The Divine Dish

DineLA Summer Restaurant Week Launch

Posted on Jul 09, 2013 under Archives, Food and Travel News | No Comment

Tonight The LA Tourism & Convention Board and American Express hosted travel and food writers to a preview of their upcoming summer DineLA restaurant week.  Over 330 restaurants, from Southeast Asian fare to traditional steak house, rustic farm-to-table to white table cloth, will celebrate Los Angeles’ diverse dining options with prix-fixe deals from July 15 to 26.

Simon from Bouchon mixed writers drinks while appetizers were passed at Scarpetta.

The passed appetizers that we tasted will be featured as first plates for Scarpetta’s DineLA menu.  We sampled puree of Brentwood corn soup with mushrooms sotto’olio.

We also sampled a lovely pork terrine with porcini mustard, arugula and pickled cherries.  Yum.  We snuck in the Scarpetta kitchen to check out the action.

After we sat down, Scarpetta Chef Freddy Vargas spoke to the crowd and talked a bit about Scarpetta’s DineLA restaurant week menu.

We loved the variety of breads and sampled a nice braised veal and bone marrow agnolotti with fava beans, thumbelina carrots and gremolata breadcrumbs.

After a sampling of DineLA menu items at Scarpetta, we crossed the street and headed upstairs to Bouchon’s main dining room.

We sampled some refreshing daiquiris before heading into the kitchen.  General manager Stephen Cook shared some info about Bouchon and their DineLA menu before posing for a quick photo with pr folks Ty Brentsen from the Brandman Agency and Stacey Sun, DineLA Director.

We headed to the very clean streamlined kitchen where Chef David Hands met us and discussed appetizer items on the Bouchon DineLA menu.

In the kitchen we sampled a nice variety of appetizers on the DineLA menu including chicken rillettes with pickled grapes, mustard and grilled pain de campagne, Scottish salmon tartare with hard boiled hen eggs, red onions, capers, and creme fraiche on toasted croutons and truffle soup.  We also sampled a nice toasted wheat-berry, purslane, English cucumber, green grapes and Marcona almonds salad with buttermilk dressing.

We walked through the kitchen and got a quick look at some yummy fries.

I also got up and personal with a very delicious looking fresh crab in the fish walk-in fridge.

Chef Hands let us to the oyster bar where we tasted some very fresh yummy oysters.

We then sat down in the dining room and sampled a variety of dishes included in the DineLA menu, including market fish with potatoes, roasted peppers, mesclun salad with young market greens and shaved vegetables, braised fennel in a shellfish sauce, hand rolled cavatelli pasta with yellow corn, mushrooms, spinach and corn pudding, and steak frites.

We headed out to the garden area for a nice dessert, olive oil infused ice cream with shaved melons, provided by Chef Charles Olalia of Patina.

All of the writers received a great gift bag with desserts from Bouchon and a $100 dining card from Patina!

Thanks to all of the folks at Scarpetta, Bouchon, Patina, the LA Tourism and Convention Board, The Brandman Agency, The Beverly Hills Conference and Visitors Bureau and BluPrint PR.

DineLA Lunch menus will have  $15/$20/$25 price options,  dinner menus will have  $25/$35/$45 price options.

To make reservations and to view a complete list of participating restaurants visit www.discoverLosAngeles.com/dineLA.