Postcards From the West Coast
Bites, Drinks and Sights from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
During the recent west coast leg of the Modern Classic Cocktails book tour, we were in Seattle a total of 12 waking hours; San Francisco 8 hours; and Los Angeles 12 hours. And three of the hours in each of those cities were taken up by the book events—at Book Larder, Omnivore Books and Now Serving L.A., respectively, each occasion spectacular and enjoyable.
But, as is our habit, we made the most of our free time. Here are some of our off-time highlights.
L’Oursin
If you’re in Seattle for one night and are looking to explore the food and drink scene, you could hardly do better for a guide than Paul Clarke, the editor of Imbibe magazine. When Clarke offered to curate our evening, I happily handed over the reins to him. I hadn’t been to Seattle in ten years. What did I know?
Our evening consisted of four stops, bisected by the book event at Book Larder, where Paul was the moderartor. Before that, pre-gaming drinks were had at Rob Roy, by now a cocktail institution in Seattle, and, just a couple blocks away, the younger Roquette, where they like to put overproof spirits in nearly every cocktail. (No one in our party was complaining.)
After Book Larder, “Gotta eat, right?,” as Paul put it. So we went to L’Oursin. I’ve heard of L’Oursin for years, but mainly thought of it as the place where Zac Overman, formerly a Brooklynite (who worked at Fort Defiance), was an owner and bartender. It was also a place I could turn to as a journalist when I had a question that leaned toward the French way of drinking. I was not aware of its overall excellence as a restaurant.
Aside from Le Syndicat in Paris and the late, lamented Trou Normand, my dinner at L’Oursin may be the most utterly French drinking experience I’ve ever had. The cocktails had names like Lumière and Pont Neuf. Calvados, Cognac, Chartreuse and Cap Corse were well in evidence. I had the Alsatian Cousin to start; made of blanc vermouth, manzanilla sherry and poire eau de vie, it was a perfect opening act. I moved on to a concoction made of seven brandies, all French. It had the hilarious name of “the.ostentatious.instagram.fodder.seven.brandy.sour.” (I do as told. You can find a picture of the drink on my Instagram feed.) I also had the Breakfast Gibson, made of dry vermouth, Eau de Vie de Cidre, and salted-French butter-washed Gordon's Gin, and garnished with a French breakfast radish fermented with shallots and orange wine.
Overman furnished the cherry on the top of the evening by pouring out a true Trou Normand of Calvados at the end of the night.
Jake Parrott is a liquor rep Clarke and I know. Paul told me that when Parrott came to Seattle, he dined at L’Oursin night after night. After our meal, I understood Jake’s monomania. The food, by chef J.J. Proville, was on par with the drinks. From soup to nuts, L’Oursin gave me one of the best meals I’ve ever had.
I could go on forever about the oysters; the raw scallops with cucumber, lobster mushroom and lemon thyme; the tomato salad with crème fraîche, anchovies, and hazelnuts; the duck leg with polenta, broccolini, quince and grain mustard jus. But I’d like to reserve special praise for the lush butternut squash soup, a special that night that we ordered because Zac called it a “sleeper.” It was topped with fried sweetbreads that took on the role usually played be croutons.
May I just say here that all croutons should be forthwith replaced by fried sweetbreads?
