At one of many metropolis’s most anticipated new eating places, diners feast on Wagyu-stuffed Jamaican patties and saltfish-and-fig croquettes whereas seated in sculptural, shell-like cubicles. A showstopping flower-like artwork set up crowns the bar on the heart of the fashionable Afro-Caribbean restaurant. Jerk-spiced tomahawk steaks and sorrel-dusted plantains make their approach out to the tables whereas a DJ spins music late into the evening. Lucia needs to take island flavors — and Fairfax— to new heights.
“I knew how diverse and how flavorful and how impactful this cuisine could be if executed in this modern way that Adrian [Forte] has taken it to,” mentioned proprietor Sam Jordan. “It came from a love of the food and an opportunity to do something different in L.A.”
In chef Forte’s Guyanese-style oxtail pepper pot — a dish that takes three days to make — the meat is coated in a house-ground spice mix and smoked over Jamaican pimento wooden, then braised and served with a sauce lowered with cassareep. The tender fried rooster is brined in coconut milk and dabbed with fermented chili aioli. Pepper shrimp toast, a nod to Jamaica’s cultural melting pot, blends the ever present fermented-pepper shrimp avenue meals with the fried Chinese language basic.
A showstopping flower-like artwork set up crowns the bar on the heart of the fashionable Afro-Caribbean restaurant.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Occasions)
“I truly believe that our culture needs something like this,” Forte mentioned. “Other cultures have all these different restaurants that are doing [their cuisines] at a high level and teaching cooks how to make this food. But we don’t have that in our culture, so that was very important for me, and very purposeful.”
A big cause for this, he mentioned, is worth notion. Why would possibly some diners pay $40 or $50 for a bowl of pasta however not the oxtails that take three days to make? Caribbean delicacies, he mentioned, can and will exist throughout a spread of worth factors.
“I was very adamant about wanting to do this project … mainly just for the culture so they can see that it’s possible, and they could see the perceived value, and we could stop undervaluing ourselves and our food,” he mentioned.
Saltfish croquettes with huancaina and salsa criolla at Lucia.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Occasions)
One more reason Forte believes Caribbean delicacies isn’t typically tried in effective eating is accessibility of elements.
A number of cooks of L.A. Caribbean eating places advised Forte they couldn’t discover the contemporary leafy greens required to make callaloo, and thus ordered it canned. However Forte observed that many Southern California farmers use candy potato and taro leaves as compost or as feed for livestock; now he buys it contemporary from the farmers and serves it as creamed callaloo with grilled snapper and a coconut butter sauce.
When trying to find sorrel, he heads to Latin markets for hibiscus. When on the lookout for boniato, or Caribbean candy potato, he simply finds Japanese candy potato. He purchases plantains from a Vietnamese grocer.
“I’m not necessarily missing any specific ingredients,” Forte mentioned, “because of the interconnectedness of what we do as a whole. The diaspora is so vast, and we have all these synergies with different cultures that people don’t even realize.”
Late-night service focuses on his small bites and the drinks overseen by beverage director Melina Meza (previously of Level8, Boujis Group), which embody an okra martini, a tamarind Collins and an oxtail old style. However Forte can also be planning a brand new, Caribbean-inspired uncooked bar program, which he additionally expects to serve late into the night.
The Jamaica-born chef has deep culinary roots; his dad and mom met at their very own dad and mom’ shared restaurant. Forte spent years of his childhood and adolescence of their kitchens, and when his father immigrated to Canada, Forte spent years touring between, eating and cooking in each international locations. He participated in season eight of “Top Chef Canada” — because the collection’ first Black contestant — and helped launch a number of eating places there.
When he met Jordan, Forte was working as a non-public chef in Jamaica. However Jordan’s imaginative and prescient for Lucia lured the chef and “Yawd” cookbook creator to Los Angeles.
Coconut fried rooster with fermented chili aioli, coconut milk powder and home pickles at Lucia. An earlier model of this dish may be present in Forte’s 2022 cookbook, “Yawd: Modern Afro-Caribbean Recipes.”
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Occasions)
After years spent investing in different folks’s eating places in L.A. and the Bay Space, California-born Jordan needed to construct a enterprise of his personal and drew on his travels within the Caribbean to do it.
When Jordan moved to L.A. in 2016 he discovered a bustling Fairfax stuffed with artwork, avenue model and tastemakers. The pandemic closed a number of storefronts alongside the enduring stretch, however the restaurateur hopes that Lucia — which opened within the former Black Star Burger area — may help spur revitalization on the road.
He and design agency Preen pulled from the Caribbean’s natural world for the inside, calling on artist Guerin Swing to hand-cast the rows of “shell booths” and the towering, flower-like bar sculpture from concrete.
“The whole place is like a show,” Jordan mentioned. “When you look around you see the big flowers in the center, you see the shell booths; the back dining room area is beautiful with the mirrors, everything. A big part of the food and the cultures that inspire our restaurant is the idea that we’re not we’re not trying to rush anyone out. We want people to get comfortable, to order food, order drinks, hang out, listen to the music. It’s really like a whole immersive experience.”
Lucia is open Wednesday to Sunday from 6 p.m. to midnight at 351 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 800-0048, luciala.com
