Grubtrotters

Speaking of Akasha, the former caterer to the stars got a star and a half of her own today from the LA Times Food section. You can read S. Irene Virbila’s review of this “wildly successful green-leaning” CuCi restaurant here. She loved the La Quercia prosciutto pizza, the turkey burger and the chocolate hemp gelato, but she found the restaurant’s top-selling dish, the short ribs, to be “cloying.” Her final assessment: “Here’s a fledgling restaurant with a strong point of view — and a big dose of soul.”

I sat down with Chef Akasha for a piece on DineLA.com. The Q&A focuses on her efforts to make her Culver City restaurant eco-friendly. But we also wound up chatting about everything from vegetarians to gay men and feng shui. You can check out the interview here, and below are a few extras just for Grubtrotters readers:

Jenny: There are so many people that claim to be green for marketing purposes. How can consumers tell who’s for real?

Akasha: I think consumers have a sixth sense about things. All of a sudden the Cheesecake Factory went green? Look, they’re not a green restaurant. If they went green, it’s better for everyone because it means the products are going to be available. But I think the consumer likes to feel it’s authentic. The green consumer is usually someone that reads a lot, that does a lot of research. And we have to deliver on the food and service, or forget it. You can have a green restaurant, and if the food is bad, and the service is bad, nobody is coming back a second time. They’re just not. Our policy is to treat everybody like they’re the president of Sony.

Jenny: Are the prices higher than they would be if you were not mostly organic?

Akasha: Our prices aren’t any higher than anyone else that has the same kind of restaurant, the same kind of experience. Our preparation is very simple. It’s not fancy shmancy food. Most people tell us we’re reasonable. When you’re using quality ingredients and doing really nice food…And I mean, look at how cool the crowd is. The demographic of our customer is the Whole Foods shopper.

Jenny: Did you have any interesting experiences getting the restaurant open?

Akasha: We filmed eight months of construction and what we went through getting this place open on TLC’s “Flip That Restaurant.” I think that show is one of the reasons we’re so busy. I’ve had a lot of PR, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s funny, I never really understood why I liked restaurants so much until I opened my own. I know it sounds almost stupid to say, but I never really understood how the whole experience is why people come back again and again. I feel like the experience people have here is truly wonderful and unique.

Jenny: Have you had celebrities eating here?

Akasha: Celebrities come in here, especially at night. The lighting is much darker. People don’t even know they’re in the room. They’re not bothered. Ed Norton came in, Mario Van Peoples, Amy Smart was in, Rachael Leigh Cook, Rachel McAdams. It’s real low key. Billy Baldwin was in.

Jenny: What are your most popular dishes?

Akasha: The short ribs, the scallops, the onion rings, the pear salad with goji berries. The salmon, too. The turkey burger. You know how many people order this turkey burger at night? I almost didn’t put it on the menu at night, and my friend said, you should really put it on the menu. You’re a neighborhood restaurant.

Jenny: Do restaurants wind up wasting a lot of food?

Akasha: We sell a lot of food. We don’t waste any food. Every single vegetable peeling gets made into stock. We buy the whole chickens for the entrée at night. We cut it up and use all the bones in stock.

Jenny: Are your customers as green as you are?

Akasha: We’re not here to tell people you can’t do this, you can’t do that. You should only eat this, you should only use recycled paper goods. Don’t take a paper cup to go. Take five minutes to bring in a real mug. Because not everybody’s going to do that. I’ve been through that. I was real fanatical when I was younger. You can’t do it. You just have to give the options because this is a business. It’s actually a war on a daily basis. It’s a battlefield back there on a Saturday night.

If you think it’s tough to score a seat at LA’s latest hot spots, check this out. Even Ruth Reichl was denied at New York’s Momofuku Ko. Desperate wannabe diners have hacked into the online reservation system, while others have resorted to scalping seats. Could they be hard up for decent Asian fusion in New York?

We wanted to let you know (just in case you have been hiding under a rock) that Father’s Office has opened a second location in Culver City. Of course, you might have already noticed the line of people snaked around the Helms Bakery Building.

We doubt that the new spot will actually ease the crowd at the mother ship in Santa Monica. Word of the new location will only serve as reminder to those who have been meaning to go back to the original.

And yes we are aware that technically the zip code of the new location is Los Angeles. But we are saying Culver City because it is more helpful as a practical matter, and part of our credo is that we are here to help.

3229 Helms Ave., Los Angeles, 90034. 310-736-2224

Edited to say that Jenny got a chance to check it out. See that post here.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, would you rather have an endless supply of Abbot’s Pizza, Father’s Office Burgers or BLT Popovers?

OK, so it’s not exactly the Montagues and Capulets, but the owner/wine manager at All’ Angelo, Stefano Ongaro, is about to marry Rosanna Marino, sister of Sal Marino, who owns rival Italian restaurant Il Grano. The two met four years ago, when Stefano worked at Il Grano. When he first saw Rosanna walk into the restaurant, Stefano retreated to the kitchen and told Sal to check her out.

“That’s my sister,” Sal told him. “No you can’t.”

Stefano respected Sal’s wishes for years, but after he opened All’ Angelo last year, he decided to break the vow. Before he did, though, he asked permission to date her from both Sal and Papa Marino. Hey, these guys are Italian. There’s a code.

The two will marry in a church on May 4, and the reception will be held at the Wilshire Country Club. Let’s hope the chef there is on his toes. Jenny

I just penned a piece for DineLA.com on L.A. restaurants going green. I hinted at this trend earlier in the week but didn’t want to scoop my paid gig. So click here for the full story. And have a Happy Earth Week. (Who says we get just one day to celebrate?) Jenny

Las Vegas has plenty of attractions, but this could be a first: A 13-foot clock, made to resemble a chocolate truffle, that makes chocolate truffles.

The chocolate clock will be on display at Francois Payard’s Patisseries & Bistro in Caesars Palace. The inner mechanics of the clock are rigged to crank out truffles every 15 minutes.

We can see the next step. Which casino will be the first to introduce a slot machine that dispenses chunks of chocolate instead of coins?

We learned a tasty but expensive lesson at Kiriko in West LA when we opted for the omakase. For the uninitiated, omakase means you give the sushi chef the artistic license to create your meal.

Based on experience, we were under the impression that the servers would inform us when the show was over. Usually they would make a point of saying, “This is the last dish” when presenting what turns out to be the last dish.

Kiriko has a different approach. Under its rules, the onus is on the diner to end the meal. We were unaware of this.

We were very hungry. The food was very good. The other tables began to empty. At this point, we were given a hint that we ought to shut it down.

We were told it was up to us to tell them when to stop. That’s when it dawned on us: Nine rounds of omakase was going to add up to quite a bill. But it gave us a story to tell for a long time, starting now. -Victor.

Kiriko: 11301 Olympic Blvd. #102, West Los Angeles, 90064. 310-478-7769.

Earth Day is Tuesday, and blue on blue at the Avalon in Beverly Hills has a special prix fixe menu featuring organic wines and dishes such as venison carpaccio and roasted halibut. A portion of the proceeds raised this week will go to Global Green USA. We’re all for it. You might as well eat for a good cause.

Lots of local restaurants are going green these days, but another color has caught my attention lately, too. What’s up with all the white? In the last few weeks, I have eaten at three L.A. restaurants with all-white dining rooms: Ortolan, Kumo and Murano. The three restaurants don’t have much else in common. Ortolan, a joint venture between actress Jeri Ryan and her chef/husband Christophe Eme, is all elegant French food featuring creative gelees, consumees (where, oh where is my accent aigu?) and confits.

Kumo, meaning cloud, is the latest Japanese venture from Michael Ovitz. Whatever you think of Ovitz–and believe me, I could share some tales of his dastardly deeds from my days as TV Editor at Variety, where I worked alongside Anita Busch–his restaurant is one of the most exquisitely designed I have seen in awhile. Above the sushi bar is a trippy anime video installation called “City Glow” by Chiho Aoshima, a student of Murakame. Still, the place could be doing a lot more business, and I have to wonder whether the town’s Schadenfreude toward Ovitz, not to mention all the press surrounding the Pellicano trial, is taking its toll.

I’m rooting for Murano in West Hollywood to succeed, if only because the talented young chef, Kristi Richey, went to the same high school as my Dad in rural Pennsylvania. Her food is far from provincial. All her pastas are made fresh daily, and the duck cannelloni is to die for. The burrata and prosciutto salad is luscious, too. Murano, with its mod design and Murano glass chandeliers, also features a swanky lounge area. The lights in the joint slowly dim, and the music gets more upbeat as the night progresses. But if you order the bread pudding–and we recommend you do–you’ll probably be so absorbed in its utter deliciousness that you won’t notice anything else. I know my eyes closed involuntarily every time I took a bite. Jenny