Andy Gavin's Blog, page 43
November 7, 2022
Quick Eats — Piccolo
Restaurant: Piccolo
Location: 2127 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 314-0144
Date: April 14, 2022
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Excellent neighborhood Italian
_Piccolo is the latest restaurant by Chef Antonio Muré. I’ve been to a lot of his places around the west side over the years including the original Piccolo.
The menu.
From my cellar: 2003 Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Riserva Grandi Annate. 91-3 points. Incredibly well settled out and integrated, lovely fruit with cranbe...
November 5, 2022
Heroic Beef
Restaurant: Heroic Deli and Wine Bar [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Location: 516 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 490-0202
Date: April 12, 2022
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Awesome wines and time
_In Spring of 2022 friend Jeffrey, owner of Heroic Italian, hosted a series of old wine dinners. This one is old Spanish. These things are immortal!
Given that Jeffrey and I are good pals and he owns Heroic we have done a whole series of dinners here of varying scopes. This one was originally supposed...
November 3, 2022
Heroic Spanish
Restaurant: Heroic Deli and Wine Bar [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: 516 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 490-0202
Date: March 15, 2022
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Awesome wines and time
_In Spring of 2022 friend Jeffrey, owner of Heroic Italian, hosted a series of old wine dinners. This one is old Spanish. These things are immortal!
To complement Jeffrey prepared an almost ludicrously rich and copious amount of food. Pay careful attention as the plated courses are INDIVIDUAL.
The stree...
November 1, 2022
Vegan Eats – Âu Lạc
Restaurant: Âu Lạc LA
Location: 710 W 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90012. (213) 617-2533
Date: April 6, 2022
Cuisine: Vegan Vietnamese
Rating: Edible for vegan
_I was downtown at the Broad museum with my family and looking for a quick lunch.
Some googling turned up Âu Lạc, a nearby Vietnamese place. But when we got there I discovered it was vegan — the horror! Still, no one had the patience to walk more.
The interior was nice enough, but empty.
The menu.
“Pork” spring rolls. Surprisingly good. ...
October 30, 2022
Duck House without Yarom!
Restaurant: Duck House [1, 2, 3]
Location: 501 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 284-3227
Date: April 3, 2022
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: Good duck
_Duck House is a staple SGV restaurant for my gang. The food is good, it’s on the closer side, and the owner is incredibly nice. I’ve even housed a birthday dinner here. But this is my personal first return after the pandemic.
The logistics of this dinner were a bit odd as we had two tables and about 14-15 people so there were like 7 at e...
October 28, 2022
Major Manzke
Restaurant: Manzke
Location: 9575 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035. (424) 500-9575
Date: April 1, 2022
Cuisine: Modern American French
Rating: Really good
_There is no question that Walter Manzke is one of LA’s most influential chefs of the last decade or so. His Republique is iconic and I’ve eaten dozens of meals there.
Manzke is his new “tasting menu only” spot located in the former Picca space above Water’s Bicyclette. Manzke is sort of a full restaurant version of the kind of special Wal...
October 26, 2022
Angelini Palisades
Restaurant: Angelini Ristorante & Bar
Location: 1038 N Swarthmore Ave, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. (424) 238-5870
Date: March 31 & May 4, 2022
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Great for the Palisades
_Angelini Palisades is finally a second decent restaurant to join Rick Caruso’s Palisades village. The other one, Blue Ribbon Sushi, while not super exiting, is also “solid” (if pricey).
Angelini is a “branch” of the Hollywood Osteria Angelini which has been one of LA’s best Italians for years.
October 24, 2022
Sauvages Carousel
Restaurant: Carousel Restaurant Glendale
Location: 304 N Brand Blvd, Glendale, CA 91203. (818) 246-7775
Date: March 25, 2022
Cuisine: Lebanese
Rating: Best Lebanese in the city
_The March 2022 Sauvages lunch was at Carousel, a classic (for good reason) Glendale Lebanese banquet restaurant. The wine theme was originally supposed to be Northern Rhone but mysteriously allowed in a bunch of Cabs at some point.
The hall is big and very themed.
2008 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Millésimé. 92 poi...
October 22, 2022
Yakiniku Osen
Restaurant: Yakiniku Osen
Location: 3503 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026. (323) 426-9455
Date: March 18, 2022
Cuisine: Japanese Yakiniku
Rating: Good, but I hoped it’d be better
_Yakiniku Osen is a newish A5 Yakiniku place in Silverlake. I imagined it was somewhat like Yazawa.
It’s just street-side on Sunset in busy Silverlake.
There is a fairly tight interior.
And a small but nice set of patio tables with built in grills.
We sat outside.
From my cellar: 2005 Taittinger Champagne Comtes...
October 20, 2022
Mischief & Mayhem at Marino
Restaurant: Marino Ristorante [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
Location: 6001 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 466-8812
Date: March 3, 2022
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: Superb
_Marino is a favorite haunt for many of my wine groups. Tonight my friend John arranged a special dinner with the owner of “Mischief and Mayhem”, a relatively new Burgundy producer.
The amazing chef/owner Sal Marino cooks at his original family location, venerable Marino Ristorante on Melrose and continues to whip up his unique...
