Scratch Bar
Hibiscus Passionfruit Tea
Eat – Shoot – Scoop – (Green Mussel – Serrano Ham – Pale Sake – Uni Mousse)
Grilled Cheese – Caviar – Chive (Housemade Brioche – Housemade Butter – Housemade Cheddar)
White Prawns – Cabbage – Pistachio (Seared Raw Prawn – Smoked White Onion – Chermoula Sauce)
Pork Belly – Oyster – Chamomile (Flowers – Emulsion)
Oysters – Garlic – Squid Roe (Misty Point – Old Bay Butter)
Scallops – Apple – Jalapeno (Watermelon Radish – Apple Skin)
Escolar – Sunchokes – Sweetbreads (Amaranth – Dehydrated Vegetables – Beurre Blanc)
Camembert – Cashew Curry – Veggies (Fresh Arugula – Pistachio)
Beef Tartare – Egg Yolk – Toast (***** Salmon Tartare Alternate Not Pictured *****)
Chorizo – Mushrooms – Salmon Roe (Housemade Chorizo – Cremini – Pistachio)
***** Salmon Collar Alternative Not Pictured *****
Squash – Tomato – Spinach (White Onions – Pecans – Yellow Bell Pepper Mustard)
Branzino – Carrot – Arugula (Shallot Brown Butter Pan Sauce – Onion)
Salmon – Greek Yogurt – Vegetables (Roe – Brioche – Dehydrated and Fried Broccoli – Carrot Frond)
Foie Gras – Sea Urchin – Red Caviar (Brioche Crisps – Lemon Vinaigrette)
***** Carrots – Old Bay – Pistachio (Soubise Red Onion – Bayaioli) *****
Steak – Potatoes – Mushrooms (Hangar – Braised Kale – Demiglace)
***** Sea Urchin – Pickled Vegetables – Sushi Rice *****
Homemade Cheeses and Charcuterie (Filleto – Pork Belly – Russian Style Salo – Camembert – Triple Cream – Ash Rind Triple Cream)
Cookies – Ice Cream – Caramel (Chocolate Chip – Smoked Vanilla)
Reopened in Encino after one of the strangest restaurant stories of 2015 there was no doubt that Phillip Frankland Lee’s Scratch Bar would receive a primetime spot on my next visit to Los Angeles and although the young Chef himself was uncharacteristically absent during the course of a three hour meal the results were almost universally impressive, a “chefs as servers” concept the only real cause for concern.
At this point inhabiting an unlabeled space on the second story of a outdoor shopping center, the cozy confines consisting of little more than a few tall tables and a Chef’s counter overlooking glowing embers, burners, and a total team of around ten it was with five friends that I sat just minutes after the restaurant’s 5:00pm opening and listening to a bearded Chef describe the a la carte vs “Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced” tastings one could not help but opine for the later, a few dietary discretions at the end of the table yielding a total of 21-courses including alternates while minor ingredient adjustments were accommodated for other plates.
Wowed by The Gadarene Swine, Lee’s modern vegetarian bungalow in Studio City, and finding a similar degree of creativity at play in a restaurant unwilling to settle for anything less than “Scratch made,” it was with a clever three component shot that the meal got started, the process as interesting as the diversity of flavors with the palate immediately primed for a gooey grilled cheese sandwich topped with briny salmon caviar – an ingredient we’d all soon learn to love.
Starting out light, some plates plated individually while others were delivered per duo, lightly seared prawns next shined amidst a kiss of smoke and spicy Chermoula, the followup of pork belly unfortunately not as fatty as one might have expected while the oyster atop paled in comparison to the briny giant offered up on the half-shell with bold aromatics of old bay and garlic butter.
Scaling back a bit with scallop sashimi resting beneath flavors bitter, spicy and sweet it was with another raw fish preparation that the meal stretched forward, the delicate Butterfish finding new light atop nuggets of crisp offal as creamy sunchokes provided an earthy backdrop to crisp vegetables and a dusting of amaranth.
Global in its influences, a deep clay bow that appeared to be little more than a simple salad actually one of the meal’s best plates as housemade cheese melded with a curry of mixed nuts and vegetables one only wishes the popping egg atop raw beef would have been nearly as flavorful, the meat underseasoned with silly crisps not nearly plentiful enough to use for scooping, the grilled chorizo to follow a far more impacting flavor atop mushrooms, though salmon eggs both here and on the alternate fish dishes seemed a bit ‘forced,’ especially with several more plates featuring the ingredient to come.
Temporarily standing up to check out the curing room and cheeses as a wide woman knocked my oft-empty water glass over as a result of tables spaced too close it was on return that the menu revved into high gear, a vegetarian friendly bowl of charred squash showing as well as anything at The Gadarene Swine while a crispy skinned filet of Branzino served at the center of a sunburst was elegantly accented by aromatic onions and brown butter pan sauce.
Impressed by salmon served soft with yogurt and dehydrated florets of broccoli, though others thought far less of the texture and use of more roe, a followup of foie gras and uni was only offered after a reminder to the kitchen that it was promised as part of the meal and although not particularly plentiful in terms of either ingredient the flavor was quite pleasant, an alternate of roast carrots with Bayleaf Aoili actually proving even more impressive…even without adding *more* caviar.
Rounding out the savories with a relatively straightforward Steak and Mushrooms dish for the boys while ladies received a warm cylinder of rice topped in pickled vegetables plus several tongues of urchin it was next to a board of housemade cheeses and charcuterie that each of us were treated, both Triple Creams quite literally eating like butter while the spicy Filleto offered the best bite of cured meat, others seemingly in need of a little more time aging.
Served only one dessert, the quickly melting ice cream subtly imbued with smoke that offset salty caramel, it was with tax and tip already added that the bill was split by six, the price more than fair for a meal so wide-reaching, and a bargain that seems almost destined to disappear as the menu and service really get dialed-in considering the crowd waiting for tables as we exited, Chef Lee’s star deservedly on the rise.
http://www.scratchbarla.com/
