Is it a bit early to consider Salt's Cure? I suspect it might be — the bare, meat-intensive bistro hasn't even started serving dinner yet. The tiny deli counter is stocked with things like strong lamb-liver pâté and potted duck with blueberries; on weekends, the evanescent grapefruit pie, delicate buckwheat pancakes and tall sticky buns already haunt the brunch dreams of West Hollywood. Although the house-cured corned beef in the weekend hash, the house-made chorizo and the silky, house-smoked black cod are of extremely high quality, the charcuterie program has barely gotten started, and I can scarcely imagine what Chris Phelps and Zak Walters, recently of Hungry Cat, intend to pass through their curing chambers next. Is the rustic, spicy dish of steamed mussels with seared tomatoes more indicative of the direction the chefs intend to go than the homey brunchtime 2 X 2 X 2?

All I can say is that it would be a shame to endure even a single extra day without having experienced the Salt's Cure BLT — super-ripe heirloom tomatoes, chunky toast and a pig's worth of the restaurant's sweetly smoky bacon. Crisp and sweet, sizzling and cool, salty and gamy and true, Salt's Cure's BLT is the essence of late summer.

SALT'S CURE: 7494 Santa Monica Blvd., W. Hlywd. (323) 850-SALT, saltscure.com

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