Saturday, June 22, 2013

Lucky Devils (Hollywood, CA)


Lucky Devils is one of the oldest craft beer bar in Hollywood, though I actually went to taste the wines from their newly installed wine taps. Lucky Devils was opened by former model Lucky Vanous. It was before my time but Wandering Chopsticks who came with me did remember this old Diet Coke commercial. I've never heard much about Lucky's before and wasn't sure what to expect, but to my surprise the food was actually pretty good. On this particular strip of Hollywood Blvd, Lucky's may well be one of the best options.

As I was being seated for my tasting I noticed a menu of "six courses" with multiple items listed under each and 12 wines. Oh, I need to choose, I thought, but I was quickly corrected. I was apparently getting all of them. All 10 dishes+2 fries+2 desserts+12 wines.

We started with some olive tapenade and jalapeno hummus with char-grilled bread.

Wandering Chopsticks loved the charred bread and couldn't stop eating them even though we have 10+ more courses to come.

With this first appetizer we tried three different white wines they had on tap:
 2011 Zocker Gruner Veltliner. Vibrant, crisp. Notes of stone fruit (melon).
2011 Hess Chardonnay. Slightly buttery. From Monterey's coastal valley.
2011 Acrobat Pinot Gris. Nice one. A hint of sweetness, a bit sweeter than the Zocker.

They only have wines on tap here so you may not find many wineries you know and like, but the most expensive 6oz pour is $9.50 and most is $7.50.

Short rib sliders (braised with caramelized vegetables, wild arugula, horseradish cream, Hawaiian sweet rolls) and truffle parmesan chips (it's truffle oil).

The parmesan chips were great with the garlic aioli. They don't normally come with the aioli but our server Ashby recommended it.
The sliders were parid with a 2011 Cliff Family Sauvignon Blanc. This was an unusual, pairing meat with white wine. They said they chose this because the sliders were sweet. The wine had notes of pear. Very crisp, I liked this wine too.

Out of all the things I tried, my favorite was the Laura Chenel goat grilled cheese, provolone and wild arugula and walnut pesto, garlic herb butter.

What a fragrant grilled cheese sandwich, I loved this. If you love pesto and aromatic cheese, you would love this too.
This was paired with 2012 Boat Dock Rose of Sangiovese, which has a stringent aftertaste in the back, but turns out to be good pairing with the herb and pesto.

Sweet and Smokey Grilled Cheese (house smoked cheddar, tomato chutney, garlic herb butter, fresh pear, golden delicious).

2011 Acrobat Pinot Noir. Has a bite at the end, but do get notes of raspberry and chocolate. The grilled cheese pairing smoothes out the bite.

Luckily they noticed that maybe we couldn't eat 10+ dishes after all and combined the next three pizzas into one.


Pepper and Chorizo Pizza (house made chorizo and pizza sauce, roasted red pepper, red onion, and mozzarella), paired with 2010 Jupiter Sangiovese. Good, easy to drink on its own, smooth.
The other third was Pulled Chicken Pizza (bbq ranch, mozzarella, red onion, piquillo pepper, fresh cilantro), paired with 2010 Huntington Merlot. Smooth, but more tannic than the previous.
Portobello White Pizza (herbed olive oil, herbed ricotta, mozzarella, beer caramelized onion, portobello mushroom, grana padano parmesa, wild arugula), paired with 2010 Trenza Tinto. I liked this, fruity and smooth.
WC liked the portobello the best but I liked the pulled chicken. The pizza crust is pretty much the flatbread we had in the first course. The pizza wasn't bad but I'd personally go for the grilled cheese or burger.

Next course are the burgers. All burgers are served with chips can be upgraded to organic kobe beef for $3 more. All three burgers we tried were pretty good. Juicy patty on buttery brioche bun.

We tried:
BBQ Rib and Bacon Burger (white cheddar, smoked bacon, house smoked rib meat, crispy fried onion, bbq - $14.50), with the 2011 Clayhouse Adobe Red. This is their happy hour red and is 32% zinfandel, 25% petite syrah, 13% Malbec, 11% Cab, 10% syrah. Sweet, rich, fruity. Not bad at all for the happy hour price.
Kobe, double cream brie burger, beer caramelized onion, double smoked bacon, and blackberry reduction ($15), with 2010 Smith & Hook Cabernet Sauvignon (88% cabernet, 12% merlot)
If I wasn't already so full I could probably do a better job distinguishing between the kobe and the regular patty.

The most distinct one was the Diablo Burger (white cheddar, double smoked bacon, avocado, wild arugula, thousand island, devil hot sauce - $11.50). People can also ask for roasted habanero if the diablo isn't hot enough for them.
The diablo burger certainly had a kick but it wasn't too spicy.
2011 Red Barn Pinot Noir, sourced from two dozen different vineyards in Mendocino and Monterey.

For dessert we had their housemade frozen custard:
Chocolate frozen custard with Belgian chocolate sauce, and Vanilla frozen custard with Chimay beer caramel sauce.
I liked the frozen custards and kept eating them despite being so full.

They don't have cocktails so for those wanting something sweeter but still somewhat high in alcohol, Ashby makes them a "wine shandy" by mixing the Tinto Trenza with the Radler Steigl grapefruit beer (which is sweet and low in alcohol, just like a grapefruit soda)

Wines aside, this was originally a craft beer bar, so you can find plenty of craft beers on tap (at the time they also advertised that they would have that Game of Thrones beer but that might have already passed). I tried the Monk's Cafe Sour from Brouwerij Van Steenberge.

Lucky Devils
6613 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 465-8259
http://www.luckydevils-la.com/
Lucky Devils on Urbanspoon
Lucky Devils on Foodio54

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