Lunch at Gjelina

One nice thing about being on hiatus from the stage (other than full nights of sleep) is the ability to take off for a long weekend. I just took a long-overdue trip to Los Angeles to see some recently relocated friends. The days of good eats started after a night at the club, when I led the charge to a taco truck for carne asada nachos, burritos and complementary flan (flan de libertad). I've been nearly 100% vegan for a month, and I gotta tell ya, that carne asada really brought out the beast in me. With some good papaya digestive enzymes I was cool though. 

The eating trail marched on to Le Pain Quotidien for an awesome mushroom/gruyere omelet, King & I Siamese Cafe for a pitch-perfect Thai lunch, and a few home-spun delights for our hosts - but the crown jewel was Gjelina. Gjelina (named for the owner's mother) is located in Venice, and doing a very good job of riding the fancy pants pizza trend. I was reminded of Camino here in Oakland a bit, with a sort of classy/sexy/rustic vibe and ingredient-focused menu. The menu was far too long (you guys are the experts, narrow it down a little - or start numbering your dishes like a Chinese restaurant), but we managed to pick out some gems that made for a perfectly delightful little lunch.

Mimosas got us started.  I admit to having two.

Then came the oysters. Swoon. They were perfect little kumomotos with a trio of lovely condiments: classic mignonette, a chunky fresh cocktail sauce, and freshly shaved horseradish.

Tomato porcini soup. Nicely seasoned but not what I imagined. The menu didn't actually include a description but I envisioned a creamy tomato bisque with luscious chunks of porcini. This was more like minestrone, of which I've never been a fan.

 

Okay, so this place had like 3 dishes with burrata and at least 2 with buffalo mozzarella. That's not inherently a bad thing but it does speak to their menu-editing problem. One burrata dish, that's all you're allowed. Okay, I'm done curmedgeoning. This dish of braised artichokes, burrata, mint-pistachio pesto and crispy shallots was pretty fantastic. And I do appreciate the big pillows of burrata to go with the fairly acidic other ingredients.

Our main course was guanciale pizza with castelvetrano olives and...buffalo mozzarella. Guanciale, I learned, is an Italian pork cheek bacon. How's that for vegan? It was also adorned with fresno chilis which made for a nice spicy pizza. I've been a longtime champion of the castelvetrano, and have been since fantasizing about other dishes that include them with spicy pork.

A take on the classic pizza-joint condiments: red pepper flakes, oregano, and parmesan.

Yeah...I think that's actually representative of three slices.

Dessert was a lovely panna cotta with coffee-macerated dates and pistachios.

My dining companion enjoyed a cappuccino.

I enjoyed a fresh mint tea. Well I suppose it's really a teasan instead of a true tea, but that's a blog post for another day.

Thank you, Gjelina! My Northern Californian skepticism was allayed by your pristine ingredients and inventive combinations. Now if you will just stop trying so hard to please everyone and restrain your menu a little! That includes the profusion of burrata.