Great White (Venice): A Pictorial Essay

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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When you debut an open-air breakfast & lunch surf shack. serving (self-described) “Coastal-Californian” cuisine just a block from the beach in Venice, the location alone will likely draw enough business. The food doesn’t have to be good, and the place will probably succeed anyways, right?

But to my pleasant surprise, the food at Great White is good… Very good.

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Nicely pulled caffeine…

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Breakfast burrito, with scrambled eggs, tater tots, charred scallion, applewood smoked, bacon, Oaxacan cheese, chipotle aioli, roasted salsa … This is NOT one of those punch-you–in the-face burritos. Rather, it comes across as thoughtfully composed and meticulously prepared. The excellent salsa served on the side is just fine without being roasted, but yet the kitchen roasts it anyways, and the salsa rises to the next level when added to the burrito. Loaded with taste, this breakfast burrito is easily one of the best in the city right now. Not your typical beach shack fare.

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Chuck Berry smoothie, with freshly squeezed OJ, berries, pineapple, toasted coconut… As good as it sounds!

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Corn fritters, with poached egg, charred avocado salsa, fresh greens, tomato… Fried corn is becoming a “thing” in L.A., and Great White’s version is neither greasy nor underdone. I found the flavors in this breakfast dish to be well-balanced - A splendid example of the possibilities when the great produce of California is handled expertly.

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This being Venice, and a locals’ haunt at that, the people-watching here was entertaining, to say the least. A vast array of human pulchritude was on display. All this makes the wait for the food (which was not excessive at all, mind you) quite bearable.

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RECOMMENDED.

Great White
1604 Pacific Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90291
424.744.8403
greatwhitevenice.com

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**googles “pulchritude”
now i know what it means! you learn something new on FTC everyday

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“I have the best words.”

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The fabled pulchritude of the multitudes who get their morning ritual victuals at Great White is courtesy of Aesop’s facials. This does seem like it could be a popular Australian brekkie place, too - not a bad thing at all! Go for the pulchritude, stay for the breakfast burrito?

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Indeed, you would do well to stay for the breakfast burrito. It is quite a smartly composed, lighthearted kind of breakfast burrito, highly pleasant.

The corn fritters, however, may need to be fried a bit harder, perhaps salted a bit more. The $3 addition of grilled halloumi wedges greatly accents the dish and ought to be SOP on the plate.

Overall, a pleasant spot in Venice that is about a million times easier to walk into than most spots in the area for pretty excellent food.

Pro tip: ask for a bottle of their housemade hot sauce.

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Probably dreaming, but any parking?

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Yeah, they have an entire parking lot right in front of their space, although you have to pay for parking. You can also easily park about 3-4 blocks away in a neighborhood and walk over. Parking seemed super easy to me.

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There’s your pro-tip right there.

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I agree but most people have a severe aversion to walking more than about 20 feet to their restaurant, which they just drove a half hour to go to haha

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I’m so glad you wrote that! In SF, NYC and other cities, 3-4 blocks is nothing. Work up your appetite.

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One of the great joys of San Francisco is traipsing from restaurant to restaurant.

A joy that is lost many Angelenos it seems.

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Same with NYC. I’ve not ‘done’ Chicago yet but am hoping for the same.

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https://www.instagram.com/p/DPNIMWSkhgl/

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That seems like total bullshit.

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Say more.

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“I woke up today being like, ‘I really hope there’s not an update I have to do today on Great White,’” Choi said. “It’s not great for my mental health to stay on stuff like that because I’m driven a lot by empathy. That’s part of the reason why I do this. I don’t really like to dwell on stories.”

As of Tuesday afternoon Choi had posted 14 videos on Great White or Gran Blanco.

How put-upon this guy sounds due to something that he chose to do. He doesn’t want to post but the gods are forcing his hand.

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The guy is definitely taking his 15 minutes of social media fame and running with it, but despite how annoying it is - the fucked up shit multiple people are reporting GW’s ownership/management have done can be true too.

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The employees interviewed by the Times don’t back up the accusations, which are pretty far-fetched to begin with.

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““We were told we should not let in ethnic-looking people, that the owners really don’t want that, they want to keep a certain vibe in here,” Brier said.

Brier also said Gran Blanco’s DJs were told to avoid playing rap and hip-hop so as to not attract “a certain crowd in here to make it ‘ghetto.’””

Montana Pine, who worked as a Gran Blanco server for roughly three years, said she reported discriminatory statements against employees to management, but “they weren’t receptive to any sort of feedback.”

The continuing harassment of the restaurant through this one dude and review bombers/tiktok bandwagon are super annoying and bullshit - and a lot of them are stretches. But it does seem like there was a culture of bias against customers that permeated the culture there.

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Did anyone watch the full original video? I doubt all Great White’s are like that, but whoever was running the West Hollywood one definitely had an agenda.