The Churchill (West Hollywood)

The former space that was Minestraio has finally come alive again, giving the Orlando Hotel guests a place to dine in a completely revamped setting and the West Hollywood crowd another late night hangout. Some have been calling The Churchill, from the people that also brought us The Hudson, a "gastropub", but the kitchen headed by Executive Chef Spencer Johnston does not serve typical "gastropub" food and beverage director John Rankin has also created a cocktail-heavy program.

The Pike ($12) is made with sweet bell pepper muddled with basil, galangal syrup and lime juice, Cazadores Reposado tequila, mescal rinse.

The Revolver ($12) is an instant favorite, made with fire roasted pepper infused Herra Dura Blanco tequila, hibiscus reduction, agave nectar, lime, cassis, xocolatl mole shaken and served on the rocks with a jalapeno slice.

Not stopping there, we also tried the pumpkin infused rum which had quite a strong pumpkin aroma. The wine list also contains some interesting selections like Torrontes, a white wine from the high altitude regions of Argentina.

The charcuterie features La Quercia prosciutto and house-cured meats including a rabbit and pork pate, housemade blood sausage, and Housemade crostini.

Misty point kumamoto oysters

Chef Johnston regularly acquires produce from the Santa Monica Farmers Market and is a big fan of Windrose Farms. I, on the other hand, was a big fan of his Grilled Local Octopus salad, market beans, frisee, chorizo, sherry dressing ($15)

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AYCE Pizza, Beer Flights, and More at Mohawk Bend

Mondays are happy days at Mohawk Bend with their all-you-can-eat pizza nights for only $15. But wait! For the rest of the year (2010), the AYCE pizza is only $12!! Even better!
The AYCE pizza nights take place in the Ramona Room which, when it isn't packed, makes for a good date night with its fireplace and arching tree (I'm not sure how crowded Mondays are now, though).

Instead of ordering, servers with trays of thin crust pizza fresh from the oven walks around and offers you a slice. Most of the pizzas on the menu will make its way out during the night, except for the Pig Newton (since Serrano ham is expensive, yo).

We tried quite a few that night, including a vegan pizza, a Thai chicken pizza, the Private Idaho (with potatoes, bacon, caramelized onions, creme fraiche), and the Abe Froman (house-made Italian sausage, peppers, fennel, mozzarella). The vegan pizza made with Daiya cheese was not too bad, but of course I will stick with the spicy Thai chicken pizza. You can also get a green salad for $4 extra.

Mohawk Bend is all about beer, of course, so you'll need some to wash down the pies. 5-7pm are flight hours at Mohawk, featuring two beer flights at $9 each, but you can get these beer flights in the Ramona Room all night. If you're not into the flights, you can also get specially-priced cocktails.

While waiting for the rest of our party, LA OC Foodie and I got one each of the available flights: the Bitter flight and the Dark. As LA OC Foodie said, we were dark and bitter people.

Point the Way, Picket Fence Wheat IPA, Stone Cali-Belgique,  Mongo DIPA

Brekle's Brown, DDH 15th Anniv, Navigator Doppelbock, Stone IRS 2010

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Sunday Brunch at Nola's (Downtown LA)

LA needs more Cajun places and Nola's in Downtown LA moved in to fill part of the gap. I was pretty excited to try it when they invited me in, but my schedule only allowed to come for Sunday brunch.
I didn't realize that the Sunday brunch was a champagne buffet until I got there. I was planning to try their jambalaya, gumbo, and po'boy but they weren't offered at the buffet. Oh well ...
The buffet offerings included fried chicken, fried catfish, shrimp Étouffée, red bean and rice, beignets, and fruits. Oh, and of course, free flowing mimosas.

Both the fried chicken and fried catfish were great, I went back for seconds for both of these. Since the beignets were put out buffet style, they were unfortunately not that fresh and kind of hard. I liked the shrimp Étouffée too - the good thing about having the buffet style is that I could get as many shrimp as I wanted.

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