Week in Reviews: Revisiting Fred Eric and Tiara Cafe

Jonathan Gold was one of four judges for a cooking challenge at Taste of the Nation a few weeks ago, one that pitted Foxtail's (and Top Chef cheftestant) Antonia Lofaso against LA's "madman" chef, Fred Eric. Antonia accidentally sliced open Eric's hand with a knife minutes before the clock starting ticking, and as Gold recounts, the chef came back on stage, tore off his clothes to reveal a Lakers uniform, and literally with one hand tied behind his back and 15 minutes behind Lofaso, he whipped up a salad that the judges unaminously declared the winner. With that, Gold felt it was time to revisit Eric's Tiara Cafe downtown, which recently added dinner, and found that it's still as ecclectic and creative as ever, but inconsistent. But there's complete adoration: "I’ve known Eric for almost 20 years now — if you run in certain circles, it is impossible not to know him — and he has always come up with a density of ideas that makes it almost impossible to comb the brilliant from the cockamamie."
· Tiara Cafe: Fashionably Fred [LAW]