Breaking Free: L.A. Wine Culture

Shattering the stereotypes

Comments (0) By Jonathan Gold Wednesday, Feb 6 2008

...continued from page 3

Bottle RockThe tables at Bottle Rock are the size of phonograph records, and the wobbly metal stools seem perpetually on the verge of collapse. The location, tucked behind a parking structure, is obscure, even if it is just a step or two from Culver City's new restaurant row. But Bottle Rock, which doubles as a wine shop, is among the most appealing of the wine bars that have opened on the Westside — because of the house-made pates, because of the tomato bread and the pressed sandwiches, because of the cheese board, but mostly because of the wine, which tends to be obscure, well chosen and reasonably priced. The proprietors will open any bottle in the shop, from a simple California white to an aged Barolo, if you commit to two glasses of the stuff, and the chalkboard list of available wines can change 20 times a night. The little grilled chorizos are delicious. And there is always something good to drink for $5 a glass. After a screening at Sony or a show at one of the local theaters, Bottle Rock is the perfect place to kick it. 3847 Main St., Culver City, (310) 836-WINE. Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-mid. Beer, wine. Lot parking. All major CC. American/French.

CampanileCampanile has had one of the country's most influential Italian wine lists since the waning days of the 1980s, although sommelier Jay Perrin moved it solidly into the tannic territory of the French. Still, the restaurant is probably still best-known for the prowess of Mark Peel, the LeBron James of the grill, who showcases more shades of fire and heat than any chef on Earth: rosemary-charred lamb, cedar-plank salmon, grilled prime rib with bitter greens. Grilled-fish soup is a sort of deconstructed bouillabaisse, a dish involving four or five sea creatures, each with a different cooking time and a different capacity for heat — a feat of kitchen virtuosity with the same degree of difficulty as a reverse 360 dunk. You'll be wanting a chilled bottle of Cassis with that. 624 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 938-1447. Lunch Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; dinner Mon.-Wed. 6-10 p.m., Thurs.-Sat. 5:30-11 p.m.; brunch Sunday 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, DC, MC, V. California/Mediterranean.

Cobras & MatadorsSteven Arroyo is the Bill Graham of tapas in Los Angeles, the impresario who made the concept of Spanish drinks 'n' snacks as popular as sushi platters after dozens of others had tried and failed. And his dark, buzzy tapas parlors are teeming dens of olive oil and garlic, octopus and cured pig, grilled meats and pungent concoctions of seafood and paprika and beans rushed to the table still crackling in unglazed crocks. The Los Feliz restaurant has a nicely curated list of Spanish and South American wines; at the Hollywood restaurant, you buy your wines from the shop conveniently located next door. When you bring your prize back to the table, don't be surprised if the counter guy is standing right there, corkscrew in hand. 7615 W. Beverly Blvd., L.A., (323) 932-6178. 4655 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz, (323) 669-3922. Dinner Sun.-Thurs. 6-11 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 6 p.m.-mid. BYOB. Valet parking. MC, V. Spanish.

Comme CaDavid Myers' new brasserie has the look of a dining room restored to use after 70 years of disuse: black and white, lined with mirrors, dotted with actual French speakers. The oysters are briny, crisp and alive. The housemade terrines and pates are first-rate. There are snails in garlic butter and frisee salads with bacon and poached eggs, choucroute garni on Wednesdays and braised pork belly on Saturdays as well as great onion soup. At lunch, they have the best cheeseburgers in Los Angeles. The wine list includes French village wines that are uncannily appropriate with the food; the house carafe is a decent Cotes du Rhone. And there's that great, happy roar of music and people with a little too much wine in them, and the sense that somebody, somewhere in the restaurant is having the most memorable evening of her life. 8479 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, (323) 782-1178 or www.commecarestaurant.com. Open daily, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. AE, MC, V. Full bar. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only, $74-$96. French.

{==PAGE_BREAK==}

Anne Fishbein

Do you hear what I hear? Listening to Refosco, perhaps, Mozza's David Rosoff

Anne Fishbein

Screen test: Filtering a big red at Mozza

More About

Cut If Spago is at heart Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, its menu plumped out with his easygoing air, his enriched stocks and his Austrian favorites, Cut, despite obvious signs of the master's touch, is actually the love child of Puck's capo, Spago chef Lee Hefter, whose obsessions lie as much in technique as they do in produce, and whose menus of warm veal-tongue salads, succulent maple-glazed pork bellies, potato "tarte tatin" and flan-stuffed marrow bones tend to be more modern but less user friendly than the dishes Puck turns out on his own. If you have $120 to spend on a steak, you might want to consider visiting Cut — and splitting the Kobe strip four or five ways, because unless you happen to play in the NFL, there is no way you can digest even a small example of the plutonium-dense meat by yourself. Ask sommelier Dana Farner to pour you something you've never seen before. Look out for the gnarliest Malbec of your life. Cut, designed to the teeth by Getty Center architect Richard Meier, is to the other steak houses in town what Spago was to the pizza parlors back in 1981. 9500 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, (310) 275-5200. Mon.-Thurs. 5:30-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5:30-11 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking a half-block south of Wilshire Blvd. on Rodeo Drive. AE, D, MC, V. California Contemporary.