Patina Toasts 10th Anniversary With Build-Your-Own Tastings For $10/Dish

On October 10th, Patina Restaurant in downtown LA will be celebrating their tenth anniversary in a big way. On that day only, guests can design their own tasting menu for just $10 per dish. For Patina, that's an amazing deal!

I was lucky enough to taste a few of the dishes that will be served on October 10th during a lunch preview.

The man behind the food at Patina now is Executive Chef Charles Olalia who was previously Chef de Cuisine, with experience at French Laundry and Guy Savoy.

My lunch started with an Amuse bouche duo of Paradise Cove oyster topped with caviar and vichyssoise, and a Scallop and potato chip sandwich

What a decadent start to a weekday lunch! The scallop "sandwich" was a unique combination.

Bread service: olive bread

Big Eye Tuna Tower, soya onion, avocado, oven dried tomato, yuzu granite.

Paired with Albarino from Galicia, Spain.

I thought this tuna and avocado combination would be like any other tuna tartar-like dish, but I was wrong. The flavors here were surprising and delightful and the tuna was fresh and almost melted in my mouth. The Albariño was a great wine, crisp, lightly sweet. This was my favorite pairing and wine of the day.

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Meat 101 Classes at Nick+Stef's

Can you taste the difference between bone-in and boneless steaks? How about wet aged vs dry aged? Or meats from America vs New Zealand? or Argentina?

Well, now you can learn by tasting them back to back during one of Nick+Stef's Meat 101 classes, starting on Thursday October 20 (that's tomorrow).

The classes happen every other Thursday at 7:30PM and will last about 30 minutes. The cost is $35 and attendees will get the meats for that class plus whatever wine/beer/whisky pairing they are doing. Here is the class schedule:
10/20: "Which Rib-Eye to Buy?" Bone-in, Boneless, or Dry-Aged.
11/3: "New York, New York, ... and New York!" Same idea as the rib-eye, but with New York steaks.
11/17: "A Well Aged Steak". Try wet aged vs dry aged rib-eyes, and wet aged vs dry-agged New York steaks.
12/1: "US vs The World". Learn the difference between steaks (and wines) from New Zealand, Argentina, and America.

They held a media preview last week for the third class ("A Well Aged Steak"). Clockwise from the top left is the dry aged rib eye, wet aged rib eye, wet aged New York, and dry aged New York.

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Al Fresco Dining: Piazza at Zucca Ristorante (Downtown Los Angeles)

Outdoors or patio dining area is pretty common for LA restaurants, but what about a restaurant where the outdoor area is now a whole other restaurant? Patina Group's Zucca Ristorante in downtown LA recently launched its outdoors dining area as Piazza, Zucca's more casual, inexpensive (prices range from $6-12) sister restaurant featuring a small but solid menu of antipasti, pizzettes, and pastas.

We started our dinner with the soup of the day: black lentil soup with bacon strip ($6),
The hearty bowl of soup is warming and filling on a cold night. It was flavorful without being too salty. The crunch of the bacon strip was a nice touch.

Next, a board of Prosciutto crudo, mozzarella e olive (parma ham, burrata, marinated olives) - $8

We devoured the creamy burrata immediately and could've easily had another serving! The ham was fatty and flavorful, but I didn't get how the olives are supposed to interplay with the others.
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