MILK-ing it at GRACE

Photo Credit: Dine LA

Another Friday night, another delicious meal.

Last Friday evening, I had the luxury of hanging out with my high school buddy for the second time in two weeks. Usually, we're lucky if we see each other every month. It was such a treat to see her again.

Armed with a coupon from the good folks at BloomSpot (gotta love those social media discount sites), we made our way across town to dine at Grace.

Grace is one of those rare LA dining establishments that have withstood the test of time, serving up great food even after the dreaded 5 year mark. At the helm of this stylish contemporary restaurant is chef Neal Fraser, who coincidentally backed out of our Beaver Creek event due to personal reasons that very day. Evoking my boss to entrust me to deliver the message "You are a doo doo head" to Chef Fraser. And yes, I did deliver it.

Designed by Michael Berman, the main dining room at Grace is pop modern, featuring tangerine banquettes, oversize porthole mirrors and an impressive library style wine cellar that hugs the room. For mood lighting, exaggerated cylindrical chandeliers hang from the ceiling like giant wind chimes, casting gentle light on diners below. Scattered skylights in the roof also allow for glimpses of moonlight to slip into the room, adding to the intimate atmosphere. In my opinion, the decor at Grace is, well, grace personified.

Ironically, while I sing the praises of the main dining room at Grace, we were seated in the private dining room portion of the restaurant, wa-ay in the back. Bummer. However, the back space filled up by the time our appetizers arrived and I didn't quite feel like the bad child that was left in the corner and forgotten. (Nobody puts Baby in the corner!)

For an appetizer, my friend and I split an order of Santa Barbara Prawns-- house made pasta, razor clams in a tomato sauce with fresh Garbanzos. My big complaint was that the pasta was just a tad too al dente. I mean it almost had a crunch to it! However,the accompanying tomato sauce was luscious and bright, highlighting the freshness of the prawns and clams.

For my main course, I decided to try their braised pork shank served in a cider sage sauce. The pork shank was served with sides of smoke shallot chorizo homefries and garlic rapini. Upon placing my order, our server politely forewarned me that the shank was massive and that it would take me at least 2 sittings to finish. The proud ex-swimmer in me brushed him off thinking "Ppfft! I can conquer anything you throw my way."

Yeah right, that pork shank showed me who's boss. I took home at least 80% of the shank (which, btw, was delicious in a sandwich the next day).

While the meat on the pork shank was tender, it was not exactly fall off the bone beautiful. However, the deep woodsy sage smell was heavenly and it gave the pork a nice smokiness to it. Furthermore, I enjoyed the bitterness of the rapini in contrast to the salty pork but it must be said that the homefries were a little dry.

For dessert, we ignored the famous Grace donuts that were calling to me and headed on over to Milk, which was just down the street. There, we shared 3 scoops of ice cream: Blueberry crumble pie, coffee toffee and blood orange sorbet.

The blueberry crumble pie tasted like well, blueberry crumble pie. The kind your mama would bake on a hot summer day--well your mama, not mine since mama t doesn't really bake. I couldn't get enough of the real bits of crumble mixed into the ice cream and appreciated that the ice cream was obviously made from fresh high-quality ingredients rather than pounds and pounds of artificial sugar.

While I am not usually a fan of coffee ice cream, Milk's coffee toffee was delightful. It had the perfect blend of the bitter coffee mixed with the ultimate indulgence of toffee. But as much as I enjoyed it, the coffee toffee did not make a convert out of me.

Friends of mine have claimed that Milk has the best ice cream in LA, but I will have to beg to disagree. The ice cream, while thoroughly delicious, was just a tad too creamy to me. My opinion is that if you subscribe to the the old fashioned, churned at home, full cream kind of ice cream, then Milk is the place for you. However, if, like me, you prefer something a little less rich and less creamy, then Milk may not be the place for you.

Stuffed to the brim with delicious food, my friend and I spent the rest of the night chatting and catching up.

The next morning I awoke with the realization that we had severely under tipped the waiter at Grace. That coupled with the fact that we utilized a dining coupon, I guess you could say we really Milked it at Grace.

Details:
Grace
7360 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-934-4400
Note: Grace just closed the doors of their Beverly Blvd place and are relocating to downtown LA.

Milk
7290 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323- 939-6455