As you step onto the original 1934 brown-and-white tile of this West Hollywood space, it feels both familiar and reinvented. You might recognize the red bar booths that hosted Quentin Tarantino and Tim Roth at its predecessor, Ye Coach & Horses, but now the dining room is splashed with neon green chairs, yellow booths and blue water carafes. Chefs Will Aghajanian and Liz Johnson, previously of MIMI and The Catbird Seat, have partnered with Brittany Ha and Lee Pallerino to create a menu full of comforting bistro fare: Try the veal sweetbreads fried to crispness topped with frisée and capers, or perfectly whipped pork rillettes on brioche toast.
General Manager and Wine Director Terence Leavey curates a focused, rotating list. When asked what would pair with the three dishes at our table—ricotta ravioli, sole with saffron aioli, and pork chop Milanese—he offered a 2015 Reynvaan Foothills Reserve Syrah from Walla Walla. Its hints of smoked bacon, fresh black-raspberry fruit and forest floor matched the flavor requests of everyone at the table. If you’re looking for a palate cleanser, try one of the spritzes, like the umeshu (Japanese plum liquor) tonic with Peychaud’s bitters, because you’ll probably want to make room for the sheep’s milk cheesecake with Santa Rosa plum.
Based in Los Angeles, California, Alissa Bica is the Associate Editor and Spirits Critic at Wine & Spirits. She is also a sommelier at 71 Above and co-runs the home wine tasting company, Côte Brune and Blonde. In any rare moments of free time, she writes about obscure grape varieties in the blog Off the Beaten Wine Path.
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