New restaurant at row dtla from chef melissa perello of octavia and frances opens tuesday.
M. Georgina
777 Alameda St
Los Angeles, CA 90021
213-334-4113
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prices look very reasonable for that quality and creativity
Whoa nice. I work in downtown Tuesday. Anyone planning on going opening night?
Might try for Saturday.
Friends and family this weekend. Pleasantly surprised. Satisfying, well executed, a number of delicious things.
Kusshi - seasoned with some sort of gelatinized mignonette cube thingy. a few were sloppily shucked, but otherwise really good.
Surf Clam Diavolo - a deviled clam almost a rhode island stuffie. simple, satisfying, definitely better than the ones at Connie and Ted’s. loved these.
Kanpachi Tartare - needed more lime leaf, but bites with enough were special.
Tete de Cochon - deconstructed, almost a salad of shaved head cheese (and maybe some ear). quite good.
Crudites - simple, loved it, but not a ton going on.
Squid Ink Pita - tiny black pitas on a schmear of aioli. prob the most polarizing dish at our table, though some were super into it. for anchovy toast people.
House Levain - prefer to any Tartine bread. reminiscent of the dearly departed bread service at Mission Chinese nyc.
Chicories - bracing, very olivey. might work in the context of a meal but not on its own no.
Semolina Mafaldine - only true miss of the night. fine, not terrible, but eggplant and tomato blended together and nothing really popped. needed a cured meat or something stronger in there.
Black Cod - absolutely delicious, perfectly cooked. Simple, rich, satisfying.
Saag - comforting but a little underspiced.
Coal Potato - fun, good value, needed a little more pancetta.
Desserts - blanking on a few, most were quite good. sourdough ice cream was fire!
Really liked M. Georgina, though friends and family is tricky. Was randomly invited, but maybe there’s some unconscious bias: hard to be critical of a free meal.
With that said, the food was really well executed, and it’s stealthily more creative than it reads.
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Thanks for the early thoughts @ShadrackToussaint!
Excited about that sourdough ice cream, a great nod to San Francisco.
Reminds me of the buckwheat ice cream at Soba Ichi.
I echo @ShadrackToussaint views about the clam diavolo and tete de cochon though I also had
Celery Root Soup
I love when you can identify the flavor vessel (liquid in this case) and separate it from the flavors being experienced. If that makes any sense? Like I knew I was enjoying a soup. Creamy, tart, bitter heat from the herbs and I love anything rye.
Cotechino Ragout
The acid balance on this dish impressed me more than anything else. It helped amplify everything, from the chewiness of the pasta to the leafy bitter bite of arugula (which often at times reminds me of the soft boiled egg, thrown on top of everything without thought)
Enjoyed a skin contact malvasia and cab franc/grolleau blend.
The malvasia was served warmer than I’d have liked. It started out at the temperature I want it to reach halfway through the glass. But a great pour from Onward.
The cabrolleau worked well with the ragout, a table wine in the best sense. From domaine des hauts-baigneux.
For dessert Spiced Quince & Buttermilk Sherbet and the sourdough ice cream. Also a pour of Pedro Ximenez
SQ&BS also had cave aged gouda which provided a lot of bite, especially in conjunction with the sherbet. Really beautiful dessert.
The sourdough ice cream is the first ice cream I’ve had in a while that really impressed me from a technical standpoint. One continuous texture. I kept thinking that the entire scoop. As if sourdough ice cream drops fell from the sky.
Said thank you to chef and left the Row. My first time at the row and I echo a lot of people who are wondering how well a place can do there. As much as I loved it I have no desire to go back to that location. Though I do go bouldering nearby sometimes, I found the Row itself to be so whatever.
But that has nothing to do with Melissa Perello, who is off to a great start
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Echo many sentiments above. The squid ink pita, pork testa, black cod, pork chop and duck were favorites.
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Interesting to hear your thoughts @butteredwaffles and @chewchow.
And re: The Row, it does kind of feel doomed. It’s a hipster mall, which gets at the tension of attracting that clientele to what’s essentially The Americana, albeit with different stores and a different set of signifiers.
The place needs an anchor/draw beyond Smorgasburg. Guessing developers thought Tartine would suffice. Something like Sleep No More or some Instagrammy Museum of X would help. Or maybe just back up the Brinks truck for Howlin Ray’s and its 3 hour line.
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I still maintain that they should have started with residential units. What better way to get people to spend money there by having people live above. Retail is dying thanks to e-commerce and good restaurants alone cant drive foot traffic. I hope this place can survive because the food looks good but yes they need a better anchor for sure.
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I’m mostly curious how all those clothing shops are surviving. I’ve yet to see a person peruse them let alone buy
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I saw a fair number of shoppers when I was there on a July weekday around 5:30.
I liked this restaurant. Although portions were tiny and more suitable for a tasting menu, I thought it was high quality food for the price. If you’re wondering whether you should order more dishes, the answer is almost certainly yes.
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Agree - Crazy good value here.
Thank you for the report.
What was the wine list like?
Do you happen to know if they allow corkage?
Looks very good, a slice of nice SF casual semi upscale dining in LA!
I can’t imagine them not allowing corkage, since most SF restaurants allow it especially the ones affiliated with M. Georgina. I would want to play around with sake here as well if I had enough time and quota.
OpenTable says there’s a corkage fee.
Do they have house wines charged by the ounce a la Frances?
It was a respectable wine list with several dozen bottles of wine, mostly under $100, some between $100 and $200.
My recollection is that the wine list said they allow corkage. I think the fee was about $25 for first bottle.
Thank you, going this weekend, will report back.
Pay for what you drink? Wouldn’t that be great!!!