Revamped Menu and Patio at Sadie Kitchen and Lounge

Sadie Kitchen and Lounge has gone through many chef changes since its opening, and most recently they also revamped their patio dining area to be more lounge-like, although dining tables for larger parties still remain. The lights adorning the walls and trees make this a romantic dining spot at night.

The current chef is Jonathan Moulton, who most recently was at Early Bird in Orange County. He brings many Southern comfort food to Sadie, like these decadent buttermilk biscuits with "red eye butter" ($3)

What is red eye butter, you ask? It has what you love most in the mornings: coffee and bacon!

While many chefs have come and go, mixologist Giovanni Martinez has always remained. Much of the drinks menu remains the same, but there are also many new and seasonal drinks - and they're all excellent. I loved the Negroni Sour (gin, vermouth, campari, nettle cordial, lemon)

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Playing with DRY Soda Cocktails at Sadie

DRY Soda is a Seattle based company that produces colorless sodas with less sugar and great flavors like lavender, rhubarb, blood orange, and the like. While originally they were made to be drank straight from the bottle, they soon realized that bartenders like to use them as mixers, and they jumped on the opportunity.

The DRY Soda Co. owner then traveled to Los Angeles and held a cocktail pairing dinner at Sadie in Hollywood, where the main barman Giovanni Martinez created four cocktails made with DRY Soda.

Our welcome drink was a refreshing, lower alcohol cocktail, Rue and Barb made with strawberry, lillet rose, lemon, DRY rhubarb soda

The drink was paired with watermelon, grilled romaine, blood orange vinaigrette

Our second drink was the aromatic Lavande, made with scotch, honey, lemon, Lavender DRY soda, light absinthe spray. This was my second favorite cocktail of the night. The lavender soda works well and did not become overpowered with the strong scotch and absinthe components.

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New Season Warrants New Visit to Sadie (Hollywood)

A new season means new menu and new cocktails at Sadie. Summer was the season for strawberries and cocktails like the Pink Rose (lillet rose, lemon juice, strawberry syrup, GH mumm cordon rouge - $13)

Gio Martinez' summer menu featured cocktails like the Sandy Swizzle (pineapple and sage infused chivas regal, agave, lemon juice, whipped coconut cream, Smith and Cross float, $12)

The first sip of the coconut cream on top was a weird, but as you keep drinking the flavor melds together well with the rest of the cocktail. The coconut cream brings me back to my holidays back home in Indonesia. This was my favorite and the most unique of the summer cocktails!

The chef has changed since I was here, but when I visited I had some great fried chicken. The Sadie Fried Chicken came with grilled red lady peaches, crispy confit potatoes and Bulleit rye jus for $22

There was also this gorgeous Charred Bone Marrow with peppadew peppers, leek ash, citrus chive vinaigrette, and of course, toasted bread

When there's bone marrow at a bar ... you know what might happen, bone luge!

e*starLA is a pro at this!

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Spring at Sadie: New Chef, New Menu, New Cocktails (Hollywood)

I had pretty recently blogged about Sadie, which opened in the former Les Deux space, but after that visit the then-executive-chef had left and Mark Gold from Eva Restaurant had taken over as a consulting chef. That means a repeat visit was in order and Chef Gold's new spring menu was the perfect reason for it.

While waiting for others to arrive for a media tasting, we explored the new cocktails from bartender Giovanni Martinez. Some of the cocktails remain the same but there were plenty of new ones.
If you like frothy cocktails with egg whites you will love the Pantera Rosa ($12) with Aperol, Beefeater 24 Gin, homemade vanilla syrup, lemon juice and egg whites.

After we were seated, we started the dinner with another cocktail, the Temperado: cachaca, Avion Silver tequila, lime juice, cilantro, and jalapeno. If you are one of those who are averse to cilantro, you may think this drink "tastes like a spa", but the little hint of cilantro with the spicy jalapeno made this cocktail just a tad savory, enough to open the way to our dinner.

Our courses were paired with either cocktail or beer, and all of the pairings were done by Gio.

To start our meal, a small portion of the Little Gem salad with a wonderfully creamy green garlic dressing topped with a piece of crispy ham

Then, an Organic (duck) Egg, representing "spring"

You may think it's strange that I'm raving about an egg but this was unbelievably good. It had such a strong flavor that the stalk of spring onion helped restrain. This egg is on the menu for $6 and I would be perfectly happy to sit at the bar and eat this with a cocktail any day. Maybe even today!

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Sadie (Hollywood)

The former Les Deux lounge space had been transformed into a Sadie Restaurant, with a beautiful, quiet, large back patio: a dining space that's a respite from the Hollywood scene (at least before the Hollywood drinking crowd starts hitting the bar inside).

Other food and cocktail bloggers have had great things to say about Sadie and their cocktails (and food), so I looked forward to checking it out with LA & OC Foodie. The cocktail list indeed look quite interesting.
We started with the La China: lychee black-tea infused Avion Silver Tequila, fresh lime juice, organic agave syrup, Velvet Falernum ($12), and Kentucky Ninja: Japanese single malt whisky, bourbon, fresh lemon juice, lavender-infused wild honey, served in a Peychaud-rinsed glass ($13)

Both of them were a great start to the night. Kentucky Ninja is one of the most popular cocktails at Sadie, and I can definitely see why. A strong drink but sweet and balanced.

Recently, Chef Mark Gold of Eva Restaurant had jumped on board as a consulting chef at Sadie, so the menu has slowly been changing and Gold will soon be launching a new Spring menu. Some of the things I had are still on the menu now, like these oysters:
Oysters, Deer Isle, Maine (1/2 dozen blue hill blonde oysters, $18)

Market Chop salad: kale, beets, cucumber, peas, carrots, quinoa, lemon vinaigrette ($11)

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