Local has an open kitchen and salad bar in the small main room, and a good-sized patio on the side.Silver Lake is not kind to restaurateurs looking for locations. You've basically got a choice of high rents in a storefront with little to no parking or high rents in an ugly minimall with some parking.
Organic salad and soup bar for both eat-in and take-out, with Rocky Chicken salad and eggless egg salad
When he decided to open Local, chef Jason Michaud of Cobras and Matadors and Three Drunken Goats at least had his location already -- his antique store Eastside Mercantile was located right on Sunset Blvd. in a burgeoning restaurant area between Aroma and Dusty's. As for parking, you're on your own, but on weekdays it's pretty easy. On weekends, well, fortunately it's right off the bike lane.
Quinoa burger with gold beets and pine nutsMichaud is so about the local that he's not even offering a beef hamburger, because he couldn't find any California-raised beef he liked. Instead, there's an Albondigas burger ($11) made with Heritage pork, a Diestel Farms organic turkey burger ($11) and slow roasted heritage pork sloppy joes ($13) in addition to lots of vegan and vegetarian choices like the hearty quinoa burger I tried ($11) with gold beets and pine nuts. The quinoa was a bit starchy paired with the large bun, but I appreciate the idea of inventing new kinds of vegeburgers.
At breakfast, there's whole wheat banana walnut or apple pecan pancakes ($9), Belgian waffles, chilequiles ($13) and braised pork belly with eggs ($13). Don't worry, lots of tofu and fake bacon choices also available. Local is doing breakfast and lunch for now (opening at 8 am), with dinner to follow at a later date.
Local
2943 W. Sunset Blvd., between Parkman Avenue and Hamilton Way, Silver Lake
323-662-4740
8 comments:
do you know if they have coffee? i've recently learned that there's no such thing as local coffee (to us in California), so i'm curious how they'll handle that...
Tannaz, they definitely have coffee. Although Jason is committed to finding California-raised meat, poultry and produce, I don't think the restaurant would be able to carry it over to other products like coffee. Even sticking with California cheese or bread would probably be too expensive for most restaurants.
thanks for the quickie review. won't be able to make this place until they serve dinner...
makes sense to me. if there's any one exception i'd be willing to make (i mean, provided i had the discipline to go local at all, which i definitely do not), caffeine would be it. the fact that they're taking any steps at all is admirable.
tannaz - coffee grows in the "coffee belt" which in roughly between the tropics of cancer and capricorn. California, of course lies outside this area. If you want coffee grown within US territory you can choose between Hawaiian Kona or Puerto Rican coffee. Other than that, southern Mexico is about as close as it gets to California. Tea has a wider growing range (a little farther north and south of the tropics. Argentina is in fact one of the biggest producers in the world. However, the very best teas are still only produced in China, Taiwan, Japan, India and Sri Lanka.
Pat - Lucky me, I can walk to apple pecan pancakes! I'd like to point out that parking is to be had in the neighborhood, you just might not be able to get right in front. Don't scare people away from this place, I want it to thrive!
Hey, I agree with you guys, ideally everyone would bike here, that's why I mentioned the bike lane. But I would not want to be an L.A. restaurant owner relying on foot and bike traffic.
I tried Local on Friday with a friend and of course ran into a neighborhood friend and another writer. Salad bar was fresh with mostly veggies choices: liked the shallot miso dressing, wheatberries and sunflower sprouts. Split the salad and turkey burger with fries, which were square cut, hot and excellent! Our young neighbor was tasting the organic mac & cheese--it looked good. No problem parking. Only comment would be about service but it's hard to criticize on day 3....a little more attention to detail and training and the front of the house will hopefully come up to speed and match the ambitions of the chef. Outdoor patio was pleasant even on a hot day.
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