FOOD: Redbird

We enjoyed a marvelous dinner at Redbird with some friends, which is the best way to do it, as sharing plate meals work well here, and the staff will deftly time them into nice rounds of courses. Our starter round began with a salad of little gems with avocado wedges, smoked bacon, and a buttermilk blue cheese vinaigrette. It’s a great salad, similar to a classic steakhouse wedge salad in its crisp body, but with more interesting lettuce, more interesting dressing, and the avocado and smoked bacon to amp up the flavor and texture complexity. Roasted baby red beets were served chilled with chèvre, citrus, pistachios, again taking a standard and adding something special. Likewise with the seared shishito peppers, with a dusting of toasted quinoa for crunch and bottarga (an Italian cured fish roe) for salty zing. A superbly fresh hamachi crudo was seasoned with hijiki (a dried sea herb), minced Asian pear, minced ginger, and a housemade ponzu balancing salt with a bit of sweet. As a bonus, with a group of six, there will likely be someone else who wants to share that one thing that doesn’t appeal to most, and so two of us enjoyed a large halved marrow bone topped with snails in a rich brown bordelaise sauce and served with grilled sourdough toast. In the second round of courses, we enjoyed scallops perfectly browned in brown butter on celery root purée with sunchokes. Lobster risotto with fines herbes was distinguished with a Meyer lemon cream. Small garnet yams were roasted and then made extraordinary with tart pomegranate arils, dukkah (a middle Eastern nut-and-spice blend), and honey. A 24-ounce bone-in Red Wattle (heirloom breed) pork chop made a dramatic presentation, pre-sliced but still with the bone and bits, along with taleggio polenta, and arugula with hazelnuts. Gemelli (loosely twisted hand-rolled pasta ropes) was spicily sauced with braised goat, rapini, fresno chili to add heat, and breadcrumbs and poached egg to mellow it out. Brussels sprouts came with a red curry aioli and chicharrones. And the sommelier steered us to a 2014 Lutum Santa Rita Hills pinot noir that beautifully complimented this feast. Finally, for dessert we share a couple of sweet bites. A flourless chocolate cake was rich but not heavy, and punctuated by pomegranate arils. A light crustless cheesecake was brightened by passionfruit and topped with pistachio brittle. (See all the pics here.)