ShopEatSleep

Steakhouse The Arthur J rounds out Chef David LeFevre’s mini restaurant row in Manhattan Beach, adding a meat-focused eatery to seafood restaurant Fishing With Dynamite and small plates place MB Post. What makes The Arthur J special is not just its quality meats but its take on additions and sides. LeFevre has created a fun spin on the classic steakhouse while maintaining its elegance.

That mentality extends to The Arthur J’s cocktail list, too. My favorite is The Long Goodbye made with Oxley gin, lime, tumeric, honey, carrot and cardamom. Based on the ingredients, I didn’t think I would like this. But one sip — and one look at its vibrant color — changed my mind completely. It’s sweet and savory, giving a nice balance for someone who can’t decide what kind of drink to order (which is often me).

The Long Goodbye

And then we turn to the menu. Yes, the Parker House rolls with deviled ham spread are delicious. Get them. And the Emmental popovers with strawberry preserves are the stuff of dreams. Get them, too. Get all the bread.

Parker House rolls

Emmental popovers

However, I didn’t love the roasted bone marrow toast. I think it was the focaccia bread that threw me off; the oiliness was too much paired with the already rich marrow. For a lighter starter, the hamachi tartare offers sweet and spicy notes, but in the end it’s just a nice raw fish-and-avocado dish and nothing groundbreaking.

Bone marrow toast

But nevermind that. You could order the bone-in ribeye Tomahawk chop for two (or three or four, since it’s so large) or the Japanese Wagyu ribeye cap and be happy. But you’ll be happier when you start adding sauces and toppings.

The Sauces & Butters menu has all the usual suspects plus chimichurri, Vietnamese caramel, black truffle butter, yuzu koshu butter and foie maple butter. The toppings menu includes a sunny side up egg, lump blue crab, foie gras and a steamed half lobster.

Foie-topped steak

If you get one side, get the potato gratin. Lefevre’s version is like nothing I’ve had before: a brick of layered potato, cheese and sauce that could stand on its own as a meal.

Potato gratin

Desserts at The Arthur J are legit, too. The kitchen turns out solid versions of classics such as cheesecake and a chocolate bar, but it’s the strawberry shortcake that stood out for me. Not only do you get the fruit with the cream and a sugar-dusted biscuit, but the dessert comes with strawberry sorbet to boot, providing another dimension to an otherwise standard dish.

Strawberry shortcake

Note: This meal was hosted.

Hamachi at Fishing With Dynamite

When I heard that Chef David LeFevre opened a seafood-centric restaurant, I was excited. Not only is LeFevre’s MB Post a winner, but his stint at Water Grill proved his mastery with fish. And while Fishing With Dynamite is a welcome addition to Manhattan Beach, just up the street from MB Post, it didn’t wow me as much as I hoped it would. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy some of the dishes, though.

The chilled shellfish platter is a stunner. We made our own with Peruvian scallops, which were served raw with grapefruit, Prince Edward Island mussels, Atlantic lobster, an oyster sampler, and a special sea urchin plate that isn’t always available. While everything was tasty, the scallops were amazing, especially with the pop of citrus.

Chilled seafood platter

Sea urchin

Oyster list

Peruvian scallop

I also really liked the hamachi (pictured above) served with ponzu, avocado, red radish, serrano chili and shiso. Bright, bold flavors — just how I like my food.

What I really wanted to love was the New England clam “chowdah,” served here with Neuske’s bacon, Weiser Family Farms potatoes and house-made oyster crackers. The flavors were good, but I wanted the soup itself to be just a bit creamier and thicker; while the milk and cream were blended beautifully, the end result didn’t produce that thin coating on my spoon that, to me, means the perfect New England clam chowder texture. But I’m not telling Chef LeFevre how to make his chowdah!

New England clam chowdah

Chef David’s Mom’s Cape Cod Squash Rolls with rosemary butter were addictive (LeFevre’s biscuits are always good: see the cheddar buttermilk biscuits at MB Post), the seared diver scallops were cooked beautifully, and the crab cake was made with a lot of sweet meat. But overall, I wasn’t blown away. LeFevre gives a solid performance at Fishing With Dynamite, but if I had to choose, I would pick his MB Post for my meal.

Note: This meal was hosted.

Simmzy’s Long Beach

Want to have a nice meal with good food and drink but don’t want to deal with having to dress up? Then Simmzy’s is your place.

Founded by brothers Mike Simms, who also owns Tin Roof Bistro and M.B. Post, and Chris Simms, owner of Lazy Dog Cafe, Simmzy’s is a casual pub with an upscale menu — a gastropub, if you will. Chef Anne Conness works it out with creative (but not too creative as to be off-putting) dishes, such as the Bacon & Date Mascarpone Pizza and the addictive Blue Cheese Haystack (shoestring fries smothered in blue cheese dressing, garlic and spicy sauce).

Keep Reading

When we first heard that Chef David LeFevre left downtown’s Water Grill late last year, we freaked out a little. Where else could we enjoy LeFevre’s sublime cooking? And how long would we have to wait?

But almost immediately LeFevre announced that he would be opening his own restaurant, so our fears were allayed. That new place turned out to be MB Post in Manhattan Beach, and it hasn’t disappointed.

Housed in the beach town’s historic post office on Manhattan Avenue, MB Post is much more laid-back than Water Grill. With its rustic interior, bench seating and rockin’ soundtrack (think Elastica, Guns N’ Roses and the Beastie Boys), MB Post is much more LeFevre’s personal speed. But just because the white tablecloths are gone doesn’t mean the quality of the food has suffered; in fact, this menu is interesting, playful, and most of all, delicious.

Keep Reading

Café Pierre, a French restaurant in Manhattan Beach, is holding its next monthly winemaker social on June 3 with Fred Brander of Brander Vineyard. Brander will be on hand to pour wines and discuss things that wine people discuss. (Can you tell I’m not a wine person?). Wines will include:

2009 Cuvee Natalie (sauvignon blanc blend)
2009 Cuvee Nicolas (sauvignon blanc/semillon)
2007 Bouchet (bordeaux-style blend)
2008 Colson Canyon Syrah

Café Pierre’s Chef Remi Lauvand will also prepare some appetizers to go along with the wine. (Read about Lauvand’s food in a previous post.) All this for the price of $20. Reservations are recommended but not required.

And if you can’t make it to this event, the winemaker socials take place the first Thursday of each month, with La Fenetre Wines on July 1.

Café Pierre
317 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
June 3, 2010, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

I don’t make it down to the South Bay very often, so whenever I’m invited to a dinner in the area, I try to get over the “it’s so far” feeling that inevitably creeps up and go. This time the dinner was at Cafe Pierre in Manhattan Beach, a contemporary French eatery on Manhattan Beach Boulevard. This was a meal full of firsts for me, and I discovered I liked things I never thought I would like.

We were served a bunch of potted meats to start. This is when I tried head cheese, trotters, rillete and beef tartare for the first time, and none were as scary as I thought they would be. I actually surprised myself by really liking the hand-cut beef tartare, which came with judion beans on the side. I also had escargot and bone marrow as starters, too, both for the first time as well. While neither were as that scary, I didn’t enjoy them as much as the beef tartare, which had a fresh taste to it, contrary to what I had imagined raw beef tasting like.

I think this is head cheese, but it could have been trotters or rillete

Beef tartare

Keep Reading

Texas beef brisket at Zeke's Smokehouse

Let me just begin by saying that this isn’t a completely fair comparison. (How’s that for a lede?) Mr. Cecil’s California Ribs and Zeke’s Smokehouse offer totally different styles of barbecue. But I liked different menu items from each of these places, so I thought I would pit the two against each other — in a friendly BBQ cookoff in my mind, of course.

Keep Reading