Jonathan Gold's 99 Essential LA Restaurants

Bar Marmont

Sometimes a burger and fries is enough to sustain you through a night of serious drinking, and sometimes it’s got to be boozy bacon prunes. It is at those latter times that you hope you have the pull to get past the doorman at Bar Marmont, whose list of regular customers still resembles US Weekly’s table of contents, because Bar Marmont is everything you could want in a gastropub: ingenious cocktails, intimate nooks and the killer cooking of Carolynn Spence, who was once chef de cuisine at NYC’s notorious Spotted Pig. Her menu, while far less offal-intensive than Spotted Pig’s, is very close to it in spirit: Italian-influenced small plates, diver scallops in brown butter, oxtail bruschettas, a good small wine list and drinks. Lots of drinks. The kitchen stays open until midnight. And if you discover you need that burger after all, it’s a good one. 8171 Sunset Blvd., W. Hlywd., (323) 650-0575. Mon.-Sat. 6 p.m.-2 a.m. (dinner until midnight). Full bar. Valet parking. All major CC. Modern American.

Anne Fishbein

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Anne Fishbein

Park's BBQ

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Asanebo

11941 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604

Category: Restaurant > Japanese

Region: San Fernando Valley

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A-Won

913 1/2 S. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90006

Category: Restaurant > Korean

Region: Mid-Wilshire/ Hancock Park

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Bastide

If you are not quite versed in the ways of Bastide, an evening in the restaurant can appear like a scene out of a Huysmans novel, footsteps crunching through gravel, a young man meeting you before you make it to the door, a short but circuitous walk into a room that is neither outdoors nor in, foliage growing out of a wall rather than up it, a table set amid a small grove of birch-tree trunks that seem to be sprouting small appliances instead of branches or leaves. Film director Joe Pytka, the mad proprietor of the restaurant, operates Bastide as other wealthy men donate museum wings or subsidize productions of Wagner. Pieter Verheyde, a former sommelier at Ducasse in New York and Paris, is in utter command of the wine, confident enough to know when a simple Swiss white might go better with a king crab croquette than a $300 bottle of Batard-Montrachet, but unafraid to go to a grand cru when it suits his purposes. It is nothing short of awe-inspiring to listen to him consider 15 or 20 wines before he decides that the acidity of a young Barolo is what might best suit a dish of seared Japanese tai, or that the slight bitterness of an oxidized Jurancon would pick up a similar note in a garnish of ginkgo nuts. Pytka famously goes through chefs like Frank McCourt goes though managers, and Alain Giraud, Ludovic Lefebvre and Walter Manzke have all served admirable terms. The new guy up is Paul Shoemaker, who worked alongside Michael Cimarusti for years at Water Grill and then at Providence, and his mastery of the small, decadent gesture — the dab of umeboshi compote with delicately folded leaves of sliced kanpachi; the winey, buttery sauce for braised king crab; the umami-rich glaze on the fried sweetbreads, which are the best I’ve ever eaten — may make him an ideal match for the restaurant. Prices are still extremely high (though not for food with this level of detail), but it is now possible to order à la carte instead of following a tasting menu for the first time here, and you can eat lightly at a small wine bar in the patio. 8475 Melrose Place, W. Hlywd., (323) 651-5950. Tues.-Sat. 6-10 p.m. Valet parking. All major CC. American/French. 

Beacon: An Asian Cafe

In an area of Culver City as thick with bar food as perhaps any neighborhood in the state, a friend of mine, with whom I have enjoyed giant plates of poutine in Canada and screaming slabs of porchetta in Umbria, still thinks of Beacon as basically a delivery system for its cheeseburger. He knows about the miso-braised shortribs, the vegetable nabemono and grilled shisito peppers, and he has heard great things about the grilled-chicken skewers with the shiso and ume. He has seen me tuck into the famed albacore BLT at lunchtime, and to be fair he does usually have his share of the black edamame, the Tokyo-style avocado salad and the sticky chicken wings that make their way to the table. Fitted into an old commercial laundry in the Helms Bakery complex, Beacon was the first major restaurant of the new Culver City renaissance and the triumphant return to form of Kazuto Matsusaka, who was chef for almost a decade at Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois in the ’80s. The hanger steak with wasabi is so successful, that you might wonder why it took so long for somebody to come up with the combination. But there he is, my friend Robert, focused like a laser on his medium-rare lunchtime cheeseburger, all hopped up on drippy meat, apple-smoked bacon and sweet soy glaze. On good days, he will have asked for an extra napkin. 3280 Helms Ave., Culver City, (310) 838-7500. Lunch Mon.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; dinner Tues.-Wed. and Sun. 5:30-8:15 p.m., Thurs.-Sat. 5:30-9:15 p.m. Beer and wine. Lot parking. AE, MC, V. Asian Fusion. 

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The Chef’s Diner: BLD