a couple bad examples doesn’t mean it’s an irrelevant metric. There’s no perfect metric system out there. Michelin is still the only one where the reviewers go and eat at a restaurant. Opposed to all the other awards out there which are popularity contests
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It’s definitely a lot of labor. Almost every dish there is quite a bit of work, they are utilizing tons of bones/scraps from all of their proteins to add flavor to other dishes (eg making a garum from fish bones to use in the garden lettuce vin). I got to walk through the kitchen and talk with the EC last night for a while about a ton of dishes. Even smoking of the tomatoes for the caprese is laborious. Very few places I’m aware of are packing as much umami into their dishes as they are here.
New lasagna is delicious, and the new soft serve is indeed basically angler again
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Lasagna does look dope. I’ll probably give em some time to jam with the new menu and then go. But my mission might be see if I can still make a good meal for 150 ish pp
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The menu changes constantly.
to jam on the extended menu*
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If you wait they’ll likely just move on to new dishes.
That’s cool to know about the garden lettuces, that salad with a glass of Chablis, lovely bites
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Last night we ordered (for 2):
Lettuces, caprese, buffalo curds, lasagna, salmon pizza, caramel sundae, and 3 drinks.
Worked out to about 180pp after tax + tip and was plenty of food (full disclosure: kitchen sent out the tilefish crudo and the other 2 desserts, but we were stuffed by the end, took half the pizza home). Could drop the curds and get one of the ~30 dollar pizzas and I think you’d be right in that ballpark with still a great meal.
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the new lobster, lasagna and soft serve are all delicious. i would buy jars of the cocktail sauce and marinara sauce for the lasagana. the marinara had a deep savoriness with a balance of heat and sweetness. it seems skenes likes to add heat and chilies to a lot of his dishes.
cali-prese and oysters are still outstanding. the embered tomatoes under the cali-prese is straight out of angler.
buffalo milk curds and melon were very good. the melon was still on the rind which was odd and made it hard to eat.
i was told they’re not using the front oven for pizza anymore. apparently the pizzas cooled it off too much so they got a “laser oven” (not sure what that is) for the pizzas that can maintain its temp better.
they also put up a weird wall to separate the back. i think that’s what they had intended for “leopardo pizzeria”.
whole lobster cocktail, motomaru tomato & kizami
ice-cold oysters with pickled seaweed granita & lemon
buffalo milk curds, saints olive oil & oregon sea salt
heirloom melon & shaved culatello
cali-prese 2010 with eighteen-hour tomatoes, stracciatella, honey vinegar & basil
handkerchief lasagna with wild boar ragu, fior di latte & basil
frozen soft cream, salted caramel, cocoa nibs & oregon sea salt
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I can’t find anything about a laser oven being available commercially yet, though I suppose Skenes might have a prototype.
That wall is bizarre. They should lose it.
I suspect it’s just a misunderstanding and it’s probably some type of infrared oven. They are much better at instant application of heat and consistent heat. A lot of the high temperature broilers that steakhouses use operate with infrared heating elements. Infrared Ovens: What are They? How are They Used? Types Of
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we gotta sign our handles on the wall
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Cats with lasers. We are entering Skenes v3.0…
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i misread your earlier post with regard to sauce vs cali-prese, but it’s generally the same process. really, if you’re going to confit tomatoes en masse for 18hr, it’s even easier to peel; the skins fall away naturally with a gentle shake.
i doubt an unfortunate prep is running tournee on raw ass tomatoes for 8hrs with a family meal and a couple smoke breaks. if they are, i haven’t seen anything on leopardo’s food or bev menu that leverages skins/trimmings/anything-usable that would benefit from that extra effort.
i skinned countless tomatoes for romesco, of all fucking things. did customers notice we didn’t throw those shits whole into the robocoupe? doubtful. but they would have if we did.
there are soul food joints, mom and pop ktown spots, niche thai restaurants, and people literally working out of their home kitchen or alleyway that are spending just as much time on equally (or more complicated) details that you will never notice unless you’ve been in the shit. none of this seems at all unreasonable for a restaurant that has loose standards of decency.
the difference is whether or not you’re charging reasonable prices.
…sorry, but what the actual shit? is that good?? is upcharging something that most people don’t understand something we should celebrate???
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a lot of places fuck well-meaning customers with sub-par, poorly stored (“rice we use for risotto”
), or just plain week-old truffles because customers don’t know better.- this happens less with caviar, and shout out to the Astrea dude on here–that is legitimately worth its $$$
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i would love to know how much of that extra revenue is being distributed to the BOH–wage, tips, service charge, weird-mandatory-addons, etc. most of this stuff doesn’t make it to the kitchen staff: the people supposedly peeling your tomatoes.
i’m not fully sure why i’m so worked up about this, but if i had to summarize:
Leopardo is objectively better than a lot of places that opened the past year or so, but its price point is simply unreasonable for whatever theme or menu they are groping to find. “changing with season/availability” can be a funny cop-out.
i’m sure the rent at the former La Brea Bakery space is insane, but you don’t get a year to figure out the cost of that ticket. i wish everyone involved the best, but reading some of the discourse here makes me feel like i’m fucking crazy.
i’m going back thursday, with an open mind, just to be sure i’m not insane.
PS maybe just me, but i think it would be extremely cool if people here showed up to places anonymously and spoke based on that. i randomly encountered a tiktok where a lady got a reservation for Sei omakase via someone here, and he self-described himself as “famous online.” i think a lot of us here are fortunate enough to have some $$$$ and ins at a lot of hard-to-get spots let’s maybe not be pretentious about it, and/or disclose if we have some personal investment in it
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Joshua Skenes came from selling sandwiches out of a food cart in San Francisco to Saison gaining 3 Michelin stars within a decade. He gained a following like few chefs have. Even other chefs holding 3 Michelin stars. My personal opinion, at this point in his career he can charge what he wants to.
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hear hear!
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Personally, I don’t really care about how much work is going into the food, how much the ingredients cost, or who the chef is. I just think the food tastes delicious and am therefore willing to pay for it. I haven’t tasted anything similarly delicious in a lower price range. If it existed, I would go there instead. That said, I doubt anyone is getting rich off the Leopardo endeavor.
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The 18 hour tomatoes are smoked and used to make the tomato jam at the base of the dish. The peeled tomatoes are the cherry tomatoes which are blanched, peeled, marinated, and served whole atop the base
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I tried to search tiktok for this but can’t find it. I saw a video recently about it posted by someone joking that they got an invite from a friend on FTC but it was a joke about one of more illustrious members here.
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Okay I found it. If you’re going to have such righteous indignation at least get what was said correct
“This guy. Who is famous online, he’s the one that got me in”
Which is a joke about the user as they are good friends and the user is adamant that he doesnt do social media to and she likes to put him on blast about it.
So at no point is there a reference to someone self describing them as famous online 
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