I have a long list of restaurants in Los Angeles that I need to try. Actually it’s a Google Document that expands by several rows each week. And the rate at which I’m able to cross places off my list is embarrassingly low. I mean, how often do I hear about a fantastic dish or a new restaurant from a celebrity chef, and how often do I want to treat a girl to a nice dinner or have a friend/relative in town who is equally excited about eating well? I’d say for every restaurant I cross of my list I’ve added four or five in its place. It can be frustrating.
One of the first restaurants I dreamed of visiting when I created the list three years ago was Jar. I think I first read about it in the LA Weekly back when each issue contained short blurbs for dozens of restaurants in different neighborhoods. Jar was also on Jonathan Gold’s list of 99 Essential LA Restaurants. I still remember him raving about the cuts of meat at Suzanne Tracht’s steak house. And I fucking love a good steak. That’s why I chose Cut over Matsuhisa for my birthday dinner this year. That’s why I chose the most expensive steak option on the menu at Cut. A great steak might just be my favorite food item. So when the opportunity arose to cross Jar off my LA dinner list, I didn’t just take it, I dove into it like it was an olympic-sized pool filled with Bearnaise sauce.
All of a sudden I’ve become really self-conscious about taking pictures of food at nice restaurants, so all the images featured here are from other sources.
We started with an order of the Crab Deviled Eggs, which were outstanding. The creaminess of the yolk combined with the salt from the fresh crab meat was a perfect combination.
One of the nightly specials (although judging by Yelp reviews it tends to be a regular feature) was a plate of tempura-battered squash blossoms stuffed with lobster meat and served with a spicy ponzu sauce. This was even more outstanding than the deviled eggs. The blossoms themselves were nice and meaty, but the addition of lobster meat pushed this well over the top. Sometimes if your decadence is restrained (it wasn’t like the blossoms were heavily fried and bursting with lobster) you can take what sounds like a hedonistic idea and turn it into a succulent and light dish.
I ordered the prime filet of beef (ten ounces) cooked medium rare, and it was one of the most-perfectly cooked pieces of meat I’ve had in a long time. It was incredibly tender, conservatively seasoned, and tailored made to be consumed with one of Jar’s steak sauces. I chose the traditional Bearnaise, which was awesome. Everyone at the table ordered steaks, so I was able to try the horseradish sauce and the lobster Bearnaise (which sounds ungodly amazing but was actually a bit too much for me). I also tasted the Prime Skirt Steak, which came out a bit on the rare side but didn’t phase me because it was such a beautiful cut of meat. Skirt steak can be a bit chewy or stringy sometimes (which keeps me from ordering it sometimes, a shame because it can be so good) but this was probably the most tender, lovely skirt I’ve ever had.
Our choices for side dishes were the steamed asparagus (I pleaded with everyone at the table for a plate with something green on it) and the onion rings, which were totally unnecessary. The spicy mayo dipping sauce was fine, but the onion rings disappointed. The asparagus was good, or maybe I just wanted it to be good because I was the only person eating a vegetable (that wasn’t battered and fried!) at any point during the evening.
We couldn’t decide on a dessert. Our choice came down to either the butterscotch pudding with salted caramel ice cream or the pumpkin bread pudding. Our waitress brought both for us, and as a token of affection she put a birthday candle in one of them for me to blow out — turned out it was a trick candle so I had to extinguish it in my glass of water. To no one’s surprise (especially not mine) everyone announced they were full right before the desserts arrived, so I ate them entirely by myself. The butterscotch pudding was phenomenal. The pumpkin bred (topped with yummy pumpkin seeds) was remarkable but it couldn’t hold a candle to the richness and sweetness of the butterscotch. Remember when Homer Simpson is sitting at the dinner table crying while eating his pet lobster? That’s kind of what I felt like except I didn’t have an emotional connection with the pudding, it was just that awesome. Fuck me that shit was good.
It’s not like boasting about how good Suzanne Tracht’s food is on a silly little blog will do anything to further her career. She was named Food & Wine’s best new chef about a decade ago, appeared on the original season of Top Chef Masters, and runs a really successful restaurant in one of the biggest cities in America. I guess I was just really impressed with the honesty of her cooking, the transformation of rustic dishes into upscale ones, and the ease with which a chef can turn small embellishments into such sensational food.
Two funny moments: one of the stars of a popular ’90s NBC sitcom come over to chat with someone at the table, and — right before the desserts arrived — I glanced over my shoulder and noticed my lovely little friend Lisa seated a few tables away from us. She came over and boasted about what a great person I am, which is always a nice feeling when you’re out with a group of people. So as a little bonus we had a celebrity interaction and someone came over and said some things about me to make me feel important in front of everyone else. All in all, a marvelous dinner at Jar!
The Louvin Brothers – The New Partner Waltz
