I lived in California for almost 3 years and never made it to L.A. Not necessarily by design, but during that time I traveled South to Las Vegas twice, and North to Portland, all by car. So to say the least my motivation was not very strong. Heading back to California after a week + stint in Vegas I didn't really know what to expect. A slideshow running in my mind of scenes from Entourage promised to disappoint. While I wasn't quite as fortunate as Vince is, I did luck out in the food department! Two stellar stages, one at the Michelin two-star Providence, and the other at the wildly raved about Animal, formed my impressions of Smog City.
Providence
Located in West Hollywood, Providence sits on the wrong side of Melrose Avenue. Nestled in between "Pinky's" Automotive and a deserted storefront, the restaurant feels completely out of place, but in a good way. Chef Michael Cimarusti uses top-shelf seafood and mild Asian influences to create some amazing dishes. Let's get to it...
Avocado and Crab Salad.
This dish had an amazingly fresh and acidic element to it.
Avocado, lump crab meat, citrus in various forms, and spicy mizuna.
Kona Kanpachi Sashimi.
Soy creme fraiche, smoked sesame seed, micro cilantro,
cilantro flowers, compressed cucumber, and wood sorrel.
Two of the line cooks, Andy and Stephanie, plating.
Wild Striped Bass.
Tomato confit, shiso leaf, lemon, espelette, and burdock.
(Burdock, as I later found out, is a root vegetable very similar to salsify. It's used widely in
Japanese cuisine, where it is usually braised with sake and mirin or soy. Here they soak it
in water to remove some of the muddy flavor, then fry it in little bundles with sesame seed
and nori.)
Sous Chef, Sam Baxter helping out at the pass.
Animal
Unfortunately, I shit the bed during my stage at Animal. I didn't cut myself, and I didn't burn anything, but I did forget to take pictures. Rookie mistake! Now we are going to have to rely on my complete mastery of the language we call "Amurrican" to get the job done. I'll give it my best.
Animal has no sign. Just an address. 435 Fairfax is all I have to go by. Alright, I'm not kidding anyone, I have an iPhone so finding the resto was a breeze. Walking in the back door I wander down a blank, unembellished hallway until the kitchen appears through a doorway to my right. The first thing I realize is that I am overdressed. My first two stages on this trip have been Michelin-starred restaurants, and the uniform that I have come to see as the standard; black clogs, black pants and a pressed chef's coat, clearly do not apply when you are cooking at Animal. All but one of the cooks are wearing shorts. And the only one that isn't, Joe the Sous Chef, is wearing capri's. I take the cue and quietly unbutton my chef's coat before introducing myself. To say that this kitchen is crowded is an understatement of the highest order. Working in the kitchen at Animal is like trying to find some wiggle room in a tin box of sardines. I had better get used to it, I'm going to be here for the next 13 hours.
Checking in with Joe, he gives me a case of Hedgehog mushrooms to clean, and I start to spin in circles. There is not one open space for me to set up shop! I spy the prep sink in the corner and pounce. On the minuscule counter next to me, Raymundo, one of the a.m. prep cooks, has his cutting board set up and eyes me suspiciously.
"This is my station, O.K.? My station." he grumbles.
I can see why this is a territorial kitchen. You have to fight tooth and nail just to have the possibility of doing your job. But, as any cook who is reading this surely knows, we tend to like a challenge. Tiny prep area for a restaurant that is going to do upwards of 150 covers tonight? Fuck it let's get the catering crew in here too and cut the space in half! The only blessing I can think of for myself in the current situation is that it is January, and I don't mind getting cozy with my neighbors. If this was August everyone would be singing a much different tune.
The food here at Animal is clearly much more rustic than at Providence, which is definitely not a negative. The menu here has obvious soul, is designed to satisfy the masses and does what a restaurant is designed to do. Make money. There are so many fine dining operations that never turn a profit it is scary. Animal has no support system. There is no multi-billion dollar hotel backing it up. While there is a complete lack of a safety net, the food is gutsy anyways. That's why Animal is so popular. Dishes like Seared Foie Gras with Country Sausage Gravy and Maple emphasize this fact. Vinny Dotolo, the de facto Restaurant Chef and his partner, Jon Shook, Chef of the catering operation, clearly have the stones to run a place like this. When you have a dish on your menu that includes Foie gras, a hamburger patty, spam, AND a fried quail egg, you are clearly not cooking scared.
Animal is not traditional, not in a way that I could recognize. From the cooks uniform to the food, there is something unique going on. There is no pastry chef. There's not even an ice cream machine, something I thought a restaurant was almost required to have. Naturally the desserts are simple, Doughnuts with Caramel, a Bacon Chocolate Crunch Bar, that despite what I see as the overuse of bacon in desserts these days, is absolutely delicious. (Thanks Yinny!) The ceiling in the kitchen is vaulted, at least 20 feet. There is a ladder leading from the dish pit to a catwalk that houses all the extras that a restaurant has to keep on hand. (Linens, paper towels, plastic wrap, etc.) Climbing it to retrieve some paper towels my only thought is how dangerous this is! But then again, what fun is cooking without the danger? Service at Animal runs until 2 a.m. on the weekends and I am reminded of how brutal it can be to work in a late night spot. When the kitchen closes at 2 you are lucky to get out of there before 2:30, and that is only if you don't have some disrespectful asshole order the bone-in ribeye 4 minutes to close.
Animal is fun, and it's busy, as a good restaurant should be. It is a chef's restaurant, a restaurant that draws a large proportion of the surrounding restaurants cooks to it's bar, to humbly pay their respect. And after all, what better indicator of quality is there than that?
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