Are you looking for the restaurant of the future? Because I have the feeling it is going to look a lot like Salt's Cure, which works the DIY groove with uncanny finesse. If you want to know what's for dinner, you click the daily Twitter link, which takes you to a picture of the day's chalkboard menu posted on the restaurant's Facebook page, in time for you to rearrange your evening to include goat chops and baby bear pumpkin. Insist on local, sustainably sourced meat? Chris Phelps and Zak Walters give you the feeling that they knew each animal personally. Not much for formality? Good, because you're probably going to end up sitting at the counter, and the dining room seems to have been designed to laugh in the face of feng shui. Salt's Cure is a meat-intensive bistro with a tiny menu that happens to contain a lot of things like bluefish, fried pig's ears and pork shoulder in all of its various manifestations. At weekend brunch, the evanescent grapefruit pie, delicate buckwheat pancakes and tall sticky buns haunt the brunch dreams of West Hollywood. And it would be a shame to endure even a single extra day without having experienced Salt's Cure's sweetly smoky bacon. If Salt's Cure were in Brooklyn, the brunch lines would stretch halfway to Canarsie. 7494 Santa Monica Blvd., W. Hlywd. (323) 850-SALT, saltscure.com. Lunch, Mon., Wed.-Fri., 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; brunch, Sat.-Sun., 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner, Wed.-Mon., 5:30-10:30 p.m. Beer and wine. Street parking. MC, V. American.

99 Essential L.A. Restaurants 2011:

Jonathan Gold's Introduction
Anne Fishbein's Photos
The Google Map

The List:

A-Frame
Akasha
Alcazar
Angeli Caffe
Angelini Osteria
Animal
Antojitos Carmen
Attari
Babita
Bludso's
Border Grill
Bottega Louie
Bulgarini Gelato
Cacao
Campanile
Casa Bianca
Chang's Garden
Chego
Chichén Itzá
Chung King
Church & State
Ciro's
Comme Ça
Cut
Dae Bok
Din Tai Fung
Drago Centro
El Huarache Azteca
El Parian
Elvirita's
Euro Pane Bakery
Eva
Fab Hot Dogs
Father's Office
Fig
Gjelina
Golden Deli
Golden State
Good Girl Dinette
The Gorbals
Guelaguetza
Guisados
Huckleberry
Hungry Cat
Ink.
Jar
Jitlada
Kiriko
Kobawoo
La Casita Mexicana
Langer's
Larkin's
Lazy Ox Canteen
Le Comptoir
Little Dom's
Lou
Lucques
LudoBites
Lukshon
Mantee
Marouch
Mayura
Meals by Genet
Mélisse
Mezze
Mo-Chica
Mother Dough
Mozza
Musso & Frank Grill
Nem Nuong Khanh Hoa
Newport Tan Cang Seafood Restaurant
The Nickel
Night + Market
Oinkster
101 Noodle Express
Palate Food + Wine
Park's Barbecue
Picca
Playa
Pollos a la Brasa
Providence
Ray's
Red Medicine
Rivera
Rustic Canyon
Salt's Cure
Sapp Coffee Shop
Sea Harbour
Son of a Gun
Sotto
Spago
Spice Table
Street
Tacos Baja Ensenada
Tasting Kitchen
Terroni
Tsujita L.A.
Vincenti
Waterloo & City

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