In case you have been eating out in Venice late final decade, you knew this place — within the thick of Abbot Kinney Boulevard’s luxury-cool retail density. MTN (pronounced “Mountain”) closed 5 years in the past and, with a number of pivotal modifications, has now returned as RVR (sure, pronounced “River”). Being at RVR doesn’t really feel like experiencing déjà vu a lot as streaming the shock new season of a present all of us thought had been canceled without end.
Its second life seems to be shockingly good, thanks particularly to the kitchen’s brilliance with greens.
We knew MTN as an experimental izakaya that opened in 2017, dripping in hipness. It was the eagerness venture of Travis Lett, the culinary architect behind Gjelina and hybrid food-hall Gjusta whose obsessions with relentless seasonality, world taste combos and a model of informal, photogenic perfection gave Millennials an up-to-date definition of California delicacies.
Seasonal vegetable dishes at RVR together with grilled costata romanesco zucchini; nectarine and purple daikon; and peeled tomatoes with purple candy potato vinegar and sake.
(Ron De Angelis / For The Occasions)
MTN’s interpretation of Japanese delicacies closed a circle for Lett, a blond with surfer-model attractiveness who grew up in New Jersey. His father had frolicked in Japan throughout his army profession, and his mother and father had embraced the macrobiotic weight loss plan philosophy that surged by way of america within the Seventies. Scene-wise, MTN was apace with that top-of-the-world L.A. period: a magnet for the setters and chasers of developments, servers who threw angle within the melee and will get away with it, the music from a turntable usually inaudible within the deafening clamor.
The cooking may pierce the noise. I keep in mind teetering on a window seat, absorbed in Japanese candy potatoes glossed with miso butter and lined with snipped scallions and bonito flakes swaying within the warmth. Clam broth for one ramen variation arrived so sea-sweet it may idiot you into considering ocean water was quaffable.
Two years into the restaurant’s run, Lett separated from his Gjelina Group enterprise companions, and MTN closed early into the pandemic. Gjelina and Gjusta keep it up after all, nonetheless beacons your pals simply off a aircraft need to race first for his or her California vibe examine.
However then final spring, the massive announcement: Lett, with completely different traders, had reclaimed the MTN area for a second coming of his izakaya.
Pan-fried gyoza with lacy edges serviced with soy sauce and yuzu kosho.
(Ron De Angelis / For The Occasions)
RVR opened in October, recalibrated for a brand new decade. From throughout the road the constructing seems to be the identical: Uneven, modernist exterior partitions with a end that resembles grainy wooden. In one other incarnation it may home a distinct segment textile museum.
Inside, the restaurant’s partitions have been lightened. A retractable roof has been changed with panels that permit in gentle, filtered sunshine; the eating room fades to candlelight-dim when evening falls. The tone of the hospitality is notably hotter. Total, the entire operation comes off as extra grounded, and in the end extra interesting. MTN walked so RVR may run.
To eat in Los Angeles is to know the methods each classicists and individualists declare the phrase “izakaya.” Present as much as RVR itching to parse the traditionalism of its dishes and also you’re in all probability not going to have a good time. It’s Venice. It’s Lett. Small plates of hen thigh karaage drizzled with chile honey, shrimp dumplings superbly rounded within the gold-ingot wonton fold, roasted black cod and grilled kanpachi collar begin at $15 to $20 and go from there. A meal provides up rapidly.
The worth is in how the substances sing. That is the place centering the area’s most interesting produce comes into play.
Lett introduced in Ian Robinson as RVR’s associate and government chef. Robinson beforehand ran a Toronto restaurant referred to as Skippa that specialised in regional dishes of Kyushu island in southern Japan. They’re joined by cooks who beforehand labored with Lett for years, together with Cean Hayashi Geronimo and, as of June, chef de delicacies Pedro Aquino, who co-led the Gjelina Group’s short-lived Oaxacan restaurant Valle in the identical area after MTN closed.
RVR chef-owner Travis Lett, left, with government chef Ian Robinson. Robinson beforehand ran a Toronto restaurant referred to as Skippa that specialised in regional dishes of Kyushu island in southern Japan.
(Ron De Angelis / For The Occasions)
The group’s cohesion is vital: There’s some ur-Gjelina alchemy at work right here within the plant realms. Even early in RVR’s run the crew was teasing the Technicolor out of winter: They’d layer, for instance, ripe, honeyed Fuyu persimmons in pinwheel patterns beneath rounds of lilac-purple daikon, their earthy-sweet variations additional contrasted by crunchy furikake and torn shreds of dark-green shiso.
Now, within the holy season of summer season? Floral apricots step in for the same old cucumber in a tackle sunomono, stung with tosazu (vinegar-based dressing smoky with katsuobushi) and fragrant accents of pickled Fresno chiles, ginger and crushed Marcona almonds. Tiny tomatoes rupture on the tongue, sharpened with myoga and blood-red candy potato vinegar from the Kyoto prefecture and needing nothing else than salt and peppery olive oil. Costata Romanesco zucchini lands on the grill, its signature ribbing nonetheless seen beneath char and hacked on the diagonal; rubbed with a mix of spices that nod to Japanese curry; smeared with playful, mysteriously citrusy curry leaf aioli; and lined in a punchy furikake made with of crushed pine nuts, shallots and nori.
Peeled tomatoes with purple candy potato vinegar, olive oil and myoga.
(Ron De Angelis / For The Occasions)
For all of the Southern California mythologizing round seasonality, few menus in Los Angeles forged produce in function roles year-round. With technical command and on-their-feet creativeness, the RVR cooks are pulling off town’s most impressed plant-centered cooking.
Greens comprise the menu’s largest and most compelling part, however there’s loads extra that entices.
Hand rolls like kanpachi wrapped with avocado, slivered cucumber, spicy-green yuzu kosho and shiso, or rock cod in tempura slicked with tartar sauce and piqued with daikon radish sprouts, delight with their very Californian cleverness.
I preserve coming again for duck meatball tsukune, without delay fluffy and dense and served with head-clearing sizzling mustard; smoky-sweet Monterey bay squid, matched with a revolving mixture of herbs and acidic punctuations that at all times coalesce; and pan-fried pork and cabbage gyoza topped with a crackling, lacy dumpling “skirt.” Amongst a number of ramen choices, proper now I’m favoring the springy noodles with Dungeness crab and corn. The viscous broth gently builds flavors, prominently echoing the 2 lead components.
The juicy duck tsukune is a favourite from the yakitori menu at RVR, served with Japanese mustard.
(Ron De Angelis / For The Occasions)
Nonetheless the concept of an izakaya could also be translated, the ingesting element is essential. Amongst cocktails: fresh-fruit shochu highballs, plum-accented negronis and freezer martinis. Suntory premium malt runs on draught. Six kinds of sake quantity amongst choices by the glass, as do loads of sizzling or iced Japanese teas and a enjoyable, easy cherry-vanilla soda made by the bar employees.
Greater than not, although, I’m ingesting off-dry Rieslings or wealthy, barely oxidized whites from extra obscure corners of France as a result of wine director Maggie Glasheen is in the home. She’s a type of fans who, if you happen to present curiosity, gathers a number of bottles of wine in her arms and brings them tableside to debate. Every sound like a mini-adventure, and Glasheen at all times swings again round to ensure you’re pleased with the one you selected.
A bowl of the crab ramen and all its accoutrements, together with contemporary corn, scallions and mitsuba. (Ron De Angelis / For The Occasions)
Almost 10 months in for RVR, prime-time dinner reservations stay maddeningly aggressive. A couple of months in the past, the restaurant started serving weekend brunch as nicely. Earlier than phrase unfold, one may stroll in at 12:30 p.m. on a Sunday and savor a silky rolled omelet and one massive, chewy-crisp black sesame pancake alongside the second’s sugar snap peas glossed with sour-sweet ume.
Now brunch too is catching on, so it’s safer to guide per week or so out, notably if you wish to request a spot on the breezy rooftop patio that launched when the climate warmed.
It may — no, it ought to — be the brand new first-stop meal your vibe-seeking associates demand as quickly as they’re out of LAX.
RVR
1305 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, (310) 573-8077, rvr.la
Costs: handrolls $8 to $25, dumplings $15 to $20, vegetable dishes $15 to $22, most different meat and seafood dishes $9 to $35.
Particulars: Dinner Monday to Saturday 5 to 11 p.m., Sunday 5 to 10 p.m. Brunch Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Full bar, together with an incredible wine listing, plus a wise number of teas and different non-alcoholic drinks. Avenue parking.
Really helpful dishes: The always altering vegetable dishes is the place the cooks exhibit their abilities and creativeness. Ask about what’s tremendous seasonal. Additionally: wild kanpachi hand roll, pork gyoza, duck meatball tsukune and crab ramen.
(Ron De Angelis / For The Occasions)
