Thursday, September 11, 2008

I'll Take Manhattan


Much has been made of the renaissance of my precious Culver City's dining culture. Some of that ado has even been about something, as in the case of Fraiche which I look forward to having the opportunity to lavish praise upon in this space in the future.

Needless to say that when Father's Office opened their eastern outpost in the Helms District in April, I cringed visibly at the thought of so many Westside Hipsters eagerly anticipating the pollution of the virgin folds of the 90230 with the taint of Santa Monica. Indeed, it seemed that even the blogosphere would not be large enough to contain their ebullient praise, or at the very least, their feverish posting to prove that they had been there.

But I am, as you can see by the inclusion of bikesnob on my roll over there, really just a fanboy after all, and everything changed when this showed up in the Weekly a couple of weeks later. Jonathan Gold is a hero to all foodies in LA. He's a hero to food writers everywhere. Mostly, I tend to agree with him, so I knew I would have to come in line.

Or should I say, stand in line, which is mostly how you spend the first 15 minutes of your Father's Office experience if you're there at any kind of peak time. It's worth it. The food is as good as they say it will be, especially the specials, but especially the burger. Dozens of exotic beers and a few ably chosen wines don't hurt either. 

The surprise is the liquor. Rather than waste a full liquor license by forcing their clearly able bar staff to pour dozens of cosmos or jack-and-cokes (I miss ya Coy), they have a simple selection of spirits crafted with the same care and scale as everything else in the joint. For example, the Manhattan above is made from a small-batch rye (like it's supposed to be), high-end vermouth, and homemade bitters with real marasca cherries that may or may not be the same as the real Luxardo cherries they repackage and sell at Surfas down the street.

As you can see, my friend and I enjoyed not only these fine beverages, but also some burgers and some kind of meat appetizer that looked like chorizo and tasted like chorizo, but brother, it wasn't chorizo. 

Elevated comfort food has become something of a bore (Rush Street, I'm looking in your direction), culminating in the lapsing of my Bon Appetite subscription a couple of years since. Father's Office clearly has bucked that trend by remembering that quality and simplicity are the two keys of real food that cannot be overlooked just because you make it fancy (and spendy.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The picture of that cocktail is the only thing getting me through the morning.