Lucky Strike

I recently ventured from the west side to the east side of town, however it wasn’t quite as simple as crossing Central Park…I wish. Here in Los Angeles, most westsiders are more prone to flying back east than driving 15 miles east, which is why I turned my visit to Silverlake and Echo Park into a field trip. It had been many years since I frequented this funky slice of LA- which has been home to Brooklyn-style hipsters for a while now- yet this area is currently on my radar as I can sense a huge shift coming. Echo Park is gentrifying in a big way, and there’s a new serious restaurant-of-the-moment I just had to check out.

Allumette– French for matches- is a collaboration between chef Miles Thompson and owners Charles Kelly and Bill Di Donna. The stellar experimental fare is on Bon Appetit’s list of top 50 new restaurants- and now mine- and could be described as haute cuisine with etsy sensibilities. Twenty five year old Thompson had been previously cooking at his pop-up Vagrancy Project- which he started in his apartment in 2012- a couple days a week at the restaurant’s former space, Allston Yacht Club, and the owners were so impressed they persuaded him and his innovative menu to stay on permanently, at what is now the renamed and revamped Allumette. Thompson’s dishes are presented in a modern French style and are influenced by Italy, China and Japan, veering towards the avant-garde and exotic.

Thompson’s incredible kitchen artistry is no fluke, he started cooking at the age of 13 at a catering company in New York State, and though he tried his hand at acting  after arriving in LA, he ended up cooking again- this time at top restaurants such as Nobu, Animal, and Son of a Gun. Allumette offers a daily tasting menu in addition to a la carte plates, where standouts include vinegar roasted turnips- Thompson ferments his own- shimaaji sashimi, and sichuan pork dumplings with cured salmon roe. This amazing meal was the real score after a long day filled with new finds in a city I’ve known for years, where all this fresh new energy made me feel like I really did cross Central Park. www.allumettela.com