BRENTWOOD TOWERS ABOVE THE ORDINARY.Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic Take a venerable neighborhood bar in one of the city's most affluent communities that has lost its customer base now that smoking and hard boozing are passe pas·sé adj. 1. No longer current or in fashion; out-of-date. 2. Past the prime; faded or aged. [French, past participle of passer, to pass, from Old French; see . Dress it up to look really cool to today's hip and sophisticated diner-drinker, and you've got a hit hangout on your hands. That's basically the story of the Brentwood, a restaurant and lounge in the heart of Brentwood Village, serving such neighborhoods as nearby Bel-Air as well as Brentwood. Remember, many of the residents used to have O.J. as a neighbor and live in similar mansions. Of course, having a capable chef/co-owner like Bruce Marder of Capo and Broadway Deli - also the founder of that onetime Venice hit, West Beach Cafe - in charge of the kitchen doesn't hurt either. Marder's menu is true, new-style American, featuring all those dishes you'd figure locals would want - salads (Caesar, chopped and spinach), ahi tuna (tartare
Examples are
n. Very thinly sliced raw meat or fish, especially beef or tuna, garnished with a sauce. [Italian, after Vittore Carpaccio, who favored red pigments. ), crab cakes, steaks, prime rib, pork chop Pork Chop An arrangement on the floor of the NYSE whereby clerks cover the booth of a floor broker and accept orders, phone calls, and associated tasks. Notes: The clerks in charge of maintaining the booths are directly compensated by the floor brokers who own them. , ribs, burgers, pastas, chicken and the daily fresh fish options. You eat all these in a modernized environment. There's a shiny black- on-black look to the dining room and bar, complete with dark, gloomy art on the walls. Overhead shafts of light are pinpointed cleverly at each snowy white, linen-bedecked table, picking up the gleam of crystal and silverware, every table sporting a single red rose in a thin, silver bud vase. It's a nifty place, mood-perfect for late-night jazz and a night owl's menu of things like chicken chili and steak tartare. But you don't pay minimums for this. Expect to spend $35 to $55 a person for a full evening meal with call drinks $6 and up and wines the same per glass and $24 or more per bottle. You won't be unhappy with the food. Start with the du jour soup ($6), one time a tasty lentil lentil, leguminous Old World annual plant (Lens culinaris) with whitish or pale blue flowers. Its pods contain two greenish-brown or dark-colored seeds, also called lentils, which when fully ripe are ground into meal or used in soups and stews. creation, the other a no-cream mushroom recipe, both delivered steaming hot. If you order a burger (chicken $12, or 10-ounce beef $16) or steak (filet mignon $30, dry-aged New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Angus $31) you'll get a side of outstanding pommes frites. If you don't, I recommend ordering the fries for the table ($5). They're that good and they come with an addictive remoulade-like mayo-Dijon mustard dipping sauce plus ketchup. As for other starters, the extraordinary burrata cheese dish ($10) is a must for fromage fanciers. This is a fresh, white, soft mozzarella moz·za·rel·la n. A mild white Italian cheese that has a rubbery texture and is often eaten melted, as on pizza. [Italian, diminutive of mozza, a cut, mozzarella, from mozzare, , very much like buffalo, that has been infused with fresh cream. It's wonderful and, though pricey, worth it, because it's doubtful you'll find it anywhere locally other than in Marder/Zeidler-owned restaurants. Also worth trying are the above-average crab cakes ($14) and a fine version of tuna tartare ($12) with a lemony dressing. Meat eaters will find the New York steak ($31) juicy and good-tasting, the meat loaf ($16) a homey hunk of seasoned ground beef coupled with pureed potatoes, and the lamb shank shank (shangk) 1. leg (1). 2. crus ( 2). shank n. The part of the human leg between the knee and ankle. ($22) with wild barley a basically satisfying meal. The London broil ($18) with a veal-mushroom sauce may look good, but its hard-to-chew meat was a disappointment. Yet Marder's kitchen puts forth a sensational duck breast ($25) plate, especially gratifying grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. when ordered rare. It displays a dramatic fan of tender, oval, pinkish-red duck breast slices in a red wine sauce and a papaya papaya (pəpī`ə), soft-stemmed tree (Carica papaya) of tropical America resembling a palm with a crown of palmately lobed leaves. compote accompaniment. Ready to play the Name that Noodle game? Spaghetti ($14), without warning, turned out to be linguine one night when the Brentwood rendition of spaghetti and meatballs Noun 1. spaghetti and meatballs - spaghetti with meatballs in a tomato sauce dish - a particular item of prepared food; "she prepared a special dish for dinner" was tried. Nothing wrong with the meatballs or the herbal tomato sauce, nor the pasta if you don't mind soft noodles noo·dle 1 n. A narrow, ribbonlike strip of dried dough, usually made of flour, eggs, and water. [German Nudel. ; just the irritation of not getting what's expected. As for expectations, the apple pie a la mode ($6) here is an absolute must for dessert. It rises well above anything expected. So does the new Brentwood dinery. THE FACTS --The restaurant: Brentwood. --Where: 148 S. Barrington Ave., Brentwood. --When: Open for dinner only from 5 to 10 p.m. nightly, to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. --Behind the scenes: Chef/co-owner is Bruce Marder. Co-owners are Richard Drapkin, Marvin Zeidler, Steve Wallace and Michael Gans. --Recommended items: Soups, pommes frites, burrata cheese, tuna tartare, crab cakes, meatloaf, New York steak, maple-leaf duck breast, rosemary apple pie. --How much: Starters $5 to $14, pastas and entrees $14 to $31, desserts $5 to $8. Full bar. AE, MC, D. --Wine list: Conscientious choice of more than 100 well marked-up wines, the lowest-priced bottle being a '98 Blackstone merlot ($22), the highest a '78 Chateau Latour ($450). Four wines by the glass are $6; others $7 to $13. Six half bottles available. All wines vintage-dated. No bargains. Corkage cork·age n. A charge exacted at a restaurant for every bottle of liquor served that was not bought on the premises. corkage Noun a charge made at a restaurant for serving wine bought elsewhere : $15. --Reservations: Advised. Call (310) 476-3511 or go to www.opentable.com. --Our rating: Three stars for food; Three stars for service; Two and one half stars for wine. CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Steak tartare and french fries satisfy at Brentwood. John Lazar/Staff Photographer Box: THE FACTS (see text) |
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