ShopEatSleep

Old School at Choco Chicken

By now, you may have heard about Los Angeles’ latest food innovation — chocolate fried chicken from Choco Chicken. The brainchild of AdVantage Restaurant Partners’ Adam Fleischman (Umami Burger, 800 Degrees pizza), Choco Chicken offers all kinds of chocolate-infused foods, including mashed potatoes, french fries, meatballs and cocktails, in addition to the fried chicken.

The fried chicken, which is marinated in a secret sauce and fried in a batter mixed with chocolate and spices, isn’t as strange-tasting as it sounds. It’s kind of like the fried version of chicken mole, Oaxaca, Mexico’s famous dish. It’s much more savory than it is sweet. The chocolate-dusted fries and white chocolate mashed potatoes are just sweet enough to make them interesting, too. The cocktails are on the sweet side, though, but I suppose that’s less surprising.

Chocolate fried chicken

Choco Chicken fries

Choco Colada

The standout dish here is the Old School (pictured at top): a chocolate fried chicken thigh on a butter biscuit topped with white gravy. This is comfort food at its finest. Every component of this dish is rich with flavor and complements each other perfectly. The butter biscuit — order this one over the bacon one, if you’re going a la carte — is a revelation in fluffy butteriness.

Caramelized bacon biscuit

Note: This meal was hosted.

I’ve passed by the 64-year-old Brite Spot diner in Echo Park numerous times, usually on the way to Dodger Stadium. I never thought much about it other than noting the sign was pretty cool. But when I heard that Dana Hollister, owner of One-Eyed Gypsy and Villains Tavern in the Arts District downtown and Cliff’s Edge in Silver Lake, had recently remodeled the restaurant and revamped the menu, I was intrigued.

Keep Reading

Schaner Farms Duck Egg at Sadie

The menu at Sadie, the newish restaurant that took over the old Les Deux space in Hollywood, has been revamped by consulting chef Mark Gold. The food was good to begin with, as I’ve already told you, but it’s been taken up a notch by Gold, who has a loyal following at his own restaurant, Eva.

If you’re going to check out the new menu, make sure to start with the Schaner Farms duck egg, which is prepared sous vide and served with spring garlic, English peas and radish. The dish is a revelation. I would go back just for that egg. The pork belly, with yuzu kosho, soy and green garlic, is another good starter option. You should definitely share this dish, as it is a substantial piece of fatty pork (in the best way possible, of course).

As for the mains, the linguini and clams, with littleneck clams, lemon and tons of garlic, should satisfy you, as should the Wild Alaskan Halibut served with artichoke, smoked bacon and onion relish. My only real complaint is the disappearance of Chef Dave Schmidt’s original Sadie chicken dish, which was nicely roasted and came with a delicious mustard-y concoction of spaetzle, Brussels sprouts and tomatoes. The chicken dish that Gold served at my tasting didn’t hit the mark for me, but it seems to have been replaced on the menu by a fried version, which should be much better if it’s anything like his fried chicken at Eva.

Peychaud's Ice Cream and Sanbitter Float (left), Fernet and Chip Ice Cream and Mexican Coke Float

The cocktails remain largely the same, though some tasty additions have been made, including the Fernet and Chip Ice Cream and Mexican Coke Float, which I prefer to the more bitter Peychaud’s Ice Cream and Sanbitter Float, though I know lots of people who like the Peychaud’s Bitters version better. In any case, whatever you order from mixologist Giovanni Martinez’s bar is sure to be good. Trust.

Further reading:

Spring at Sadie: New Chef, New Menu, New Cocktails by Gourmet Pigs

When Bitter is Sweet by Tasting Table

Spring Into Sadie by The Fussy One

Note: This meal was hosted.

Eva's fried chicken

This Tuesday, June 22, Eva Restaurant is offering an all-you-can-eat-and-drink deal with Eureka North County pilsner and fried chicken for $25 per person. Actually, the special is being marketed as all-you-can-drink beer with “free” fried chicken, but we all know nothing is free. In any case, Eva’s fried chicken is pretty darn good, which I’ve said before, so this should be a great way to experience it. And it’s the only food that will be offered on this night, so hopefully you like it! And if the night is a success, then the restaurant may continue the special deal on a weekly basis.

First & Hope, the gorgeous supper club in the not-so-gorgeous strip mall at the corner of 1st and Hope streets (clever, huh?) in downtown Los Angeles, certainly has lots of style. From the mood-changing lighting in the sleek dining room to the servers outfitted by “Mad Men” assistant costume designer Allison Leach, the restaurant screams class. I just wish the food spoke as loudly to me — in a good way.

I had visited First & Hope once before during its preview night when the atmosphere was close to mayhem. It was very crowded, and while the servers did their best, it was hard to get a good idea of what the food and drink should have been like.

So when presented with an invitation to have dinner at the restaurant under normal circumstances, I decided I would give the place another chance. I would have a proper meal and make a better-informed decision about First & Hope’s merits.

And I’ve made my decision: I would only come back here for one, maybe two, dishes.

You see, the menu sounds good; it reads like a food blogger’s wet dream, with foie gras, bacon and pork rinds littered all over its comfort food-centric offerings. But First & Hope leaves much to be desired in execution.

First, the cocktails. Nearly every one contains some kind of bubbly, no doubt an homage to the vintage style. I get it, but I thought the drinks were just OK, which was pretty much my summation after the preview party, too. I had an Elle for Leather, made with Famous Grouse scotch, vanilla syrup, “a touch of effervescence” and garnished with a vanilla pod. It smelled amazing due to the vanilla pod but tasted light on the scotch.

Elle for Leather. There's a blue tint because of the mood lighting.

Keep Reading

Allez cuisine!

That’s kind of how I pictured the special appearance of Ludovic Lefebvre at The Foundry on Melrose‘s Bluesy Tuesday Southern food night last week — a battle of Iron Chefs duking it out over gourmet fried chicken, Ludo v. The Foundry’s Eric Greenspan, who was in fact a contestant on Food Network’s The Next Iron Chef. What we diners got was more of a delicious pairing of two very different styles of fried chicken that complemented each other rather than threw down against each other. Though both Ludo and Greenspan brought it, as they say…in the parlance of our times.

Keep Reading

This past weekend will go down in L.A. food history as The Weekend That Was The Clusterf*ck Known As The L.A. Street Food Fest. Don’t get me wrong — I thought it was a great idea, and I enjoyed myself while I was there. But as is the case with so many first-time events, there were problems, though I guess things could have been worse.

Keep Reading