Vespertine

101 Best restaurants of Los Angeles

@latimes

"#101 I’ve been to Vespertine three times this year. Twice I loathed it and once, most recently, the meal-from-another-dimension precepts clicked. It is the most confounding and polarizing restaurant I’ve ever endured. I’d encourage anyone who regards dining as culture and who has $295 per person to invest (before beverage options, tax or tip) to book a reservation and form their own conclusions. Go early; experiencing Jordan Kahn’s Culver City phantasmagoria can take four or more hours. The outlandish building, designed by Eric Owen Moss, looks like it was branded on all sides by an enormous waffle iron and then melted into itself as it cooled. On a clear night, its top floor affords sunset views of mountains and the downtown skyline. Dinner usually starts up there, with an amazing cookie that involves blackcurrants, burnt onion and a bouquet of edible flowers, among other snacks. Many courses later, the affair concludes in the restaurant’s garden, sitting on heated benches eating fruit (oversize blackberries and a stunning essay on plums in late summer) and sipping earthy digestifs. In between? Meditations on unctuousness and fragrant trees. Serving vessels like dark moons, into which you dip a spoon while not quite understanding the contents. Exhilaration. Fatigue. What feels like a weird, purposeful tension emanating from the service staff leaves me knotted by meal’s end. I have unsettled dreams after meals at Vespertine; the three-chord tones that continuously play in the dining room disrupt my circadian rhythms. That might well be the point. Wine and beverage pairings. Valet parking. Credit cards (but not cash) accepted."

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