Ardor is housed in the Edition hotel on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. It’s lush and green, transporting you somewhere tropical, with palm fronds and potted plants surrounding crescent-shaped cream-colored booths—plants even sprout from the ceiling on the terrace—a nod perhaps to Chef John Fraser’s vegetable-focused menu. A California native, Fraser—also the mind behind New York’s Iris and La Marchande—is back in his home state presenting produce in genre-bending ways, like the crunchy, savory raw cauliflower cacio e pepe with ancient grains and gooseberries, or his tandoor carrots with eggplant “croutons” and a paprika vinaigrette. Beverage Director Amy Racine and Sommelier Sunhee Park focus their wine list on mineral and herbal wines grown in Mediterranean climates. Pours by the glass include classics like Antinori Pèppoli Chianti Classico, and the unexpected, like the Saint Hills Mala Nevina Malvasia from Croatia. The pairings can be marvelous; the Filipa Pato Bairrada Território Vivo Baga, for example, with its deep cherry, blueberry and forest-floor flavors, plays well off the bright blueberry mostarda that accompanies Fraser’s dry-aged Colorado lamb.
Ardor is part of our Top 30 LA List of 2023. Read the whole story here.
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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This story appears in the print issue of Spring 2023.
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