Goose Terrine at Larry's

Winter at the beach in Los Angeles doesn't quite evoke the need for warm fireplaces when you sit in the shadow of palm trees, but in the evening the temperature drops in Venice and hearty winter fare comes to mind.  Perhaps something like the goose pâté served with warm toast and huckleberries pictured above?  Chef Brendan Collins of Waterloo and City has brought his love for charcuterie to Larry's and the terrines and pâtés have traveled well from Culver City to the Venice boardwalk.

The dish is simple with the sugar and acid of the huckleberries cutting the rich fattiness of the pâté.  Spread some on the warm toast and you are in business.  Best of all, this dish is included in the Dine LA Restaurant Week menu, so if you get to Larry's soon, you get an even better deal.

Larry's: 24 Winward Ave., Venice.| 310.399.2700 | larrysvenice.com

Jewish Deli Night @ Mezze

Mezze, Micah Wexler's Mediterranean restaurant on La Cienega, recently launched a Sunday night only special menu of matzo ball soup and pastrami sandwich.  The regular menu is also available on Sunday evenings, but these two Jewish deli classics are hard to resist.  Fortunately for Dine LA fans, they are both on the Mezze Restaurant Week menu if you eat at Mezze on a Sunday.

The Matzo Ball soup ($10) was excellent.  The matzo ball was light and fluffy and the broth was intense and rich and sprinkled with chicken cracklings.  Large chunks of chicken meat, carrots, celery and onions all lurk beneath the surface of the broth.  This is not a dish you are going to want to share.

The Pastrami Sandwich ($15) was also quite good, although the bread was too soft for my taste.  The pastrami meat was well seasoned but mild if eaten alone.  It is the house-made mustard that truly gives the sandwich a kick.  The combination of the sliced pastrami, the mustard and the bread does form a wonderful sandwich.  If they had bread from Langer's, it would be a true home run.  The meat is thickly sliced and the portion is filling without being huge.  Good stuff.  Perhaps Chef Wexler should consider opening up a deli as a spinoff and give Canter's a run for its money in the neighborhood.  With Langer's not open for business in the evening, the matzoh ball soup and sandwich is the best Jewish deli for miles around, if only for one night a week.

Mezze: 401 N. La Cienega Blvd, Mid City. | 310.657.4103 | mezzela.com

Lamb Pies @ Beijing Pie House

Beijing Pie House in Monterey Park is known for their signature dish of meat pies.  The Lamb Meat Pies may be the ultimate dish here and they come come four to an order for $7.  Picture a hockey puck shaped dumpling filled with a savory lamb patty and scalding hot lamb jus.  The dumplings are dangerous in that the soup they contain is both extremely flavorful and extremely hot.  Prepare for the jus to squirt when you bite into one or pierce one with your chopstick.  

This is not dainty food; prepare for a mess and you will see that it is worth the effort.  The lamb soup and lamb patty that lie within the dough combine to make one of the perfect bites of Los Angeles.  As a lamb  fan, this dish is irresistible although I have yet to determine the optimal method of eating the pies without the hot jus running down my fingers.

What better way to enhance your lamb experience at Beijing Pie House than by adding the Lamb Noodle Soup ($6.29) to the order.  The soup is served in a large bowl and the broth is imbued with the lamb meat flavor.  Unlike some restaurants where the broth in the soup seems like a sauce for the noodles; here it takes center stage and is served in an ample sized portion relative to the noodles and lamb.  The noodles are nicely chewy and the soup is the perfect thing on a chilly day or evening.

Please note that Beijing Pie House is cash only.  There are several other types of meat pies available but the lamb ones are so enticing, I have never made it further than that dish on the menu.

Beijing Pie House: 846 E. Garvey Avenue, Monterey Park. | 626.288.3818

Forget Candyland, Canland AKA Golden Road Brewery Is Open

Golden Road Brewery debuted two new ventures this month: The Pub at Golden Road Brewery and the launch of their beer in cans.  The brewery is located just north of Atwater Village alongside the train tracks on San Fernando Road.  The pub is now open 7 days a week from 11 am - 11 pm and features 10-12 proprietary beers as well as 10-12 guest taps from other brewers that Golden Road respects.  The project is the latest venture from Tony Yanow, who is well known in the Los Angeles craft beer community for his other ventures Tony's Dart's Away and Mohawk Bend.  For Golden Road, he partnered with Meg Gill, who at 26 is already a veteran of the craft beer movement.

Both of Golden Road's two flagship beers are available in cans: Point the Way IPA and Golden Road Hefeweizen.  The six packs are $12.  At the brewery, several limited releases are available on tap.  These include Burning Bush IPA, EL Hefe Anejo (tequila barrel aged Hefeweizen infused with agave and mesquite honey), Festivus Cinnamon Bitter and Rye on the Palate.  On the day I visited they were already out of the Hefe Anejo and the Lost its Way IPA.  I was able to try the Rye on the Palate, which is pictured at the top of this page.  The Rye on the Palate was delicious; it is lightly hoppy, and the rye gives it that wonderful bready smell (though it can't substitute for a load from Langer's.

The menu at the pub is gastropub meets vegan, as Yanow is well known for his vegan offerings at Tony's Dart's Away and Mohawk Bend.  Customers order at the bar and are given a buzzer that goes off when their food is ready.  I tried the Sloppy Joseph, a grown-up take on the classic Sloppy Joe, which is made with stout braised beef short-ribs, fried shallots and house-made bbq sauce.  The sandwich appeared on the small side but it turned out to be quite filling as well as well seasoned.  The flavorful short ribs were overflowing the bun and I opted for the addition of the coleslaw ($3) which was light and a good companion to the sandwich as it was mayonnaise free (and vegan).  I saw several pretzels go out and they are huge.



The setting is comfortable in casual as the interior seating and bar itself are located in a warehouse style building that has been built out.  Concrete floors and a ceiling high enough to play basketball in are signature elements of the space.  Simple dark wood chairs and tables, including several communal tables fill out the interior.  There is also a retail area selling six packs of the beer cans and other assorted merchandise.

On my visit the Golden Road Brews beer menu was as follows:

Burning Bush IPA - $6
Either Side of the Hill - American Strong Ale - $6
El Hefe Anejo - tequila barrel aged Hefeweizen - $6
Festivus Cinnamon Bitter - $6
Golden Road Hefeweizen - $4/$5
Get Up Offa that Brown - $5/$6
Lost its Way IPA - $5
Point the Way IPA - $4/$5
Rye on the Palate - $6
Schwartz Stout - $5/$6

Several of the beers are available in small and large sizes.

On a warm day, the patio is the place to be as you can relax outdoors without being too far from the bar for the inevitable refill of liquid refreshment and with no waiters, you don't have to worry about getting anyone's attention.

I recommend heading over to Atwater Village and hoisting a pint yourself to check it out.  The craft beer movement in Los Angeles is truly coming into its own and it is exciting to have another solid brewery right in our own backyard.  I feel sorry for the folks who go by on the trains alongside Golden Road as they have to watch happy customers enjoying beers outside while they are trapped in slow moving tin cans with mass market brews, if they are fortunate to have any beer at all.

Golden Road Brewery & Pub: 5410 West San Fernando Road.  | 213.373.4677 | goldenroad.la

Goat Schnitzel at Tasting Kitchen

With the explosion in German beer themed restaurants, think Wirtshaus, Biergarten, Steingarten, Wurstkuche (both branches), there has been a corresponding rise in the availability of dishes like shnitzel.  Alligator schnitzel was even on the menu at Vinny & Jon of Animal's second restaurant, Son of A Gun, and downtown saw the launch of a kosher schnitzel truck.

Recently even The Tasting Kitchen in Venice got in on the act, with Chef Casey Lane adding a special of Goat Schnitzel with pickled onion and brown butter to the menu.

I had already eaten dinner elsewhere and had just stopped in to The Tasting Kitchen for a cocktail but the words goat schnitzel caught my eye and I couldn't help ordering the dish "to save for tomorrow."  Needless to say that this schnitzel was not saved until the next day; I don't think a single bite made it out of the restaurant.  The bartender told me that Lane had ordered an entire goat and had been experimenting with different dishes all week.  The goat schnitzel was crispy not greasy, and the breading was not too thick.  The meat had a slightly gamey taste as this was certainly goat and not veal.  An excellent dish in the goat pantheon.

Little Bear Awakens from Winter Hibernation

In the DTLA Arts District, across the street from Church & State Bistro, Little Bear opened earlier this month in the former home of Royal Clayton's Pub.  The Belgian Beer specialist is a bar and cafe and has sixteen selections on tap as well as an extensive bottle list.  The food menu tends toward gastropub options.

One of the signature food items is the gougeres which come with either sous-vide pork belly, duck confit or fried oysters inside a gourgere, sandwich-style.  They come three to an order and are different than any gougere I have ever seen before.  Expect to find sandwiches as well as dishes like duck confit and the Belgian classic of waterzooi on the menu.

I enjoyed several of the draught beers but the best beer I sampled was the Jandrain-Jandrenouille VI Saison, which is available by the bottle.  Ryan Sweeney of Verdugo Bar and Surly Goat curated the beer list.  Sweeney is one of the best beer-men in Southern California and has relationships with breweries such as Russian River that are loath to take on additional accounts, so he brings access as well as expertise to the table at Little Bear.  The list is a mix of beers from Belgium and Belgian-style beers from California breweries such as The Bruery (their Wanderer is pictured below) and North Coast.  The most interesting selections are on the bottle list, so bring some friends and try a few large format bottles.

The bar has been busy thus far, so plan on a wait for a seat unless you arrive on the early side.

Little Bear: 1855 Industrial Street, DTLA. 213.622.8100 | littlebearla.com

Sunny Spot: Roy Choi Remakes Beechwood

Follow the sign to Sunny Spot, the latest partnership between Dave Reiss and Chef Roy Choi who previously collaborated at A-Frame and the Alibi Room.  Sunny Spot occupies the former home of Beachwood, where Abbot Kinney spills into Washington Blvd.  Choi has excised any ghosts of chefs past, including Jamie Lauren, with his new Caribbean menu.  Brian Butler created the cocktail list and has also curated the largest selection of rum on the Westside.  The restaurant website describes Sunny Spot as "that place where everyday is a holiday and food makes you smile."

If you begin your visit with a cocktail, and you should, the Chilcano Bay is an excellent way to start.  It is made with Pisco, lime juice, ginger, lemongrass and Fernet Branca.

The Yuca Fries ($4) are wonderfully crunchy and are served with a tangy spicy sauce "banana thai basil ketchup."  We began eating them before this photo was taken as we were hungry and they looked so appetizing.

Enjoyable but not as stellar as the yuca fries, the Sweet and Salty Fried Plantains are smaller than the yuca fries, crispy and a little sweet.  These are also only $4, so why choose, get both.  The pricing at Sunny Spot is very accessible and makes ordering many plates to share a reasonable strategy both from a variety and a budgetary perspective.

The "What a Jerk Wings" are double coated and double fried chicken wings.  They are a little too crunchy, for chicken wings.

Perhaps the best item on the menu may be the Whole Snapper ($35), which is known on the menu as "Yeah, I'm Staring Atchu Fish."  The fish is served whole with ginger oil, lime and chili vinegar.  The snapper was perfectly cooked and each bite had so much flavor our dining party fought over the choicest bits including the cheeks; the fish bones were picked clean when we were done.

I found the broiled Hamachi Collar ($14) to be a little spicy.  It was prepared with garlic thyme butter, lime, and a banana chili glaze.  While enjoyable it paled in comparison to the whole snapper which preceded it; I prefer the version found at traditional Japanese restaurants.

The Bijou with rum is one of my favorite cocktails I have had of late.  Typically made with gin, vermouth and chartreuse, Butler substituted rum for the gin and a great cocktail got even better.  The Bijou is boozy, has layers of flavor and is highly recommended.

Yellow Salty Rice doesn't sound very interesting yet we ordered seconds.  There is something addictive about this yellow rice that beckons for just one more spoonful.  If it makes you thirsty for another of Butler's cocktails, that is just an added bonus.

Slow Roasted Goat ($15) is described as the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) on the menu and while it may not quite deserve that moniker, it is well worth ordering.  The tasty goat is served with pickled mango and would be a good introduction to the meat for goat-virgins.

All of the interior and exterior spaces have been redone.  Below, the firepits that used to be outside have gone and the patio is now more of a comfortable and casual seating area.

In the main dining room, which is known as the Rum Den, a wall was removed, which really opens up the space.  This room contains a bar dedicated to sipping rums and a table in the corner referred to as the "Bird Cage".  My favorite of the three dining areas is the "Front Room", perhaps for its proximity to the bar as well as for the communal tables, which have a lot of room; perfect for sharing tons of small plates.

Only the Rum Den takes reservations so two thirds of Sunny Spot is for walk-ins, which makes it easy to stop by and have a drink or a whole meal, depending on your mood and not worry about waiting hours for a seat to open up.  I recommend trying several of the sipping rums as well.  The Rhum Barbancourt 15 year from Haiti is something special, but there are tons of gems on the menu.  So check it our for yourself and see if the experience "makes you smile."

Sunny Spot: 822 Washington Blvd @ Abbot Kinney.  Phone: 310.448.8884 | http://sunnyspotvenice.com/