Blue Velvet: Sleek Restaurant Lounge in Eco-Friendly DTLA Development [CLOSED]

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Restaurant Los Angeles

Blue Velvet is an ambitious restaurant in a surprising location: The Flat.

The Flat is a sleek, eco-friendly development just west of downtown, situated in a former Holiday Inn. Real estate developer and Sci-Arc instructor Bret Mosher joined forces with Culinary Institute of America grad Robert Hartstein on the fashionable ground floor restaurant and lounge, which feeds the denizens of 205 overhead apartments, plus downtown office workers and students from nearby schools like USC and Loyola Law School.

Hartstein has an impressive pedigree as a chef, having worked in the kitchens at Charlie Palmer’s Aureole, Danny Meyer’s Union Square Cafe and Joachim Splichal’s Patina. However, he and Mosher decided to lure a young but inventive chef to helm the Blue Velvet kitchen: Kris Morningstar. He graduated with honors from Pasadena’s California School of Culinary Arts in 2002, but has already cooked at A.O.C., Grace and Patina.


Lounge Los Angeles

The modern lounge featured a sunken granite communal table, a row of illuminating drum shaped lanterns and a wall highlighted by multi-colored blue panels.

When we first arrived, the front dining room was being used for a private event, so we couldn’t sit there. Too bad. The space was interesting, with rows of boxy tables and chairs and a handsome tan and blue color scheme. Since the small back room was full, we waited in the bar area, which resided behind the white Swiss cheese walls. Unfortunately, we were ignored at every step. The hostess forgot about us, and when we were finally seated in solitary confinement behind the Swiss cheese, it took over ten minutes to receive menus or water.

The service was so inattentive that the manager gave us each a complimentary glass of Champagne. It was a nice gesture, but we would have preferred being seated on time, and treated to proper service.

Amuse Bouche Los Angeles

For our Amuse Bouche, we each received a delicately fried tempura jumbo shrimp with a streak of spicy miso sauce and yellow corn petal. The crustacean was clearly high-quality, but could have used crispier coats and more flavor.

Duck Los Angeles

Duck Confit ($16) featured crisp-skinned thigh and leg meat topped with scallions. The duck arrived on a bed of shiitake and oyster mushrooms tossed with spiced black vinegar. The plate was streaked with cherry miso sauce. The luscious quacker and earthy mushrooms impressed me.

Sweetbreads Los Angeles

I haven’t had a much better version of baby calf’s thalamus gland than Chef Morningstar’s Crispy Sweetbreads ($15). The organ meat was crispy outside and supple inside, plated with complementary Mediterranean influences, including a sweet date puree, salty bacon, hearty lentils and a mix of sweet brown butter and tart preserved lemon, native to Morocco.

Pork Los Angeles

Wild Boar Tenderloin ($35) was my favorite dish of the evening. I’ve rarely seen pork so rosy, which was initially disconcerting, but the six seared slices of tenderloin had a nice salt crust and incredibly tender mouth feel. The expertly cooked red chard had the consistency of creamed spinach without any noticeable cream. Kuri squash puree cradled sweet caramelized apples and subtly bitter white baby turnips, to counterbalance the sweetness. I’m not a big licorice fan, but the licorice jus drizzled below the pork didn’t taste particularly vivid.

Beef Los Angeles

Meat and Potatoes ($34) featured two variations on the theme. Juicy chunks of hanger steak with a nice outer char joined shiitake mushrooms and silky brown butter mashed potatoes. Boneless pull-apart beef short ribs laid on bacon-bolstered Brussels sprouts and were topped with a single pomme maxim, which was like a crisp potato chip, only baked and sliced even thinner. This dish was worth the expense.

Dessert Los Angeles

After enduring another wait in order to ask for the dessert menu, we split warm Croissant Bread Pudding ($12) that was muchmore interesting and dynamic than the description revealed. A warm cushion of bread pudding was brushed with a butterscotch glaze and topped with a whole chestnut, a seasonal touch that didn’t quite work. The plate featured streaks of Valrhona chocolate sauce, another butterscotch-accented chestnut and an interesting take on an ice cream sandwich. A chocolate disc and piece of Grand Marnier chocolate shortbread sandwiched a scoop of honey ice cream to good effect.

Mignardises Los Angeles

With the check, we received four Mignardises: a pastel green spearmint marshmallow square, a rectangular pumpkin pie bar, a diamond-shaped blondie studded with butterscotch chips, and a purple peanut butter & jelly macaroon. I didn’t taste much peanut butter flavor, but it was a good idea.

Chef Morningstar’s food was flavorful and interesting, though a little expensive given the portion size. I normally have a near singular food focus when it comes to dining. It takes egregiously bad service to bother me. Of course, higher prices brought higher expectations, and Blue Velvet failed to deliver service-wise. Even though I can recommend the food, I probably wouldn’t return to the restaurant.

Update: Kris Morningstar is no longer executive chef. Jonathan McDowell took his place in the Blue Velvet kitchen.

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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