City Tavern Culver City

9739 Culver Blvd.

Culver City, CA 90232

310-838-9739

citytavernculvercity.com

Price: $$

By MICHAEL AUSHENKER | Contributing Writer

Sandwiched between the satellite restaurant of Antioch anchor Café Vida and the appropriately French brasserie Meet Me in Paris on a leafy Parisian-like block, packed solid with sidewalk seating, downtown Culver City’s gastropub City Tavern is a pure treat.

With atmosphere galore both inside (contemporary rustic with wood and exposed brick; chalkboarded menu items) and outside (ample patio space with Tiki-like heat lamps), our evening visit felt very hip and inviting.

We were in good hands with General Manager Eric O’Connell helming the ship, and City Tavern’s twin engines, Executive Chef Amanda Platt and Bar Manager Joey Czach, driving the menu’s core delights.

Our stellar meal began promisingly with a couple of plates of comfort food classics. Melty Good Mac n’ Pimento Cheese, sprinkled with garlic breadcrumbs, delivers a solid, if not super-memorable, entry into LA’s baked mac ‘n cheese annals.

Believe it or not, City Tavern also serves Sweet and Spicy Glazed Chicken Nuggets. However, with sides of house-made ranch dressing and green tomato jam, and touches of smoked bacon and crushed pecans, this appetizer is too high-end to make it into anyone’s Happy Meal.

More hearty steak than bacon strips, Delmonico Pork Chop with braised red cabbage arrived, substantial. The porcine slab here melts off the bone, succulent and cooked to smoky perfection. You can pick a few sides to go with your pork chop, or other main entrées such as Organic Crispy Half Chicken or Grilled Atlantic Salmon. We opted for Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with candied bacon (as outstanding as a bowl of grilled Brussels sprouts gets), Spicy Charred Broccoli with confit garlic (very tasty) and Creamed Corn with chives and sea salt (sweet and porridge-like).

If you’re not in the mood for an entire Grilled NY Steak, get the Steak Salad. With its mélange of arugula, charred red onion, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese, sunflower seeds and balsamic vinegar, sidekicked by several thin cuts of steak, this order delivers a healthier option while fulfilling your beefy protein cravings.

The obligatory CT Burger may be City Tavern’s best-selling gourmet hamburger, but we recommend the Wild Boar Burger. It’s a heady patty, topped with IPA caramelized onions, chorizo and bacon aioli, with smoked Gouda gooping down.

Overall, my favorite item on the menu is a superstar at this bar: The Must-Have Poutine. This order was not only a nice reminder of my recent trip to Montreal but, seriously, could pass as a meal in itself. City Tavern’s take on this French-Canadian favorite involves dropping a generous heaping of braised short rib, a light gravy and melted pimento cheese all over outstanding garlic fries.

City Tavern prides itself on its endless craft beer options, and Czach’s cocktails do not disappoint. We recommend the Lavender Impulse for a nice vodka blend with lavender bitters, but hands down we enjoyed our tall glass of Tahiti Nui the best—a sublime banana-flavored affair, featuring spiced rum, banana rum, passion fruit syrup, pineapple juice and grenadine.

City Tavern is located in a small, charming and walkable slice of LA, rich with cinema history dating back to the days of MGM and Hal Roach Studios (“Laurel and Hardy,” “The Little Rascals”) … not to mention long-fixtured current studio-in-residence Sony Pictures.

Make City Tavern your destination the next time you find yourself getting off near where the 10 and the 405 meet. Or grab a drink at CT after visiting that other Café Vida next door. It’s not a bad way to cap off a long day.