JAR

JAR  

Los Angeles, California

August 2007

The décor felt strange in this part of Los Angeles — ugly Swedish I want to call it, but we had gotten a tip about some innovative cooking being done by Chef Suzanne Tracht and her chef de cuisine Preech Narkthong so we thought we’d give the restaurant a try.

Unfortunately because of bad weather, we missed our connecting plane out of New York and had to spend six hours in the Atlanta airport waiting for a different flight. By the time we got to L.A., we were craving meat (and lots of it) and managed to get there just in time for our 10 p.m. dinner reservation.

For starters, Lynn and I split the zucchini blossoms that were stuffed with lobster and also shared a grilled calamari salad.  Both were decent and light.  We went there specifically to have a steak but the lamb special sounded so intriguing we ordered the lamb.  It came out too charred for my taste but it was very late and jet lag was starting to set in.  With the lamb, we ordered the house fries that are coated with garlic and parsley.  They really are terrific but you have to love garlic and parsley since they are drenched in both.  When we realized everything was à la carte and the sudden urge for a vegetable other than parsley began to materialize, our waitress was kind enough to hustle out a beet salad.  The beet salad was good but refrigerator-cold.

Clientele is a mixed crowd of young and old plus lots and lots of people watching.  (Makes one wonder who exactly they are all looking for. Oh, right, we were in L.A. after all.)   If you can get away from the fairly ugly room and want a decent meat-heavy meal with a large bar and friendly service, Jar is the place.