Pitfire Pizza Opens in West Hollywood

Pitfire Pizza recently opened its West Hollywood outpost a block away from Fairfax and Melrose. Despite having a great meat shop (*cough* Lindy and Grundy), there wasn't much by way of restaurants in that immediate area. I had only been to the downtown and Westwood locations and the WeHo space is definitely much bigger, with a bar (with various craft beers on tap) and a patio dining area - and a pink Foosball table! Oh yeah.

Pitfire Pizza is very proud of their interior design: the Barbara Bestor-designed Culver City location won an AIA design award last year. This time they brought in Ana Henton and they particularly loved the way the elevated kitchen worked out. This location was actually two separate spaces and they worked out one of the elevated one into the whole design. You can easily see the kitchen staff working this way.

The food menu is the same as the other locations.
On a chilly night, start with some hand-crafted chicken meatballs ($6)

One of our favorite dishes was actually the Farmers Market Roasted Vegetables ($9.95). The winter platter featured roasted sunchokes, brussel sprouts, braised chickpeas with chard and harissa, roasted rainbow carrots with chili honey and rosemary

Possible the sweetest carrots I've had in a while, sunchokes that almost seem like potatoes, and great brussel sprouts.

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Pre-Theatre Prix Fixe at Boulud Sud (New York, NY)

Early in the evening, Daniel Boulud's new Mediterranean restaurant, Boulud Sud, has a pre-theatre prix fixe menu, three courses for $55. Since I was going to see War Horse and the restaurant was just a stone's throw away from the Lincoln Center, I thought it would be a perfect time to check it out.

The restaurant was pretty full when we got there, but it was still quiet enough to hold a conversation.

The "bread", of course, was Mediterranean. 

For my first course, I ordered the Octopus a la plancha with marcona almonds, arugula, Jerez vinegar

I liked how the subtle accompaniments showcase the flavors of the octopus itself, which also had a great texture.

My companion ordered the House made lamb kibbeh, swiss chard, feta, pine nuts

It was not what he expected, apparently. It was good but I thought it was a little dry and we both preferred the octopus.

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Culver City Bar Crawl: Oldfield's Liquor Room and Bigfoot West

The 1933 Group is taking over Venice Blvd in Culver City with bars. This portion of Venice seems a strange place for bars, with nothing much around it but dry cleaners and liquor stores, but both Oldfield's Liquor Room and Bigfoot West were packed on a Thursday night.

I was recently invited to a "bar crawl" to visit both Westside bars for the first time. We started the night at Oldfield's, and we started fast and furious. The standalone building looks old and small from the outside, but the interior is spacious and sophisticated. We were greeted by a bowl of the Shrub Punch (Tru organic gin, Clemente Creole shrub, blackberry rosemary shrub, lemon, Perrier). Shrub, a liqueur made with vinegar, is making a big comeback recently and I've seen it appear on many cocktail lists from LA to NY to Chicago see this NYT article back in October). I, for one, am a big fan of shrub and loved this punch, but looking at how many cocktails we had ahead of us, I had to resist getting seconds.

The cocktail menu is divided into their own modern concoctions, and the classics. We started on the first list with the Speed King (English Harbour 5yr rum, walnut liqueur, Cynar, house chocolate stout liqueur)

Photo courtesy of Oldfield's

I liked the hint of chocolate in this otherwise strong drink. I wasn't sure what to expect from the cocktails here but they were surprisingly good.
Next we had the Peerless (Miller's Westbourne gin, apricot liqueur, apricot nectar, Fever Tree ginger beer). This was my favorite, and easy to see why: gin, fruit, and ginger. Aromatic, sweet, and refreshing.

from the Classics menu:
Delicious Sour (circa late 1800's): Laird's Strait Bonded Applejack, peach brandy, fresh lime, egg white

Photo courtesy of Oldfield's

This was a little too sweet for me, but it will certainly have its own fans.

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