dineLA 2012: Craft LA (top pick, every time)

Call me a cynic, but there are only a few things you can count on in life, with absolute certainty - and most of them are not good: death, taxes, the cockroach-like endurance of celebrities-without-cause. The good ones are few and far in between - but one of them is dineLA at Craft.  I know I can count on a great meal and great time at Craft, every time.

It's become a matter of course, for Ms. Sassy and I, to do dineLA at Craft together.  So this year we again took advantage of their generous offer to do the dineLA deals on Saturdays (when everyone else is observing only the 'set' days of Sunday-Friday weeks, some less than that - skimping on the Sundays).

This year's meal started with an amusing amuse: two shots of parsnip and apple soup. This tasted like butternut squash soup, but not as fibrous nor sweet - a very light, refreshing yet satisfying way to kick off the meal.

I of course went for the cocktail with an herbal twist: Century City Mule once again, which at first tastes a little medicinal, and grows on you as flavors open up in the drink.

We couldn't get enough of the bread (yes, even their bread basket is amazing) which tasted freshly baked and were nice, hefty, rustic artisanal pieces - white and pumpernickel. 

One of the many reasons why we love dineLA at Craft so much is because of their generosity - most people may offer 2-3 options for each course.  Craft has 3 options for starters on the menu AND SERVES THEM ALL for the table to share.  The first of these was the Chicken Liver Mousse Pate, farm egg and crispy shallot.  It's like what they say about 'just knowing' when you've found 'The One'. It doesn't matter who else is in the room - it's like you are the only two in the world.  That's what it felt like between me and this starter - it was love at first sight and bite.   

I pretty much love liver anything - but this mousse was light and airy in texture and bold and earthy in flavor.  Its creaminess was well counterbalanced with fluffy-crumbly scrambled egg bits and skinny fried rings of shallots for crunch.  It's chicken liver mousse like I've never had before - and I fell hard and fast for this one.

As second starter, we received a Winter Greens salad with gorgonzola and walnuts.  I'm not a salad fan, so not the best judge but Ms Sassy loved this.

Our third starter is Laughing Bird Shrimp with blood orange and fennel.  These shrimp seem to be a bit firmer and a darker pink than the shrimp we're normally used to seeing - I think I prefer the more common shrimp for its sweetness and more tender meat and coloring, but was glad to have tried this.  The fennel was served up in beautiful smooth ribbons that reminded us of paparadelle and gave the dish sort of a shrimp over pasta effect, visually.  A fun dish kicked up a notch with sweet citrus blood orange reduction.

For my main: Skate Wing parsnips and swiss chard.  As a rule, when I see skate wing on the menu, I jump on it as fast as I can - because it doesn't happen often, at least not in LA.  I love this tender, juicy cut of fish with its unique 'muscle' structure (narrow strips that break away with the slightest flick of the fork) - and Craft's execution was the first I've had it sort of lightly pan fried for a crisp, nicely salted exterior that highlighted, by contrast, the soft, flaky interior all the more.  Nice, clean way to serve up the fish and let its natural deliciousness shine.  The presentation, in a single-serve copper pan, was beautiful as well.

I loved my skate wing, but when I tasted Ms Sassy's Liberty Farms Duck Confit green lentils and kumquat I wished I had the stomach and wallet capacity to have a second main dish.  The duck came bone-in, was so tender it could bring grown women to tears (theoretically, of course) - and the creative use of kumquat infused it with instantly addictive blends of sweet, tart and just the slightest bit of bitter.  Green lentils were the perfect foil to the whole thing - adding pleasing crunch.  Beautiful dish.

We also of course got a side to share of Roasted Vegetables (not noted on the dineLA menu online - so sort of a bonus!) - I'm not a big fan of veggies but pretty much inhaled the brussel sprouts, potatoes, purple baby carrots and mini spring onions (the only thing I didn't really like was the squash, which was too fibrous).

Sadly but predictably, our meal eventually arrived at an end, but as expected, meals here always end on a high note. Our dessert was Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake Tangerine Marmallata and Rosemary Almonds.  The citrus was refreshing after the heavy gorging, and the consistency of the cake was interesting - as it sounds, it was creamy but light and spongey at the same time.  The tangerine marmallata and pieces of fruit added a gorgeous pop of color on the side along and punctuated the subtler flavored cake with bolder sweetness and tanginess.  Add rosemary almonds for crunch and a bit of herbal savory flavor and you've got a perfect dessert.

Not sure what happened but we didn't get the listed Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart as a second dessert choice - instead we got two giant scoops of ice cream - vanilla and grapefruit? - which tasted fresh made and delicious. 

Not one to skimp, Craft again goes above and beyond for dineLA with two more items after dessert: the first is a plate of housemade caramel popcorn and cookies.  Poppycock, this is not - the popcorn tasted like it just came off the pan, minutes after the caramel cooled - with the perfect sprinkling of salt for a nice interplay of sweet/salty.

The second 'bonus' item is a bag of fresh housemade, perfectly toasted granola!  This is like a gourmet party favor bag - so that you can relive memories of the dining experience the next day over breakfast.  Loved this.

All in all, another fantastic meal at Craft.  Though the items are not on the regular menu, if you estimated based on the closest items - you'd have saved about at least $22.50 per person!  Huge deal - this is the one I point to for the naysayers every year who make blanket statements about how dineLA's not for foodies / don't really provide great deals.

Don't worry, I'm not going to get on my soapbox again like I did with last year's dineLA about how other restaurants can learn from Craft on how to do dineLA right and meet the intended objective of creating loyal customers.  Been there, done that.  Suffice it to say that every time we're back at Craft, it gets more and more crowded.  And it's first on our list every time dineLA or a special occasion (like Ms Sassy's birthday fetes) rolls around.

Thank you Craft for yet another wonderful experience - we will see you again soon! 

[For other fab dishes at Craft LA, see photo album from Ms. Sassy's birthday party on my Facebook page]

On a 7 point scale:
Flavor - 6 bites
Presentation - 6 bites
Originality - 5.5 bites
Ambience - 6 stars
Service - 6.5 stars
Overall experience - 6 bites
Price - $$$$ (4 bite marks regular menu)
Probability of return visit - 100% 
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Craft Los Angeles 
10100 Constellation Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90067
Ph: 310.279.4180
dineLA - $44 dinner
Parking:  Self-parking in structure by 2000 Century Park E free with restaurant validation; Valet parking $8
Website: craftrestaurant.com
OpenTable: Look for reservations
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Craft Los Angeles - dineLA Done Right

Craft restaurants have always been a favorite of "Ms. Sassy"'s - a perfect combination of consistently delicious food, lovely settings and staff who personify hospitality.  Whenever Ms. Sassy's birthday rolled around, we knew we would be in for a night of fabulousness - two years ago it was at Craftsteak in Vegas, this year it was at Craft LA on the patio. 

So naturally Craft popped to the top of the list when it came time for this year's dineLA - and it was one of the best experiences ever (thanks to Ms. Sassy for scoring us the best deal ever in the history of dineLA! More on this later! :))  I would go so far as to say that Craft should be the role model for others participating in Restaurant Week.

A few high-end dineLA restaurants had been mincing their deals, with lower-end offerings on menus that boiled down to "beef or chicken" dinners, and/or not offering dineLA deals on weekends when they'd rather fill space with customers paying 'full fare'.  While I absolutely understand the economics of this, I also know dineLA was designed to be a citywide marketing tool - the concept is to bring in new customers by availing them of a sampling of your offerings at an introductory price, for a very limited time.  So if you put out a menu that's going to put people to sleep, or make it hard for people to get to it, you might as well not do it at all - because you're (A) not accurately representing what your restaurant's about and/or (B) sending mixed messages / generating frustration versus goodwill by putting something out but making it hard for people to actually try it.  For the cost of presumably just ingredients and labor, you get the machinery of dineLA's marketing and publicity teams driving traffic to you - so wouldn't the smartest thing to do be to put your best foot forward?

Craft is an example of a restaurant that totally 'gets it' - and whom we expect to continue to rave about for years to come.  Here's how Craft shows others how to do it right:

Craft LA is usually closed for business on Sundays. But dineLA event dates run Sundays-Fridays.  So what does Craft do?  They offered their dineLA menu on Saturday, so customers who don't live/work in the area can still get a chance to enjoy the experience.  (Thanks Ms. Sassy for discovering this!) Class act. 

When we arrived, we got the same high level of service we always got at Craft group restaurants - with all the trimmings as well, starting the meal with an amuse bouche of polenta, celery, creme fraiche and a crunchy flash fried tomato.  And throughout the meal we saw the same exquisite level of attention to detail and many other pluses that made us fall even more in love with Craft.

The dineLA menu had listed three starters "for the table" - before we arrived I assumed that meant "choose one of the three" and we get to share that?  To our excitement, the server clarified that we get ALL THREE starters to share between the two of us!  And they seemed like full size starters to us!

The first starter was King Salmon Tartar avocado and spiced almonds.  It was a generously portioned plate of lush salmon with creamed avocado, counterbalanced by what I thought were heirlom tomatoes and spiced almonds for crunch.  Ms Sassy doesn't even normally like salmon, much less raw, but she enjoyed this one. 

Starter #2 was the Wild Arugula baby beets and smoked goat cheese - I don't normally love salads but thought the light arugula, punctuated by pickled baby beets and some crumbles of goat cheese for textural and flavor contrast, was a nice refreshing way to whet our appetites for the meal ahead.

Starter #3 was my favorite: Sonoma Pork Terrine Warren pears and purslane - terrines are typically rectangular slabs, but Craft presented them beautifully in thin rounds.  This dish was texture and flavor perfect - the interplay of well seasoned meat with rich, flavorful fat was elevated with a sweet/spiced pear mostarda and purslane.  I was sad that Ms Sassy didn't really enjoy this (only because she doesn't like pates in general) but happy that this meant more for me.  I scarfed down every last bite.

For her main, Ms. Sassy chose the Diver Sea Scallops heirloom beans and lemon - which came in a nice baby cast iron pan.  We ended up sharing all our plates so I got to taste this one as well - the scallops were perfectly seared with a crisp outer layer giving way to an interior that is so tender it could make you cry. (Yes, do note that you just get two scallops, so those with bigger appetites, take that into consideration) The heirloom white/purple beans were great as well for a nice texture contrast.

My choice of main was Rainbow Trout roasted market peppers & cilantro as I didn't want to repeat the scallop dish (on dineLA site they listed White Sea Bass) - to be honest, I ordered this with fingers crossed it would not just be a white fish filet with some veggies on the side.

I guess I forgot where I was - Craft would not do that to me!  The fish came SKIN ON, lightly seared to a crisp, the way I like it - and beautifully presented in a copper skillet.  My only note was that I would have wanted the roasted peppers to be just a tad less salty so that I can taste the natural flavors a bit more.  Otherwise a delicious dish.

In addition to all the above, we also got a trio of Side Dishes mixed and served in a baby copper skillet for the table - which featured roasted butterball potatoes, assorted mushrooms, and market onions

The potatoes were perfectly cooked and tasted like they had been marinated in the meaty juices of the mushrooms for days - the rich flavors were evenly infused.  The market onions' contribution was a nice counterbalancing sweet/slightly bitter bits of tenderness.

Dessert #1 was our favorite, Steamed Apple Pudding cider sabayon & braised apples.  This was a change from the posted dineLA menu (originally Butternut Squash Pie) but we weren't complaining - the 'pudding' was warm, soft, fluffy and cake-like, with a sweet caramel-ly syrup poured over and some I think graham cracker crumbs sprinkled on top so you get just the slightest bit of crunch with your 'pudding'.  The ever so slightly tart cider sabayon and thin half-moons of braised apple were the perfect finishing touches. This dish was too sophisticated to be comfort food - but it was definitely one that hits you to your core - food that tastes like it can heal everything that went wrong with your week before you set foot at Craft.

Dessert #2 was more playful, a Peanut Butter Semifreddo banana bread & chocolate (banana bread was unexpected bonus, not listed on dineLA site!).  The bigger orbs are peanut butter ice cream fried and breaded with a nutty outer shell.  The banana bread came in the form of baby muffins perched on a mound of melted chocolate that tasted to me like warm nutella.  Deliciousness all around!

To 'gild the lily' in a good way, we ended the meal with Mignardises - chocolate cookies and peach pates de fruit.

Though the dineLA items are not all on the regular menu, if you tried to calculate based on comparables and averages, you would be saving at least $22 per person with the dineLA deal.

AND because Ms. Sassy is savvy as well as sassy - she prudently submitted her considerable stash of OpenTable points for a voucher a bit after dineLA was announced. and received her $50 certificate just in time to apply it to our meal.  Our server ever so kindly accepted the certificate without any hassle, which brought our per person cost before tip to just under $26!!!! Definitely the best fine-dining meal deal ever!!!!

And to top it all off, with our bill our server also handed us each a bag of handmade, fresh granola to take home courtesy of Craft.  Then let us know where we can get our (self) parking validated (at front desk)!

(The restaurants referenced at the top of this post may say, wow that was a big revenue loss for Craft...but I would argue it was a big win: for returning customers like Ms. Sassy and I, it was a rewarding experience for us that continues to fuel affinity and loyalty - Ms. Sassy spends a lot of money each year on her birthday bash at Craft group restos, as well as dinners throughout the year, so this is her one savings event (done more for the benefit of this lil budget food blogger than hers - thanks Ms. Sassy!) that made us happy (and most importantly for Craft will keep the big-spender of the pair) coming back.  For new customers, having this experience makes them see Craft as a place that sets a high bar for themselves without the snobbery to their customers - and makes it more likely for them to convert into regulars, and to spread good word of mouth, the best form of marketing you can get (for a relatively low cost of just food and labor).  And I would hazard to guess that the $ spent on marketing and advertising year round far exceeds the $44 +$50 = $94 dollar per pair of customers converted during dineLA. But that's just my two cents, restaurants are going to operate however they want to.).

Thank you Craft for yet another wonderful experience - you're a class act through and through and we will see you again soon! 

[For other fab dishes at Craft LA, see photo album from Ms. Sassy's birthday party on my Facebook page]

On a 7 point scale:
Flavor - 6 bites
Presentation - 6 bites
Originality - 5.5 bites
Ambience - 6 stars
Service - 6.5 stars
Overall experience - 6 bites
Price - $$$$ (4 bite marks regular menu)
Probability of return visit - 100% 
_____________________________________________________________

Craft Los Angeles 
10100 Constellation Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90067
Ph: 310.279.4180

dineLA - $44 dinner
Parking:  Self-parking in structure by 2000 Century Park E free with restaurant validation; Valet parking $8

Website: craftrestaurant.com
OpenTable: Look for reservations
______________________________________________________________________

1MB Travels: Las Vegas: Craftsteak at the MGM Grand - Viva Top Chefs in Las Vegas!

In a city notorious for 'excess' - Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak stands a cut above the rest as much for its noble restraint from over-the-top showmanship, as the art and skill subtly yet unmistakably exhibited in its take on classic steakhouse dishes. 

Located in the heart of the MGM Grand, Craftsteak is both a mecca to which foodies find themselves making pilgrimmage, and an 'accidental' find for tourists coming through its illustrious "Grand Garden" arena.   Though the MGM Grand itself, like the city it calls home, is not really known for subtle sophistication - it does boast a lion's share (had to do it, sorry!) of restaurants within its "Grand Garden" arena that offer fine dining in tasteful settings.  Craftsteak can be found, after a long hike through the casino, among the serenity of this row - with the lights and noise thankfully dialed down to an ambient level. 

On this particular occasion, we were at Craftsteak to celebrate a friend's birthday - commandeering a coveted table in the semi-private dining room (which we ended up sharing with a Jonas Brother!).  The decor is rich, warm and welcoming, with its dark wood furniture and wall panels.  The room fit four tables of eight to ten people, affording a cozy space for an intimate, yet lively, dinner.

As we were a large group, the birthday girl had mapped out our three-course meal in advance - so some of the items I will attempt to capture for you below may not be on the regular menu (though most appear to be, as noted).

Heirloom Tomato Salad ($12-$14)

Our dinner was served family style - the better for everyone to get to experience multiple dishes during each course.

We started with three different types of salad:
Heirloom Tomato, Baby Beets with Pickled Egg, and Warm Frisee.

The Heirloom Tomato salad was unbelievable - beautifully designed to showcase the perfectly ripened tomatoes for the eyes and the palate.  Plump tomatoes of varying colors and sizes are brushed with olive oil and topped with thai basil.  The simplicity in the preparation of this dish allows the natural sweetness and juicy-ness of the tomatoes to shine through.   

Baby Beets with Pickled Egg ($13)

Next was the Baby Beets with Pickled Egg - which was impressive in its originality.  The creamy/slightly rubbery texture of the single pickled, hard-boiled egg served as a nice counterpoint to the abundance of softly crunchy multi-colored beets in the dish, punctuating it with a provocative extra kick of acidity.  Fresh sprigs of herbs are thrown into the mix for good measure, adding pops of contrasting color, texture and savory flavor.  This is probably the best beet salad I've had outside of L.A.

The third and final entry in the salad

Warm Frisee Salad ($13)

sampler is the Warm Frisee Salad, with a deliciously runny egg and shamelessly fat-addled pieces of bacon strewn through the spiny leaves of frisee. I'm very glad I got to experience this dish before the whole egg scare broke - I'm a big fan of barely cooked eggs - and in this dish, the smooth 'liquid gold' of the lightly poached egg yolk nicely offsets the unruly spines of the frisee.  The saltiness and grease from the bacon flavors the dish and brings the otherwise disparate elements together.

After grazing on the feast of salads and very reluctantly letting servers clear the few remaining scraps away, we set our sights on the main course - Wagyu beef, cooked medium rare and served in beautiful copper cookware.

Wagyu Beef ($130-$285 per person
depending on domestic vs. Japanese "A5" beef)

Words failed me at first taste of these steak strips - gorgeously balanced portions of muscle and fat, perfectly seasoned to let the texture and natural flavors of the meat serve as testimony to its quality.  If not for the need to maintain some semblance of decorum, I would have picked up the pan and licked every last drizzle clean. 

Side dishes:  Gnocchi, corn concoction (not on regular menu)

Though the steak was such pure joy to experience, and did not need any accompaniment, our wonderful hostess made sure we had a plethora of side dishes to stimulate our taste buds.  One of these dishes was potato gnocchi - giant, soft, light and gently flavored pillows that provided a nice contrast to the texture of the beef. 

We also had asparagus and some sort of corn concoction that I regret not hounding the waiter until he provided all the specifics for.  The plate of 'corn mix' was like no other corn focused dish I had ever tasted - it was hard to identify all the layers of flavor in it, though it did not look complicated - but suffice it to say it was simply incredible.
All in all, those who appreciate great food, in a nice atmosphere, with attentive yet unobtrusive service - and without the pretentiousness - would fall deeply in love with Craftsteak at the MGM Grand.  Kudos to Tom Colicchio for showing Top Chefs who's boss!  Now, if only you would open a location in Los Angeles, so that we can indulge in the magnificence of your culinary coup with greater frequency!

On a 7 point scale:

Flavor - 6.5 bites
Presentation - 5.5 bites
Originality - 5 bites
Ambience - 6 stars
Service - 6.5 stars
Overall experience - 6.5 bites
Price - $$$ (3 bite marks)
Probability of return visit - 100%

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Craftsteak
3799 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV, 89109
Ph: 702.891.7318
Website: craftrestaurant.com
Twitter: twitter.com/tom_colicchio
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