A REVIEW OF LAWeekly: The Essentials

By MICHAEL AUSHENKER | Contributing Writer

Calling a food festival “The Essentials” sets the bar very, very high on the quality scale. This year’s edition of LA Weekly’s foodie event, promising a taste of 55 of Los Angeles’ top restaurants, however, could have used a bit more East LA-West LA balance.

For Palisadians looking for a chance to sample dishes from restaurants so geographically undesirable they would probably never drive there, The Essentials delivered. For an opportunity to try fare from Westside eateries you might add to your regular rotation, however, it was slim pickings.

Organizers estimate that about 3,000 people attended The Essentials, which attracted a healthy serving of the hipster contingent to try a mix of hot names and old standards.

From the get-go, holding this foodie fest in the parking-challenged Garment District area seemed flummoxing. Compared to The Taste (held last year at Paramount Studios) and American Wine and Food Festival (Universal Studios), the evening-held event lacked the grandeur, easy parking and all-out space of its rival annual foodie happenings.

Even the Grand Park-set Los Angeles Food & Wine, also held at night, benefited from the expanse of its setting.

Occupying the nondescript 13th floor of the California Market Center building with no decorations, it was quickly evident that flash and style was not as essential as the food on parade.

Several of LA’s most established restaurants—Maude, Spago’s Beverly Hills—were represented. So were the trendy scenester restaurants of the moment—Trois Mec, the Fairfax District’s Animal, Roy Choi’s Pot and Union and Chef Bruce Kalman’s Pasadena hub. The latter offered delicious Parmesan-topped pork meatballs.

But glaringly missing from the Eastside-skewing festival: a Pacific Palisades or even a Westside presence. For example, Maison Giraud, Casa Nostra, Roast, Taste and Beech Street Café all could have fit in perfectly here. The Westside representation turned out to be slight—Baroo Los Angeles, anyone?

One exception was the Santa Monica spread Cassia from Santa Monica Canyon residents Zoe Nathan and Josh Loeb, who also own Sweet Rose Creamery in the Palisades.

Asian cuisine found broad representation, from San Gabriel Valley’s Chengdu Taste to Parks BBQ in Koreatown, as did Mexican fare including Texcoco, a lamb barbecue house from Commerce, La Cassita Mexicana in Bell and SGV’s Corazon y Miel.

Among the most memorable delicacies was a coconut-braised pork over rice mixed with cilantro, raw onion and a hard-boiled quail egg courtesy of downtown restaurant Little Sister. Steak tartare on potato chips by République from Miracle Mile also scored big.

Chef Michael Cimarusti’s Providence appeared to attract the longest line of the evening for its oysters. Not far behind was Phillippe the Original. This legendary Union Station-adjacent, over-a-century-old, pugilist landmark may or may not be the inventor of the French dip. (Cole’s is the other restaurant credited for this sandwich).

Phillippe could not fail, offering big samples of its delicious comfort food. Turkey and beef dip sandwiches with a side of mustard came with “a little grandpa’s medicine,” which tasted like a shot of whisky.

Some of the best surprises awaited at the booths with small or no lines. Mariscos Jalisco offered generous and tasty deep-fried shrimp tacos, while Burritos Las Palmas offered a hearty morsel of its spicy beef namesake delicacy.

Jitlada, a Hollywood-based Southern Thai cuisine restaurant, presented tasty BBQ pork on spicy rice.

Hollywood’s The Hungry Cat, which also has a Santa Monica Canyon location, scored a handful-sized triumph with its Peruvian ceviche loaded with clam, crab and shrimp.

Lucques of West Hollywood shotgunned through the evening with tender, juicy braised beef morsels replete with mouthwatering flavor and shredded texture.

Wexler’s offered plates of an egg salad filled with chunks of lox and everything bagel crisps.

The smallish line at Maude moved surprisingly quickly, and both the caviar-topped bacon jasmine chip with cured egg yolk and dirty martini offered by Chef Curtis Stone’s lauded Beverly Hills restaurant were scrumptious.

Another line worth a small wait: Compton’s Bludsos BBQ, which doled out juicy, smoky morsels of their beef brisket.

The good thing about Choi’s Kogi BBQ table was that their famed short-rib tacos were actually being cooked outside the venue within one of the famed trucks that launched LA’s gourmet food truck craze.

Lines would dissipate during the intervals when they were waiting for a new batch, thus allowing easy access to the head of the line.

The first brick-and-mortar Kogi restaurant is coming to Palms by summer.

There were definitely disappointments. Nancy Silverton’s Osteria Mozza, home to some of the finest gourmet pizza in the city, offered a mere hummus-stuffed eggplant appetizer instead of anything resembling its signature slice.

The stingy splash of consommé offered by Redbird didn’t appear worth the wait.

There was no dessert to be found at this festival. However, the alcohol flowed aplenty—from tamarind and tequila margaritas to fresh fresca and the fine red offered by Secco-Bertani.

Perhaps next year The Essentials will add more Westside offerings so the event can live up to its name.