Google's Santa Monica cafeteria: A free lunch for the lucky

Sampling Google's salad bar

EatingLA lucked with an invite to speak at Google's Santa Monica office along with fellow Eat: Los Angeles contributors Amelia Saltsman, Linda Burum and Miles Clements for their lunchtime speaker series. There was a full house of Googlers, who manage to tap away on their laptops, eat and ask questions about the best burgers and Singapore restaurants all at once. Afterward we were invited to try Google's cafeteria. It's a much smaller operation than the company's famous Silicon Valley Google cafeterias which have their own chefs and specialities. The food service is provided by Lifeworks, the upscale branch of corporate caterers Aramark, but it's much nicer than most corporate food. The bright, airy room has a whiteboard calendar announcing specials like "Grilled cheese day!" A salad bar has plenty of options including picked vegetables, roast beets and fresh bacon bits. The day we were there, a pasta bar offered three kinds of pasta with several sauces and add-ins like shrimp and radicchio.

Google's pasta bar with several noodle options.

A helpful stir-fry cook was standing by to combine the pasta and sauce for a decadent mac 'n cheese dish. Hot entrees like salmon and roast beef are available for heartier eaters. I can see how it would definitely help productivity to have all these options available for free, along with several other salad and fruit choices and sandwich and cereal bars. Plus, you can learn while you eat with the Google Talks series, which is also posted on Youtube so everyone can watch.

Stefan Richter's frozen lollipops: A 'Top Chef' bonus

The finished frozen lollipops in flavors like wine ice cream with a chocolate center, passion fruit and eggnog.

Almost as entertaining as talking to former "Top Chef" finalist Stefan Richter and watching his sous-chef make frozen lollipops is reading the trail of comments he leaves on blogs around town. Clearly a little obsessive, hopefully his intense focus translates to the food that comes out of his kitchen at Stefan's at L.A. Farm. I was invited to try the restaurant this week, and we finished off a satisfying lunch of pumpkin soup with smoked duck and grilled salmon with Richter's fun frozen lollipops.
I went back to the kitchen to watch sous-chef Troy prepare them with liquid nitrogen -- that is some fun stuff to play with! Here's how it's done, although you'd have to have a nitrogen license to do it.





First you pour some nitrogen into a small container. Don't touch the stuff, or you will stick to it.










Previously, you have frozen balls of chocolate ganache on sticks. Now take the stick out of the freezer and dip in melted ice cream -- mint, in this case.


Now dip it in the nitrogen until the ice-cream refreezes. Resist the urge to pop it in your mouth as soon as it's done -- "Your tongue will stick to it!," Troy reminds me. Make some nice layers, like you're coloring an Easter egg. You can see the finished products at the top -- but you have to lick them to get the full effect, not bite them, as the ice cream tends to fall off in shards otherwise.

(This was a hosted lunch.)

Border Grill gets Baja inspiration

Barbacoa: the real thing in Tijuana

One thing that often bothers me is the overwhelming similarity of so many Mexican menus in L.A. Fortunately the chefs on our recent Baja trip were paying attention, and Border Grill's Raymond Alvarez is introducing some new specials inspired by the trip. I'm guessing the chocolate/blackberry polenta cake is a variation on the amazing blackberry tamales at Villa Saverios.
(At the Casa d'Eating LA, we made Baja-inspired jicama logs with chile and lime last week).

Here's a few of Border Grill's Baja inspirations, available as specials in Santa Monica:

Lemon Cucumber Carpaccio
lipstick radish | kumquat | lemon verbena | manchego cheese | crispy red beet

Barbacoa Tacos
slow roasted cabrito | árbol salsa | sliced avocado | onion and cilantro

Grilled Panca Marinated Salmon
aji aioli palm salad | poblano mashed potato | grilled pineapple salsa

Valle de Guadalupe Beef Shank
achiote chile broth | white beans | pickled onion salsa
farmers market succotash | marinated grilled bread

Chocolate and Blackberry Polenta Cake
blackberry liqueur | blackberry whipped cream

Pourtal brings winetasting 2.0 to Santa Monica

Peter Birmingham shows off the "Three's Company" selection of wines blended with three varieties of grape

Walking down Santa Monica Blvd. towards the new Pourtal wine bar, it was hard not to get pulled in by the perennial forcefield of happy, soused Brits at the King's Head. But I was glad I pressed on, because sampling wines using a Smartcard is pretty fun, even if it is likely to quickly add up. And since wine director Peter Birmingham is one of the most knowledgeable sommeliers in L.A., the selection of wines is naturally stellar.
Buy a card -- for opening party, we were given $30 card -- then walk around to see the choices, and insert the card in the Enomatic machine, putting your glass below the selected wine. A one ounce taste runs from $1.52 to $8.47, while there's a selection of 5 oz. glasses from $6.50 to $15. Pourtal is working hard to make tasting wine a fun and educational experience, with themed areas that comprise a flight and extensive tasting notes. My card held out for about six tastes, with some real winners in there, including the Tissot Pousard Sans Souffre, a good value at $3.05 an ounce. Another excellent value was the $2.99 an ounce Niner cab Bootjack Vineyard from Paso Robles.
As for the "cosmoculture" Domaine Viret Emergence -- I think I'll leave that one to the hippies. There's plenty of snackage available to go with the wine (beer is available too), including cheese plates from Andrew's Cheese Shop, flatbreads, artichoke garlic toasts and for the adventurous, chocolate/bleu cheese crostini.
With Bar Pinxto just across the street and Robata Bar next door, the westernmost block of Santa Monica Blvd. has come a long way from the days of fish n' chips and warm Guiness. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Chez Jay's Jay Fiondella dies at 82

Jay Fiondella, who opened Chez Jay in Santa Monica in 1959, died Thursday in Santa Monica at 82. Fiondella was a real Hollywood character who drew everyone from Frank Sinatra to Sean Penn to the little Ocean Ave. shack with the sawdust-covered floor for steaks, martinis and the famous potatoes au gratin with bananas.
Fiondella was also an actor, a real playboy and frequent visitor to the Playboy mansion, a trophy-winning hot air balloonist and a deep sea and Arctic treasure-hunter, according to his biographer Jon Stebbins. Some say Marilyn Monroe met JFK for pre-tryst drinks at Chez Jay; it certainly seems like the right kind of place for that, and Fiondella was friends with Peter Lawford, so it makes sense. The last time I walked by Chez Jay I snapped this picture and marvelled that it has lasted so long. Co-owner Michael Anderson will continue to run the restaurant, hopefully for a long time to come.

Anisette: still getting its feet wet

There's no denying that the new Anisette in Santa Monica is a lovely room, just like being in Paris, with red banquettes, tall ceilings and tiled floors. I like the small upstairs dining area which overlooks the main restaurant and is open to the kitchen, with jars of spices lined up on open shelves looking like you've walked into Alain Giraud's home kitchen. This is probably uncharitable of me, but I'm pretty sure if it was my home kitchen, I could whip up a better plate of Eggs Benedict. The best part was the smoky, thinly sliced ham, a worthy riff on Canadian bacon. Too bad the Hollandaise was bland, with none of the anticipated lemony tang, the homemade looking English muffin didn't taste as good as Thomas's and the potato cake it sat on was dried out. My breakfast guest, used to bargain basement prices in Las Vegas, thought $13 was high for our breakfast dishes. My complaint wasn't the price, since the Benedicts at Square One are the same price -- it's simply that there was nothing particularly satisfying about the dish or the $3 cup of average coffee. Nor was I impressed by the heavy, meaty English breakfasts flying out of the kitchen, complete with black pudding -- not very appealing on a sunny morning at the beach. And our waiter managed the difficult feat of being obsequious, yet vanishing when you actually needed him. I really don't mean to complain, because they obviously put a lot of work into the place, but I hope dinner will be a much more delicious experience. Just don't try to take a picture from the stairway, because Alain was busting a girl for taking pictures just as I climbed the stairs.

Breakfast at Cora's and strolling Santa Monica

My wonderful yoga teacher Erin held yoga classes on the beach this summer... I finally made it for the last class, and it was beautiful doing yoga next to the Casa del Mar as the mist burned off over the ocean.
After all that yoga I needed a hearty breakfast at Cora's. There's lots of people waiting for patio tables on weekends, but it's not hard to score a stool at the counter. Not that I needed more burrata after Mozza the night before, but the burrata caprese omelette looked awfully good.
Heirloom tomatoes were roughly chopped on top of the omelette, which came with brioche toast and one of their grilled hunks 'o potato. On the way to the Promenade, I was happy to see that Chez Jay still looks the same as ever, since nearly everything else in Santa Monica has changed drastically since I went to high school there.
Maybe I shouldn't have had quite such a hearty brunch, because when I got to the Promenade, the Sri Lankan festival was already in full swing, and I was too full to try anything. But the rotis, short eats and stringers all looked unusual and good...there used to be a Sri Lankan restaurant in Hollywood but now I think there's just one in the Valley.
On my way back, I saw that Joe's Pizza from New York looks to be opening fairly soon on Broadway, next to a Kiwiberri, of course, which will make four or five yogurt places within a two block area. I guess I should get to Santa Monica more often...or at least for next year's Sri Lankan festival!
Updated: I forgot to mention that a branch of Farmer's Market's Monsieur Marcel is moving to the Promenade, in one of the middle stalls, replacing one of the generic snack bars there.

Roses are red, but Violet is yummy

According to the People's Almanac, large doses of the color violet can promote indulgence, which was certainly the case at last night's press dinner at Violet. The Santa Monica restaurant is the sort of place L.A. could use a lot more of -- reasonably-priced, with imaginative twists on comfort food prepared by one of the cutest chefs in town. Jared Simons is just 27, and he has wisely decided to keep the concept fairly simple for his first restaurant. The medium-sized space is basically a storefront with a few nice decor touches including deep purple walls, of course, and a small bar at the back. The menu encourages ordering small plates to share, but the dishes are more traditional than tapas-style.
Standouts included the baked macaroni with gruyere, leeks and serrano ham ($7.50),
a tasty version of the inevitable ahi tuna tartare ($12.50);

the lamb chops with fava bean puree and thyme honey pesto ($16);

and the multi-colored beets and smoked eel salad ($9).
We chatted with wine merchant Kenny Crowder who helped create the well-edited wine list, which includes plenty of selections by the glass and half-bottle as well as tasting flights from $8.50 to $12.50. Some artisanal beers are also available.

warm apple tart with cinnamon gelato and a very flaky crust
Why couldn't Violet be in Silver Lake, and Santa Monica could have Blair's? Wouldn't that be more fair?
Violet
3221 Pico Blvd.
Santa Monica
(310) 453-9113

Good old fashioned fish and chips

The situation: A cold, windy, drizzly day in Santa Monica. Hordes of Christmas shoppers jostle the chilled homeless. Gale force winds whip up and down Broadway, Santa Monica, Arizona. A day that calls for something hearty, comforting, and of course, fried.
The solution: Fish and chips, accompanied by hard cider for me and ginger beer for Matt.
The venue: Ye Olde King's Head, Santa Monica.
The verdict: Crunchy, ethereal, perfectly fried batter. Standard issue cod, adequate as a base for the sublimely fried crust. Chips are much improved by sitting underneath a few pieces of vinegared fish for a while. Vinegar seems oddly mild -- diluted for the Yanks, possibly? A satisfying, tasty lunch for the slog back to the car.
The damage: A king-sized plate of F & C runs about $13.95, a queen size about $10.95. I managed to polish off the large size, but the smaller would have been quite sufficient.
Ye Olde King's Head
116 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica
(310) 451-1402