998 Sine Qua Non Backward & Forward. VM 93. Pale peach skin color. Deep, complex nose of apple, nut skin, apricot and minerals; this somewhat resembled a bottle of 1990 Pol Roger Winston Churchill I had tasted 15 minutes earlier. Thick, penetrating and solidly structured; rich, nuanced flavors of vanilla, minerals, apricot and superripe peach. Wonderful sweetness and chewy texture more akin to the Southern Rhone than to Southern California. Great building length on the finish. Close in quality to the extraordinary ’95 Sine Qua Non white blend labelled The Bride.

2014 Donelan Vénus. VM 91. The 2014 Venus is lovely, soft and understated. Apricot pit, mint, chamomile and dried flowers flesh out nicely in this very pretty, expressive Roussanne/Viognier blend. Veins of supporting acidity give the wine its freshness and sense of overall proportion. There is plenty to like here.

Octopus. Grilled, Peach, Lemon, Mustards, Pickled Pearl Onion, Herbs. A great piece of octopus. Tender inside and a little crispy on the outside. Nice bits of mustards.

From my cellar: 1991 Domaine Georges Mugneret/Mugneret-Gibourg Echezeaux. BH 94. This possesses perhaps the most complex nose of any of these “youngsters” as there is a potent mix of spice, game, herb, leather, earth and smoke nuances that seems to signal the remarkably dense, sweet and intense flavors of near perfect balance and stunning length. While this is sublime now there is sufficient structure to carry it another 10 to 15 years with no problem, perhaps longer. In a word, astonishing and highly recommended.

agavin: I may have brought it, but for me, it was also (red) WOTN. Really expressive.

1990 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Volnay 1er Cru Santenots-Du-Milieu. BH 87. Rich, fragrant and complex black fruit aromas explode from the glass and lead to very rich, robust, indeed almost massive flavors underpinned by chunky tannins and good length if not much finesse or elegance. This is not a typical Volnay and will appeal more to those who enjoy Rhone-style Burgundies as it’s a powerful Volnay.

1990 Domaine Rossignol Trapet Chapelle-Chambertin. 96 points. Considerable bricking and somewhat opaque; knew from the outset it was at least fifteen years old. The luxurious bouquet sings with the finest elements of great Burgundy! Sous-bois, earth, rose petals, charred cork, and hints of smoke, etc. The wine features brilliantly focused acidity, all the elements on the bouquet, and a mind-bending textural mouthfeel! Lasting finish marked by tremendous acidity and unbridled deliciousness!

2009 Domaine Joseph Voillot Volnay 1er Cru Les Fremiets. BH 91. A deft touch of wood sets off an attractive mix of violets, wet stone and ripe red cherry aromas. The rich, full and seductively textured flavors possess excellent delineation and fine length. This is on the awkward side today as it hasn’t fully harmonized but the underlying material is of sufficiently high quality that it should do so in time.

1990 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Le Corton. BH 92. A complex nose of earth, leather, game and very ripe, in fact hints of over ripe pinot fruit leading to still firmly structured flavors are underpinned by curiously dusty, chalky tannins with outstanding length. In many ’90s, the fruit will never outlast the fruit but here the structure is completely integrated with the sappy and mouth coating flavors and finish. The only nit is that the wood is not subtle and while not dominant, if it hasn’t melted into the essence of the wine by now, it probably will always display a trace of it. Still, this is a most impressive effort in every respect and certainly built for the long haul as this is no where near its apogee in this format.

1994 Prince Florent de Merode Corton-Clos du Roi.

Suckling pig. Loin, Belly, Confit Pressé, Young Lettuces, Cherry, Mustard. An awesome trio of pig. The rich pork belly, the succulent loin, moist and with delicious herbal notes, and the confit fritter. Wow! A bit of chorizo juice on top too.

1990 Lynch Bages. Parker 99. This magnificent Lynch Bages has been drinking well since the day it was released and it continues to go from strength to strength. The biggest, richest, fullest-bodied Lynch Bages until the 2000, the fully mature 1990 exhibits an unbelievably explosive nose of black currants, cedarwood, herbs and spice. The majestic, classically Bordeaux aromatics are followed by a full-bodied, voluptuously textured, rich, intense wine with superb purity as well as thrilling levels of fruit, glycerin and sweetness. This beauty should continue to provide immense pleasure over the next 15+ years.

1978 Leoville-Las Cases. Parker 90-93. The 1978 Las Cases has taken on a garnet hue with some dark ruby tints. The nose is more complex and penetrating than the flavors. The wine offers classic, mineral, lead pencil, smoky, earthy scents, with plenty of ripe fruit, and none of the vegetal herbaceousness that many 1978s have begun to exhibit. The attack offers good ripeness, medium to full body, higher acidity than many more recent vintages, and considerable tannin in the hard finish. Although this wine possesses outstanding complexity, the high tannin level may never fully melt away. While it will last another 15-20 years, the 1978 is at its apogee and will slowly dry out over the next two decades.

1973 Rothschild Brothers of California Cabernet Sauvignon. 84 points. The nose speaks of old, maderized, gone wine. The palate initially also seems tired, but bottle after bottle, they wake up after an hour. Dried cherries and some woody notes on the palate; silky; some worcestershire. Unsure how this was 20 years ago (probably just okay) but surprising that this has any character left at this point.

1995 Bryant Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Parker 99-100. The 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon is cut from the same mold as the profound 1996, displaying astonishing levels of black fruits (the usual suspects – blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and cassis), phenomenal concentration, and virtually perfect balance and equilibrium.

1982 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sauvignon. Parker 73. Me 93. Tasted like a nice 82 Bordeaux!

2009 Donelan Syrah Obsidian Vineyard. VM 95. Another stellar wine, 2009 Syrah Obsidian Vineyard is fabulous today. In 2009, the Obsidian has a little more fruit, richness and sheer volume, all of which serve to balance some of the wilder notes of this cool-climate, marginal site. Dark, sensual and alluring, the 2009 Obsidian is firing on all cylinders today. This full-throttle Syrah should drink well for another decade, perhaps beyond.

Prime Ribeye. Dry-Aged, Eggplant, Black Garlic Miso, Onion, Cipollini Jus. A fabulous hunk of rich meat. Super tender and marbled with a very intense (good for me) sauce.

The dessert menu.

1997 Domaine Robert Groffier Bonnes Mares. VM 94+. Knockout aromas of black and red fruits, flowers, mocha and game. Great freshness and grip on the palate; at once thick and penetrating. Superripe flavors of framboise and blackberry. This powerfully structured wine quickly closed up in the glass. Very subtle and very long on the aftertaste. Another remarkable ’97: the crop level here was just 22 hectoliters per hectare, according to Serge Groffier.

Caramel Custard. Truffle-Praline Almonds, young coconut sorbet, vanilla white soy gelee, pork & maple powder. Awesome dessert. Very soft, almost sweet-soup-like, broken up by the almond crunch.

Lemon Curd. Sparkling goat’s milk ice, vanilla rhubarb, sweet basil oil, wild bay leaf ice cream, cherry blossom gelee. Really interesting flavors and textures. Barely a dessert actually as it was more like an herb/lemon ice — extremely savory and refreshing.

Chocolate. Cremeux, gel, ganache, smoked, yogurt sorbet.

The wine lineup.

Emil Eyvazoff on the left and Chef Vartan Abgaryan on the right.

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 here 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.

Then the menu has a creative format with a fixed price (currently $70) and three savory courses. You can pick from six options per category. If you are a glutton like me, you can add extra courses – and of course dessert.

But an interesting menu wouldn’t be anything without great execution. As you can see above the plating is modern but approachable and highly attractive. But the flavor on the dishes is paramount, and really quite excellent, particularly considering their complexity and textural variation. There is a balanced quality between opposite forces in Chef Abgaryan’s cooking that pulls from Chinese culinary theory, while that specific flavors and combinations are largely American/European. It’s both approachable and sophisticated. Bravo!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

More Foodie Club outings here.

Related posts:

  1. Wine in the Sky – 71Above
  2. Sauvage Spago
  3. Sauvages at Upstairs 2
  4. Spice Up Your Life Szechuan Style
  5. Babykiller Birthday
By: agavin
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Kali-fornia Dreaming

Aug15

Restaurant: Kali [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 5722 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 871-4160

Date: August 1, 2016

Cuisine: New American French

Rating: Better every time!

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I’ve known Kevin Meehan for years as a private and popup chef and have had the pleasure to enjoy many a fine meal he’s put together. But this year he transitioned into the more stationary, and possibly more hectic restaurant world by opening up his own Melrose Ave restaurant! This is our second Foodie Club visit.

With the opening of Kali Restaurant, Chef Kevin Meehan’s broad 23-year culinary career reaches its apex. At Kali, Meehan, whose deft hand was cultivated in Los Angeles’ most prestigious kitchens, joins forces with long-time friend and professional colleague, Drew Langley, previously the wine director at the iconic, Michelin-starred Providence.
For the 39-year-old Meehan, Kali represents the evolution of not just Kali Dining, his roving private dinner pop-up, but the rigorous years he spent refining his craft. The contemporary California restaurant blends the precision and hospitality of the white tablecloth kitchens where Meehan developed his culinary acumen, with the accessibility and ease of a local’s favorite neighborhood haunt.
Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Meehan’s initial foray in the industry was at a fried chicken joint when he was a teenager. While most would be turned off by working the fryer, Meehan was feeding an innate attraction to food, and, in the process, unearthing what would become a life-long love affair with the restaurant world. After graduating high school, Meehan enrolled in the esteemed Culinary Arts program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, an education that he would test and sharpen on-the-line during an apprenticeship at the Michelin-starred L’alban Chambon under French Master Chef Dominique Michou, and, later, alongside Los Angeles’ finest chefs.
In 2000, Meehan drove cross country to assume a post at the celebrated L’Orangerie, then helmed by Chef Ludo Lefebvre. It was there that Meehan met Langley, who he would subsequently work with at the now late Bastide, where Meehan served as Chef de Cuisine, and, later, at Citrine. After Citrine’s closure in 2005, Meehan joined Patina Restaurant Group as Chef de Cuisine at Joachim Spichal’s seminal Patina restaurant in Downtown. During his three-year tenure, the restaurant received a Michelin Star for its fresh interpretation of French cuisine informed by seasonality, and Meehan was consequently promoted to Executive Chef of Café Pinot.
In 2012, Meehan parted ways with the prolific restaurant group to launch his passion project, Kali Dining. The underground operation quickly garnered critical attention for Meehan’s assertive, yet nuanced tasting menus that he prepared, dinner party-style, for Los Angeles top tastemakers, luminaries, and food enthusiasts. Kali the restaurant was birthed from the success of Kali Dining, and the passion that Meehan and co-owner Langley share for pushing the boundaries of the typical fine dining experience.

For Kali, Kevin partnered with Drew Langley.
While most known for his esteemed tenure as the Wine Director at the Michelin-starred Providence in Los Angeles, Drew Langley brings an extensive resume of experience to Kali Restaurant, a passion project born out of his 15-year friendship with Chef Kevin Meehan.
As Co-owner and Wine Director of the contemporary California restaurant near Hollywood’s iconic Paramount Pictures Studios, the 39-year-old’s near life-long matriculation in the food & beverage industry is fully realized. Kali blends the haute cuisine and hospitality of a fine dining destination with the accessibility of an everyday neighborhood haunt, and Langley’s concise, intelligent wine program is a reflection of the core philosophy that defines the restaurant.
Born and raised in a small town in south Maryland, Langley’s initial introduction to the industry was as a dishwasher at a local pizzeria at the age of 13. While his contemporaries found inspiration in the classroom, Langley was drawn to the rhythm and intensity of the restaurant world, acquiring a vast understanding of its inner workings through odd jobs that ran the gamut from line cook at regional chain Perkin’s to corporate trainer for Applebee’s openings to bar back at Solomon’s Pier, a seafood restaurant and nightclub.
In 1997, the then 20-year-old Langley leapt at an opportunity to relocate to Los Angeles, and stumbled into a position at Greenblatt’s, a beloved deli and wine shop in West Hollywood, that would ultimately pave the way for his future career. Langley furthered his three-year wine education at Greenblatt’s with a position at Dennis Overstreet’s Beverly Hills Wine Merchant, before joining the now-closed L’Orangerie in Beverly Hills as Sommelier in 2000. It was there that Langley crossed paths with Meehan, who he would subsequently work alongside at the late Bastide and Citrine.
After opening Bastide in 2002 as Commis Sommelier, and enjoying a stint as Wine Director at Citrine in 2003, Langley switched gears to lend support to entrepreneur and wine collector Jeff Smith for the launch of Carte Du Vin. His time at the local wine cellar management firm birthed and deepened relationships with prominent private collectors, relationships that inform his wine program at Kali today. In 2005, Langley joined the opening team at Providence, serving as Wine Director for Michael Cimarusti’s nationally-acclaimed seafood destination through 2015 when he left to prepare for Kali’s debut in early 2016.
An avid music enthusiast, when Langley is not refining his wine list with new finds or overseeing the day-to-day operations at Kali, the Koreatown resident can be found indulging in the local drum-and-bass culture.

This was a Foodie Club dinner, with just 6 of my regular dining intimates — and of course great wine.

1996 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. VM 97. The vibrancy and drive of the vintage came through in spades in the 1996 Salon, which was flat-out stunning. The 1996 remains a youngster, but is immensely beautiful, even at this stage. Several recent bottles have been just as stunning.

Marinated mussels with some kind of foam. Very nice.

The fancy Dom P Oenotheque box.

1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon Oenothèque. VM 97. The 1996 Dom Pérignon Oenothèque has really turned a corner over the last six months or so. When it was originally introduced the 1996 was hard as nails, today it is an exquisite Champagne that captures the essential brightness and energy of the year. Lemon, slate, oyster shells and white flowers stain the palate in an intense, beautifully sculpted Champagne of the highest level.

Polenta cube with uni.

1996 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. VM 93+. Lime, smoked meat and spicy, vanillin oak aromas. Dense but bright and juicy; sharply focused, intense flavors of lemon, lime, spiced apple and mineral dust. Penetrating acidity gives this a sinewy quality today. Finishes with a flavor and texture of pulverized stones. This grew richer and richer in the glass, showing strong soil character and powerful structure.

From my cellar: 2000 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux. BH 92. Wonderfully intense, green, slightly austere Chablis fruit aromas lead to richly detailed, mouth coating and sappy flavors of extraordinary pungency and while this doesn’t quite have the size of the ’00 Valmur, it has all of the intensity and length. In short, this is a first rate effort with plenty of classic Chablis character.

Yellowtail, radish, tomato, lemon, herbs, marinated melon cucumber pickle. A fascinating blend of textures and flavors. Very very summery, with that watermelon, herb, ceviche thing going on.

Burrata, blackberries, tomatoes, pistachios, flowers. Brilliant and extremely unusual “caprese” execution with a blend of sweet, tangy, and creamy. Great texture too with the soft burrata and the pistachios.

Rosemary bread and butter.

1991 Faiveley Clos Vougeot. 90 points.

1996 Louis Jadot Clos Vougeot. VM 92+. Deep, bright red-ruby. Complex, wild aromas of raw crushed blueberry, violet, raw meat and iron. Intense, primal flavors of crunchy berries and powdered stone. Integrated acidity gives the fruit an urgent quality. Quite powerfully structured for aging. Very long and bright on the back end, with tannins nicely supported by extract.

Black barely risotto. Black garlic, toasted cheese. A very nice whole grain with a creamy garlic herb vibe.

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

1993 Mongeard-Mugneret Grands-Echezeaux. 93 points. Great bourgogne. Classic in every respect and drinking very nicely now. Still potential for more positive evolution.

Black cod. Peas, mint, almond, white chocolate. Really a fabulous soft fish dish with crisp lovely summer peas.

Ron brought: 1999 Chateau Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage A Jacques Perrin. Parker 96. Similar to the 2004 and made from a blend of 60% Mourvedre, 20% Grenache, 10% Syrah, and 10% Counoise, the 1999 Châteauneuf du Pape Hommage À Jacques Perrin is a perfumed, gorgeously rich effort that excels on its elegance, complexity and length. From a cooler year and possessing bright acidity, full-bodied richness and building tannin, it offers up a smorgasbord of cured meats, licorice, dried flowers, spice and sweet berry fruit. Drinking nicely now, it should continue to evolve gracefully for another two decades.

Flannery beef hanger steak with “corn porn.” Leek char. Although a tiny bit overcooked this was some delicious beef and taken to the next level by the corn.

1997 Dalla Valle Maya Proprietary Red Wine. Parker 99. Close to perfection, the saturated blue/black-colored 1997 Maya exhibits complex aromatics of creme de cassis, smoke, spice box, iron, and espresso. The wine has a viscous texture, huge, concentrated, ripe fruit, remarkable body, and a seamless, multi-layered finish. The tannin, acidity, and alcohol are all beautifully integrated.
1998 Bryant Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Parker 94-96. The 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon Pritchard Hill is a fine wine. While it does not reveal much weight, it is a dense plum/purple-colored, big, thick, concentrated effort. Evolved aromas of smoke, cedar, tapenade, blackberries, creme de cassis, and creosote are followed by a lush, full-bodied, voluptuously-textured 1998 exhibiting superb intensity as well as low acid, sweet, pure flavors. This is a dazzling example of extremely ripe Cabernet Sauvignon made under less than ideal conditions. It will drink well upon its release, and over the following two decades.

Kevin shows off the duck!

Duck breast, fruit, giant gnocchi. A really stand out juicy chunk of duck which really went well with the soft fruit.

1995 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape. Parker 93. From a hot year – with rain at harvest – that benefited later-picking estates, the 1995 Chateauneuf du Pape is still impressively young and vibrant, with a solid kick of tannin. Possessing a masculine edge to its licorice, smoked meats, peppery herbs and both red and black fruits, it’s medium to full-bodied, concentrated and a little edgy on the palate, with plenty of similarities to the 2005. It certainly has another decade of longevity, but the tannin will be something to watch. I’ve had more ready to go bottles from my cellar and certainly see no reason to hold off here.

Lamb with cranberry beans and tomato. Great jus here. Also the beans were marinated for days in tomato soup!

Toasted Meringue Gelato. grated candied yolk. This tasted like sweet cream with a dusting of salty eggy goodness. It was mild, creamy, and absolutely stunning. I ate two.

Bittersweet chocolate and orange truffles.

Overall, not only was this a great meal with great friend (and wine), but Kevin’s food was really bang up fabulous. He’s always been a very talented chef but it seems to me, and I noted how in my previous visit that he’s really polished the cooking. This trend has continued, because in a few short months things have gone from great to… well greater. I don’t know anyone else in LA that’s doing this kind of ingredient focused cooking and yet nailing it with such bright pure flavors. The dishes have this balanced tension that is very sophisticated and some of them are pretty stand out amazing like the yellowtail, burrata, cod, steak, duck, and gelato — and noticed how I named a LOT of dishes because the percentage of knock outs is very high!

Service was great. We felt like family.

Really great stuff. Bravo Kevin and Drew!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Kali on Melrose
  2. Kali Cabernet
  3. Big Bottle Madness at Kali Dining
  4. California Dreaming
  5. Uni All the Way Down
By: agavin
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Wine in the Sky – 71Above

Aug09

Restaurant: 71Above [1, 2, 3]

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

Date: August 8, 2016

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Awesome in all ways

_

It is with no small bit of anticipation that I went for the first time to one of LA’s latest and hottest event restaurants, 71Above.

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

This is no casual opening, but a massive (and gorgeous) multipart buildout that encompasses the entire floor. Above is part of the lounge/bar.

And behind that is the stunning dining room with its computer controlled auto tinting windows. Beyond that the view continues all the way around with the chef’s table and several more intimate private dining areas.

The view alone is worth the price of admission, and offers varied sights depending on your 360 degree angle. Notice how even the second tallest building downtown (seen under construction here) is below eye level! On a clear day you can easily see the vast sweep of the Pacific and several mountain ranges.

The surprisingly small open kitchen is a bustling hive of activity. You can see Chef Abgaryan to the left supervising.

Ron brought: 2005 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne. VM 94. Bright yellow. Vibrant pear and melon aromas are complicated by suggestions of ginger, brioche and smoky minerals. Dry, smoky and precise, offering intense orchard and pit fruit flavors that gain weight with aeration. A dusty mineral quality adds focus and lift to the long, penetrating, floral finish. There’s a Burgundian thing going on here that’s quite intriguing.

House roasted and spiced bar nuts.

Savory Canelé. Looks just like the not so savory kind, and has the same wonderful texture, but instead offered an evocative warm taste of rosemary and maybe cheese.

Brian and Jennifer brought: 2007 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru La Perrière. 91 points. Nice open white burg.

Strawberry Gazpacho. Strawberry Ice, Pickled Green Strawberries, Black Pepper, Shiso. Really lovely blend of tangy and sweet with a gorgeous strawberry finish.

Fig. Purslane, Red Onion, Goat Feta, Honey Vinegar, Lemon, Sumac Crisp.

From my cellar: 2008 Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. VM 91-94. Musky, highly complex aromas of lemon, lime and hazelnut. Sweet on entry, then impressively tensile in the middle palate, offering superb intensity to its citrus, spice and mineral flavors. This tactile, penetrating wine builds impressively toward the back end and finishes with outstanding lift and persistence. Rigorous, almost painful, wine, but wonderfully rich for chardonnay with barely 13% alcohol. These vines are in the upper portion of Charmes, next to the top of Puligny-Montrachet Combettes.

agavin: nice and round and enjoyable right now

Amanda brought: 2013 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Chevalier-Montrachet. BH 92-94. There is enough wood to remark upon to the spicy nose of citrus peel, acacia blossom and plenty of wet stone nuances. The rich, powerful, vibrant, fresh and beautifully detailed middle weight plus flavors brim with an intense minerality on the firm and hugely long and saline-inflected finish that is almost painfully intense. This is clearly built to age and will need at least 5 years to harmonize and will reward at least 10.

agavin: awesome!

Ron brought: 2012 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Corton-Charlemagne. VM 93+. Ineffable perfume to the aromas of lemon, lime, lavender and crushed stone. Juicy, tangy and youthfully tight, with a distinctly dusty, extract-rich texture to the flavors of citrus peel, flowers, fleur de sel and minerals. A classic Corton-Charlemagne from vines harvested late (Colin has two sources, one in Aloxe and the other in Pernand; the two vignerons harvested on the same day and Colin carried out a single vinification). The crop level was normal as there was no hail here.

agavin: another awesome wine. Super reductive, but after 2 hours amazing.

Hamachi. Crudo, Asian Pear, Cucumber, White Soy, Cherry Blossom, Sesame.

With a tangy green sauce. Not only is this dish gorgeous, but it had a really bright quality and a great interplay of textures. Isn’t it interesting to note how the humble radish has become such a staple part of recent dishes? Mostly I assume because of it’s striking color contrast and crunchy texture.

Chevy brought: 2007 Marcassin Chardonnay Three Sisters Vineyard. 94 points. Delicious and elegant chard with tasty fruit, mineral notes, and oak on a silky palate and long finish.

agavin: too “cal chard” for my taste, not enough acid.

Larry brought: 2010 Sine Qua Non The Monkey. VM 91. Bright gold. Deeply pitched aromas of pit fruit nectar, orange marmalade and coconut, with a smoky topnote. Lush and expansive, offering palate-staining peach, melon and honey flavors and a late jolt of spiciness that adds lift. Shows a wild blend of richness and energy that will allow it to work with a wide range of foods. A weighty yet lively white blend with impressive finishing energy and refreshing bitterness.

Tomato Tart. Heirloom Tomato, Burrata, 25-Year Balsamic, Basil, Parmesan. Chef Abgaryan really likes to play with texture and tangy/sweet combinations. The play here between the peeled tomatoes, marinated and acidic, and the sweet buttery crunchy pastry and the soft burrata and chewy parm — awesome!

Summer Squash. Basil, Garlic, Pine Nuts, Pumpernickel, Sumac, Grana.

Agnolotti. Corn, Black Truffle, Lime, Sheep’s Milk Ricotta, Parmesan. Wow!

From my cellar: 1978 Camille Giroud Pommard 1er Cru. 93 points. Vibrant cherry, with truffle, tobacco and chocolate. Very expressive in all regards. It came across as, possibly, a Barolo at first due to the strong cherry and earthy charateristics. Sustained power balanced by elegance and smooth tannins with a very long finish. In the end, undenyably Brugandy.

agavin: Ex-chateau. Definitely reconditioned because it was way too young.

Brian and Jennifer brought: 1996 Camus Pere & Fils Charmes-Chambertin. 90 points. Lot’s of animal notes – some smoked game or bacon. Long and complex in the mouth.

From my cellar: 1998 Domaine Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes. VM 95+. Saturated ruby. Knockout nose combines dark berries, violets, spices and smoked meat. A ’98 of remarkable sweetness and depth. Huge but broad tannins are completely buffered by the wine’s sheer concentration. Resounding, utterly fresh finish. This comes across as more accessible today than the Mazis or Griottes due to its sheer volume and sweetness, but it should age well for two decades.

agavin: roar! A kind of sauvages stewy bestial quality.

Brian and Jennifer brought: 2005 Faiveley Clos Vougeot. BH 92-95. This too is very deftly oaked with an earthy and very ripe mix of briar, dark berry fruit and pungent underbrush aromas leading to muscled, energetic and sappy flavors where the mid-palate fat almost completely buffers the firm though not aggressive tannins that add a chewy texture to the gorgeously long finish. There is a really attractive underlying tension here but like most of these grands crus, this is a wine for the patient that will last for decades.

Steak Tartar. Farm Yolk, Mustard, Truffle, Chives, Pommes Maxim. Very eggy and fabulous with that truffle mustard.

Particularly on this grilled bread.

Chevy brought: 1975 Château Montrose. JK 92. opens with aromas of cherries and red berry fruit, with a pretty floral quality too. plum and herbal qualities on the palate with a nice herbal undertone.

Amanda brought: 1990 Château Léoville Las Cases. JK 96+. Deep, dense ruby. Lovely nose, dense with blackcurrant, a little graphite and the faintest hint of cigar box. Rich and plush on the palate, fine grained and pretty much fully resolved tannins, densely velvety.

Ron brought: 1985 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial. 94 points. Clear medium blood-ruby-brick red. Lovely complex mature bouquet of red currant paste, cranberries, rose petals, cedar, orange peel, black tea, old leather and stony red soil. Oh so smooth and mellow on the palate, with balanced acidity and fully resolved tannins. Not big or bold enough for some people, but I could cozy up with this all night.

agavin: striking Tempranillo strength and tannins without the barnyard funk.

Larry brought: 2007 Domaine Grand Veneur Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes. RR 96+. Bright purple. Exotically perfumed bouquet of ripe raspberry, boysenberry and cherry, with complicating notes of cola, sassafras and star anise. Deep, juicy dark fruit flavors provide impressive palate coverage and are braced by zesty minerality. The dark berry and cola notes resonate on the long, focused finish. This is already appealing but seems built to age.

Line-Caught Halibut. Shelling Beans, Wax Beans, Tomatillo, Plum, Verjus.

Suckling pig. Loin, Belly, Confit Pressé, Young Lettuces, Cherry, Mustard. An awesome trio of pig. The rich pork belly, the succulent loin, moist and with delicious herbal notes, and the confit fritter. Wow! A bit of chorizo juice on top too.

Larry brought: 1978 Château Rieussec. 92 points.With more than enough acid to make Timothy Leary happy, the fruit is really fading. If you have bottle, pop it!

Foie Gras. Terrine, Beets, Pistachio, Tonka Bean, Rustic Bread. Awesome. Like super duck butter on toast. The beets were tangy with pickling.

Chocolate dessert.

Pineapple gelee.

And an Armenian shot of caviar to finish, slurped off the hand!

Emil told us this was the most glasses on a table yet (in just 3 weeks)!

The wine enjoys the view. #WineInTheSky

Emil Eyvazoff on the left and Chef Vartan Abgaryan on the right.

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 here 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.

Then the menu has a creative format with a fixed price (currently $70) and three savory courses. You can pick from six options per category. If you are a glutton like me, you can add extra courses – and of course dessert.

But an interesting menu wouldn’t be anything without great execution. As you can see above the plating is modern but approachable and highly attractive. But the flavor on the dishes is paramount, and really quite excellent, particularly considering their complexity and textural variation. There is a balanced quality between opposite forces in Chef Abgaryan’s cooking that pulls from Chinese culinary theory, while that specific flavors and combinations are largely American/European. It’s both approachable and sophisticated. Bravo!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

More Foodie Club outings here.

Related posts:

  1. SOS – Wine Rescue
  2. Elite Wine Night
  3. Oceans of Wine
  4. Fraiche – Ultimo Wine Dinner
  5. Wine on the Beach
By: agavin
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Yazawa – Marble or Meat?

Jul25

Restaurant: Yazawa

Location: 9669 S Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. (310) 275-2914

Date: July 12, 2016 & April 25, 2019

Cuisine: Wagyu Yakiniku

Rating: Like eating silk and gold

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Totoraku, the ultimate Japanese Korean BBQ place evidently has a new challenger in town.

Yazawa is branch of a Japanese restaurant spun out from a super high end butcher. They serve up a variety of Yakiniku (Japanese take on KBBQ) done primarily with genuine A-5 Black Wagyu cows from Japan. The frontage is located on tony Little Santa Monica deep in Beverly Hills.

The interior soars upward with high ceilings, but doesn’t offer very many tables.
In fact, they all conform to this standard fairly small 4 top configuration.

The menu, which takes a bit of time to explain the cow.

For wine tonight, as there were four of us, and the corkage steps up after 4 bottles, we just opened one each — but they were good ones:

Larry brought: 1996 Lynch Bages. Parker 90-93. The 1996 exhibits a dark plum/ruby/purple color that is just beginning to lighten at the edge, surprisingly velvety tannins and a classic Pauillac bouquet of lead pencil shavings, cedarwood, black currants, sweet cherries and spice box. This medium to full-bodied, elegant, savory, broad wine is still five years away from full maturity. It should continue to drink well for another 10-15 years.

From my cellar: 1996 Mouton-Rothschild. Parker 94-96. This estate’s staff believes that the 1996 Mouton-Rothschild is very complex. I agree that among the first-growths, this wine is showing surprising forwardness and complexity in its aromatics. It possesses an exuberant, flamboyant bouquet of roasted coffee, cassis, smoky oak, and soy sauce. The impressive 1996 Mouton-Rothschild offers impressive aromas of black currants, framboise, coffee, and new saddle leather. This full-bodied, ripe, rich, concentrated, superbly balanced wine is paradoxical in the sense that the aromatics suggest a far more evolved wine than the flavors reveal. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2030. By the way, the 1996 blend consists of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 8% Cabernet Franc.

Erick brought: 1989 Mouton-Rothschild. Parker 90-92. Considering the vintages and the estate, Mouton’s performances in 1989 and 1990 are puzzling. I have tasted these wines multiple times since my last reviews appeared in print. The 1989 Mouton-Rothschild is the superior wine, but in no sense is this a compelling wine if compared to the Moutons produced in 1995, 1986, and 1982. The 1989 displays a dark ruby color that is already beginning to reveal significant lightening at the edge. The bouquet is surprisingly evolved, offering up scents of cedar, sweet black fruits, lead pencil, and toasty oak. This elegant, medium-bodied restrained wine is beautifully made, stylish, and not dissimilar to the 1985. It is an excellent to outstanding Mouton that should be close to full maturity in 4-5 years; it will drink well for 15-20.

Walker brought: 1989 Penfolds Grange. Parker 93. A very hedonistic, almost decadent style of Grange, this blend of 91% Shiraz and 9% Cabernet Sauvignon from three grape sources – Kalimna in the Barossa, Penfolds’ other sources in the Barossa, and McLaren Vale – is a gorgeously opulent, almost Pomerol-like Grange with an over-ripe characteristic to the fruit. Cherry liqueur intermixed with cranberry and cassis presented in a seductive, full-bodied, very soft, forward style is truly not the classic Grange in the sense of having huge structure and massive concentration, but this wine is loaded, very corpulent, and fleshy. The wine is going to last for up to two decades, but it will be uncommonly succulent and delicious to drink young, as it was several months ago. Among the young vintages of Grange, this is perhaps the most flattering wine that they have produced over the last 20 years, at least for such a relatively young wine. Anticipated maturity: now-2018.

Wagyu toro sushi. This is raw beef nigiri style. And because of the vinegared sushi rice it pretty much tasted like toro!

After the above ala carte item, we ordered the $200 a person “level 4” Omakase, then followed with some more ala carte in the form of carbs.

Trio of wagyu apps.

Tataki “Ponzu Sauce.” Thin sliced seared wagyu with onion slice. Tender little beef bits.

Wagyu Bresola. Dry aged and salted. With the truffle salt this was bright, salty, and had a bit of an “Italian” flavor.

Uni Wagyu Tartar / Truffles. Raw wagyu topped with uni and truffle.

Mix this puppy up and the uni stands in the same way that the raw egg usually would. Certainly a rich little concoction.

7U1A9344
In April of 2019, the trio was slightly different.
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Wagyu on a toast.
7U1A9350
The tartare with uni, pretty much the same as before.
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And Wagyu short rib with polenta.
7U1A9340
Yazawa Garden Salad (4/26/19). Red Lettuce, Sweet Snap Pea, Bell Peppers, Broccoli and Yazawa dressing. This was a nice salad, probably mostly because of the zesty Japanese dressing.

Meat plate 1. And so begin the cuts of wagyu, ready to grill up. There is one piece each, served in pairs with a light sweet sauce, a “bbq” sauce that is pretty standard for yakaniku (slightly sweet soy), and a egg sauce (more on that later).

First up is the Ranboso (round) from the cow’s rump.

This is then cooked (very fast, just seconds a side) on the very smooth gas BBQ.

Flipped about 4-5 seconds later — then another 4 seconds then into the sauce. So soft and tender!

Next cut is the Jyo-Kalbi (chuckeye/rib eye). Notice how the fat runs in a different direction. A little more beefy and intense. Some really great beef.

Out comes this whipped egg/milk sweet sauce.

And Yazawa’s signature cut, the Yazawa-yaki! It’s a super thin cut sirloin, marinated.

The staff are required to cook this one (other cuts you can do it, or they can). The cutis so thin that we would probably just turn it into beef scraps.

It is then rolled and dropped into the egg sauce. Pretty amazing, with a sukiyaki-like flavor and tons of rich beefiness.

Plate 3.

Maki-loin (rib eye). A very evenly marbled cut.
Nakaniku (rump). This is down below the tail, sort of cow ass. Look at that fat striping! And cooked it was ridiculously soft and unctuous. I actually preferred the leaner cuts.

Plate 4.

Misuji (brisket). Not like Mom’s BBQ brisket!

Zabujan (chuck eye). Up under the shoulders with a heavy diagonal marbling. Nice and tender and a bit more beefy.

Then another signature cut, the Chateau Briand (center cut filet).

Look at that candy-striping.

And from the front.

On the grill. This was one incredible piece of “steak.”

We placed an ala carte order of tongue too.

On the grill. Good stuff, but this cut wasn’t super different than other good tongue I’ve had.

After all that meat we decided to “fill up” on some carb dishes.

Japanese Wagyu curry rice. Minced Japanese wagyu curry rice with an egg. This was certainly the best curry rice I’ve had — and I love curry rice. The egg upped the richness but it was the depth of flavor of the curry itself that won out. I just missed the red pickles.

Uni Gyu Toro Don Bowl. Minced raw Japanese Wagyu on rice with uni and pickles.

A very interesting umami taste. Great stuff.

Yazawa special rice. Umami rice topped with ginger and Japanese Wagyu, served in a very hot clay pot.

They mix it up for us.
This is a teapot filled with dashi and some wasabi.
Tons of garlic in there. Optionally, you pour some dashi in to up the umami factor. Pretty incredible like that.

Cold Tan Tan Noodle. Sesame and chile ramen. Since I’m such a dan dan fiend, I figured I’d try this. Not like Chinese dan dan at al. Pleasant enough, with a touch of heat and a cool sesame vibe, but not the hot nutty intensity I was looking for. Still, that would have been weird.

White chocolate semi-freddo with berries. My favorite, light and fluffy and delicious.

Macha green tea ice cream with crunchies.

Almond panna cotta.
Special tea at the end.

The service at Yazawa was absolutely first rate. Not only did they explain the menu in detail, and cook some of the meat (they will cook however much or little as you like), but they were highly attentive, changing out the grill after every course and the like. Colin, who helped us, was highly knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and like a wagyu evangelist.

The food itself was uniformly excellent. All the meat was super fresh and “clean” (if super rich as well). The taste was lovely, although different, richer, and less beefy than Totoraku. Is it better? Just different, as this is just such a different type of meat. Both are fabulous.

The atmosphere was nice, but the format is a bit rigid with their fixed 4 person tables. And those tables don’t have much extra space at that. I had to keep my wines on a seat, my camera between me and the next guy, and constantly juggle around my (only) two wine glasses and other stuff. They need larger tables for our kinds of groups and they need MUCH larger tables with multiple grills for parties larger than 4. It’s also a general restaurant, and therefore doesn’t offer the “taking over the house” factor that is one of Totoraku’s many charms.

The wine thing at Yazawa is weird. There are nice beers and sake, but the red wine selection is tiny. Not too great too. And oddly, looking around, we saw only one other table with any red wine at all — and just one glass! Most of the tables were Asian women, which is a bit odd for such a meat focused place. This combines with a very rigid corkage policy. Thankfully they don’t limit the number of bottles brought in, but they have an escalating corkage of $35/$35/$50/$50/$70/$80 and then maybe even more. I’m not one of those that argues for no corkage at fine restaurants. The $35×2/$50 would be steep but fine, but going above $50 is always insulting. And to boot, they don’t have anything on their list! A $50 corkage is a flat $50 of profit to the restaurant. It’s way more lucrative than any wine on the list under a $100. Why complain? Why try to massage the system to irritate or exclude “wine guys”? It just doesn’t make sense. And for a restaurant that specializes in high end meat? What better excuse to drink first growths and the like?

Overall, Yazawa was so tasty that I’d certainly go back. It’s expensive but way more repeatable than the high end tempura. But we are limited to 4 people by the tables and the wine rules, so it only fits certain circumstances.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. More Meat at Totoraku
  2. Totoraku Double Meat Madness
  3. Spear your Meat
  4. Meat under the Moon
  5. More Meat – Chi Spacca
By: agavin
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Yamakase Summer

Jul18

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

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: July 8, 2016

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Best yet!

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Yamakase is just hands down one of the most fun evenings in LA. Not only is the “modern” Japanese cuisine incredible, but the convivial nature of the place is just great. It’s not very big and as usual we took the entire sushi bar (we had 10 this time, but you can squeeze in 11 or 12).

The location is in a good neighborhood, but something about this particular strip mall is a bit sketchy. Maybe it’s the 7/11. There are a lot of strange characters hanging about.

Inside, chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto rules over the sushi bar.

In the back there are a couple of small tables — but the bar is really where it’s at!

Have a little tuna/toro!

2000 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. BH 95. This is more mature than the 2001 with a beautifully layered nose of yeast, lemon rind, brioche, dried flowers and spice hints. There is excellent volume and superb intensity to the firm mousse that despite the firmness exhibits a very fine bead. This is exceptionally impressive in the mouth with the same striking complexity of the nose coupled with positively gorgeous length. A knockout that could be drunk now with pleasure or held for a few more years first; personally I would opt for the latter but either way, this is a classic Clos des Goisses.

agavin: our bottle was delicious, but perhaps a touch advanced.

Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. VM 94. The NV Grande Cuvée is absolutely stellar. This is one of the very best Grande Cuvées I can remember tasting. The flavors are bright, focused and beautifully delineated throughout, all of which make me think the wine will age well for many, many years. Lemon peel, white flowers, crisp pears, smoke and crushed rocks race across the palate in a vibrant, tense Champagne that epitomizes finesse. This release is based on the 2005 vintage and was disgorged in winter 2012/2013.

2000 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. BH 96. A wonderfully layered and nuanced nose features an intense yeasty character to the maturing fruit that displays interesting phenolic characters, in particular petrol, along with aromas of apple, pear and soft citrus hints. In contrast to the nascent maturity expressed by the nose the flavor profile is still tight and backward with a genuinely gorgeous texture, all wrapped in a strikingly persistent and highly complex finish. For my taste the 2000 Brut is at an inflection point as the nose does offer enough maturity so that it’s really quite pretty whereas the palate impression is substantially younger. As such it really just depends on how you prefer your Champagne because I suspect that the nose will be very mature by the time the still very youthful flavors attain their majority. For my taste preferences it would be no vinous crime to begin enjoying this now but be aware that this will age for a very long time. The best approach is probably to buy 6, or even 12, bottles and enjoy them over a longer period of time.
Homemade tofu, Momotaro tomato, and uni. A “typical” Yamakase tofu dish. Great interplay of textures and flavors. I could even handle the tomato!

Persimmon butter sandwich with marcona almonds. This is an odd one, but delicious. The orange stripes are dried persimmon which has been hung to dry for months. This is a traditional Japanese New Year preparation and very highly prized. The lighter stripe is frozen high end butter! Almost like a little petite four.

1994 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Heimbourg Vendange Tardive. 93 points. Burnt creme brulee, dried apricot, carmelized peach/apricot in the pie tin; rich, creamy, full bodied with medium sweetness. Slight petrol-botrytis evident here (although not supposed to override varietal characteristics, I believe it does in this case); round, soft, but with overwhelming apricot notes; long finish.

From my cellar: 2009 Weingut Knoll Riesling Smaragd Dürnsteiner Kellerberg. VM 92. Medium green-yellow. Seductive aromas of ripe peach, subtle blossom honey and mandarin orange. Becomes more exotic in the mouth, adding papaya and lime to the mix. Sweet peach and papaya fruit is lifted by extraordinarily elegant lemony acidity. Finishes with palate-staining fruit and intense wet rock minerality. Wonderful to drink now, but should be even better between 2014 and 2024.

From my cellar: 2004 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune. VM 95. Pale, bright yellow. Ripe pineapple, liquid stone and exotic honey on the nose, with a spicy lift that suggests an oak influence this wine does not possess. On entry, this is sweeter and creamier than the Frederic Emile, but it livens up quickly in the middle, showing powerful minerality and sharply delineated flavors of liquid stone, pineapple and citrus peel. Still, this conveys a distinctly glyceral impression that suggests more sweetness than its 5 grams of residual sugar, no doubt a function of the 20% or so botrytized berries (in contrast to the Frederic Emile, which included no botrytis). Communicates an impression of power with elegance, finishing minerally and long but not austere. Pierre Trimbach compared this wine to the estate’s great 1990. This is already showing more Rosacker terroir than riesling character. About 9,000 bottles were made from 1.5 hectares of vines.

Abalone with eel sauce. The crunchy chewy mollusk simply served and delicious.

Mantis shrimp, baby peach, scallop, orange clam, and seaweed. I loved the sweet/tangy sauce too. Very lovely.

1996 Domaine Bernard Morey et Fils Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets. VM 93. Knockout nose combines herbs, white flowers and spiced pear; at once oily and precise. Rich-bordering-on-thick but given clarity by juicy limey acidity. Very long, palate-staining finish. The yield here was a good 50 hectoliters per hectare, says Morey. Yet this is so much more fleshy and pliant than so many ’96s.

2004 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Boudriotte. BH 89. A deft touch of wood frames citrus and earth infused ripe chardonnay fruit aromas that lead to rich, full and fleshy flavors that are robust if not especially structured, all wrapped in a delicious and easy to like finish. There is good freshness here if not great underlying tension with fine overall balance and fine length. In sum, this is a generous and easy to like effort that should repay a few years in the cellar.

Oyster, uni, quail egg, caviar. One of these super Yamakase spoons of crazy umami-rich ingredients.

Roasted unagi with eel sauce and bamboo shoots. This was very fresh, light, and seasonal.

2006 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. VM 96. Pale, bright yellow-green. Knockout nose combines ripe pineapple, dried fruits, lemon, lime, crushed stone, minerals and mint. A wine of outstanding intensity, power and thrust, with sappy mineral and toasted bread flavors saturating the palate. Most impressive today on the explosive, mounting, tactile finish, which leaves the mouth vibrating. This called to mind Corton-Charlemagne-or a great Austrian riesling. Winemaker Seguier loves this but feels that the 2004 is in the same quality league. And the 2007 is even more chalky, he adds.

From my cellar: 2002 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM93+. Musky aromas of chicken broth, lime and crushed stone; quite austere and slow to open. Then less fruity but more important on the palate, with bracing flavors of lemon and apple and an impression of minerality I can only describe as creamy. A very rich, dense wine with a strength of material that belies the normal-for-Raveneau yield of about 50 hectoliters per hectare.

2009 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 93. The 2009 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre is super-impressive. There is a level of detail, nuance and energy to the fruit that is quite rare in 2009. The Montée de Tonnerre possesses dazzling purity all the way through to the finely articulated, chiseled finish. This is yet another superb effort from Raveneau. I have a slight preference for the 2010 here, but the 2009 will offer fabulous drinking while its younger sibling ages in the cellar.

Shrimp with tomatoes and parmesan. A new dish, and a delicious one. The tangy tomato/parm sauce was quite lovely.

Chef Yama works on his next course.

2001 Marc Colin et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. 92 points. Beautiful from the get go showing honey, roasted hazelnuts, some white chocolate, and a little tropical fruit. Reminded me of an Aubert Chardonnay in many ways. Nice mid weight…not a blockbuster but at the low end of outstanding.

2002 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne. VM 92+. Very subdued nose hints at apple, minerals and nutty oak. Then intensely flavored, penetrating and youthfully backward, with bracing flavors of apple, spiced pear and powdered stone. Very densely packed, spicy wine that’s currently dominated by its powerful spine. This needs a good five or six years to blossom in the bottle and may well merit a higher score.

Frozen toro, uni, and blue crab on toast. This toast and rich toro/crab combo is so good. Like a super high end version of a tuna sandwich.

Truffle, crab, quail egg, salmon egg, uni parfait. Classic Yamakase greatness. White truffles apparently this time of year. In December it was black.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 93. While understandably tighter, this is still drinking much like the same wine in 750 ml format (see herein). An expressive and still quite fresh nose includes white flower, pronounced honey and exotic fruit aromas nuanced by spice hints flow seamlessly into a similar flavor profile on the thick, powerful and vibrant middle weight flavors yet that possess more than sufficient acidity to buffer the weight and richness. Overall, this is beautifully balanced, long and offers superb intensity and has everything it needs to continue a graceful evolution. As one would expect from magnum, this isn’t quite ready for prime time and while it could be drunk with pleasure, if you wish to see the wine at its optimum point of development, it will be necessary to wait for a few more years first.

2008 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. BH 91-94. A subtle touch of pain grillé highlights citrus notes that, like the Pucelles, exhibit hints of honeysuckle and fennel nuances that complement perfectly the textured, rich and sweet medium plus weight flavors that are quite supple yet remain detailed, energetic and strikingly long on the explosive finish. This is a relatively powerful Bienvenues. In a word, terrific.

Orange clam and scallop in a dill sauce. A new treatment of some familiar ingredients. The dill sauce make for a different (and tasty) take on things.

Bluefin tuna, caviar. Some of the best chunks of tuna I’ve had.

From my cellar: 1985 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. A little oxidized. Not premoxed, just getting old.

From my cellar: 2002 Louis Jadot Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. VM 96. Taut, vibrant aromas of grapefruit, apple, pear, and powdered and wet stone. A great expression of rocks in the mouth, with extremely pure flavors of grapefruit and lemon. Conveys a powerful impression of sweetness allied to sheer energy. Fabulous, consistent wine with near-perfect balance and extraordinary length. As penetrating as it is today, I would not describe this wine as austere.

1999 Henri Boillot Chevalier-Montrachet. 94 points. Light yellow in color. A bit of hazelnut to start but also some wood and bitterness. About 6 hours later, the wood resolved and the wine expressed some pear, honey, and hazelnut. This was supported by plenty of lemon acidity. Still very young.

Foie gras, toro, quail egg, truffle cheese, blue crab. Wow! This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious. You wouldn’t think it works, but it’s amazing.

King crab, steamed. Simple steamed fresh crab.

1998 Domaine du Clos de Tart Clos de Tart. VH 95+. Bright ruby. Highly complex nose melds black raspberry, Indian spices, gunflint, tar and smoky oak; seemed to grow fresher and more vibrant with aeration. Dense, thick and highly concentrated, with brilliantly defined but still rather backward fruit flavors. Finishes with great length and extremely fine tannins that dust the entire mouth.

2002 Domaine du Clos de Tart Clos de Tart. VM 95. Bright red-ruby. Highly nuanced, expressive nose combines strawberry, raspberry, minerals, lavender, chocolate, underbrush and fennel. Superconcentrated, silky and sweet in the mouth but with superb definition and energy. The wine’s sheer density of material completely buffers its 14+% alcohol. Finishes dry and classic, with explosive rising fruit and terrific thrust. The tannins are buried in fruit and soil tones. A great Burgundy

The chef is working on his ramen. Bright yellow eggy noodles.

Ultimate ramen bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with truffles and filled with yummy seafood bits. Underneath are the ramen noodles. There was crab, beef, oyster, and who knows what else in here. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good. The broth had quite a white pepper kick too which was amazing.

1986 Joseph Drouhin Grands-Echezeaux. 94 points.

1996 Denis Mugneret Père et Fils Richebourg. BH 93. Subtly complex nose of leather, earth and dried grasses with delicious yet quite structured flavors and fine length. There is good sève and muscle underlying the flavors though the tannins are completely ripe and the wine should drink well over the medium term. This is not flamboyant or especially opulent yet it delivers plenty of character and quality in a refined, discreet style. I like this very much.

1953 Remoissenet Père et Fils Richebourg. 95 points. Domain release. Must have been reconditioned as it tasted crazy young (for a ’53).

Miyazaki beef with truffle pepper sauce. Melt in your mouth with a bit of pepper kick.

Some amazing sake!

Blue fin sushi. Bordering over to chu-toro. Just a lovely bit of sushi.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Sea bass. To die for.

Chu or O toro. Lethal. We had several pieces of this each.

Uber handroll. Uni, king crab, toro, shiso. You’ve never had a handroll quite like this powerhouse! Had two of these.

A small taste of baby peach sorbet. Super light and refreshing.

“Only” 25 bottles of wine. 10 people. Great stuff tonight too. No bad or spoiled wines. Stuff was great in all 4 categories: champ, white burg, red burg, and sake. Just some really stellar drinks.

There are different was to experience Yamakase, depending on you number, but all but one time I’ve taken the whole bar. On a night when the bar is split between a collection of smaller parties it might be more staid. But when we take over, it’s certainly not. We do the wine service ourselves for the most part with a little aide from the accommodating servers. It feels like a “private party with Yama.”

Food-wise, this was one of my best meals this year — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. A total blow out and Yama’s cuisine keeps gaining in strength and power. Really quite incomparable. He is unquestionably a genius. Yama has a tremendous range within Japanese cuisine, first rate ingredients, and a savvy palate. He is quite skilled at very traditional more subtle Japanese as well, but has tuned up the typical Yamakase meal with high end ingredients and bolder combinations for a more contemporary wow factor.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “ramen” are just to die for.

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

Related posts:

  1. Sumo Bowl Yamakase
  2. Yamakase Yummy
  3. Yamakase – Burghound Bday
  4. Yamakase – Crab Guts are Yummy!
  5. Yamakase Return
By: agavin
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Sumo Bowl Yamakase

May25

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

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: May 20, 2016

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Best yet!

_

Yamakase is just hands down one of the most fun evenings in LA. Not only is the “modern” Japanese cuisine incredible, but the convivial nature of the place is just great. It’s not very big and as usual we took the entire sushi bar (we had 10 this time, but you can squeeze in 11 or 12). This is my second time at the new location and while the back was empty first time around, this time there were 8 or so people at 2-3 tables back in the “depths” of the restaurant.

The location is in a good neighborhood, but something about this particular strip mall is a bit sketchy. Maybe it’s the 7/11. There are a lot of strange characters hanging about.

Inside, chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto unpacks his giant slabs of tuna.

We start with a bang! 2003 Krug Champagne Clos du Mesnil. VM 94+. The 2003 Clos du Mesnil is insanely beautiful. Vivid, resonant and textured in the glass, the 2003 boasts magnificent depth and pure breed. Since I last tasted it a few months ago, the 2003 has begun to shut down, which is probably a great sign for its future and overall longevity. Hints of smoke, slate and dried pear gradually open up in the glass, but the 2003 mostly stands out for its exceptional finesse.

Homemade tofu, Momotaro tomato, and sweet shrimp. A “typical” Yamakase tofu dish. Great interplay of textures and flavors. I could even handle the tomato!

1998 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon P2. VM 95. The 1998 Dom Pérignon P2 is open and beautifully expressive today. Unusually open for a young P2, the 1998 drinks well upon release, especially compared to the 1996, which was virtually unapproachable for the first few years after release. That is not at all the case with the 1998, which is quite open at this stage. Hints of apricot, almond, white flowers and chamomile add texture on the fleshy, resonant finish. The added time on the lees has given the P2 an added dimension of texture.

Abalone with eel sauce. The crunchy chewy mollusk simply served and delicious.

2002 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. JG 99+. At first sight a lovely bright golden colour. A very charismatic fresh nose, promise of natural intensity and elegance with strong presence of fruits, fruits of all types. A diverse bouquet of orange aromas with some notes of liquorice and light chocolate biscuit can be enjoyed.
On the palate, astonishing, balanced and delicate with significant fresh, tropical, wild and crystalised fruits. It is a hymn to fruit: red, white and citrus fruit with notes of cassis, chocolate, candied-orange peel, cocoa beans, honey with hints of smoke and toast enhanced by a vibrant, persistent long finish. It is a balanced dialogue between Pinot Noir (40%) and Chardonnays (39%) with Meunier (21%).

Persimmon butter sandwich. This is an odd one, but delicious. The orange stripes are dried persimmon which has been hung to dry for months. This is a traditional Japanese New Year preparation and very highly prized. The lighter stripe is frozen high end butter! Almost like a little petite four.

Mantis shrimp, baby peach, scallop, seaweed. I loved the sweet/tangy sauce too. Very lovely.

1985 Louis Jadot Montrachet Le Montrachet. 90 points. Still intact, deep yellow, but fruit a bit faded.

Fresh steamed eel and baby squid. Lovely textures. I think the green things were bits of sisho too, or shiso flowers.

1986 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Montrachet. 94 points. From a virtually perfect bottle, this wine had a deep yellow center and clear rims. Not surprisingly, the nose was rather closed at first. Eventually, the high- intensity nose showed apples, vanilla, macaroons, and white stone. In the mouth, this wine was reasonably ripe and rich but the wine’s majesty came from its powerful acidity. Not surprisingly, it showed awesome length after some time.

Scallop or clam with salmon row and steamed ice fish. These tiny little fish are so cute!

2007 Louis Latour Montrachet. BH 95. A deft touch of wood serves as a background presence for the reserved but fresh and bright floral, citrus, brioche and spice aromas that are strikingly complex and broad and complement the full-bodied flavors that are deep, dense and massive with exceptionally powerful drive and intensity on the gorgeously long and palate staining finish. This is an impressive wine blessed with great underlying material, perfect balance and superb harmony plus it’s built for the long haul. Note however that the expressiveness of the nose aside, the flavors are like a block of stone and thus I would suggest not opening a bottle for the next few years as it would likely be a complete waste.

Oyster, uni, quail egg, caviar. One of these super Yamakase spoons of crazy umami-rich ingredients.

1979 Domaine Michel Gaunoux Pommard 1er Cru Les Grands Épenots. JG 92. Or bottle was in great shape!

Seared beef, foie gras, and a foie gras sauce. Rich and delicious.

From my cellar: 2002 Domaine Amiot Guy et Fils Montrachet. Burghound 93. Tight yet fragrant aromas of stunning complexity reveal hints of peach, pear and a trace of wood spice, leading to large-scaled, extremely ripe flavors that stain the palate with wave after wave of sappy extract. Exceptionally powerful and very masculine, this is a very backward wine today with impressive focus and precision and it will require a minimum of 5 to 7 years of cellar time to arrive at its peak, though it should be capable of lasting a good deal longer.

Frozen toro, uni, and blue crab on toast. This toast and rich toro/crab combo is so good. Like a super high end version of a tuna sandwich.

From my cellar: 2000 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les . BH 94. Razor sharp aromas of wet rocks, earth and white fruits meld into flavors that are crystalline in their precision, purity and transparency. Understated, discreet and fine yet this is painfully intense with buckets of minerality. Quite backward presently but this is a genuinely breathtaking wine that defines class. In two words, absolutely brilliant and consistent notes.

agavin: our bottle was fabulous. still reduced even.

Truffle, crab, quail egg, uni parfait. Classic Yamakase greatness. White truffles apparently this time of year. In December it was black.

1999 Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champs Canet. BH 92. Slightly exotic fruit (often a characteristic of Champs Canet) with notes of pineapple and banana with that mouth watering Granny Smith apple acidity. Marvelous intensity on the mid-palate that continues on to the long, powerful yet discreet finish. Not flashy and in fact rather understated for Champs Canet but it has arrived at its peak and is drinking perfectly now. Impressive in that it’s generous yet precise and pure with lovely harmony of expression.

Some kind of delightful raw shrimp or such in a dressing.

Bluefin tuna, caviar. Some of the best chunks of tuna I’ve had.

2000 Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne. BH 91. The nose is still relatively fresh though the aromatic profile is one of a fully mature white burg, offering up notes of dried flowers, green apple and citrus hints that are also picked up by the elegant and pure medium-bodied flavors that display some wood influence on the otherwise admirably long finish. This is a Corton-Charlemagne of finesse and about the only nit is that one could wish for a bit more mid-palate concentration. No other recent experiences.

Yama’s new assistant plating.

Foie gras, toro, quail egg, truffle cheese, blue crab. Wow! This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious. You wouldn’t think it works, but it’s amazing.
Uh oh, crabs!
King crab, steamed. Simple steamed fresh crab.
At work in the kitchen — which is right behind the sushi bar.

From my cellar: 1997 Joseph Drouhin Romanée St. Vivant. 93 points. Garnet color, with light bricking on the rim. Red fruits on the nose, with some spice as well. The red fruits are also present on the palate. Long finish. Very good given the vintage and kept very well.

The chef is working on his ramen broth. Bright yellow eggy noodles.

Ultimate ramen bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with truffles and filled with yummy seafood bits. Underneath are the ramen noodles. There was crab, beef, oyster, and who knows what else in here. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good. The broth had quite a white pepper kick too which was amazing.

Because I asked I got the lefthand “sumo” bowl as my personal portion. It was so large even I couldn’t finish it! Almost though.

From my cellar: 1982 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. Burghound 88. Superb nose of dried rose petals trimmed in minerals and damp earth follow by middle weight, slightly thinning flavors that display excellent complexity and frankly more structure than the mid-palate sap can adequately buffer on the finish. That said, this receives its marks for the sheer breadth of flavors and the clean, pure character. This is a first rate effort in what was a very difficult vintage.

agavin: 94 points. I thought this was drinking great.

This is real Japanese Wagyu, from Miyazaki. It comes with a certificate of authenticity that includes the cow’s nose print and stats. Yeah, the actual animal.

Miyazaki beef with truffle pepper sauce. Melt in your mouth with a bit of pepper kick.

A super complex sake Adam brought.

Erick brought this premium sake back from the brewery in Japan.

Another special aged sake Adam brought.

Some opted for the sashimi plate.

Blue fin sushi. Bordering over to chu-toro. Just a lovely bit of sushi.

Sea bass. To die for.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Chu or O toro. Lethal. We had about 4 pieces of this each.

Uber handroll. Uni, king crab, toro, shiso. You’ve never had a handroll quite like this powerhouse! Had two of these. The second one almost gave me a gout attack!

A small taste of baby peach sorbet. Super light and refreshing.

“Only” 16 bottles of wine. 10 people. Great stuff tonight too. No bad or spoiled wines. Stuff was great in all 4 categories: champ, white burg, red burg, and sake. Just some really stellar drinks.

Plus, food-wise, this was one of my best meals this year — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. A total blow out and Yama’s cuisine keeps gaining in strength and power. Really quite incomparable.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “ramen” are just to die for. I’m headed back in July for more.

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

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By: agavin
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Rhone at Officine Brera

Apr22

Restaurant: Officine Brera [1, 2, 3]

Location: 1331 E 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 553-8006

Date: April 19, 2016

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Some of the best (new?) Italian in the city!

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Officine Brera is one of LA’s hottest 2016 openings and I’ve been waiting for an excuse to haul myself Downtown for months. Another modern “rustic” Italian by the team that brought us Factory Kitchen, including master chef Angelo Auriana, plus Brera brings in some new blood in the form of Mirko Paderno who rocked it at Oliverio.

The actual restaurant is behind us, but like many recent hot openings (including Factory Kitchen), Brera is located in the “Arts District”, a bombed out region of DTLA not far from skid row that is rapidly up and coming.

The area offers a mess of old brick 40s warehouses and factories which are being lovingly converted, allowing large spaces at reasonable rents (for now).

There is a nice outside patio/bar.

And inside the gigantic warehouse/factory space has been reconfigured with highly attractive duct work. Who would have thought that grungy 70 year-old factory windows could look so good?

Tonight’s menu — it changes constantly.

Ron brought: NV Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Réserve Oubliée Blanc de Blancs. VM 92. The NV Brut Réserve Oubliée, is essentially the Cuvée de Réserve with an additional year of aging in tank. In this case, the wine is based on the 2008 vintage, which includes reserve wines going back to 1988. Almond, hazelnut, dried pear and spice notes are all nicely delineated. Sweet, perfumed aromatics add lift to the textured, inviting finish.

Frisceu. vegetable sage fritters, red onions, boston lettuce. Very soft, light, and doughy. Sort of an Italian hush puppy.

Bonus from my cellar: 2010 Paolo Bea Arboreus. 91 points. This is a very special and somewhat odd wine. Very floral and fruity nose with strong apricot and honey notes. On the palate this seems like a different wine with a much drier impression with quite high acidity. Good, and I just can’t resist the charm of the aromas.

Culatello. traditional pianura padana inspired heritage pork, most prized salume. They aren’t kidding when they say traditional. Both Auriana and Paderno are from the Po river valley. Check out this ultra similar treatment at a super traditional (and fabulous) place I ate at in Parma.
Walker brought: 1990 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage Blanc Chevalier de Sterimberg. 93 points. Really interesting nose – almonds and flowers. Subtle and understated on the palate but loved by all at the tasting. A haunting rather than powerful finish. If I had any left, I would be thinking of drinking up.

agavin: in really great shape.

Polpo. grilled mediterranean octopus, water cress, frisée salad, sunchokes purèe.

CF brought: 1993 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Echezeaux. Burghound 91. The once explosive black fruit nose has now begun to evolve and while still showing obvious class and breed, also displays the front edge of maturing fruit, spice and earth notes that leads to still firm but softening flavors that possess impressive concentration with excellent depth of extract and lovely persistence. This has all the material it needs for a very long life and it should go for 30 years with no difficulty at all if properly stored. For my personal taste, I would continue to cellar this beauty until 2010 or so but it could certainly be approached now with pleasure. Tasted twice recently with consistent results.

agavin: opened the night before, kinda gone.

Fagiolini. blue lake green beans, radicchio, baby kale, toasted hazelnuts, raspadura, garda oil. Nice salad.

CF brought: 1993 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg. Burghound 92. Relatively austere and reserved with more minerality than Richebourg usually displays and it possesses outstanding flavor detail. There is still limited breadth of flavors but the intensity here is impressive as is the length and there is clearly a classiness here that is unmistakable. This is still extremely young and very backward in magnum format and this will require lots of additional bottle age to realize its full potential.

agavin: also opened the night before. Better by far than the Ech, but totally missing fruit when I got to it.

Battuta cruda. hand chopped beef, celery, raspadura, quail egg, black ash dressing. Some awesome beef tartar — and I love beef tartar.

Tonight’s theme was actually great red Rhone wines. Funny for an Italian restaurant, but we had the theme before we picked the place.

From my cellar: 1976 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle. Our bottle was totally corked 🙁 Forced me to open the Rayas (below), a turn of fates that no one complained about.

Gnocchi. handmade potato gnocchi, castelmagno cheese fonduta, chives. Simple but amazing. Light fluffy pillows and very cheesy (as it should be).

1978 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Côte-Rôtie Les Jumelles. 93 points. amazing gun-powder aroma that lasted for very long, very impressing & shocking aroma that was first noticed after more than 20 years of wine tasting!!! deep secondaries & tertiaries aromas, mainly of dry ripe cherries, some spices, smokiness and lether. A true expereince!

Nastrini del miracolo. ancient grain house made pasta, butcher’s table meat-ragù, italian parsley. The Fettucine Bolognese you wish your grandmother made! Really a very nice ragu.

Walker brought: 1983 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Cèdres. 94 points. The nose is the star here: full on, heavy and rich with stewed red fruit, spice and old tobacco. The finish is medium length, still some lingering tannin; just a little hollow mid-palate where you would expect more fruit to fully complement the enticing nose.

agavin: drinking great!

Cannelloni. braised beef stuffed oven baked fresh pasta, foie grass, melted cheese béchamel. Now these were awesomely rich and delicious.

Emil brought: 1990 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle. 95 points. My first impression was how perfumed this was on the nose. Just gorgeous and complex, with many aromas including provence scents with black olive, incense, dark cooked cherry, plum, dark chocolate. The palate was enveloping, broad yet fresh, full bodied. The (13.9%) alcohol was felt on the finish, which was just slightly drying, but I’m nitpicking. Really delicious wine! Thanks to Karl Kellar for bringing this gorgeous wine.

agavin: ours was a little reserved at first, but opened up.

Crostacei. vialone nano veronese igp rice, langoustines, crab meat, asparagus, crustacean broth. The risotto here is amazing. When Auriana was at Valentino long ago (I’m talking the 90s) I first had his seafood risotto and it was the best risotto I’ve ever had. Things haven’t changed.

Vahan brought: 1990 Delas Frères Hermitage Marquise de la Tourette. 95 points. Dark red violet color; lamb jus and charcoal nose; bewitching roasted lamb, smoke, black fruit and pepper palate; medium-plus finish.

agavin: our bottle was drinking awesomely!

Milanese. vialone nano rice, saffron, bone marrow, lodigrana. A version of the classic Milanese risotto but with bone marrow, including that big chunk pulled out. Awesome!

From my cellar: 2000 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve. 95 points. enormous spicy nose, very intensive on the other hand fine and very elegant, as light as air and full of vitality, still very young, long, long+, for decades!

agavin: awesome. So much spice!

Polenta and snails. Corn polenta with butter sauce and snails. On tasting the Rayas Auriana went back into the kitchen and ordered this up for us, off menu, to pair. Believe it or not it was perfect, as this wouldn’t be your first guess for a match with big CDP!

Vahan brought: 1998 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul. VM 94. Good deep red. Deep, smoky aromas of black raspberry, pepper, garrigue and spices. Silky on entry, then compellingly sweet in the middle but with strong acidity and firm minerality framing the raspberry, tobacco and roasted herb flavors. The wine’s solid backbone of strong, dusty tannins give great grip to the finish. Offers an uncanny combination of sweetness and verve. This has evolved spectacularly.

Quail. Also off menu. Super tender and with lots of meat.

Ron brought: 1990 Penfolds Grange. Parker 95-96. Deep garnet-brick colored, the 1990 Penfolds Grange has an evolved, earthy character of damp loam, black truffles and tar with an underlying core of figs, dried mulberries, salami and aniseed. There’s a good amount of savory flesh supported by a crisp acid line and medium to firm level chewy tannins, finishing long with some smoked meat coming through. Drink this one now to 2020+.

agavin: big and awesome. Tons of Eucalyptus.
Carne bovina. 18oz California reserve prime ribeye, ash-roasted onions, potatoes, baby carrots. Flannery beef, I think.

Larry brought: 1994 Penfolds Grange. Parker 91. This is the first vintage where Grange went to a bottle with laser-etched identification numbers to preclude the possibility of fraudulent bottles. The wine, a blend of 89% Shiraz and 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, shows some toasty oak mixed with notes of root vegetables, damp earth, blackberry liqueur, prune, and licorice. The wine is dense, full-bodied, not terribly complex in the mouth, but layered and rich. I would not be surprised to see the rating on this wine improve as this youthful Grange continues to evolve. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2020.

agavin: even more Eucalyptus!
Rustin nega’. grilled grass fed 22oz veal chop, cured pork, cipollini, european butter.

Vahan brought: 1997 Ojai Syrah Cuvée Henry Daniel. 93 points. Great color, got darker in the glass as it opened over time, rich, tobacco, blackberry jam.

The dessert menu.
Gianduiotta. milk chocolate hazelnut, sbrisolona crumble, caramelized brulee
Castagnole. freshly fried doughnuts, anise sugar, salty bourbon caramel sauce
Torrone. honey & nut nougatine semifreddo, warmed fudge sauce, amarena cherries
Torta di riso. baked rice cake, meyer lemon mascarpone, raisins, seasonal citrus
Bonet. chocolate custard tart, orange thyme marinated figs, fresh chantilly cream

The chef spent the whole later evening at our table.

Overall another amazing evening.

Food. The food at Officine is just awesome. It’s very Italian, with a fairly non Italian “vibe” to the place and a more modern share plates style. But the pastas and risotto are as good as any you will find in LA with a real hearty flavor forward style.

Service. Service was great and we were treated like family. They are a bit new, and there are still a few minor kinks here — plus this is a busy place casual place so there is a touch of chaos.

Atmosphere. I loved the big factory look. It was a little loud, but not as bad as some (Bestia!). We had 7 people and a fabulous round table.

Company. This particular crew, my “Foodie Club” crew, is really great fun. Everyone steps up, we bring great wines on theme, and there is a touch of organization and division of labor. We plan a whole table food order in flights and flight and order the wine. Plus the company is great.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

More insane Foodie Club dinners.

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By: agavin
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Kali on Melrose

Mar18

Restaurant: Kali [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 5722 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 871-4160

Date: March 16, 2016

Cuisine: New American French

Rating: Really good

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I’ve known Kevin Meehan for years as a private and popup chef and have had the pleasure to enjoy many a fine meal he’s put together. But this year he’s transitioned into the more stationary, and possibly more hectic restaurant world by opening up his own Melrose Ave restaurant!

Here he is in the attractive new space, exhausted at the end of a long busy dinner service.

With the opening of Kali Restaurant, Chef Kevin Meehan’s broad 23-year culinary career reaches its apex. At Kali, Meehan, whose deft hand was cultivated in Los Angeles’ most prestigious kitchens, joins forces with long-time friend and professional colleague, Drew Langley, previously the wine director at the iconic, Michelin-starred Providence.
For the 39-year-old Meehan, Kali represents the evolution of not just Kali Dining, his roving private dinner pop-up, but the rigorous years he spent refining his craft. The contemporary California restaurant blends the precision and hospitality of the white tablecloth kitchens where Meehan developed his culinary acumen, with the accessibility and ease of a local’s favorite neighborhood haunt.
Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Meehan’s initial foray in the industry was at a fried chicken joint when he was a teenager. While most would be turned off by working the fryer, Meehan was feeding an innate attraction to food, and, in the process, unearthing what would become a life-long love affair with the restaurant world. After graduating high school, Meehan enrolled in the esteemed Culinary Arts program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, an education that he would test and sharpen on-the-line during an apprenticeship at the Michelin-starred L’alban Chambon under French Master Chef Dominique Michou, and, later, alongside Los Angeles’ finest chefs.
In 2000, Meehan drove cross country to assume a post at the celebrated L’Orangerie, then helmed by Chef Ludo Lefebvre. It was there that Meehan met Langley, who he would subsequently work with at the now late Bastide, where Meehan served as Chef de Cuisine, and, later, at Citrine. After Citrine’s closure in 2005, Meehan joined Patina Restaurant Group as Chef de Cuisine at Joachim Spichal’s seminal Patina restaurant in Downtown. During his three-year tenure, the restaurant received a Michelin Star for its fresh interpretation of French cuisine informed by seasonality, and Meehan was consequently promoted to Executive Chef of Café Pinot.
In 2012, Meehan parted ways with the prolific restaurant group to launch his passion project, Kali Dining. The underground operation quickly garnered critical attention for Meehan’s assertive, yet nuanced tasting menus that he prepared, dinner party-style, for Los Angeles top tastemakers, luminaries, and food enthusiasts. Kali the restaurant was birthed from the success of Kali Dining, and the passion that Meehan and co-owner Langley share for pushing the boundaries of the typical fine dining experience.

For Kali, Kevin partnered with Drew Langley.
While most known for his esteemed tenure as the Wine Director at the Michelin-starred Providence in Los Angeles, Drew Langley brings an extensive resume of experience to Kali Restaurant, a passion project born out of his 15-year friendship with Chef Kevin Meehan.
As Co-owner and Wine Director of the contemporary California restaurant near Hollywood’s iconic Paramount Pictures Studios, the 39-year-old’s near life-long matriculation in the food & beverage industry is fully realized. Kali blends the haute cuisine and hospitality of a fine dining destination with the accessibility of an everyday neighborhood haunt, and Langley’s concise, intelligent wine program is a reflection of the core philosophy that defines the restaurant.
Born and raised in a small town in south Maryland, Langley’s initial introduction to the industry was as a dishwasher at a local pizzeria at the age of 13. While his contemporaries found inspiration in the classroom, Langley was drawn to the rhythm and intensity of the restaurant world, acquiring a vast understanding of its inner workings through odd jobs that ran the gamut from line cook at regional chain Perkin’s to corporate trainer for Applebee’s openings to bar back at Solomon’s Pier, a seafood restaurant and nightclub.
In 1997, the then 20-year-old Langley leapt at an opportunity to relocate to Los Angeles, and stumbled into a position at Greenblatt’s, a beloved deli and wine shop in West Hollywood, that would ultimately pave the way for his future career. Langley furthered his three-year wine education at Greenblatt’s with a position at Dennis Overstreet’s Beverly Hills Wine Merchant, before joining the now-closed L’Orangerie in Beverly Hills as Sommelier in 2000. It was there that Langley crossed paths with Meehan, who he would subsequently work alongside at the late Bastide and Citrine.
After opening Bastide in 2002 as Commis Sommelier, and enjoying a stint as Wine Director at Citrine in 2003, Langley switched gears to lend support to entrepreneur and wine collector Jeff Smith for the launch of Carte Du Vin. His time at the local wine cellar management firm birthed and deepened relationships with prominent private collectors, relationships that inform his wine program at Kali today. In 2005, Langley joined the opening team at Providence, serving as Wine Director for Michael Cimarusti’s nationally-acclaimed seafood destination through 2015 when he left to prepare for Kali’s debut in early 2016.
An avid music enthusiast, when Langley is not refining his wine list with new finds or overseeing the day-to-day operations at Kali, the Koreatown resident can be found indulging in the local drum-and-bass culture.

This was a Foodie Club dinner, with just 6 of my regular dining intimates — and of course great wine.

1973 Perrier-Jouët Champagne Cuvée Fleur de Champagne. Agavin 93. Strong oxidative notes, but delightfully in balance with a terrific acidic backbone.

NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. This is the 1990-2006 disgorgement. The NV Grande Cuvée is absolutely stellar. This is one of the very best Grande Cuvées I can remember tasting. The flavors are bright, focused and beautifully delineated throughout, all of which make me think the wine will age well for many, many years. Lemon peel, white flowers, crisp pears, smoke and crushed rocks race across the palate in a vibrant, tense Champagne that epitomizes finesse.

Sous vide egg. Very close to straight egg with a little creme fraiche and rosemary. Super delicious and an awesome pairing with the old champagne.

From my cellar: 1985 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. agavin 87. Kinda funky, especially at first, with strong petrol notes.

1986 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Chardonnay. agavin 95. Who would have thought, but this old Cal chard was gorgeous. Nutty, with an incredible white floral nose and a lot of round punch. Fairly Burgundian, although not as acidic.

Bass Crudo. citrus / olive / nasturtium. A fabulous crudo with really strong olive notes that really worked. That EVO drizzled around was amazing, very intense.

1970 Château Haut-Brion Blanc. 93 points. On the nose, ripe apricot, lapsang souchong, gasoline initially. An older dry palate with dried apricots, bitter orange, and faint pecan skin. This bottle was really singing with a crazy strong acidic backbone.

2003 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 91. Here too the nose has incorporated virtually all of the wood and offers elegant ripe and spicy green apple fruit aromas that complement the big, rich and very powerful flavors that are complex and massively long. Interestingly, the flavors seem almost heavy on the mid-palate yet there is good vibrancy to the finish that provides the necessary lift. This would merit a slightly higher score save for the noticeable finishing warmth.

agavin: super round and ripe without a lot of acid. Some botrytis on the finish, almost like honeysuckle.

Shrimp and potato agnolotti. A really nice pasta dish with strong harmonious flavors. Great sauce, nice like texture on the pasta, and very fresh little shrimp with no hint of fishiness.

From my cellar: 1975 Charles Noellat Vosne-Romanée. agavin 94. While this was a bit cloudy, and funky for a second, it blew off and possessed a ton of red fruits, cherries and strawberries and a really nice mature finish. Not a super refined Burg but in great shape.

1990 Domaine Rossignol Trapet Chapelle-Chambertin. 96 points. Considerable bricking and somewhat opaque; knew from the outset it was at least fifteen years old. The luxurious bouquet sings with the finest elements of great Burgundy! Sous-bois, earth, rose petals, charred cork, and hints of smoke, etc. The wine features brilliantly focused acidity, all the elements on the bouquet, and a mind-bending textural mouthfeel! Lasting finish marked by tremendous acidity and unbridled deliciousness!

Wheat berry Risotto. black garlic / toasted cheese. Looked all funny, but a really nice balance between the earthy risotto and the crunchy cheese.

1987 Bruno Giacosa Barbera d’Alba. agavin 93. Drinking great, age having smoothed out all the rough edges.

1952 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo. This was a weird one, some ancient 1952 Barolo “restored” at the domain with 2000 barolo. It tasted like a 1998! Very nebbiolo, with some maturity, but none of that old bricked character.

Aged Liberty Farms duck!

Duck breast with carrots in carrot jus. Just a really nice piece of aged duck with a very french bit of gaminess.

Whole Wheat Crackers. For the cheese below. Delicious. Like wheat thins and graham crackers blended.

Creamy Chevre. tangerine marmalade / whole wheat cracker. Small but delicious on the toasts.

1976 Maison Sichel Niersteiner Rehbach Riesling beerenauslese. agavin 94. Yummy sweet stuff.

1986 Château Filhot Comtesse Durieu de Lacarelle. Nicely mellowed.

Toasted Meringue Gelato. grated candied yolk. This tasted like sweet cream with a dusting of salty eggy goodness. It was mild, creamy, and absolutely stunning. I ate two.

Petite Fours.
We had a few glasses for 6 people!

Overall, not only was this a great meal with great friend (and wine), but Kevin’s food was really bang up fabulous. He’s always been a very talented chef but it seems to me (and I’ll have to try more dishes — oh, poor me) that he’s really polished up the details. Perhaps it’s having his own kitchen, but execution was really on point for each dish. There are comfortable but slightly unusual flavor pairings — and they all worked — which gives a lively freshness to the cooking. His concept was Michelin food in a casual setting, and Kali really seems to be delivering.

Service was great. We felt like family.

Really great stuff. Bravo Kevin and Drew!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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The Legend of Brandywine

Feb02

Restaurant: Brandywine [1, 2]

Location: 22757 Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91364. (818) 225-9114

Date: February 1, 2016

Cuisine: French American

Rating: Totally Legendary!

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The Foodie Club is the most “elite” of my regular groups, with dinners that really take it to the next level. So after the Old California dinner and the Yamakase blow out Larry really thought we out to hit up Brandywine.
Located on Ventura in the far valley, this French American has been open and popular for 28 years.

The decor is cute and romantic, and it’s run by a husband and wife team. She cooks and he runs the front room. But despite the “classic” decor and menu there is NOTHING dated about the execution here. This place has a 28 on Zagat, and for good reason. It’s run with serious attention to detail.

Ron brought this bonus: NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. Light orange. Vibrant strawberry and orange zest aromas are complicated by notes of tea rose, smoky lees and chalky minerals. Bright, incisive red fruit flavors pick up a toasty nuance with air. Fresh, incisive and refreshingly tangy, with impressive finishing clarity and stony persistence.

Bread.

An amuse of grav lox with creme fraiche. Really yummy salmon. Great cure.

The appetizer board. Classic stuff, but as you’ll see, the execution is really spot on.

Larry brought: 1991 Château d’Yquem. Parker 89-91. Yquem’s 1991 is a beautifully made, medium gold-colored wine with a gorgeous nose of creme brulee, roasted coffee, and sweet, honeyed pineapple and other assorted fruits. Full-bodied, unctuously-textured, and rich, but not yet revealing a lot of complexity or enormous weight. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2040.

Seared foie gras with toast and slightly spiced jam. Super awesome classic foie. This is actually a half portion, and was super generous, plus the accompaniments were perfect.

Bonus from my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. ST 91+. Nose hints at spicy oak and flint. Extremely closed and inexpressive today; in a dry style but quite pure and delicate, with brisk acidity. Best today on the subtle, long finish. A very stylish wine but still stunned by the recent bottling.

Escargots. Super buttery and garlicky. Loved them. Some of the best snails I’ve ever had.

Shrimp cocktail. Nice shrimp. The homemade cocktail sauce was pretty awesome.

From my cellar: 1999 Gros Frère et Sœur Richebourg. VM 92. Bright, deep ruby-red. Complex nose melds violet, bitter chocolate, earth, meat and a hint of medicinal austerity. Dense, rich and thick; a wine of compelling richness and sweetness, but also solidly structured despite its accessibility today. Finishes with lush but firm tannins and exhilarating notes of cassis and violet. Lovely pinot noir.

Veal Sweet breads. I’m not usually a fan of the thalamus, but these were pretty excellent in the pepper sauce.

Another bonus from Ron: 1999 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 94. Raveneau’s 1999 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre is in a marvelous spot right now. Petrol, smoke, slate, apricot pit and wild flowers are some of the many notes that grace the palate in an utterly vivid, vibrant Chablis endowed with magnificent purity and pedigree. At fifteen years of age, the 1999 Montée de Tonnerre still has a lot to say. What a beautiful wine!

Caesar salad is table-side, and they do a great job.

Making the base.

Components.

Tossing the Romain.

Caesar salad. One of the best caesars I’ve had. So much better than that watered down cheese-lettuce version most places serve.

Walker brought: 1971 La Mission Haut Brion. Parker 87. 1971 is a delicious La Mission that has been fully mature for the last 5-6 years. This rustic wine has a big, earthy, cigar-box, mineral-scented bouquet, generous yet coarse flavors, and a powerful, dusty finish. I would expect it to continue to drink well for at least a decade.

agavin: our bottle was lovely and full of life.

House made burrata and heirloom tomatoes.

The entree menu.

Larry brought: 1988 Mouton-Rothschild. Parker 89. The 1988 Mouton has an attractive aroma of exotic spices, minerals, coffee, black currants, and sweet oak. Much like the 1989, the bouquet is staggering, but the flavors are distinctly less profound. In the mouth, it is a much firmer, tougher, more obviously tannic wine than the 1989, with medium body and outstanding ripeness. A beautifully made 1988 that will last 20-25 years, its short finish keeps it from being sublime. The 1988 is somewhat reminiscent of the 1985, but with more tannin. Anticipated maturity: Now-2020
Ron brought: 1989 Palmer. Parker 96. Deep garnet-brick. Dark chocolate covered cherries, espresso, cinnamon, rose petals, tree bark and loam. Medium to full body with layers of concentrated fruit and spice flavours supported by crisp acidity and a medium+ level of fine tannins. Very long finish.

Will brought: 1990 Haut Brion. Parker 98. In terms of the brilliant complexity and nobility of the aromatics, scorched earth, black currants, plums, charcoal, cedar, and spices, the 1990 offers an aromatic explosion that is unparalleled. It is always fascinating to taste this wine next to the 1989, which is a monumental effort, but much more backward and denser, without the aromatic complexity of the 1990. The 1990 put on weight after bottling, and is currently rich, full-bodied, opulent, even flamboyant by Haut Brion’s standards. It is an incredible expression of a noble terroir in a top vintage. While it has been fully mature for a number of years, it does not reveal any bricking at the edge, and I suspect it will stay at this level for another 10-15 years … but why wait? It is irresistible now.

agavin: A stunner. Certainly early on the best Bordeaux. Things may have evolved a little with time though.

Ron has been raving for years about the Lobster Bouillabaisse here, so I had to order it. First the garlic toasts.

The the garlic spread goes in the bottom of the bowl.

Then out comes this HUGE portion of shellfish in broth that is ladled in. The seafood was amazingly fresh and the broth was to die for garlicky. So good. So massive.

Chateaubriand finishing up table-side.

Chris, our host cuts it up expertly.

Check out this meat. I’m not much of a steak fan but this was one tender delicious bit of beef.

The whole Chateaubriand plated.

Shoestring fries.
Erick brought: 1986 Leoville-Las Cases. Parker 100! The late Michel Delon always thought that this was the greatest vintage he had produced. We often tasted it side by side with the 1982, because I always preferred the latter vintage. Of course, the two vintages are quite different in style, with the 1986 a monument to classicism, with great tannin, extraordinary delineation, and a huge, full-bodied nose of sweet, ripe cassis fruit intermixed with vanilla, melon, fruitcake, and a multitude of spices. The wine has always been phenomenally concentrated, yet wonderfully fresh and vigorous. The wine still seems young, yet it is hard to believe it is not close to full maturity. It is a great example of Leoville Las Cases, and another compelling reason to take a serious look at the top Cabernet Sauvignon-based Medocs of 1986.

Mark brought: 1986 Mouton-Rothschild. Parker 100! Deep garnet-black colour. An incredible array of aromas on the nose: blackberry, black cherry, tobacco, espresso, leather, black olive and loam. The palate is absolutely seamless from first impression to finish, effortlessly building layers of complexity in the mouth and leading to a very long, earth and spice finish. I can’t see how this could possibly be improvement so have no alternative but concede perfection.
Emil brought: 1986 Chateau Margaux. Parker 98. A magnificent example of Chateau Margaux and one of the most tannic, backward Margauxs of the last 50 years, the 1986 continues to evolve at a glacial pace. The color is still a dense ruby/purple with just a hint of lightening at the rim. With several hours of aeration, the aromatics become striking, with notes of smoke, toast, creme de cassis, mineral, and white flowers. Very full-bodied, with high but sweet tannin, great purity, and a very masculine, full-bodied style, this wine should prove nearly immortal in terms of its aging potential. It is beginning to budge from its infantile stage and approach adolescence.
Erick brought this bonus: 1986 Talbot. Parker 96. A fabulous wine, and one of the two greatest Talbots of the last 50 years, this wine still has a very murky garnet/plum/purple color and a spectacular nose of sweet creme de cassis intermixed with freshly ground pepper, melted road tar, herbes de Provence, and beef blood. It is followed by an enormously concentrated wine of full body, layers of concentration and sweet tannin. The wine seems to be just hitting its plateau of maturity, where it should last for at least 10-15 more years. A prodigious Talbot. Anticipated maturity: Now-2020. Last tasted, 6/02.

Elk chop with fruit sauce.

New York Strip. Have a little meat! Tougher than the filet, but lots of flavor.

Bearnaise and Bordelaise sauce for the steaks.
Walker brought: 1986 Henri Bonneau Chateauneuf du Pape Reserve des Celestins. Parker 95. Few Chateauneuf du Papes from this vintage turned out well, and the few that did required consumption during their first decade of life. Bonneau’s 1986 is just hitting full maturity. It offers a concoction of jammy, concentrated licorice-infused black cherry fruit, with hints of tobacco, cedar, beef blood, smoked herbs, and Asian spices. As the wine sits in the glass, aromas of licorice, Peking duck, and other exotic scents emerge. An amazing effort, it may be the only Reserve des Celestins I own that can be classified as fully mature.

agavin: red WOTN for me (and many others). This was a total knock out of deep mature fruit.

This is one portion of lamb!

Lamb chops. Not only is it massive, but it was incredible.

Another bonus from my cellar: 1946 Bodegas Toro Albala Don Px Convento Seleccion. Parker 100! The 1946 Don PX Convento Seleccion produced with Pedro Ximenez grapes dehydrated under the sun at the time of the Second World War, was only bottled in September 2011. This is an extreme wine, my first descriptor was ultra-mega-super concentrated. It is unbelievably powerful, both in the nose and the palate, full of umami, with sweet cinnamon, Christmas cake, camphor, petrol, lemongrass, Belgian chocolate and butter. Incredibly complex and rich, sweet, balanced and smooth in the palate, it is both very sweet and somehow salty, and with time it develops a black olive note. It combines the texture of the 1962 and the elegance of the 1949. It is as decadent as it gets. 825 bottles were produced. This wine will survive all of us. These wines are kept for generations and offered in very small quantities, but it’s amazing that you can still buy and drink something so old, and I’m even tempted to say that it might represent good value for what it is. A real tour de force sweet wine. Drink it if you ever have the privilege to do so from 2013-2060.

Lemon ice cream and berries. Wow!

Bread pudding. Awesome bread pudding, and went perfectly with the Sherry.

A great creme brûlée.

Chocolate cake with expresso ice cream.

Meyer lemon cake.

It was also (almost) Erick’s birthday — so he got an extra bite of bread pudding!

8 of us took out 15 bottles!
The chef, Peggy, has an amazing touch.
Chris (right), the host, is married to the chef. This place is polished with love.

The food was so spot on. I admit, I was slightly skeptical going into it despite Ron and Larry’s great reviews. The menu seemed a bit “old fashioned” for my taste. But the execution! Wow! The kitchen here is seriously on point. These are classic dishes, but most of them are among the best versions of said dishes I’ve ever had. And there is nothing wrong with the classics when you knock them out of the park. This is far easier said than done, because all over the country (and France) you can find lots of mediocre attempts. Not here. The foie, escargot, caesar salad, and bouillabaisse were all to die for.

Everyone seriously stepped up on wine too. Some real knockouts. The 71 Mission was surprising. The Celestins, 90 Haut Brion, and 86 Margaux were crazy. But nearly everything was amazing. And so much food and wine too. We had to leave a lot on the table of both — if I had more I would have exploded.

This was one hell of an evening. Legendary!

For more Foodie Club dinners click here.

Related posts:

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  2. Hedonists at STK
  3. Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the Sun
  4. Hedonists climb the Peak
  5. Kali Cabernet
By: agavin
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Yamakase Yummy

Dec21

Restaurant: Yamakase [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: You wish you knew!

Date: December 17, 2015

Cuisine: Japanese

Rating: Best yet!

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My Foodie Club Yamakase meal last May was so good, we just had to go back before the year was out.

Again we had the whole place, but it’s a new place, having moved a little closer to my house into a space that is perhaps twice as large. Now that’s still small, but they have about 4-5 feet behind you instead of 18 inches and there is a section beyond the 11-12 person sushi bar with a couple of tables. No one else was there besides our 12, so we just used those tables for wine staging.

2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Millésimé. A nice youthful vintage Champy.

Homemade sesame tofu, Momotaro tomato, and uni. A “typical” Yamakase uni/tofu dish. Great interplay of textures and flavors.

From my cellar: 1990 Louis Jadot Bâtard-Montrachet. 94 points. Superb rich butterscotch nose. Medium gold in color. Not oxidized. Classic batard richness and oiliness. Still some fruit but the oak becames more prominent with time.

Abalone with eel sauce. The crunchy chewy mollusk simply served and delicious.

From my cellar: 1995 Pierre Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. 89 points. This was a nice Perrieres, showing round yellow fruit and slight florals, although it could have used a bit more acidity. I’ve had 3 bottles of this before, and this was the weakest yet.

Persimmon butter sandwich. This is an odd one, but delicious. The orange stripes are dried persimmon which has been hung to dry for months. This is a traditional Japanese New Year preparation and very highly prized. The lighter stripe is frozen high end butter! Almost like a little petite four.

1996 Verget Corton-Charlemagne. VM 91+. Extremely reticent aromas of Granny Smith apple and white chocolate. Vibrant and powerful, but hermetically sealed today. All sinewy structure, with a blazing mineral character and a slightly hard green edge. I’m a bit less confident about the future of this wine than I was a year ago. But certainly true to its terroir.

Lobster, baby peach, scallop, seaweed. I loved the sweet/tangy sauce too. Very lovely.

2002 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 93. Brilliant and ultra fine aromas of green apples and limestone lead to almost Chablis-like intensity and razor-sharp, incredibly delineated, chiseled flavors that offer superb texture and an almost chewy finish. This is quite different from many examples of 2002 Corton-Charlemagne as this more of a world class gymnast than a weight lifter as it’s sleek, silky and taut plus the delineation is like a hot knife through butter. In short, this is reference standard Corton-Charlemagne and highly recommended.

Oyster, uni, quail egg, caviar. One of these super Yamakase spoons of crazy umami-rich ingredients.

2005 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot. Burghound 94. A strikingly complex nose of green apple fruit, pear and a distinct floral note complements perfectly the hugely powerful flavors brimming with dry extract and built on a base of solid minerality. This is a borderline massive wine that is textured, concentrated and sleekly muscled yet it remains precise, pure and balanced with positively huge length. A very impressive wine that could actually surprise to the upside as the underlying material here is as good as any 2005 Corton-Charlemagne.

Cod sperm sack. Oh yeah, looks like a miniature brain. Filled with creamy cod sperm goodness. This was just steamed and served with a light ponzu. If you can get over the look and idea of it, it was delicious.

2004 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Pale, bright color. A quintessence of Corton-Charlemagne dirt on the nose: stone fruits, lemon, iodine, ginger, minerals and mint, all complicated by a musky, leesy note that reminded me of a Coche-Dury wine. Then compellingly dense and penetrating in the mouth, with captivating, soil-driven flavors of raw pineapple, white peach, white flowers and crushed rock; a sulfidey complexity and a saline element add to the wine’s spectacular subtle complexity. Hardly a blockbuster but conveys an impression of great solidity. This remarkably precise wine coats the palate with dusty stone and leaves behind a suggestion of honey. My sample at Bouchard in early June was painfully young and closed though obviously outstanding, but this bottle, tasted in New York in August, was spectacular. (Incidentally, my following notes on the Chevalier-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte and Montrachet were from bottles tasted at Bouchard-also quite backward at the time-and I would expect my scores to prove to be conservative.)

Glass fish wrapped in shiso leaf, with shiso flowers and a light tangy sauce. I’ve never had the shiso flowers, which carried a light shiso flavor. I love shiso.

1995 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. An extremely fresh anise-infused nose features the classic ripe honeysuckle and subtle spiced citrus aromas that continue onto the very rich, generous and lightly mineral suffused medium-bodied flavors that coat the palate with dry extract on the impressively long finish. This is lovely and displays no botrytis notes and for my taste, this could benefit from another year or two of cellar time and then drink well for at least another decade in this format.

Frozen toro and blue crab on toast. This toast and rich toro/crab combo is so good. Like a super high end version of a tuna sandwich.

Yama-san working with his beef.

1969 Remoissenet Père et Fils Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts. 93 points. Step up in finesse and elegance on the palate (not always associated with Malconsorts). This remains powerfully tannic but it is ripe although tannins are a touch rustic on the finish. Overall this has terrific full flavour and is in outstanding condition.

Sliced seared beef with ponzu and chives. A very light delicious beef carpaccio.

2003 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 90-2. Very pale, green-tinged color. Pure, reticent nose hints at cold steel and lime. Dense, sweet and vibrant, with enticingflavors of white peach, minerals and spring flowers. Finishes bright and very long, with an almost tannic impression of power.

Truffle, crab, quail egg, uni parfait. Classic Yamakase greatness.

2004 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon. VM 97. Racy, silky and vibrant in the glass, the 2004 Dom Pérignon is all about energy. Here the flavors are bright and delineated throughout, with veins of acidity and minerality that give the wine its sense of drive. Mint, rosemary and yellow-fleshed fruits linger on the finish with the classic DP reductive overtones that are such a signature. Once again, the 2004 Dom Pérignon truly shines. The 2004 Dom Pérignon is a wine to treasure over the next thirty or so years.

Hokkaido scallops with Japanese roe and olive oil and yuzu. The sauce elements worked together like a dressing and then combined with the soft scallop and the slightly chewy umami of the roe into an amazing concoction.

The olive oil was from Eisele vinyard! Yeah, like the WOTN the previous week at the California dinner.

Krug Champagne Brut Rosé. Burghound 94. Medium rosé hue. A cool, restrained and highly complex nose that is not especially fruity displays a moderate yeast character along with slightly exotic aromas of mandarin orange and Asian tea, all wrapped in an enveloping array of beguiling rose petal scents. There is very good richness with a relatively firm supporting mousse that adds to the impression of richness to the superbly complex and highly textured flavors, indeed one could aptly describe this as more wine that Champagne. As such this is indeed a sumptuous Krug rosé that is difficult to resist already though it should reward extended keeping if desired.

Bluefin tuna, caviar, pine nuts. Some of the best chunks of tuna I’ve had.

1999 Sine Qua Non Tarantella. VM 92. Slightly hazy pale gold color. Captivating, soil-inflected, but rather restrained nose combines gunflint, nuts, smoke and stone. Then wonderfully aromatic, rich and vibrant in the mouth, with intense yellow fruits and musky, leesy and mineral nuances. Thick but utterly succulent thanks to lively, perfectly integrated acids. Long, palate-saturating finish. Potentially Manfred Krankl’s best dry white wine since his 1995 The Bride.

Yellowfin or some similar fish lightly flash boiled and then served with a lovely vinegar based sauce. The fish was melt in your mouth.

2004 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos (magnum). Burghound 95. This too is ultra pure and fine with its nose of wet stone, white flower, sea water and iodine that precedes delicious, full, detailed and impeccably well balanced flavors that are tight but long with a laser-like sense of focus and coherency. This too finishes with noticeable austerity yet there is real freshness and presence, indeed vibrancy here. The ’04 Le Clos will require at least 5 to 7 years to really begin to open up but once it does, it should drink well for 15. A stunner of a wine and one of the stars of the vintage that will be a long distance runner.

agavin: sadly, this bottle was corked 🙁

Yama slices truffle cheese.

Foie gras, toro, quail egg, truffle cheese, blue crab. Wow! This dish was absolutely out of this world. Just crazy rich and delicious. You wouldn’t think it works, but it’s amazing.

From my cellar: 2006 Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. AG 94. Mint, white flowers, pastry and yellow orchard fruit meld together in Krug’s NV Grande Cuvée. This is one of the very best versions of the Grande Cuvée I can remember tasting in recent years. The impression of total silkiness on the palate is classic Krug. Even though this release is exceptional today, I would be tempted to cellar a few wines for the future, as the best Grand Cuvées age effortlessly. This release is based on 2006 and includes wines from 11 vintages going back to 1990.

King crab, steamed. Simple steamed fresh crab.

Ron generously brought: 2000 Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux. Burghound 91-93. Wonderfully aromatic with essence of pinot fruit plus racy and rich flavors, slightly oaky flavors that have abundant material underlying the cool, reserved edge. Complex, long, fine and seamless with a sweet backend that builds in volume. Very impressive for the vintage and this too delivers buckets of marvelously intense sappy extract.

agavin: drinking great, with a real lovely power.

Erick brought: 1991 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin. 92 points. Quite nice for the vintage.

The chef is working on his ramen broth. Notice the noodle bowls ready for filling.

Ultimate ramen bowl. This foie gras based seafood broth was topped with truffles and filled with yummy seafood bits. Underneath are the ramen noodles. There was crab, beef, oyster, and who knows what else in here. Absolutely stunning. So rich. So good.

From my cellar: 1982 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. Burghound 88. Superb nose of dried rose petals trimmed in minerals and damp earth follow by middle weight, slightly thinning flavors that display excellent complexity and frankly more structure than the mid-palate sap can adequately buffer on the finish. That said, this receives its marks for the sheer breadth of flavors and the clean, pure character. This is a first rate effort in what was a very difficult vintage.

agavin: 94 points. I thought this was drinking great.
Yama-san cutting the kobe beef.

This is real Kobe, from Kobe. It comes with a certificate of authenticity that includes the cow’s nose print and stats. Yeah, the actual animal.

Kobe beef with truffle pepper sauce. Melt in your mouth with a bit of pepper kick.

Real wasabi being ground for the sushi.

2001 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Chevalier-Montrachet. VM 92. Yellow fruits, smoky oak and a suggestion of truffley earth on the nose. Rich, ripe and smooth, with fruit-driven flavors of white plum and wet stone. Almost deceptively accessible today, as this has softer acidity and a bit less volume and grip than the 2002. Oaky on the finish, but boasts lovely fruit.

2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 93. More noticeable wood spice than in the prior wine combines with wonderfully pure green fruit and white pear aromas underscored by intensely stony notes, leading to ripe, chiseled, vibrant, wonderfully precise flavors that offer excellent definition. This really coats the palate and the finish lingers for several minutes. I like the punch here yet the intensity is delivered in an ultra refined, classy and pure style.

Dr Dave brought: 2008 Etienne Sauzet Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 96.  notably more elegant, cooler and more reserved nose of white flower, green apple and ample minerality complements to perfection the silky-textured, pure and stylish medium weight plus flavors that possess excellent volume but also wonderful detail and punch while culminating in an intensely mineral finish of superb intensity while remaining a study in purity and refinement. This is one of those ‘wow’ wines that amazes through transparency and delicacy rather than brute force. Still, don’t be fooled by the finesse as the intensity is such that a deep breath is required after sampling this.

agavin: I’d agree with the 96, this was a VERY sexy Chevy.

Blue fin sushi. Bordering over to chu-toro. Just a lovely bit of sushi.

Amberjack. Amazing.

Sea bass. To die for.

2002 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 94. An expressive, elegant and pure nose of spice, white flower and green fruit aromas are followed by dense, big, rich and explosive full-bodied flavors that are blessed with abundant dry extract and a finish that won’t quit. Not withstanding all of the size and weight, this is impeccably balanced and overall, this continues to display that “wow” factor. Note that like many ’02s at this point, the ’02 Bâtard could certainly be drunk with pleasure but for my taste, I would suggest a few more years in the cellar first. Consistent notes.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. Big, rich and muscular yet this offers excellent definition with explosive fruit trimmed in obvious anise notes and luxuriant, sappy, dense flavors of uncommon depth and complexity. The finish is rather linear presently yet offers wave after wave of mouthwatering extract, all beautifully framed by more than sufficient buffering acidity. A Bâtard worthy of the name and a great success for the vintage.

From my cellar: 1999 Domaine Jacques Prieur Montrachet. Burghound 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.

agavin: so big it probably needs even more time.
O toro with salt. Wow, wow wow. These might have been rich, but they were some of the best nigiri I’ve had in a long long time. Chef Yama spent a lot of time cutting and probably threw away 2/3 of the fish.

Chu toro. Lethal.

2005 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne. Burghound 95. Here the nose is completely different with pungent and almost aggressively intense green apple aromas infused with an underlying sense of wet stone that is in keeping with the character of the pure, chiseled and fantastically intense full-bodied and muscular flavors that possess serious punch and verve on the equally explosive and very fresh finish. This also has that ‘wow’ sensation because of the beautiful sense of tension that is like a tightly coiled spring. Terrific.

2008 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 95. 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.

Handroll ingredients.

Uber handroll. Uni, king crab, toro, shiso. You’ve never had a handroll quite like this powerhouse!

Emil brought: Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year Old Family Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 45.2%. 95 points. This was a great Bourbon and Emil was very generous because these are selling for a lot of money. Perhaps, however, a big glass of this at the end of a meal, after 27 bottles of wine split by 11 people wasn’t such a wise move as my hangover was pretty epic too.

A bit of berry sorbet. Dessert is not a big deal at Yamakase.

27 bottles of wine (well 26, with one being a magnum). 12 people (but 11 real drinkers). Plus a 750 of Bourbon. That 2.34 bottles of wine alone per person. Woah! Great stuff tonight too. Only the 2004 Rav was seriously flawed. We had lots of great whites. The awesome Krug Rose, and the few reds we did open (Yamakase being a white focused cuisine) were stunning. Really great stuff.

Plus, food-wise, this was one of my best meals this year — really quite excellent — and regular readers know I have more than my share of great meals. A really great format. A total blow out and Yama’s cuisine keeps gaining in strength and power. Really quite incomparable.

Oh, and that toro cheese dish and foie gras “ramen” are just to die for.

Click here for more LA sushi reviews,
Or for Foodie Club extravaganzas.

A gift from Kaz at Totoraku. haha

Related posts:

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  2. Yamakase Return
  3. Yamakase – Burghound Bday
  4. Sushi Sushi = Yummy Yummy
  5. Raw Crab Guts are Yummy
By: agavin
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Otium Oppulence

Dec14

Restaurant: Otium

Location:222 S Hope St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Date: December 12, 2015

Cuisine: New American

Rating: Meaty goodness

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When I got the invite for this dinner I knew I had to attend immediately. Martine’s Wines, at Otium, showcasing Flannery Beef. A sort of Holy Trinity.
Let’s take them one by one.

Chef Tim Hollingsworth and restaurateur Bill Chait have combined in Otium to create one of 2015’s most anticipated restaurant openings.

The stylish DTLA location is right next to the Disney Concert Hall and Patina. Otium’s concept is very much 2015. The loud hard surfaces, no tablecloths, paper menus, elegant but superficially informal style, emphasis on shared plates. All typical of new trendy eateries. I have no problem with most of these trends, except the noise. Otium is about 80-90% of the volume of Republique, which is still too loud.

But the space does look good. Here is our private “room”. More an area, an attractive one too and it worked quite well — except for the noise. Service was fabulous. You can see the wine glasses arrayed in front and they were individually labeled for each wine. I love not having to reuse stems. That way you can go back to and savor previous flights.

Chef Timothy Hollingsworth (above) cooked at the French Laundry for five years — that’s pretty enough said. As you’ll see, his food has not only very contemporary plating, but very bright ingredient driven flavors with deft pairings.

Our special menu for the night.

A pair of passing apps. Hamachi. Nori, Avocado, Sweet & Sour Tomatoes. This had a real citrus zing in the mix, lending an addictive brightness and making for a fabulous pairing with the Champagne.
Arancini. Typical Roman fried rice balls. These were nice and moist in the center, with great texture.

Greg Castells is our host, and as president of Martine’s Wines he brings some serious wine power into the room. The founder, Martine herself also joined us, and they brought bottles of rare wines in stunning condition. Martine’s imports some of France’s top artisanal producers. These include crazy great Burgundy like Leroy and Jayer and insane Rhones like Rayas.

1998 Saint-Chamant Champagne Cuvée Royále (magnum). 93 points. Nice strong acidity. A very nice classic Champagne.

Scallop tart with caviar, sea urchin, and truffle. Wow. First off the crust was to-die-for flakey. Then the rich pairing of soft umami flavors from the scallop (raw), caviar, and uni. Almost like a Yamakase dish (except the pastry). Great start. And a great pairing with the Champy.

1996 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Meursault Les Narvaux. Burgound 90. Slight petroleum notes make for an odd nose but the middle weight, pure and delineated flavors are blessed with great sève and impressive concentration. The finish delivers excellent cut, definition and exceptional length. In sum, this is a lovely and altogether stunning wine for its level. Note: another recent bottle was very underwhelming as it was somewhat flat and without the lift and vivacity displayed by the bottle reviewed above.

agavin: 94 points. Meadows is so stingy if he gave this a 90. Lovely, lovely nutty mature flavor.

2002 Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy) Meursault Les Narvaux. Tanzer 92+. Pale yellow. Perfumed nose combines minerals, flint, smoke and a roasted nuance. Superconcentrated yet downright elegant, with strongly mineral flavors of lemon and liquid stone. Finishes with superb length and lemony cut.

agavin: 96 points. A real stunner. Still some reduction and searing long, beautiful acidity.

Risotto with hazelnut, brown butter and truffle.
Add truffle.
Add brown butter.

This dish was insane. The rice was cooked down to that perfect creamy (congee-like) consistency. Nice cheesy quality. Then the rich butter and truffle factor, and even the delicate hazelnut crunch. Amazing pairing too with the whites.

1964 Maison Leroy Grands-Echezeaux. AG 94.  Leroy’s 1964 Grands-Echézeaux was simply phenomenal. A model of clarity and precision, it flowed with sensations of red cherries, spices and mint, showing remarkable poise as well as freshness.

agavin 97: My WOTN (and a close call with the 02 Narvaux). Tons of delineated fruit, precise, with a lovely balance on the palette.
1991 Domaine Leroy Clos Vougeot. Burghound 92. This has always been a very impressive wine and one that I have watched evolve since the wine’s release. It has developed an interesting floral element to go with the regal, still entirely fresh fruit and earth notes and it remains completely primary on the nose, indeed even brooding. The flavors are big, rich and powerful and offer outstanding complexity and while the tannins are just beginning to soften, this remains a youngster with a bright future. This should offer an exceptionally wide drinking window and for perfectly stored bottles, it needs another ten years to really be at its peak. Multiple, and consistent, notes.

agavin: 90 points. Deeper colored. This has a bit of that strong Burgundy flavor that MZ declared as “horse”. I taste it all the time and it isn’t our favorite. This note marred an otherwise excellent wine.

Here begins the Flannery Beef meats, this one actually being pork. Bryan Flannery was there with us and his passion for bringing the best meat to the table really stood out, both personally and in the flesh itself 🙂

Pork Callote. Squash, bok chow, coffee, papitas. This was an amazing bit of pork. Very seasonal too. Four of us polished off this huge plate in about 15 seconds.

1999 Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux. Burghound 94. It seems that this has barely budged since it was bottled and at this point, the 750 ml note remains accurate though I found a bit less wood influence here than I did in the smaller format version: An expressive, ripe and elegant nose of Vosne style spice, moderate oak and a mix of earth, minerals and violets leads to rich, round and impressively precise flavors that deliver serious punch and excellent depth. I very much like the overall sense of harmony and fine balance here. This should age well and Jayer lovers will definitely be pleased. Note that in this format the ’99 Cros will age for decades and it will require at least 20 years for this to be at its best.

agavin. 94 points. Superbly balanced, but brooding, young, and a bit closed.
2001 Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux. Burghound 91. Explosive aromas of Vosne spice, fresh earth, soy and candied plum soar from the glass and the Cros does a better job of integrating the moderately toasty oak notes. It is also much more concentrated and one can literally smell the density as the powerful, complex, intense yet defined flavors offer impressive depth and persistence. This is really lovely if not incredible juice by the standards of this wine.

agavin: 95 points. This was much more open with an amazing searing finish. Great young Burg.
Flannery Beef Callote. So rich it was almost like Wagyu. Cooked perfectly too. A real heart stopper and delicious.

Flannery Beef brisket. Served on this little Totoraku-style grill. Dense and delicious.

Zoom in for some beefy goodness.

Potatoes, roasted and mashed, black truffle, greens. Totally opulent with the truffles. This whole course hit me like a tasty ton of bricks. Plenty of calories!

1989 Chateau Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape (magnum). Parker 97-98. A wine that continues to catch up to the 1990 (and probably has greater longevity) is the 1989. A dense-colored Rayas, but not as thick-looking as the 1990, this dark ruby-colored wine exhibits plenty of roasted herb notes intermixed with scents of tobacco, sweet creme de cassis, and kirsch. Full-bodied, highly-extracted, powerful, and tannic (resembling 1995 more than 1990), it is shedding its cloak of tannin and beginning to approach full maturity.

agavin: almost young!

1996 Chateau Rayas Chateauneuf du Pape (magnum). Parker 89-91. This lighter-styled wine appears diluted in terms of color, but it possesses surprising quantities of sweet black cherry fruit intermixed with hints of resin, licorice, and tobacco. It is a medium to full-bodied Chateauneuf with far more flavor and intensity than its light-ish colors suggest. The wine requires consumption over the next 5-8 years.

Lamb loin. Pine nuts, pole beans, tomato, yogurt. This huge rich dish (and we had one of these each!) featured some seriously delicious lamb, and an almost risotto made of pine nuts. The yogurt really brightened it up too, and in combination with the flavors gave the whole thing a bit of a middle eastern vibe.

Salad. This might look a little like a classic Italian American salad, but it had bold herby tones.

Check out the cheese plate!

Pyrenees de Brebis. Persimmon, beet, truffle honey. Very stylish and tasty.

1937 Château Gilette Crème de Tête. 93 points. Pristine condition, even given its age. The nose is so expressive – apricot, orange rind, bees wax, creme brûlée. Wow. Outstanding mouth feel, and length to burn. Tremendous.

Banana Cream Grand Macaron. Various caky and puffy bits in a giant macaron.

1970 Niepoort Porto Vintage. 94 points. Unbelievable bottle! So ridiculously dark. Coffee nose. Very young and dense. Seems surprisingly primary. Still some unresolved tannins. Long finish. With more time, there is an appealing confectionery aspect that emerges. I have had other bottles of this wine and they were more than ready to drink (and actually quite average). This particular bottle needs at least 10 more years of bottle age. Superb!

Chocolate Torte. Persimmon, Olive Sable, EVO Jam. Tasty little nuggets of chocolate.

In the middle is Elizabeth Huettinger, the Otium wine director and on the right Martine. The staff did an incredible job!

Overall this was another incredible evening.

The food was pretty awesome. The scallops and risotto incredible, and the then the assault of amazing meats. My favorites of those were the pork, the wagyu-like steak, and the lamb. There was so much food I couldn’t even finish my lamb. It must have been thousands of calories of meat.

The wines too were out of this world. I was slightly let down by the Clos Parantoux, only because they were great rather than absolutely mind blowing. But the 64 Grands-Ech and the 02 Narvaux were absolutely amazing — and there wasn’t one “bad” one in the bunch, the “worst” of the lot being the 91 Clos Vougeot — and it was still a nice wine. But even the most illustrious roster has to have a ranking.

I’ll be back to Otium both for more wine dinners I’m sure, and to try the menu under more typical circumstances. The overall balance of the normal menu is less meat heavy. Meat there is, but there is also quite a bit of seafood.

Thanks again to Martine’s wines and Otium for putting together such a wonderful event.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. California Dreaming
  2. Babykiller Birthday
  3. Day of the Truffles
  4. Pistola with a Bang
  5. Nanbankan – Stick with It
By: agavin
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California Dreaming

Dec11

Restaurant: Private Club

Location: Somewhere in California

Date: December 9, 2015

Cuisine: American

Rating: Awesome

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After the Foodie Club met for our epic Truffle Dinner, we hit on the idea of a dinner exploring old California wines. We’re not talking the last 20 years of high alcohol monster wines, but the classic post war California. So this drink covers 1954 to 1998!

And what better location than a true California institution, left nameless, a private bastion of the old California.

They don’t make them like they used to!

And we had a custom menu and this awesome private room.

With plenty of space to work out our wine situation. Check out that ice bucket in the back!

1988 Schramsberg Vineyards Blanc de Noirs Late Disgorged (magnum). 93 points. A beautiful etched 3L bottle, which we opened at R&D’s caroling party. Beautiful golden robe with a persistent mousse. Notes of roasted notes, caramel apple, fresh pear and hazelnuts. Fine bead with flavors of cherry, hazelnut, sautéed apple and pear with a subtle hint of honey and vanilla cream on the finish. Lovely. This actually needed some time in the glass to open and express itself.

And a detail on the label.

2014 Wente Bros Vineyards Pinot Chardonnay. 85 points. None of us know what a “pinot chardonnay” actually was. Presumably, and by taste, there was plenty or all Chardonnay. This 60 year old white was pretty much gone, but it did have a sherry-like quality that was kinda interesting with the foie.

1970 Inglenook White Pinot. 89 points. We aren’t sure what was in this either, but plenty of Chard. It was pretty good too and surprisingly drinkable for a 45 year old Chard. I’ve had 15 year old Cal Chards in worse shape!

From my cellar: 1990 Fabien Coche-Bouillot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières. 93 points. Unmistakable and typical white burgundy notes of mineral, stone fruit, and saline. Very light in color and what appeared to be a new cork in the bottle. I would guess that these might have been topped off with the latest vintage prior to being released. This definitely showed remarkable freshness for a wine of 25 years of age. In a word, delicious.

agavin: I didn’t have any old Cal Chard, so I brought some old Chard. But positively young compared to the previous two. Nutty and nice white Burg.

Foie Gras with mango. Port ginger sauce. Really nice seared foie, with a very good sweet sauce and lovely mushy mango pairing. Worked well with these old chards.

1975 ZD Wines Pinot Noir. 91 points. Very young and fresh!

1982 Calera Pinot Noir Reed Vineyard. 86 points. Slightly musty, but in pretty good shape and quite enjoyable.

1969 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon. Our bottle was cloudy and undrinkable.

1974 Souverain Cabernet Sauvignon Vintage Selection North Coast. 88 points. Lovely midpalate lift and silky smooth texture. Palate is tertiary. David says full of dill and American oak, can tell it’s not French. Racines.

Scottish salmon. White beans, fume rouge. Another great sauce. This chef is awesome with the sausome.

1976 Burgess Petite Sirah Harvest of the Napa Valley. 91 points. Bright and young!

1974 Freemark Abbey Petite Sirah York Creek. 90 points. 41 years old and still has a tannic punch to it! Brambly, tobacco aromas, reminiscent of rasberries and blackberries. On the palate gently stewed blackberries, red fruits, mineral and a bit of a tannic kicker. This magnificent wine screamed for red meat accompaniment; alas, I had truffled eggs.

1974 Conn Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Family Vineyard. 96 points. Still quite dark in the glass with minimal bricking at the margin. Big and almost brooding, dense mixed black fruit; full mid palate; medium acidity almost keeps up with the fruit; some tannins on the finish; might have guessed that this was a 10 year old petite syrah.

agavin: everyone agreed with was WOTN, a real stunner

1989 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard. 93 points. Highly perfumed bouquet of ripe fruit, flowers, and terroir. Indeed, the sexiest bouquet of the eight wines. Generous mouthfeel, considerable substance, quality finish. In a great place, and though it has several years of life left there is no reason to wait.

Smoked quail and porcini mushroom risotto. Another awesome sauce.

1983 Grace Family Cabernet Sauvignon. 93 points. This was the first vintage with the Dick Grace label, 3.5 years in Limousin Oak barrels, typical Grace nose, rich fruit and terrific bottle bouquet plus hints of more wood than the older wines, concentrated medium fruit plus lots of mouth coating tannins in the mouth, finish is long but average flavors when compared to the other wines tonight.
1984 Grace Family Cabernet Sauvignon. 92 points. Drinking very well for an older Cailfornia. I was under the impression Napa Cabs won’t age so well. This wine has changed my perception. Good levels of fruit, soft mellow tannins and a nose so aromatic of dried rasins. Great wine.
1984 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. Parker 90. This wine has consistently been a crowd pleaser, with its impressive dark color, rich, jammy, cedary, licorice, chocolatey, cassis, and olive-like aromas and flavors, and full-bodied, unctuously-textured style. It is a big, chewy, flashy, oaky style of Cabernet. Although fully mature, there are no signs of decline.
1987 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. Parker 98. Chateau Montelena has made so many sensational Cabernets that it seems almost impossible to believe that their 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate could be even more profound than any of the exceptional wines made previously at this property. The black/purple color, the extraordinary bouquet of rich cassis, violets, and licorice, the massive extraction of flavors, sensational depth, super ripeness, and a length that must last over a minute, suggest to me that this is easily the most concentrated and potentially longest-lived Cabernet Sauvignon that Chateau Montelena has ever made. The extract level is incredible, yet the balance is there. Anticipated maturity: 1997-2025.

Roast duck. Red wine and figs. Great duck. Great sauce. Perfect pairing.

1994 Mount Veeder Winery Cabernet Sauvignon. Parker 88. Mount Veeder’s 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon is a sleeper. The wine displays loads of creamy, vanilla, pain grille notes in the nose, to go along with ripe black currants intermixed with truffles and licorice. The tannin is sweet, the wine gives a nice tactile impression on the palate (medium to full-bodied and chewy), and the finish includes gobs of pure black cherry and black currant fruit. This is a delicious, up-front 1994 Cabernet that can be drunk now as well as over the next 10-12 years.

1993 Dalla Valle Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. Parker 94-96. Of all the extraordinary wines emanating from California in recent years, one of the most remarkable achievements must be the two cuvees of Cabernet Sauvignon made by Naoka and Gustav Dalla Valle, with the capable assistance of consulting winemaker, Heidi Barrett. Dalla Valle’s Cabernet Sauvignon is a pure, unbridled expression of this varietal at its most powerful and concentrated. The proprietary red wine, named after the owners’ daughter, Maya, is usually a blend of equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc (the greatest Cabernet Franc I have tasted in the New World). These are wines of immense stature and richness. It seems nearly impossible that one could pack so much intensity and flavor into a wine without either the wine or the tannin coming across as heavy-handed. Since 1990, all of the Maya offerings have possessed extremely well-integrated tannin and acidity.
1993 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Franc Bosché Vineyard. 92 points. Very ready to drink now…window is closing. Very smooth and mildly velvet (velour?) mouth feel. Dark purple to almost brownish color with very little clear spectrum at the edges. Plum with a little hit of apricot and vanilla.
From my cellar: 1998 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard. 91 points. Brown-red. Roses, eucalyptus, flowers on the nose. Very powerful, yet in perfect balance. Tannins and acidity for the long haul. Nice fruit, lots of savory, complexity. This is a deep wine, and I wish I hadn’t just a sip in the tasting room. A wine to be studied and savored.

agavin: Oldest Cal wine in my cellar. lol.

Wagyu hanger steak. Truffle lingonberrie sauce. Truly great hanger steak. Super tender and meaty, fabulous sauce.

1987 Heitz Cellar Chardonnay. Fairly oxidized, but still drinkable.
1978 Joseph Phelps Johannisberg Riesling Selected Late Harvest. 92 points.  It was sweet on the pallete like thin caramel syrup, a dark burnt golden hue in color. Smelled sugary & fresh & delicious. TBA brown in color.

Charles Krug Moscato di Caneli. Not even in cellar tracker. Medium sweet and old. Pleasant.

Selection of domestic cheeses. All three were very nice.

Petit fours. A few random bits of sweet.

All and all a stunning evening. The venue was great. The service was great. Food really exceeded expectations. This kitchen handles an enormous volume, yet these dishes were all really nice, and many fabulous. They aren’t the most modern looking, but they tasted really great and were fabulously paired with the wines.

Speaking of, some very impressive juice considering the age. That Chards and pinots from 40+ years were even drinkable is amazing. But many were very good. And a few of the cabs were just fabulous. I don’t really think these newer high alcohol style California wines being produced today will last like this. These cabs were made to taste like Bordeaux, and to last like Bordeaux. For the most part, they seem to. Now that isn’t to say that every wine in this tasting was young, fresh, and blemish free. These are old wines, and one accepts some fickleness. But they preformed well. More then well, great.

Overall awesome.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or check out more crazy Foodie Club dinners.

Related posts:

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  3. Dreaming Along
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By: agavin
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Day of the Truffles

Nov06

Restaurant: Laurent Quenioux [1, 2, 3]

Location: Near Pasadena

Date: November 4, 2015

Cuisine: Modern French

Rating: Truffles!

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Four and a half years ago Foodie Club co-organizer Erick and I put together one of our more legendary dinners, the Bistro LQ Trufflumpagus. Now it’s time for the return!

Chef Laurent Quenioux grew up in Sologne, France, where he developed a passion for food. As a young boy, Quenioux and his father would hunt duck, partridge, and rabbit. Then, he and his mother would prepare her favorite recipes in the kitchen. Eventually, Quenioux left home to embark on an apprenticeship where he trained in some of Europe’s finest kitchens. Quenioux spent time at Maxim’s, Bistro De Paris and La Ciboulette in Paris, before moving on to Negresco in Nice and LaBonne Auberge in Antibe.

In the early 1980s, Quenioux made a move to the United States with a team from L‘Oasis at La Napoule to open The Regency Club in Los Angeles. In 1985, he introduced the celebrated and award-winning 7th Street Bistro in downtown Los Angeles. In the early 2000s, Quenioux debuted the cozy Bistro K in Pasadena and in 2009, Bistro LQ in Beverly Hills. At Bistro LQ, Quenioux set new standards for cuisine in Southern California with his Farmer’s Market-driven kitchen and an emphasis on value and fun.

Returning to Pasadena, Quenioux continues to delight patrons and critics alike in his role as Executive Chef at Old Pasadena’s celebrated Vertical Wine Bistro.

For this special dinner featuring fresh white truffles the chef hosted us at his house, out on the back patio.

Our epic menu.

Will brought: 1998 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut. VM 94-5. Bright gold. Ripe orchard fruits, peach pit, toffee, marzipan and dried flowers on the pungent, smoky nose. Broad and fleshy on entry, then tighter in the mid-palate, offering palate-staining pit fruit nectar, apple pie and brioche flavors, enhanced by a toffeed quality. Closes spicy and very long, with resonating smoke and toasted hazlenut qualities.

agavin: Krug is always great.

From my cellar: 2006 Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée. AG 94. Mint, white flowers, pastry and yellow orchard fruit meld together in Krug’s NV Grande Cuvée. This is one of the very best versions of the Grande Cuvée I can remember tasting in recent years. The impression of total silkiness on the palate is classic Krug. Even though this release is exceptional today, I would be tempted to cellar a few wines for the future, as the best Grand Cuvées age effortlessly. This release is based on 2006 and includes wines from 11 vintages going back to 1990.

From my cellar: NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. VM 92. Pale orange. High-pitched red berry, orange zest and jasmine aromas, with suave mineral and smoky lees notes adding complexity. Spicy and precise on the palate, showing very good punch to its strawberry and bitter cherry flavors. Opens up smoothly with air and picks up a bitter rhubarb quality that lingers onto the long, tightly focused finish. This bottling showed more brawny character than many past renditions of this cuvée, but with no lack of vivacity.

On the left, Buckwheat truffle blinis, ankimo, caviar de Sologne, wagyu.

On the right, Bone marrow, sopes, hutlacoche, truffles.

Interesting and rich flavors.

Mark brought: 1983 Joseph Drouhin Chevalier-Montrachet. agavin 93. Very nutty and drinking rather lovely for its advanced age. Some reductive notes still.

Mark brought: 1983 Louis Latour Montrachet. BR 95. Golden. Deep and sweet nose with butterscotch and lanolin. The palate is intense without weight. Very nice acidity though lower than some – but that doesn’t seem to have harmed it. Overall a very impressive wine that has depth and still plenty of ripe fruit, but just missing an extra zip for the absolute top prize.

agavin: our bottle was just a touch inferior to the Chevy, but was still in very good shape.

“La ratte” potatoes, melted 24 months Comte cheese, H8 vinaigrette, truffles.

Very yummy, with a rich velvety quality.

Will brought: 1990 Domaine Michel Niellon Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 96. Wonderfully expressive, ripe, forward and complex white fruit and honeysuckle aromas explode from the glass leading to incredibly rich and powerful, massively proportioned flavors of simply incredible depth and awesome length. One of the greatest examples of this vineyard I have ever had and it should be capable of living for a long time to come. A genuinely terrific wine of uncommon breed, class and power.

agavin: great bottle!

Will brought: 1991 Domaine Michel Niellon Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 88. Fully mature aromas of honey and a lovely roasted bread quality lead to fat, rich, slightly heavy flavors of good length if not necessarily the best balance. To be sure, a perfectly good wine that is drinking perfectly now and should probably be drunk over the next 5 years.

agavin: much more mature than the 90, but rounded out in the glass and was still impressive for 91

Maine diver scallops crudo, bottarga, chanterelles, escabeche.

This dish had some unusual flavor notes going on. Perhaps it was the bottarga.

Veal tartar, sun choke chips, pickled onions, truffles brioche, celery leaves.

A really nice integration of all the classic tartar elements. Truffles and pickles, how can that not go with raw meat?

Truffle soup VGE. Rabbit albondigas.

Inside this buttery pot-pie pastry was a traditional kind of soup with “meat balls” made from rabbit. Quite lovely.

Trish brought: 1999 Domaine Ramonet Chevalier-Montrachet. Burghound 96. This is now knocking on the front door of its full maturity with the classic white flower, green apple and limestone aromas all framed by a touches of citrus and spice components as well. The flavor profile combines intense minerality and marvelous detail plus fantastic depth and breadth, all wrapped in a hugely long and powerful finish. This just oozes class and while it could be approached now because of the superb mid-palate fat, for my tastes, I would give this another 2 to 3 years in bottle and then drink over the next 10+. Note that I have upgraded my score as the wine has added notably more depth than I originally envisioned.

agavin: another great great bottle.

From my cellar: 2001 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. Burghound 93. Big, rich and muscular yet this offers excellent definition with explosive fruit trimmed in obvious anise notes and luxuriant, sappy, dense flavors of uncommon depth and complexity. The finish is rather linear presently yet offers wave after wave of mouthwatering extract, all beautifully framed by more than sufficient buffering acidity. A Bâtard worthy of the name and a great success for the vintage.

agavin: still very fresh and reductive.

Truffle congee, poached hen egg, crispy basil snails Karaage, uni.

Wow! This was an amazing dish. One of the best congee I’ve had. The thing that looks like a bao or burrata was actually a poached egg. The fried snails were amazing too.

Celery root risotto, king crab, truffle air, aged parmesan, uni.

Another wonderful dish. Very harmonious. And that crab was fabulous.

From my cellar: 2000 Domaine Jacques Prieur Montrachet. VM 93.  I tasted a sample of this wine from tank; the real bottling was scheduled for the next day) Bright but reticent aromas of iodine, clove and nutty oak. Fat, round and silky, with superb weight and volume. By far the richest and longest of this set of wines, with the most volume. Very suave and mouthfilling, but with plenty of underlying backbone and power. Very tightly wound but also very long on the aftertaste.

agavin: I was nervous since I had a corked bottle at the Locanda dinner, but this bottle was a stunner. Incredibly powerful.

Trish brought: 2002 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Montrachet. Burghound 94. The bottle in the tasting displayed definite notes of premature oxidation. I last tasted this in 2011 and that note is: Astonishingly pure fruit aromas of very ripe pear, peach, honeysuckle and lovely green fruit are nicely complemented by a subtle hint of oak spice that merges seamlessly into powerful yet exquisitely delineated, strongly mineral laden flavors of incredible length. This has an amazing depth of sève and it completely stains and coats the palate. This combination of a silky palate impression yet driving intensity makes this an extremely impressive and very classy effort. For my taste this has just arrived on the front end of its peak drinkability and this beauty should be capable of holding at this level for years to come.

agavin: another great white.

Pacific lobster, Malaise, Truffle vichyssoise, nest.

More shellfish goodness.

Santa Barbara prawn, truffle creme brulee, brussels sprouts, xo.

This had interesting autumn notes of spices and such.

Amanda brought: 1991 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes Mares. Burghound 92. Big, rich and explosive, still very primary fruit nose that displays only the barest hints of secondary development followed by big, powerful, classically robust and structured flavors that offer superb depth and exceptionally good length. Still youthful, this should benefit from another 3 to 5 years of cellar time but live for a long time after that. A first-rate effort that will probably always possess a slight tannic edge to the finish yet the power and depth make it easy to overlook this.

agavin: Our bottle was cloudy and funky. Not undrinkable, but not really pleasant either.

Larry H brought: 2005 Domaine Robert Groffier Bonnes Mares. Burghound 94. I was frankly shocked to find that the aromatic profile here was even more elegant and arguably finer than that of the Amoureuses with its bright red and blue pinot fruit, minerals and spice notes, particularly anise that complement to perfection the sleek, taut, brooding and focused flavors that explode on the hugely long and deep finish. This is an impressive wine that has that ‘wow’ factor.

agavin: a young stunner. Really good.

Halibut, truffle granola, hazelnuts, chanterelles, brown butter vinaigrette.

The granola was crazy good. Chewy crunchy and a bit sweet.

Larry H brought: 2000 Château d’Yquem. Parker 90. The millennial 2000 Chateau d’Yquem is a valiant effort in one of the most challenging Sauternes vintages in recent memory. The 2000 is quite deep in color. The nose is crisp and well-defined but not the most complex, as you would expect from a truly challenging growing season in Sauternes. It is pleasant in its own way with delicate scents of tangerine, yellow flowers and Mirabelle. The palate is well-balanced with marmalade tinged opening. I like the acidity here, an Yquem with good race, although it does feel a little tapered toward the finish. Drink now-2025.

agavin: very nice sticky in a good spot.

Corn veloute, apple wood bacon, foie gras, truffle Soubise.

A fabulous foie. That corn veloute really notched it up too.

Pintade hen, crispy truffle potato crust, salsify, quince.

Nice interplay of textures.

From my cellar: 1971 Maison Roche de Bellene Volnay 1er Cru Santenots Collection Bellenum. agavin 87. Weird menthol notes.

Erick brought: 1988 Domaine Georges Mugneret/Mugneret-Gibourg Clos Vougeot. 87 points. Pretty tannic.

Amanda brought: 1995 Domaine Dujac Echezeaux. Burghound 90. Beautiful black fruit aromas laced with Vosne spice leads to medium weight, elegant, sappy and quite dense flavors that offer beautiful complexity and terrific length. What it isn’t at this point is especially complex but the tannins are well-integrated and this should drink well for all its life. I would give it another 10 years and drink over the next 10. Really pretty juice of evident class.

agavin: a great bottle. Powerful, fruity, and delicious.

Liberty duck breast, figs, vinegar jus, truffle confit rutabaga.

Here we have sweetness, and more than a little of those autumn notes. That jam like stuff was “spiced.”

From my cellar: 1989 Domaine Leroy Nuits St. Georges Aux Lavières. 94 points. Absolutely beautiful bottle. Floral scents with violets and roses, a lovely earthy underbrush tone on the nose. Bright red toned fruit, cinnamon and spice with a cherry backbone. Just got better and betterover time. Perfect balance, luscious fruit and a long finish. Plush yet sharp. A terrific effort.

Amanda brought: 1991 Domaine Leroy Pommard Les Vignots. 93 points.  tart red cherry, candle wax, sl spice nose; full bodied, red raspberry, red pie cherry flavors, body matches promise of the nose; tannic, oaky in a new world way, finish all about barrels, not fruit; need rich sauce, meat to cover the tannins in the finish.

Veal sweetbreads, porcini, carrot emulsion, truffle.

I’m not a sweetbreads fan, but this was amazing. Rich too.

Amanda picked up these two old Italians in order to replace some we had lost in a “guest shuffle.”

1958 Oddero Barolo. LF 94. This was sauvage and untamed as a Barolo I’ve experienced. This was all black tar, dark cherry/berry fruits and a little horse on the nose with some macerated flowers and rotting forest floor. Lovely deep, sauvage nose. Sauvage Piedmont style though. The palate was big and concentrated. Apparently alot of the fruit that went into this was from Vigna Rionda which would explain the massive palate presence still at forty plus years old. This really opened up and became much more of a complete wine after around an hour. Definetly a bit less finesse than the Fiorina but compelling in a differnt way for itas singular character within the context of Barolo. Fantastic wine that really seemed four or five years away from full maturity.

agavin: this bottle was pretty nice, very Barolo!

1971 Gaja Barbaresco. VM 93. Angelo Gaja’s 1971 Barbaresco, takes a few hours to open up, but when it does it is fabulous. Still deep and quite intense, the 1971 is a testament to how well Nebbiolo can age.

agavin: ours was a bit on the “mature and cloudy” side.

Painted Hills Beef Hanger, vadouvan, eggplant mole, truffles.

Very rare. More autumn spaces too.

Emil brought: 2003 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg. Burghound 93. his too is very aromatically reserved with only glimpses of spicy and exotic perfume that speak of very ripe, even slightly surmature crushed berries, plum and spice because even though the nose is reticent, the intensity of the fruit is magnificent. The flavors are opulent and sumptuously proportioned with massive amounts of sap and dry extract that completely stains and coats the palate before exploding on the hugely long finish. Yes, this is a big, indeed enormous wine but one that never loses its sense of balance and the velvety backend largely buffers the very firm tannins. There is not necessarily great complexity yet but this is the one wine in the range that could easily surprise to the upside as the raw material here is exceptional and while the style is clearly particular relative to what it normally delivers, it has that “wow’ factor.

agavin: we decanted at the start of the dinner. Wow! Very nice massive powerful and complex bottle of Riche.

Erick brought: 1990 Gros Frère et Sœur Richebourg. JG 92. Starts off a bit meaty and sweaty but breathes up beautifully. Almost looks like an aged DRC with all of its hoisin and soy action. It has notes of mushroom and meat. It is full, rich and intense with acidity that is gentle and length that is superb.

agavin: oh Richebourg, how I love thee!

Scottish wild Hare ravioli, chestnut truffle nage, pecorino.

Great texture combos.

Vacherin cheese, truffle honey.

Tiny, but lovely. And the honey was amazing.

Epoisse flambee!

I love epoisse, but I was a bit disappointed by how much the alcohol in the “flambee” dominated the cheese.

From my cellar: 1977 Dow Porto Vintage. 95-100 points. Wonderful dusty cherry, prune/plum, and raisin aromas. Generous on the palate with more fruit and subtle, tawny-like carmel. Long finish.

agavin: a powerhouse. Next one I’m going to give some more years and then decant.

Chocolate Marquise, Thai basil, mango, macaron.

A really nice bit of chocolate with the mango brightening it up.

Tonka Cremeux, butter ice cream, caramel, granola.

And another great use of that granola.

Overall, this was one of those supremely epic dinners. The food was totally over the top, and delicious at that. Lots and lots of truffle. Not every dish was perfect, but many were very very good. Standouts include the congee, the lobster, the sweetbreads (I have a hard time saying it), and the foie.

The wine was particularly great. Almost all the whites were superb and many of the reds stellar like the Dujac, the Leroys, and both Richebourgs. The Krugs and dessert wines were no slouch either.

Certainly worthy of being called epic.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more Foodie Club reviews.

Related posts:

  1. Truffles at Saam – I am
  2. Pistola with a Bang
  3. Babykiller Birthday
  4. The Power of Providence
  5. Sauvage Spago
By: agavin
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Hip Hot

Sep14

Restaurant: Hip Hot

Location: 500 N Atlantic Blvd #149, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 782-7711

Date: July 23, 2015 & January 28, 2016

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Updated awesomeness

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I love my Szechuan. This pepper-fueled branch of Chinese is all about flavor — and it’s certainly hot right now (and all the time). Hence the name of the restaurant.

The Atlantic Blvd interior is updated and reasonably modern.

The tables have glass tops and cool dioramas inside! Each one is different.


The menus.

Watermelon juice. Comes in it’s own “evil genius” watermelon!
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Another cold Szechuan drink, the super yummy smoked plum juice.
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Mung bean noodle with chilies. Love this dish as it has a tangy/hot quality to it.

Cold chicken noodles. These lovely noodles have chili oil and bits of chicken. Cold, a bit spicy, and very pleasant.

Dan Dan Mein. One of my favorite dishes. You mix it up.

This version was very tasty, with lots of pork, but it didn’t have the characteristic nutty/peanut paste richness that I really love, or much Szechuan peppercorn numbing.

Ma Po Tofu. One of my other favorite dishes. This version was excellent, with a nice numb factor, good texture, and lots of chili oil.

Sliced fish boiled with chilies. Another Szechuan classic. The fish was a little thick, but there was plenty of spice to the broth.

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Chongking boiled fish. Might even be the same dish on a different day. Seemed to have different vegetables in it though and less crushed pepper.
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Cauliflower with pork belly hot pot. Rather yummy. Nice crunch to the vegetables and fatty pork goodness.

Spicy chicken. Fried chicken bits tossed with aromatic peppers. Nice salty spicy version of this dish.

Lamb chops. This was a stunner. Really, really good dish with tender lamb chops and delicious spice mixture on top.

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Mutton stew with buns and potatoes. You were supposed to eat the mutton in the buns. The meat was super “gamey.” The lamb cops were better. The combo was interesting, but the little rib bones in the meat made eating it like a sandwich a bit of a challenge.


Crab with chilies. The crab itself was tasty but a bit hard to get into. I loved the mixture below of potatoes, peanuts, rice cakes and the like. When the potatoes had soaked up the chili oil and peppers. Yum!

Taro toast (on left) and rice cakes (right). The taro was mild but had a nice texture like a taro stuffed spring roll. The right was a bit chewy and inaccessible.

Hip Hot is good. The style and plating are updated a lot from the likes of Lucky Noodle King and a little bit above Spicy City. The ingredients were good. The menu isn’t as big as Spicy City, but what they did serve us was very good. I wish the Dan Dan was just a bit nuttier. It’s fairly similar to Chuan’s in being a bit more modern, but I think Chuan’s is a bit better.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Spicy City!
  2. Posh Spice
  3. Chengdu Taste – Power of the Peppercorn
  4. Silk Road Journeys – Shaanxi Gourmet
  5. Palace of Pepper
By: agavin
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