THING 15: Gnocchi from Angeli Caffe

You may have ideas about gnocchi - preconceived ideas of what it is and how you feel about it. You have to forget about these preconceived notions when you eat gnocchi at Angeli. Evan Kleiman is famous for her gnocchi and part of the reason is because her gnocchi is perhaps not what you were expecting. For starters, Angeli gnocchi is not the potato gnocchi of Northern Italy that most people envision when they think of gnocchi.

Kleiman's gnocchi is the Florentine version made with ricotta (also known as gnudi). Compared to the other type of gnocchi you might as well be eating clouds of delicious. It is lighter and more delicate. They are perfectly round balls of light and fluffy goodness. The gnocchi is a special and as such, it doesn't have a uniform configuration. You have to wait for the server to tell you what type of gnocchi you can order that night. It very often has a sage and brown butter sauce with or without other accompaniments. It has been known to be made with beets, spinach, lemon, peas, or other things that happen to be good at the moment.

Mine was plain and simple with the gnocchi and the sage-brown butter sauce and that's it. Even in such a simple arrangement it was one of the better pasta experiences I have ever had. Perhaps its biggest triumph was that people at the table who originally poo-pooed the idea of gnocchi based on past experiences had to admit that it was some pretty amazing gnocchi once they tasted it.

It is also a light dish for an Italian restaurant, where most plates are piled with mountains of pasta or pizzas. You can easily put this away after an appetizer or salad and not feel like you are going to burst. I make no claims as to their actual level of healthiness, only that you won't feel like a complete glutton after eating it.

So that was the dish, but even if gnocchi doesn't float your boat, I still recommend a visit to Angeli. I can't believe anyone in L.A. hasn't eaten there, but there's a lot of people here and a lot of restaurants. Angeli has been around since the '80s and it has been the same ever since I first set foot it in it almost a decade ago. I still have many of the same servers and even the same busboy since that first visit and that says something about what type of place this is. My feelings never change about this restaurant and as proof of this, you can go and read my love letter to Angeli from Valentine's Day three years ago.

Angeli Caffe
7274 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 936-9086

THING 25: Whatever Lou Tells You to Drink

Thing 25 was a fairly non-specific directive and I interpreted it rather loosely. "Lou" is Lou Amdur, the owner of restaurant/wine bar Lou, a wine connoisseur and repository of knowledge, and husband of New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis.

At any given time you go to Lou, a number of people in there will be people who know he and his wife. I don't know them, so I haven't had the pleasure of a personal wine recommendation, but I figure that everything on the menu is included in things that Lou would tell you to drink, and our waitress also clued us in to a secret wine not on the menu. But I am not going to describe the food and drink in particulars, especially since I'll admit I made a few trips to Lou, because it's kind of addictive. The best way to describe a visit to Lou is to describe in general, since both the wines and food are variable and change often.

First of all, Lou is extremely unobtrusive. Tucked into the corner spot of a mini-mall, scrunched between pollo places and laundromats, from the outside you cannot tell what it is. The large storefront window is draped in curtains from ceiling to floor. You have to boldly make the choice to find your way through them before you can see what this "Lou" place is. Inside the restaurant dark and warm, decorated in rich reds with black and white. The menu is written on a chalkboard and reflects seasonal and farmed ingredients, mostly from the Santa Monica farmer's market. On Mondays they offer a set menu concocted by chef DJ Olson.

The wine list also changes every three to four weeks. The wine list is sort of an avant-garde exercise with the wines categorized into different categories to help you decide what will go well with what you eat, and then each given a succinct description from the mind of Lou that may or may not be helpful. (Descriptions range from the very descriptive (fresh, zingy, tart) to the difficult-to-interpret (slutty? Not Funyons?). If you are lucky you will get a helpful server who can guide you through your choice, or you can read over the descriptions and categories and go with your gut, you probably won't be wrong. For one of my choices, it had been warm weather so I chose one described as apples and hayrides and it did indeed taste like summer in a glass. Success!

The food is always seasonal and fresh and everything I have tried here has been delicious. They have some interesting farmed meats, not just the usual chicken, lamb, and beef but also things like bison and antelope. I tried the antelope, and was relieved to find it was perfectly cooked, as I've never tried it before. It was like eating a nice venison. You can tell that care is taken to find the best ingredients and you can tell when there is something they are quite enthusiastic about. When we were last there, you had several opportunities to eat Tony Hook's 10-year cheddar cheese and I took more than one because it's my favorite cheese.

I highly recommend that everyone seek out Lou at least one time. It's really a hidden treasure (although they have no problem filling the seats) and it feels very much like a getaway in the middle of Hollywood. The variable menu means you will probably want to come back just to see what your choices will be next time.

LOU
724 Vine Street
323 962-6369
Monday – Saturday 6 PM – 12 AM