It doesn’t seem to make sense. A former vegan now obsesses over butchering beasts. A tiny eatery in a hidden spot is now poised to do big and increasingly famous things. Facebook posts for an English-speaking audience arrive in Italian. Fresh pasta comes handmade out of, gulp, grasshoppers.
But look a little more closely and it does make sense. All of it does, and deliciously so. It also adds up to this: One of the area’s hardest places to get a reservation can now feed more people it once turned away, or who couldn’t swing a sit-down experience, now that it’s adding a casual sister spin-off restaurant just around the corner.
The original place, Carmel’s la Balena, burst onto the scene in late 2012, after husband-and-wife team Emanuele and Anna Bartolini found Chef Brad Briske at a farm-to-table five-courser in Live Earth Farm’s Watsonville barn. There, Briske was taking goodies from the adjacent fields to do hyper-fresh things like “clash of the seasons” soup and his own special-recipe rustic sausages.
He’s done similar stuff ever since, with Italian style borrowed from Emanuele’s restaurant-owning grandma and the family’s native Florence, in a freezer-free 250-square-foot kitchen that allows only fresh stuff swooped up at farmers markets.
La Balena (“the Whale”) continues to kill it. Earlier this month it dished a feast of fried cauliflower with chilies, currants and crumbs ($12), pecorino-dusted lamb meatballs ($12) and ricotta gnocchi with foraged nettles and a chunky truffle-onion sauce called tartufata ($23). Then came the tomato-braised veal ($30), whole roasted sea bass with golden balsamic-cherry tomato butter ($31) and pappardelle with wild boar pancetta sauce ($21). The only way to forget any of those tastes is to overorder like we did.
The la Balena popularity explains why Anna posted word of il Grillo’s soft opening on Facebook in Italian to avoid chaos.
The new spot’s name means “the Cricket,” keeping with the Pinocchio theme. (See the blog for more on that.) It occupies the former Pastries & Petals on Mission between Fourth and Fifth, a cozy joint two minutes’ walk from la Balena, with a permit-pending patio that’s as big as the interior (maybe 10 by 20) .
The kitchen is the key, though.
Like most kitchens in the world, it’s bigger than Balena’s, and allows their in-house pasta-making production and butchering to go big. That triggers a wide smile from Briske when I ask him what makes him feel most alive in the kitchen. “The butchering and braising,” he says.
The reason he got into what he calls the “big roasty primal stuff” – like the rabbit pancetta-ham-duck egg-ricotta-stuffed pig he had at last weekend’s Father’s Day Blues Fest – is counter intuitive at first: He was a vegan. But that was because he didn’t trust where food came from. Now he sources fastidiously and loves the results. “I like knowing it’s honest – no lying or cutting corners,” he says. “It’s the same stuff I feed my little girls.”
Buying larger pieces of meat translates to more relationships with regional producers who sell in bulk, more specials and more tasty bits for sauces and sausages.
“It will really help out a lot,” Briske says. “Fresher and more local.”
The menu comes designed to be speedy, simple and countryside satisfying. Briske’s thinking a hearty vegetarian and robust bone broth will account for two soups. A selection of lettuce from places like Blue Heron Farms will pair with dressings like the gorgonzola and golden balsamics fans will remember from la Balena. Pastas star, including two hand-rolled, like la Balena gnocchi, two long/dry style, aka extruded and one gluten free (in its own pot), combo’d with a choice from five sauces, like wild mushroom, spicy tripe and pork ragout.
“A little more casual, a little like a pasta bar, a good place to have a glass of wine,” Briske says. The deli case will carry Venetian-style tapas: cured meats, cheeses, treats like marinated mussels.
The space allows for wine dinners and private parties which formerly required a la Balena buy-out. A small office will provide space for Anna to hide out while she book keeps (rather than the kitchen table at la Balena). The ultimate goal, though: expanding into the neighboring beauty salon so Emanuele can watch Italian soccer games at his own restaurant.
The hours will complement la Balena in a couple ways. With doors open 8am until close Monday-Friday – more on breakfast in a second – overflow eaters from the original can grab a faster, easier meal nearby. Lunch at la Balena scales back from every day to weekends only, a godsend for an overworked kitchen doing obscene hours. Emi Garcia of now-closed Emi’s Biscoteria will grow her role from chief of la B desserts to manager of the new space too. Recipes she learned from her Italian grandma and honed in Florence, particularly savories, should shine. She’ll steer the Italian breakfast menu with biscotti, pastries and coffees.
Thursday-Saturday, June 25-27, and Thursday-Friday, July 2-3, they break in the spot with three-course dinners ($40) featuring choices from Briske’s new playbook with a glass of wine.
Flexibility and fun represent two ingredients hopping into the la Balena boat with il Grillo. On the fun front, Briske’s looking into an organic Oregon farm that raises crickets and makes cricket flour. That way he can do the kind of fresh pasta that wouldn’t make much sense at most spots, but makes perfect sense here.
Quickbites
• Not a whole lot of movement seems to be happening down on Del Monte Boulevard in Seaside where the approved In N Out burger joint’s new location would go. But Seaside city officials say In N Out is full cheeseburger ahead. From City Clerk Lesley Milton: “the applicant is expected to receive their building permit in July, with a projected opening date of November 2015.”
• Porter’s in the Forest Exec ChefJohnny DeVivo’s creative culinary gifts go to one of my favorite competitive cooking shows, Cutthroat Kitchen. More at www.mcweekly.com/edible.
• Bill Lee, last seen playing GM at Rocky Point Restaurant (624-2933), has moved on, citing – you guessed it – new concepts he’s scheming and differences with ownership. Erin Borquist (formerly of Treebones) now steers things, and says she’s excited about increasing events, a new wine menu, bar program (and bar area), locals happy hours, wine dinners and more. “I think Rocky Point’s going to be a stellar part of it again,” she says.
• Pastry saint Yulanda Santos and Carmel Belle Exec Chef Kyle Odell are working on the next Mabuhay – Asian Street Food Pop-up slated for Tuesday June 30, at the Belle (624-1600). Doors open at 5pm to no-reservations, cash-only bull rush on yakitori, steamed buns, kimchi, adobo, dumplings, sesame balls.
• When I wrote Zeph’s fills in snacks after Portobello’s closes, I meant as it closes at 9pm nightly. Longtime community standby Portobello’s remains a great place to grab spinach-bacon-tomato quiches, salmon Caesar salads and Castroville chicken dinners.
• The “Locally Overboard” farm-to-fork three-course dinner at Schooners Coastal Kitchen and Bar excites with summery peach, apricot and cherry flavors. Diners choose between seared sablefish or Mary’s half-roasted baby chicken with apricot glaze for the main. Until July 7 ($48, $70 with wine pairing).
• Peter B’s Brewpub earned two Gold Medals from the Beverage Tasting Institute for their Je T’aime and Midnight Lightening brews, to go along with four previous golds.
• Pinocchio author Carlo Collodi: “Hunger is the best cook.”