la.foodblogging

I’ve been interested in trying The Hungry Cat since I read Jonathan Gold’s LA Weekly review, “The Life Aquatic,” in late March. His description of the Hungry Cat’s lobster roll sounded divine. I also thought Ann Fishbein’s photo of chef David Lentz sawing a bread knife against the throat of his diminutive, yet untroubled sous chef, was completely funny.

anticipation
I’ve since seen numerous civilian reports about Hungry Cat on the Chowhound L.A. board and various local foodblogs. I casually picked through many of them, thinking, ‘Gotta go some day.’ The passing desire became an urgency last week when chowhound *hannahcooks* sniffed out an LA Times photographer setting up shots at Hungry Cat. Sure enough, early this afternoon I caught wind of Times staff writer S. Irene Virbila’s very positive review, scheduled to publish in the Food section tomorrow.

I called my dinner date. “It’s now or never,” I said, “if we don’t go to the Hungry Cat tonite it’ll be a while before we can go again. Are you up for it?” Despite having to drive from the Brewery downtown to Sunset & Vine, he obliged, and we met at 7:00pm. The place is in a corner pocket of the complex and not well marked. It is also much smaller than I imagined. We both seperately searched around for a minute or two until we found it.

It was empty with the exception of a couple casually paging through The Economist at the bar. Although Gold had grumbled a bit about the exposed air ducts and cement bricks I found the place to be airy, and stylish, if a tad amateurish — like a student production at RISD or Art Center. Gold noted that the place played Wynton Marsalis and Coltrane. We heard Dave Matthews singing ballads (”Gah!” said my date, clamping his ears, “Is that Hootie?”) followed by MC Solaar remixes of Serge Gainsbourg.

cocktails
I studied the cocktail menu before we went so I practically wrestled the waiter for a Luke’s Lemonade, a Pimlico and a Greyhound Proper. The bartender is situated behind large, vibrant buckets of fresh citrus. He presses, squeezes, shakes and dresses his cocktails at a thoughtful pace and it shows — his drinks are fresh, summery perfection. His Pimlico is the best I have had and the Luke’s Lemonade is wonderful. I somehow forgot that I’m not a fan of gin, but I quickly remembered again when I tried the Greyhound — although the candied grapefruit on top of the drink is an irresistible touch.

fancy feast
We got the much-ballyhooed Baltimore crab cake to share. The aioli is tart, sharp and creamy and the celery root slaw works to fade the tang. I can imagine appreciating the slaw more if it did not have to perform as an understudy to such a scene-stealing aioli. The crab cake itself was composed of large pieces of white meat — the Hootie-hater said it was the best crab cake he’d ever had. He ordered the burger, which had too much blue cheese for my taste, but is otherwise totally worthy of its own loving profile on ahamburgertoday. I had the albacore with red pepper sauce and baby artichokes. I’m not a fan of baby veggies but these infants were chubby and moist, braised, I think, in a great garlicky butter sauce. My tuna and pepper sauce were made for one another.

We also ordered the only dessert on the menu, which, I think, has become a bit of a joke. Our server said, “Would you like dessert?” and I said, “Sure we’ll take it.” He stopped short: “You already know there’s only one?” I can easily see how that could grow to be a frustrating recurring conversation — especially for a server who is trying to help find alternatives for a picky eater. But you’d have to be a really finicky cat not to appreciate the dessert. It’s like a custard carmelized brulee crossed with a bread pudding hiding a bubbling chocolate ganache at the bottom. I suppose it’s also something of a joke that it’s served extremely hot in what looks like a dog’s bowl.

The Hungry Cat
1535 North Vine
(Sunset & Vine complex)
Hollywood, CA 90028
323.462.2155