Ahh, I read it the wrong way, obviously.
Parking at 9:30 on a Monday morning is pretty challenging.
Cappucino
Very smooth. Maybe higher than average caffeine content because my cranium was buzzing more than usual. Very nice.
caramelized onion financier, creme fraiche
Tasty. But a bit intimidating in volume as I had another dish coming as well. Super cool counter person told me I could handle both. Which I did. Having said that, one of these would have been sufficient.
avocado confit, toasted country bread
Half of an unripe avocado in a bath of slightly acidic green liquid with brown crunchy bits on top with some slices of bread on the side. I just didn’t get this at all. I think it’s style preference. For lack of a better term, I have not really enjoyed thoroughly meals that are sort of comparable to what was once termed as “new nordic” in style. This reminded me of dishes that I had at Noma, Relae, Coi, Girasol, and even Red Medicine that left me flummoxed. Well styled, but didn’t really delivered much on the palate.
If I happened to be in the neighborhood, I would certainly drop my for some coffee. I’m glad my curiosity led me there, but I’m probably not going to return.
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That’s cheating. It’s supposed to be an organic hen egg 
.
I like my game better. 
I do too
I posted my lunch today on another thread, but thought I’d share here, too.
http://foodtalkcentral.com/t/october-2016-weekend-rundown/4358/176
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So this place sounds like where my food would go to eat dinner.
“You’re going to hate this restaurant” is a pretty funny thing to say in a review that’s basically positive.
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Great review.
“…buildings that look as if they’d been hip-checked by Godzilla.”
It’s sentences like these that confirm Gold’s Pulitzer Prize was well deserved.
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It is the perfect line for Destroyer and Kahn as a chef in general. Virtually anyone headed in would think it’s pretentious lunacy outside of a very select couple of foodie types.
Indeed, agree or disagree with him, no one else does food writing the same,
Scooped JGold by 1 month and 10 days… Isn’t there some sort of badge for that?
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“You are not going to find parking within a quarter-mile of the restaurant.”
I’ve parked in front or on the side each time I’ve been there.
“The landscape is post-apocalyptic, dotted with seedling starter packs the size of battle tanks and buildings that look as if they’d been hip-checked by Godzilla”
Sorry the place isn’t surrounded by soaring office buildings or in a seedy section of East Hollywood. They’re small one-story buildings with some sculptural design architecture thrown in. And if you look up, there are hills and blue skies.
I’m bored with quoting J.'s unhappiness, so let me just say that the less jaded among us think the hand thrown pottery is beautiful and find the space calming. The chefs are focused on the food, and no one working there is snooty or pissy or tense.
I think it’s fabulous and an oasis. And yes, the food is wonderful. Kahn can pick all the marigolds and nasturtiums he wants in my neighborhood, and J. Gold, you can go back to snuffling out the best Szechuan pig snout soup in SGV strip malls.
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30 posts were split to a new topic: Of Jonathan Gold, Destroyer, restaurant reviews, semantics and logomachy
My post about Shibumi = Jun 23; J Gold’s review of Shibumi = August 12.
Scooped him by 1 month and 19 days, nearly 2 months.
It would be funny if there was a literal one of these “forum badges” to go along with scooping Gold by over a month or something. =)
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I think it’s a mistake to assume that J Gold was scooped. Just because he doesn’t write it up doesn’t mean he hadn’t heard of a place, received direct info about it, tried it, or eaten there multiple times.
By nature of his position and reputation, he is a magnet of info and is an intrepid professional eater. Posting here about some place is far far easier than J Gold sitting down with the editors, deciding what place would work best for his Counter Intelligence article of the week.
You can (and have) posted multiple reports here in one sitting. Unfortunately, these don’t go into wide print/distribution on multiple media formats with the viewership of the LA Times and it’s syndicates. The Times is a business, and they have their readers as well as sponsors to balance between. So unlike us, they have to give a damn about what they print, and when they print it.
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No one is being serious.
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Yes J_L may be patting his/her (his i think) self on the back. But I think he’s just having some fun. Not being serious.
But you made a good point… as usual! I don’t want to keep embarrassing you. But I do like the way your thoughts translate on to paper or should I say the keyboard?
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JGold has said he eats at a restaurant at least 3 times before writing a review, preferably with some time in between. He also usually gives a restaurant at least a few weeks from open to get their footing, and has said in the past it was standard for restaurant critics to give several months, but obviously that’s not happening these days.
As the Chowpup used to say (after turning himself around): “That’s what it’s all about!”
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