Celebrate 90 Years of Taix French Restaurant With a 90 Cent Chicken Dinner

Taix in 1956 (Courtesy LAPL)

It's not quite L.A.'s oldest restaurant, but Taix French Restaurant is certainly one of the city's most beloved. The venerable old-school French dinner house, which moved to Sunset Blvd. from downtown in 1962, celebrates its 90th birthday this month with a traditional roast chicken dinner for 90 cents.

On Sunday, Oct. 8 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Taix will serve soup de jour, salad, and Taix Roast Chicken with au jus. Of course there will be a big line, so consider celebrating this long-lived institution at another time when the full menu is available.

At a recent anniversary reception, owner Michael Taix, grandson of founder Marius Taix Jr., said he would recommend diners try the trout almondine, the frog legs, the boeuf Bourgignon when it's offere as a special, and of course the roast chicken.

Taix also reminded us that chef Laurent Quenioux continues to consult on the menu a few days a week, making sure the cooking is more authentically French than it has been probably for decades.

Taix opened at 321 Commercial Street downtown in 1927, serving chicken dinners for 50 cents. After the Hollywood Freeway was built, it moved to Echo Park where it has been ever since.

I love the slogan on one of the original menus that the family preserved: "Save time, no worry, no thinking. Leave that to us."

So what are L.A.'s very oldest restaurants? Philippe the Original and Cole's were both established in 1908, while Musso and Frank came along in 1919. After that, Barney's Beanery, Pacific Dining Car, Original Pantry, La Golondrina and El Cholo came along during the 1920s. Make it a point to try all these places while they're still going strong!

Winsome Review: Subtle Style in Echo Park

Winsome, on the ground floor of the William Pereira-designed former Metropolitan Water Building that now houses apartments, is a terrific-looking restaurant. Imagine that your favorite Googie-style coffee shop grew up and sprouted a spacious patio and sleek pale wood details, with artisanal jams in place of the mint patties at the counter. Designed by Wendy Haworth, the interior gets a pop of color from wallpaper based on a charming 1930s Phil Dike watercolor of Echo Park.

The all-day restaurant that works just as well for breakfast and coffee as for a business lunch or cocktails and dinner with friends on the patio.

At breakfast, there’s La Colombe coffee starting as early as 7:30 a.m., with excellent pastries like a green tea concha, buckwheat ginger oat cookie or a caramel rye brownie from former Republique pastry chef Leslie Mialma. Rustic grains and exotic flourishes help keep things interesting on the contemporary California menu.

Some diners might need a dictionary to decode the ingredients that chef Jeremy Strubel, formerly of Rustic Canyon, likes to weave into the menu for a global feel. Potato chips leave a Thai impression dusted with chili and kaffir lime, while duck egg toast at brunch is topped with nduja -- the spreadable salami that’s seen all over town these days.

It’s fun to start with the giant crunchy rye pretzel, even though the accompanying fontina mousse doesn’t have much cheese flavor.

Entrees include rockfish with a bouillabaisse broth, which gets a slighty odd bitter taste from its mix of spices, and perfectly tender beef cheeks with a deeply flavored red wine sauce. Vegetarians can put together a dinner from a few sides or starters, like a winning mixture of maitake mushrooms and sauteed greens topped with buttery breadcrumbs. Shaved cauliflower salad is decorated with mustard frills along with lola rossa – a curly red lettuce – and trendy nutritional yeast.

The rich and savory dishes come in fairly small portions, so there’s likely to be room for dessert: a tres leches cake amped up with a bruleed banana, or Baked Japan, which melds umami-packed miso butterscotch sauce with housemade coffee semifreddo and a chocolate cake base.

If you must have a flaming cocktail, Winsome’s Tiki Novela, made with the Peruvian corn drink chicha morada, is probably a much better choice than the flaming margarita down the street at El Compadre. Organic wines, some unusual beers and housemade aguas frescas round out the drink selections.

L.A. can always use more patios, and the area between Chinatown and Echo Park is fast filling in with trendy spots. An evening at Winsome can be a fairly pricey outing, but brunch and lunch also offer chances to experience the restaurant’s vibrant flavors and stylish surroundings.

Winsome

1115 Sunset Blvd., 213-415-1818

Ostrich Farm: Echo Park's Cozy, Stylish Spot Flies Under the Radar

Ostrich Farm's interior is simple but not austere

Some very good restaurants have opened in the area this year, and Echo Park's Ostrich Farm is one of the best of the lot. It was also a good chance to read up on why it's called Ostrich Farm, since I had heard more about the South Pasadena bird attraction than the Griffith Park one. In this month's Los Feliz Ledger, I gave it the top rating of four forks. Read the review:

Ostrich Farm is the swankiest place to open in Echo Park since since Allumette closed up a year ago. But where Allumette's ambitious, borderline-molecular dishes never quite seemed comfortable in the former Allston Yacht Club space, Ostrich Farm and its light touch with new American cuisine feels like the right spot at the right time.

seared shrimp and asparagus

Ostrich Farm proprietors Jaime Turrey (who ran the Monsieur Egg cart) and Brooke Fruchtman (a former LACMA exec) are first-time restaurant owners, but after five months they seem to have everything running smoothly, with a clientele that includes lots of locals of all ages and the occasional movie star.
The former purple-painted pupuseria is now a bright, white space with big windows looking out on Sunset, a long marble bar and sage leatherette banquettes. The only wall decoration is a block-printed tapestry, which combines with modern gold lamps, vases of baby's breath on each table and rough linen napkins for a stylish rustic look right down to the stubby wine glasses.

flatbread with grilled peaches and burrata

The menu seems simple at first glance, with a few flatbreads, the now-inevitable chicken liver toast, mussels and meatballs among the starters. But layers of flavors are revealed when you bite into the flatbread with grilled peaches, fennel and a generous puddle of burrata, which you'll want to snack on forever with a glass of rose or Sauvignon blanc. Grilled shrimp and asparagus, topped with shards of parmesan, looks basic, but the perfectly-grilled shellfish is a light complement to some of the richer dishes.

pork osso buco with polenta

Sea bass, rib eye steak, and roast chicken make up most of the entrees along with a braised beef pot pie and pork "osso buco" style. The pork is a bowl of pure comfort, with pillows of braised meat resting on a bed of pudding-like polenta decorated with broccolini, roasted fennel and roasted tomatoes. It's the kind of dish where each forkful is an experiment in combining salty, bitter, smooth and savory to create just the right flavor in your mouth. A soft-shell crab BLT sandwich special gets a little confused with layers of mayonnaise, roasted tomatoes and thick-cut bacon on sourdough bread but it's hard to complain about something so decadently satisfying.
The dessert list is small but more tempting than most -- salted dark chocolate tart sounds appealing, but we tried a cherry galette topped with whipped cream and a marzipan base, the ideal celebration of the current season's fruit. 

Sadly, Ostrich Farm is unable to use its rear patio for seating due to noise concerns

Ostrich Farm (named for the railway that ran to a 1880s Griffith Park tourist attraction), seems to have figured out how to be stylish without being pretentious and creative without being fussy. You could buy 50 pupusas for the price of a meal for two here, but right now, this is what the area wants.

Ostrich Farm, 1525 W. Sunset Blvd., 213-537-0657

Trencher Puts on the Sandwich Feed Bag in Echo Park

Low-key Trencher is tucked just off of Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park

EatingLA has been on a bit of a hiatus for the past few weeks, devouring oysters and salumi in Seattle and working on a fun cocktail and beer-intensive project. But of course we haven't stopped eating, and one recent visit was to Trencher, the former location of a dodgy-looking Cambodian place I never tried on Portia next to the Little Joy bar.

A hearty, legit brisket sandwich

On this first visit, we split a brisket sandwich, french fries and a kale salad and so far I'm impressed. The brisket sandwich ($10) featured thick-cut, tender slices that were more rustic than a deli-style brisket and heartier than the fairly delicate bbq brisket at Home State. It was well-balanced with the now-ubiquitous pickled onions and some roasted garlic parsnip puree for creaminess. The homemade potato chips were delicious; we ordered nicely-cooked fries too just because. A kale salad balanced things out somewhat, though the deep-fried croutons added their own layer of decadence.

kale balances out fries, right?

The menu will need more investigation into the fried chicken banh mi and open-faced salmon trencher, but it's a promising start. Best of all, Trencher is open until 10 on weeknights and midnight on weekends, and taking a sandwich into the Little Joy to have with a craft beer is encouraged.

Trencher
1305 Portia St., Echo Park
323.604.9621

Allumette sparks up Echo Park dining scene

carrot salad with pickled turnips, sunchokes, black carrot syrup

What: Allumette is a reconcepting of Allston Yacht Club, before that 15 and before that, a Salvadoran place.  Is Echo Park ready for 5-course tasting menus and imaginative elevated preparations in the vein of Michael Voltaggio's Ink?
It's not clear whether the neighborhood draws the right crowd for this kind of ambitious fare, but chef Miles Thompson creates beautifully-plated dishes flurries of imaginatively-combined flavors.

I've taken way too long to post about the lovely meal I tried there with Gastronomy blog's Cathy, so here are a few highlights.You'll find much nicer photos over on Gastronomy; my tiny camera can only do so much in low light.
Allumette is now encouraging the 5-course tasting menu for $75 available with a $45 wine pairing, a good way to experience the range of the ambitious menu.

scallop tartare with strawberry, truffle, elderflower

This dish was beautifully presented, and the fruity flavors worked well with the mild scallops.

The ambiance: Allumette has been slightly remodeled from the Allston Yacht Club days. The room is comfy and much quieter than the deafening Red Hill across the street, but still has a slightly generic feeling that seems like it's waiting for a stronger concept. There's valet parking in front on Echo Park Ave., but plenty of parking is also available along Sunset Blvd. on most nights. Just watch out for those meters that charge until 8 p.m.

grilled octopus with sour apple syrup, cardamon butterscotch potato

Szechuan pork dumplings, salmon roe, spicy black vinegar

Pork dumplings were a wonderful take on the dumpling house staple, elevated by salmon roe and other special touches.

cheesecake mousse, frozen cookie dough, walnuts, maple syrup

Recommended dishes: Fried oyster, scallop tartare, bitter lettuce with soy cream dressing, Pork dumplings, lamb neck, cavatelli with fromage noir, cheesecake mousse
Thompson has a real talent for combining unusual ingredients in a very attractive way, though I'm a bit embarassed to say that my favorite dish was the cheesecake mousse I hoovered up for dessert.
Chance of a return visit: Would I come back on my own dime? If I could afford it, sure. I would recommend the experience for diners who want to see Thompson really stretch his chefly muscles in a un-frantic environment. And don't skip the very good cocktails, including the delicious Gentlemen's Breakfast.
Allumette, 1515 Echo Park Ave., Echo Park, 213-935-8787

(This was a comped press dinner.)

Holiday guests arriving? Why not stock up on, yes, barbecued meats with a Filipino twist?

A giant beef shortrib is sliced and served with horseradish crema

If a food critic says, "It doesn't have any flavor of the neighborhood it's in," it's a true slam to a place that's trying to be too slick or ignore the area's culture. This will never be said of The Park's Finest, probably the best (or only?) restaurant firmly grounded in the largely anonymous hood of Historic Filipinotown. It's a part of town south of Echo Park and west of Downtown that has no landmarks, no community monuments or gathering places and only a few small mom and pop eateries that are not recognized by even the most adventurous food bloggers.

pulled pork zings to life with a squirt of Park's bbq sauce

But the arrival of Park's at the beginning of 2012 changed all that, when Johneric Concordia took over a sushi bar on Temple Street and stocked it with smoked meats and craft beer instead of the expected pancit noodles. The Park's Finest (not to be confused with the thoroughly Korean Park's BBQ a few miles away or The Park restaurant in nearby Echo Park) sprang from a backyard catering operation and its brief menu sticks mostly with grilled meats and a few Filipino-inflected sides. We were invited recently to try a broad selection of the meats, which are all available for takeout and holiday gatherings.

The Park's is on Temple, hard by the 101 freeway

In fact, this might even be the best way to experience The Park's Finest. Because although the craft beer selection is as good as you might expect for one curated by Beer Belly's Jimmy Yune Han, the meats are mostly served alongside white rice, which doesn't always compute for those of us used to more bready accompaniments.

Cornbread works as either a dessert or a side

 Some of these lovingly long-smoke meats like turkey, pulled pork, tri-tip beef and ham are just crying out to be slapped between two hefty slices of good bread, with a dousing of their special vinegar-based sauce and maybe some jalapeno slices and a dollop of cole slaw. The saucy coconut beef, similar to Indonesian beef rendang, works well with the rice, and don't forget to order some cornbread bibingka, a moist cake-like rendition steamed in a banana leaf. The beef shortrib -- a giant beef rib scored into easy-to-remove slices -- is kind of the signature beast of the restaurant.

One of our favorites was candy-coated ham, available on the holiday catering menu

I like their housemade horseradish sauce, it would really sing with the beef on an onion roll. If you've got guests visiting over the holidays who will be pawing through your refrigerator looking for sandwich makings, they'd be pretty darn impressed to find a pile of San Pablo 16-hour smoked pork shoulder or candy-coated ham lurking in there. Of course, you could also just order up an entire office or holiday party at home from the catering menu.

Elote captures the flavors of corn sold on the street all over L.A.

 As for the sides, I recommend the elote, an indulgent bowl of Mexican street-style corn doused in mayo, parmesan and cayenne pepper, and the Ube greens, a Filipino take on collards that pair well with the Southern-style meats.
The Park's Finest
(open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week)
1267 W. Temple St.
213-481-2800

Red Hill reviewed in the Los Feliz Ledger

Burrata salad (via BoyMeetsGirlMeetsFood)

Blogs and Yelp have speeded up the review process so that restaurants are often subjected to thorough scrutiny just days after opening. Print reviewers like S. Irene Virbila traditionally wait at least three months, though that waiting period seems to be going the way of the star system. EatingLA likes to try the latest thing as much as the next blogger, but in the case of Red Hill we waited a decorous two months to make sure they had all their ducks in a row. It's not the most relaxing spot, but the food was good enough to earn the Echo Park spot three forks. (At the Los Feliz Ledger, we're keeping our forks, since restaurants are rated on a scale of how good they are for the neighborhood, not the entire city.)
Here's an excerpt from the Ledger's review:

The food makes up for the (lack of) view, with an ever-changing menu of about a dozen small plates including salads, vegetables and flatbreads ($7-$13), three pasta, and half a dozen mains ($13-$20).
While every restaurant now serves a burrata salad, this one stands out, with an unusual beet green pesto, perfectly dressed, slightly bitter frisee and red endive offsetting the silky cheese. Cauliflower with pine nuts and chile aioli earns raves from everyone who orders it. It’s easy to get tips on the best dishes, because the tables are packed together tightly—good for forging new friendships and food recommendations, not as good for private conversation or intimacy.
For vegetarians there are offerings including rapini and buttery gnocchi paired with fava beans and pecorino.
Entrees are a touch more mainstream like crispy halibut with fregola and heartier offerings of stout braised lamb, spit roasted chicken and apple cider pork shank.

I didn't take pictures because it was very dark, but here's a blog called Boy Meets Girl Meets Food that posted some nice ones of nearly all the same things we ordered.

Mohawk Bend brews up some Echo Park action

Mohawk Bend saved the theater's marquee

I've probably spent decades complaining about how hard it is to find a good craft beer selection along with some beer-friendly bites like fried calamari or fish 'n chips. Echo Park's new Mohawk Bend, which took over the nearly 100-year old Estudio theater that sat empty for so long, looks like its about to remedy that situation when it opens sometime next week. At last night's press preview, we sampled some of the 70 mostly Californian beers that will be on tap and small batch spirits like Root and Snap liqueur, Sorciere absinthe and the whole Greenbar Collective lineup from right here in Monrovia.

Mussels are sourced from Carlsbad

I'll have to wait till they open to try the Monterey squid, but the grilled artichoke, roasted cauliflower, salads and pizzas were all promising. A large swathe of the menu offers vegan pizzas, a quinoa burger and other snacks without eyes, while the omnivorous can try the Dork burger, made with local pork and duck, mussels, clams or chorizo-stuffed dates.

A huge array of taps features mostly Californian beers, priced as low as $4.50 a pint

The cavernous theater has been divided into a cozy dining area in back with a roaring fireplace and weathered brick walls, a long bar area with coffee-shopesque red vinyl stools and plywood booths, and a patio lounge fronting Sunset Blvd. with another fireplace.

A fireplace warms the rear dining room

The owners of Mohawk Bend, who also own Tony's Darts Away, are aiming for a truly local experience, even down to the Miracle Mile bitters in the Mildred Pierce cocktail. Sure, it'll soon be overrun with guys with bushy beards wondering why there's no Chimay, but no matter. I'll be the beardless one in the corner munching on fish n' chips and drinking Pliny the Elder.
Mohawk Bend
2141 W. Sunset Blvd.

Xoia: Modern Vietnamese with a side of tacos

Co-owner Jose Sarinana's art covers the walls

Pork tacos have intricate seasonings

Quick, name where you ate if you lived near Echo Park in 2000: Barragan's, Pescado Mojado, Rodeo Grill, Freres Taix...the Brite Spot. There were a few more, none of them much of a culinary destination. Ten years later, Echo Park is a bustling nightlife area, detailed in last week's L.A. Times' article Echo Park Evolves Into Hipster Destination. As a beer lover, I'm excited for Mohawk Bend to open, but what most areas need even more than more bars are more casual, reasonably-priced places to grab a bite.

Mi quang noodles

Xoia picks up the vaguely Vietnamese thread that's always run through Echo Park (A1 Market, Phnom Penh) and fuses it to the hood's strong Latino background. and Owner Thien Ho brings a full Vietnamese menu with inspiration from the neighborhood and her husband Jose Sarinana's heritage, so you'll find pho beef or Mi Quang pork tacos (3 for $5.75) and banh mi sandwiches made with lemongrass pork carnitas ($6.50). All the phos - chicken, beef and vegetarian are $8.25, with a richly flavored stock that outdoes most of the other Vietnamese places in the immediate area. Several dishes go beyond the familiar pho and banh mi, like Mi Quang, a dish from Hoi An with thick rice noodles in a curry-flavored sauce with shrimp, pork and banana blossom and rice crackers on the side. There's also green papaya or chicken salad, Vietnamese coffee and housemade Vietnamese coffee ice cream, making this one of the larger Vietnamese menus in the area.

Banh xeo crepes with distinctive peanut sauce

Pros: Everything is fresh, tasty and reasonably-priced.
Cons: No beer or wine. Service can be a little scattered, but when we received different dishes than what we had ordered, the server graciously wrapped up the extra ones for us to enjoy at home.
 Xoia

1801 W. Sunset Blvd.
  (213) 413-3232



(Mi Quang photo from Xoia's website.)

Cookbook: Echo Park's new greengrocer features Zuni Cookbook this week

Happy shopper Beth with her Cookbook purchases

Cookbook is a charming little grocery that pretty much puts the seal on the gentrification of Echo Park. Owned by Marta Teegan, who is a gardener, chef and author, Cookbook is a greengrocer with a small but careful selection of organic fruits and vegetables, but it's much more than just produce: despite its small size, there's a smattering of all the things you've suddenly remember you needed.

A sweet idea: branches of Oregon blackberries for a vase

Of course exquisitely-selected foodstuffs don't come at Trader Joe's prices, but the prices seem fair for the quality. I managed to spend $40 in a heartbeat, but I came home with a full bag of olive oil, red wine vinegar, Maldon salt, aged gouda, a deeply flavored cantaloupe, a bass confit on walnut bread sandwich and a baguette baked by the folks at HeirloomLA, who also supply lasagna cupcakes, fresh pasta and sauce, cold salads and other prepared foods. 

A small but excellent selection of cheeses and butters

It's not easy to find decent bread on the east side of town, but Heirloom recently added a baker to help supply the businesses like Cookbook who need a better source of bread. 

Olive oil in bulk is reasonably priced (just don't leave it in a hot car - the cork might pop)

Each week, Teegen will choose a cookbook, and Heirloom will prepare dishes from the cookbook. This week: Zuni Cookbook.

A good selection of vegetables and herbs

Everything is impeccably sourced: Coffee comes from San Francisco's Sightglass, eggs from Teegen's favorite egg farm in Paso Robles, Strauss creamery milk, Dr. Bob's ice cream, Morning Glory brittle. I like that Cookbook is a local business that encourages people to actually cook instead of just buying coffee and cupcakes -- in fact I think every neighborhood could use a store like this. A Cookbook next to McCall's Meat and Fish, for example, would be the perfect combo!
Cookbook
1549 Echo Park Ave.
Open daily 8 am - 8 pm

Xoia surfs the Vietnamese wave into Echo Park

It's only fitting that my first meal at Echo Park's new Xoia started with pho tacos. The restaurant is owned by longtime Echo Park residents Jose Sarinana and Thien Ho, and the food is mostly homestyle Vietnamese, influenced by Ho's heritage fro the city of Hoi An. This article from the Eastsider explains how the restaurant came about. Just a few years ago, I never would have believed that the Silver Lake-Atwater area would giver near-Eastsiders a choice of Indochine, Viet Noodle Bar, Gingergrass and Pho Cafe, and now Echo Park has its own version with just a touch of Latin influence -- at least in the tacos.
Since the launch of Kogi BBQ truck, pretty much every cuisine serves tacos, and these juicy tacos made with pho beef just needed a touch of soy sauce and housemade salsa to bring them to life.

Pho beef tacos

Xoia is still in soft-opening stage, with a limited menu and dinner service only. But in a few weeks, more menu items will be added and lunch will kick off too. The former paint store is bright and modern, decorated with Sarinana's abstract paintings, with a small patio that's nicely enclosed so that diners don't have to sit right on the Sunset Blvd. sidewalk. A clutch of bloggers were invited Monday to try some signature dishes, and I liked both the tacos and the beef pho. With a heartier, more flavorful broth than is sometimes found in the nouveau Vietnamese spots and a jumbo helping of noodles, this is a solid bowl of pho for $8.50.
The menu also has spring rolls, vegetarian pho, banh mi at around $6.50, chicken curry and an intriguing noodle dish, Mi quang, with thick rice noodles, shrimp, pork, mint and sesame cracker chips. There's no liquor license at the moment, though they may apply for one down the line.
Xoia
1801 Sunset Blvd.
Echo Park

213-413-3232

Mooi: Some like it raw

Mooi represents the new Echo Park with a vengeance: it's fashionable, yet funky, with a decadent sounding selection of dozens of flavors of ice cream -- yet the ice cream is made from raw cashews, and the "orange chicken" is made from jackfruit. Located in the old Jensen's Rec Center building, the look is fetching, with menus made from Dr. Seuss books, mismatched vintage furniture and an ice cream counter up front.And of course the patrons sport beards worthy of a deep woods logging camp. At lunch, though, you won't get to try the jackfruit chicken or enchiladas with sliced walnuts -- the lunch menu is quite small, with a soup, a few salads and two "sandwiches."
I use the term loosely because truly, a slice of cucumber on a clump of raw grains mushed into a patty does not a sandwich make.

A mild salad of apple, cucumber and zucchini cubes in a curry dressing was fine because of course, salad is normally raw. Though the sandwiches were basically a joke, I quite liked the ice cream. Given the caloric content of cashews and coconut, I'm guessing it's nutritionally similar to the real stuff, but my chocolate chile and Layne's Cracker Jack ice cream had a mapley sweetness,with a touch of salted caramel -- and pretty good in their own right.

I'd like to say I'll be back to try the more ambitious dinner menu, but who am I fooling? There's plenty of other places that actually apply heat to their food, so I'll probably pass, unless I'm totally jonesing for some apricot cashew ice cream.

Mooi 
1700 W. Sunset Blvd.
Echo Park

Allston Yacht Club's smoky bacon 'n egg martini

Yes, I had to try it. Happened to be at the AYC for Wendy's birthday, so I horrified her friends by ordering the bacon-infused vodka martini garnished with a pickled quail egg. The vodka didn't taste particularly bacony, just very smoky like Lapsang Souchong tea or liquid smoke flavoring. I liked the tangy quail egg, it made a perfectly good olive substitute.
The verdict? Not disgusting, just very smoky-tasting. B- for overall taste, A for novelty value.

The Park gets beer and wine!

Congrats to Echo Park's the Park for hanging in there long enough to get a beer and wine license. The restaurant was operating under the difficult condition of not being able to let patrons bring in wine, a nearly catastrophic condition which they solved by hosting reservation-only supperclubs and speakeasys. They'll still be offering the Tuesday and Friday prix fixe menus as well as Wednesday burger night. I've always like the Park's approach to well-prepared food at prices just right for the neighborhood, and the wine and beer make it that much better.
Here's the beer list for now:

Spaten $4

Cucapa Honey Ale $4

Affligem Blonde $5

St Peters Organic English Ale $7

Hitachino Nest White Ale $8

North Coast Old 38 Stout $6

Wines start at $6 a glass with most bottles in the $25 range.

Tonight's menu features grilled sweetbreads with smoked salt, marinated persimmon salsa and pupusa at $20 for three courses.
Tuesday Nov. 17 is Japanese-inspired, with 3 courses for $15, including:
miso soup or creamy cabbage and pear salad, chicken or tofu oka-san with gingered spinach and warm sushi rice and creampuffs.

The Park is at 1400 Sunset, near Dodger Stadium.