Beans with marching orders
A small, dense cluster of monolithic islands looms high, its grottoes mysteriously inviting, while the bay laps against the edges of steep brown rock. Halong Bay, Vietnam? Nope. It’s lunch at the Water Grill. All that’s missing is the 19th century French graffiti, a couple of floating villages of fishermen and a few bantams or monkeys.
Those spectacular “islands” are actually braised lotus root, the grottoes are its hollows and the bay is a parsnip coconut puree. On the other side of the plate, visit what looks like ancient ruins -- Stonehenge, but toppled over -- blocks of seared bluefin tuna on a mound of black rice.
Another nice touch: long beans that have been tied in quadruple knots.
They look like manicured greenery.
Water Grill executive chef David LeFevre has been inspired to create several dishes that look more like vacation getaways than appetizers or entrees.
“I don’t want to serve something that just looks like a hockey puck,” LeFevre says.
So a striped bass ceviche becomes a landscape of “Mayan pyramids” supported by banana chips, and those pepitas and candied black beans coming down a pathway of avocado puree and creme fraiche are, uh, villagers?
“I wouldn’t want that to be written,” LeFevre says. He may not agree, but they do look as if they’re marching among the tiny, carefully picked mint leaves toward those bass-pineapple-banana-chip temples, maybe for some mandatory sacrificial function.
“To me, the best food looks natural and not heavily played with,” LeFevre says.
“Natural” might not be the best way to describe his flair for plating, even if it’s inspired by nature, and it’s hard not see it as anything but playful.
No doubt those pepitas have been dying to take a trip to those lotus root islands.
Betty Hallock
Small bites
* Los Angeles continues to lure New York restaurateurs as chef Laurent Tourondel plans to open BLT Steak in the space formerly occupied by Le Dome on Sunset Boulevard sometime next year. Like Tom Colicchio’s Craft restaurants, BLTs (as in Bistro Laurent Tourondel) are spreading faster than you can say cocottes of braised rabbit. Meanwhile, what’s happening with the Craft outpost set to open in Century City? The opening date has been pushed back and is planned for April.
8720 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, www.bltsteak.com; www.craftrestaurant.com.
* No more roast pig and paella on the patio at Norman’s in West Hollywood. Not after Nov. 11, when the restaurant located in the Sunset Millennium complex is scheduled to close. Publicist Jannis Swerman confirmed that Apollo Real Estate Advisors has sold the property and that chef Norman Van Aken “elected not to go forward with the new [property] owners.”
8570 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 657-2400.
* Sunset Beach, formerly Dublin’s Irish Whiskey Pub, has washed ashore on the Sunset Strip -- all 13,000 square feet of it. The swanky upstairs dining room, called UV, is currently open just on weekends. The more casual downstairs space is open for dinner nightly and eventually will serve lunch and Sunday brunch. Joseph Gillard, formerly of the Patina Group and Mirabelle restaurant, is the chef.
8240 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 654-8100.
* Breadbar has opened its second Los Angeles outpost in Century City in a bright, airy mall location designed by Mass Architecture. The bread-centric menu includes all of Parisian baker Eric Kayser’s standbys -- baguettes, pastries, breakfasts, salads, sandwiches.
10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Westfield Century City, (310) 277-3770.
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