Browse Through Maude’s New Rioja Tasting Menu

Inspired by the oft-overlooked Spanish wine region

Maude’s new menu is fully underway, with executive chef Justin Hilbert executing a Rioja-inspired tasting that draws from the flavors of this often overlooked Spanish wine region. The menu takes some departures from Maude’s more nine-course format and meanders through light and heavy, with a Michel Bras-esque spread of lightly grilled vegetables to start. The $125 menu includes a shareable pork chuleton before ending with a pretty plate of creamy sheep’s milk curds, macerated cherry, and ice creams. Of course, since the menu is inspired by a wine region, they’re offering three levels of wine pairings, all the way up to a $500 grand reserva pairing that should bring out some truly rare pours. See full menu below, with tickets to dinners here.

Drink like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald

LA Magazine has a nifty walking tour through some of Hollywood’s most iconic drinking establishments, places that writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway would have frequented. The tour goes through places like No Vacancy and Black Rabbit Rose and highlights the iconic Musso & Frank along Hollywood Blvd.

Short-lived Italian on Ocean Avenue

Italian restaurant O+O Sicilian Kitchen didn’t last too long in its Ocean Avenue space in Santa Monica. Trusty Westside observer Toddrickallen finds that the seaside space has already been vacated and gutted without too much notice. The place originally opened in 2016, and despite a relatively well-placed location, the foot traffic wasn’t enough to sustain business.

Portrait of the chef artist

Jordan Kahn receives an unlikely award as a 2018 Power List designee from Nation’s Restaurant News. The publication, which usually follows chain restaurants and the national restaurant industry as a whole, gives Kahn recognition for his mesmerizing restaurant/art installation Vespertine. Says NRN, “Both admirers and detractors might say that asking ‘What’s next?’ to Kahn is like asking Pablo Picasso what his next painting would have been.”

Maude’s Rioja Menu

Wonho Frank Lee