Michele StuevenIt’s true, one of the hottest tickets in town right now is Beethoven Market in Mar Vista. And yes, the zucchini ricotta pizza with pesto and spicy bucatini arrabiatta are indeed worth the wait. I’ll even admit that the juicy rotisserie chicken served with chimichurri and arugula salad is the only chicken I’ll order in a restaurant other than fried.
But the real pixie dust that makes Beethoven Market special is the comfort of a familiar face.
Before restaurateur Jeremy Adler took over the space of the old market and liquor store two years ago, Bernardo Mendoza was the face behind the counter seven days a week for 30 years.
Beethoven Market (Ashley Randall)
It was the welcoming smile I’d see after a gruelling day at work, realizing once the kids were in bed that I’d run out of gin. It was the same face that greeted me in the morning when the cat was scratching the couch to shreds because I ran out of cat food. We allowed our kids to go solo to the market during hot summers for ice cream because we knew that the face would watch out for them in the ocean view town.
Naturally, the neighborhood went into a tizzy when the market closed, even though it got pretty rundown. What was going to happen to Bernardo?
A shiny, custom-made rotisserie has replaced the old, leaking beer refrigerator. Obsessed with kitchen equipment, it was in France where Adler discovered a 16th-century rotisserie which caught the juices, brought them back to the top, and basted the rotating chicken. After searching all over America for the past nine years, he found Chris Demant, of Grills by Demant in Atlanta. Following years in production, Adler brought the rotisserie to his Mar Vista kitchen and can now smell the chicken roasting from his house three blocks away.
During demolition of the old market, built in 1949, the original wood ceiling and steel beams were restored, and a lively central bar has replaced the dusty shelves of British biscuits and faded cans of beans. Large French doors that lead out to a lush patio with kumquat trees have replaced the counter where we used to buy lottery tickets, and the parking lot with a pay phone.
And if you look closely between lavender and rosemary bushes behind the olive tree, you will get a glimpse of that familiar face.
Mendoza had never worked in a restaurant before, but when Adler offered him a position as a back server, he immediately accepted. He’s now part of the indoor/outdoor flow, training to be a waiter. Another former employee was also offered a job to come back, but had since found employment elsewhere.
“This is where I belong,” Mendoza tells LA Weekly.
Bernardo Mendoza (Michele Stueven)