What happened to Grace?
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 8:02Grace
7360 Beverly Blvd., 90036
(323) 934-4400
Grace had a lot of promise. Chef Neal Fraser was a homegrown talent, having worked with the likes of Thomas Keller, Joachim Splichal, and Wolfgang Puck/Lee Hefter. A couple months ago I became very excited upon reading that they offered a “close to home” tasting menu, a series of dishes in which 90% of the ingredients come from within a 400-mile radius of the restaurant. “This guy’s doing something different,” I thought to myself, “he’s proving that an all-local menu is indeed possible, even here in LA.”
Maybe you’ve read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, too. It has profoundly changed my eating habits in the year since I’ve read it, both in and out of the house, which, I suppose may have been one of its goals. Seeing an all-local menu nearby felt like a strong validation that what I was doing was, indeed, The Right Thing.
So I ate there last Tuesday. The food, in general, was fine. It was seasonal and comforting. I would probably pay 3/4-to-full price to eat there again, but I won’t go into it too many details.
It was really the ideas behind menu that struck a foul chord. Apparently they’ve stopped offering the “close to home” menu, even though they said that they still had it when I made the reservation a week ago. “No matter,” I thought to myself, “I trust that he’s got the right idea.” So, I decided to have the nightly chef’s choice menu for a cool $100. I wanted to know what Fraser was about, and I wanted to see his perspective; even if he didn’t offer the local menu anymore, perhaps he still weaved those ideas back into the menu in one form or another.
I’ll just let it speak for itself (though I may be missing some minor components in each dish, and I’m adding them in as I remember them):
Trio of fish
Hawaiian Big Eye tuna, bluefin tuna, and calamari (ceviche style)
Seared Foie Gras
with pumpkin puree, bacon-wrapped fig, and caramelized apple
Lamb terrine
with chanterelles on white beans
Sausage of Scottish Hare
with oozy polenta
Pan-friend Chilean Turbot
with Gruyere fondant, white asparagus, and Siberian black truffles
Wild Boar
with blood sausage and sheep’s milk cheese on orzo
Strawberry sorbet
Trio of donuts
with vanilla and cinnamon ice creams
So let’s go over the biggies: Hawaiian and bluefin tuna? Scottish hare? Chilean turbot? Siberian truffles? These choices hardly reflect the philosophy of a restaurant that only several months ago was serving up Santa Barbara prawns. They instead seem to have taken a big fat U-turn in that regard, or at least in terms of their emphasis.
I would understand if it were the season that forced them to change the menu. Unfortunately, my waiter seemed relatively unapologetic about the fact that they no longer offered a local tasting menu, and he was unable to give me any reasons for that decision.
He did say, however, that they bottled their own water.
sneakypeteiii is a doctoral student in Chemistry at Caltech. He has been eating since he was a child, and reckons himself quite good at it. (see more of his posts).
H.C. says:
November 14th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Given that “local eating” is one of their selling points, I’m surprised the front-of-house staff isn’t better prepared to field the question. Maybe try calling the manager to see why the menu ended?
But personally, I don’t blame Neal for not being able to keep up with being local — acquiring fresh, seasonal (well, as seasonal as California gets) ingredients takes a lot of time and energy. But I definitely hear ya on your shock of finding all these global ingredients when you went expecting to eat local and leave less of a carbon mile footprint - but glad the meal turned out good, nonetheless.
Aubrey says:
November 14th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Wow…pretty crushed. I haven’t gone to Grace yet but that was my main reason for it being on my to go list. Kind of disturbing for such a radical about face to have occurred in such a short time.
I doubt the seasons changing would have cause such a complete change of menus. When seasons change you change seasonally. You don’t all of a sudden start having a completely different concept because it’s starting to get cold. I mean farmer’s markets aren’t empty once we hit October.
Only thing that I can deduce is that the close to home menu wasn’t selling very well.
foodette says:
November 14th, 2007 at 11:36 am
I don’t think it would be that difficult to use seasonal, local food here in CA. It’s not like we are in the middle of a snow-drift out here. The whole point of seasonal, local eating is to adjust your menu as the seasons change. You don’t adjust the location of sourcing ingredients. Otherwise, what is the point? To just offer seasonal food when it’s convenient? I am sorry, but I am with you. This just bugs me.
sneakypeteiii says:
November 14th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Yeah, I agree with everyone here completely.
From personal experience I know how hard it can be to get 100% of your ingredients locally sourced, so I do appreciate that Chef Fraser had done anything at all.
I might just call them and see what the deal is. Maybe we can bring it back!
Jonah says:
November 14th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
The menu looks amazing, something I would enjoy. If I had called and requested the Close to Home tasting menu and when I arrived it wasn’t there? I don’t think that I would sit down, that is really disappointing.
I wonder how they calculate the “90% of the ingredients come from within a 400-mile radius of the restaurant” statistic. Perhaps the supporting ingredients can sneak the dishes into that category on a technicality.
Jonah says:
November 14th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I dropped an email to the folks listed on their website to see if they had comment. I received a couple automated responses saying that Neal and one other member of the team are out of the office for most of November. If I hear anything back that they want to say publicly, I will post an update. It may be worth a phone call too.
Looks like Neal is in Vietnam
KT says:
November 14th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Maybe that’s why they are not doing the menu - it’s off until Neal gets back?
I am disappointed too, as I have wanted to try this. But I noticed that the local menu did not get as good reviews as the a la carte menu. I wonder if they are rethinking?
Neal Fraser seems pretty committed to this idea, so I would be surprised if he just dropped it and was like “Oh yeah, I changed my mind.” I am sure there is a reason, although it would have been nice if the waitstaff could have been instructed as to how to address the issue while management is out of town.
sneakypeteiii says:
November 15th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Kudos to Jonah for sending in an official inquiry. I hope it’s some very simple reason like the one KT suggested, though I do fear the worst. I got the impression that they decided to wipe it completely off the menu, but I could be wrong.
Or maybe Fraser’s fine-tuning the whole thing; I guess we’ll find out.
Thanks for all the support!
Chubbypanda says:
November 19th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I’ve found that it’s difficult to really make money off of the local menu concept outside of Northern California. It’s still pretty hard up in Silicon Valley. San Francisco seems to be unique in its wholesale adoption.
sneakypeteiii says:
November 23rd, 2007 at 11:28 am
I spoke with Richard Drapkin, a partner at Grace, last week about this, and he was able to clear some things up; apparently seafood is a major constituent of the “Close to Home” menu, and it ends up dictating, more or less, the final cost of the menu. Given the high price of local seafood this season they had to pull the menu for economic reasons.
They are committed to the local idea, and a mostly local menu can still be had, he assured me. I’ll be going back soon to find out.