Venice chef, Travis Lett, returns with his best Izakaya

If I was having dinner at Venice at the end of the last decade, I knew this place, in the bulk of the luxury retail density of Abbot Kinney Boulevard. MTN (pronounced “mountain”) closed five years ago and, with some fundamental modifications, has now returned as RVR (yes, pronounced “river”). Being in RVR does not feel like experiencing Déjà Vu, but transmitting the new surprise season of a program that we all thought it had been canceled forever.

Your second life turns out to be surprisingly good, thanks especially to the brilliance of the kitchen with the vegetables.

We met MTN as an experimental izakaya that opened in 2017, dripping in the hip. It was Travis Lett's passion project, the culinary architect behind Gjelina and the GJusta hybrid food hall whose obsessions with the relentless seasonality, the combinations of global flavors and a mark of casual and photogenic perfection gave millennials an updated definition of California cuisine.

The MTN interpretation of Japanese cuisine closed a circle for Lett, a blond with a good appearance of the surfer model that grew in New Jersey. His father had spent time in Japan during his military career, and his parents had adopted the philosophy of the macrobiotic diet that emerged through the United States in the 1970 of a very inaudible toadiscos in the deafening clamor.

Cooking could pierce noise. I remember staggering in a window seat, absorbed in Japanese sweet potatoes that shone with miso butter and covered with onion and beautiful flakes that swing in the heat. The clam broth for a variation of Ramen arrived, so the sea in the sea could fool it to think that the ocean water was a quaffable.

Two years after the restaurant race, Lett separated from its commercial partners from the Gjelina group, and MTN closed early in the pandemic. Gjelina and Gjusta continue, of course, it still makes a plane of an airplane that want to run first for their California environments.

But then, the past spring, the great announcement: Lett, with different investors, had recovered the MTN space for a second coming of its Izakaya.

Fried Gyoza with lace edges treated with soy sauce and Yuzu Kosho.

(Angelis Ron / for the Times)

RVR opened in October, recalibrated for a new decade. From the other side of the street, the building looks the same: asymmetric modernist exterior walls with a finish that resembles granulated wood. In another incarnation I could house a textile niche museum.

Inside, the walls of the restaurant have been lightened. A retractable roof has been replaced by panels that let a soft and filtered sun into; The dining room fades towards the light of the candles when the night falls. The hospitality tone is remarkably warmer. In general, the entire operation seems more based and, ultimately, more attractive. MTN walked so that RVR could run.

Eating in Los Angeles is to know the ways in which both classicists and individualists claim the word “Izakaya”. Present with itching in RVR to analyze the traditionalism of their dishes and probably will not have a great time. It is Venice. It is Lett. Small dishes of karage of chicken thigh with honey from Chile, beautifully rounded shrimp meatballs in the goldwal wonton fold, roasted black cod and grid Kanpachi necklace start at $ 15 to $ 20 e range from there. A meal adds quickly.

The value is how the ingredients sing. This is where the centering of the best products in the region is put into play.

Lett brought Ian Robinson as a partner of RVR and executive chef. Robinson previously directed a Toronto restaurant called Skippa that specialized in regional dishes of Kyushu Island in southern Japan. They bind to the chefs who previously worked with Lett for years, including Cean Hayashi Geronimo and, as of June, Cuisine's chef Pedro Aquino, co-lided the Oaxacan Valley Restaurant of the Gjelina Group in the same space after MTN.

The chef-propietary of RVR Travis Lett, left, with executive chef Ian Robinson. Robinson previously directed a Toronto restaurant called Skippa that specialized in regional dishes of Kyushu Island in southern Japan.

(Angelis Ron / for the Times)

The cohesion of the team is important: there is some Ur-gjelin alchemy at work here in the kingdoms of the plants. Even early in the RVR race, the crew was causing the technicolor out of winter: they would place, for example, the mature and meloss fuyu caqueros in the mill patterns under Daikon's rounds of Lilac-Purple, their earthly terrestrial differences contrasted even more by the crunchy furikake and triumph them of the sad ones of the darkness.

Now, in the holy season of summer? Floral apricot intervenes for the usual cucumber in a version of Sunomonus, chopped with Tosazu (vinegar -based dressing with katsuobushi) and aromatic accents of fresh peppers in pickle, ginger and marinated maroon almonds. Small tomatoes are broken in the tongue, exacerbated with mine and blunder red sweet potato vinegar from Kyoto prefecture and need nothing more than salt and spicy olive oil. Romanesco costata zucchini lands on the grill, its firm rib still visible under char and pirate in the diagonal; rubbed with a mixture of spices that settle the Japanese curry; spotted with alioli of playful and mysteriously citrus curry; and covered with a strong furikake made with crushed pine nuts, shalotes and Nori.

Played tomatoes with purple sweet potato vinegar, olive oil and mine, along with a cocktail.

(Angelis Ron / for the Times)

In spite of the entire southern California mythology around seasonality, few menus in Los Angeles occur in roles of functions throughout the year. With the technical command and the imagination in the foot, the RVR chefs are achieving the most inspired kitchen in the city plant.

The vegetables include the largest and most convincing section of the menu, but there are many more to attract.

Hand rolls like Kanpachi wrapped with avocado, choppy cucumber, Yuzu Kosho and Shiso of spicy green and spicy green with Daikon's sprouts, delight with his Californian intelligence.

I continue to return to the Tsukune of the duck meat, at the same time spongy and dense and served with hot mustard that clarifies the head; Smoky-Sweet Monterey Bay Squid, combined with a rotating mixture of herbs and acidic scores that always bind; and the fried pig and the gyoza cabbage crowned with a “skirt” of crepitant lace loafa. Among several ramen options, at this moment I am favoring elastic noodles with diúnillo and corn crab. The viscous broth gently builds flavors, echoing the two main elements.

The Juicy Duck Tsukune served with Japanese mustard is a favorite of the Yakitori menu in RVR.

(Angelis Ron / for the Times)

However, you can translate the idea of an Izakaya, the drinking component is crucial. Between cocktails: Highballs of fresh fruits, bold with accent and freezer Martinis. Suntory Premium Malt is executed in the draft. Six sake styles number between The Glass options, as well as many hot or ice cream and a funny and soft vanilla soda made by the bar staff.

However, more than not, I am drinking rich or white rich and slightly oxidized rich rings in France because the Wine director Maggie Glasheen is at home. She is one of those enthusiasts who, if you show interest, brings together several bottles of wine in her arms and brings them a plateau to discuss. Each sounds like a mini-Aventura, and Glasheen always turns again to make sure he is happy with which he chose.

A bowl bowl and all its accessories, including fresh corn, onions and mitsuba. (Angelis Ron / for the Times)

Almost 10 months for RVR, dinner reserves during stellar schedule are still going crazy. A few months ago, the restaurant also began serving the weekend brunch. Before the word was extended, one could walk at 12:30 pm on a Sunday and savor a silky rolled tortilla and a great crispy and chewable black sesame pancake along with the sugar peas that glossed with a bittersweet.

Now the Brunch is also realized, so it is safer to reserve a week or so, especially if you want to request a place in the windy courtyard that was launched when the weather warmed.

It could not, should be the new first -stop food that their friends looking for both demand as soon as they are not lax.

(Angelis Ron / for the Times)