SIV Loves LA's New Cuisine; J.Gold on the Red Med Fiasco

This week both SIV and The Goldster forgo their usual weekly reviews in favor of more topical conversation. Sher shares thinkage on LA's dining "revolution," while Gold chimes in with his two cents on the recent Red Medicine/SIV outing debacle. Overall he seems to be a proponent of anonymity, though comments on how, in this day and age, with the internet, Twitter, all that good stuff, it's increasingly difficult to remain incognito. But let's cut right to it. Gold's thoughts on The Situation: "I have no beef with Red Medicine. I liked the meals that the staff prepared in the first weeks at Test Kitchen, and I'll probably enjoy what they do in their own space. I can even understand, almost, why they felt obligated to do what they did: They had kept Virbila waiting, they were slammed, she had been pretty brutal to chef Jordan Kahn's desserts when he was the pastry chef at Michael Mina's XIV, and they sensed disaster. It was a panicked move, and I suspect they knew it was dumb even as they were doing it. They did no real harm to Virbila — if anything, they lent her pluckiness — but they made themselves look second-rate."

Changing gears, SIV reflects on the growth and metamorphosis of LA dining: "Wine bars are popping up like mushrooms after rain...Meanwhile, hotel restaurants, heretofore always safe standbys, are being turned into boîtes with casual seating and bare tables. Reliable old-guard restaurants are being forgotten as the newly converted seek out extreme eating, follow 'Top Chef' contestants to their latest job and rush out to meet the newest food truck to hit the streets, tweeting and blogging all the way...The L.A. restaurant scene has busted wide open. It's a revolution. Elite formal dining rooms no longer dominate top restaurant lists, which are just as likely to include a high-concept spot with a pounding rock soundtrack, tattooed servers, a savvy wine list and a star mixologist...right now is more exciting than it's been in a long, long while...We used to have great food at the high and the low ends, but not much in the middle. This year, with established restaurateurs rethinking business as usual, and new ones throwing stardust, creativity and talent into the ring in the underserved middle range, we've got it all."
·L.A.'s Revolution in Dining [LAT]
·Two Cheers for Anonymity [LAW]