Short Order's New Menu Items Inspired by Hoof to Tail Movement

Just over one year ago, Los Angeles chef legend, Nancy Silverton, in partnership with restauranteur, Bill Chait. opened Short Order at the Originals Farmers Market, just above Dupar's at Third and Fairfax.  At the time, much attention was focused on the burgers, as the Nancy Silverton burger blend had been featured for many years at one of the butcher stalls at the Original Farmers Market.  With increasing awareness in Los Angeles (for example Lindy and Grundy butchers just up the street) about hoof to tail use of an entire cow, Executive Chef Christine Page has set out to integrate the use of two steers per week, for a series of dishes that some would be featured just one day a week.  In discussion with Chef Page, his earlier training in supply chain economics while getting his MBA at USC in their entrepreneurship program was going to be really tested. 

One featured Short Order dish, of limited availability, is the Ruben, in which Chef Page is making his own corned beef: however, due to its popularity, the two entire steer order per week, are being augmented by additional brisket orders, and they still have been known to run out. Short Order is also making their own bacon for their BLT which they call a BPB-LTA for their inclusion of pork belly along with lettuce, tomato, and avocado. Another weekly dish on Tuesday is their Shepards pie, which makes use of leftover meats centered around a large marrow bone.  Probably a must try at Short Order is the deep frying of their renown pickles, probably better than any fried pickles that one might get at a County Fair.  The use of frying also comes into play, by frying the ordinary croissant and stuffing it with banana cardamon cream. This and other imaginative desserts are available to go from a separate take out section. For coffee lovers, you will find Short Order serving coffee from Verve of Santa Cruz. Plus a number of innovative cocktails making use of fresh farm to table ingredients. In addition to the upstairs dining, one can also eat and drink on the ground level portion of the restaurant that is set up as a bar.

Here are my Short Order pictures shared  from Flickr as a slideshow below, and for those with an Ipad, click here.



So if visiting the Grove or the Original Farmers Market, plan on a visit to Short Order for some very tasty menu items. If you go on a Thursday, then you can catch the Bacon wrapped filet.  My picture in the slide show is a mini-version using a quail egg that will eventually show up on a happy hour menu in a slider version. I have now been to Short Order several times, and I have added it to my other favorite Los Angeles food destinations with Nancy's imprint, Mozza, and Bill's ownership, Rivera, in partnership with Jon Sedlar.

L.A. Loves Alex's Lemonade September 29 Food Event

Chefs Suzanne Goin and David Lentz, along with Suzanne's business partner Caroline Styne, for the third year are assembling some of the best celebrity chefs and mixologists from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and New York City to raise funds for pediatric cancer research on behalf of Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF).  L.A. Loves Alex's Lemonade event on Saturday, September 29, 2012 at the Culver Studios from noon to 4 pm will again be among the best food events occurring  in Los Angeles.  A general admission ticket is $175 with a significant portion ($100) of that amount tax deductible.  The story of the creation of ALSF by Liz and Jay Scott is heartbreaking, as they watched in amazement how their very young daughter Alex raised over a million dollars to find a cure for pediatric cancer, such that they captured her passion by creating ALSF after her passing.  Having the opportunity to talk with Liz and Jay in 2010 was a cherished moment, and I was fighting back tears.

Just like Suzanne, David, and Caroline masterminded this Los Angeles foodie event, my late wife Karen Gibbs and I also became enchanted with the mission of ALSF and we volunteered four shifts (working all day and into the night doing cleanup) during the initial 2010 event in which over $300,000 was raised.  Unfortunately, Karen was battling for her own life during November 2011 for the second one that cleared $400,000.  I so much wanted to make a token volunteer appearance,. but with the stormy weather, I could not afford to be sick, and thus be kept out of the ICU.  When Karen lost her own battle, I encouraged our friends to donate to ALSF along with several other non-profit organizations close to our hearts.

Your Local Farmers Market - A Conversation with Craig Deihl from Cypress in Charleston

As Thanksgiving approaches, what better time to visit your local Farmers Market for your holiday feast and on ExperienceLA we try to have a complete list of farmers markets in LA County sorted by day. Always a special treat is the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market which in past year's has opened early the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as a way to better manage the number of shoppers. You can spot the LA chefs with their helpers and wagons. Most are wearing their chef jacket, and here is a recent one of myself and Wolfgang Puck.

Watching chefs buy their produce and interact with the vendors has introduced me to several chefs and their restaurants in LA. Thus, whenever I travel, I check to see where and when is the local farmers market as a way of introducing me to the local food scene. And if you have cooking facilities where you are staying, it is especially fun to shop for locally based produce and poultry and figure out something to make from a rgional cook book. Thus, while in Charleston, I timed our arrival so that we could visit the Charleston Farmers Market which occurs on Saturday in Marion Square. The day we selected was one that featured prominent local chefs demonstrating their use of locally procured ingredients, and thus we met Craig Deihl, executive chef of Cypress Restaurant in Charleston as he prepared three locally inspired dishes, including produce provided by Lee Burbage from Joseph Fields farm.

After seeing the cooking demo, we got onto Open Table and made a reservation for Cypress for Monday night while in town for the Blackbaud non-profit conference. While walking down Bay Street to Cypress, we passed a must visit Charleston foodie destination, Charleston Cooks! Maverick Kitchen store, where you can pick up some regional cooking souvenirs. Cypress restaurant is a great example of blending the old with the new in this adaptive reuse of a building where a stunning interior decor is set-off by the exposed brick. A visit to Cypress is an opportunity to enjoy Low Country cooking exemplified with locally sourced ingredients. Figuring out what to eat was simplfied from the choices offered on a three course menu for $38 and the portions were larger than expected. At the Charleston Farmers Market, we had watched Craig Deihl prepare his signature dish candied bacon which would be on pulitzer prize food critic Jonathan Gold's radar if he was reporting from Charleston.

The other first course we had was Craig's charcutterie plate, all made in-house, which ranks among the best we have had of this new wave of restaurant prepared charcutterie. On the plate was bresola, lamb bacon, head cheese, and mortadella. After dinner, Chef Diehl stopped by our table to chat and we talked about what it takes to prepare cured meats in this fashion. It brought to mind Novella Carpenter's story of dumpster diving in West Berkeley on Fourth Street to feed her two pigs as discussed in her Farm City: Education of an Urban Farmer book and presented at the LA Central Library Aloud series. But here at Cypress in Charleston, no need to dumpster dive, as Craig has a partnership with a boutique pig producer to provide food waste to feed his future pigs for his charcutterie. This venture has proven so successful, that he has now launched a charcutterie CSA for those who want a steady supply of Craig Deihl's cured meats. The first production run sold out.

Since I am on the road, the pictures that I have been uploading to flickr have been from my Motorola Droid phone which look quite good for a mobile phone, as you can see from the Frozen Souffle S'more dessert from Cypress above. Soon you will find my various picture sets, including what we at at Cypress, from this Charleston, South Carolina trip on my ExperienceLA flickr account along with a Charleston Farmers Market set among my flickr collection of farmers markets.