Wood-fire kitchen · Venice, Los Angeles

Alder & Brine

Cooking from the Pacific over oak, almond and grapevine.
One oven, sixty-four seats, open from five until the embers are banked.

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The oven is lit at noon. It doesn't go out until we close.

Everything on the menu passes through the fire.

The dining room at night: terracotta plaster, an oak counter facing a glowing brick oven, candlelit tables

The room

Plaster the colour of the cliffs. A candle on every table.

An oak counter faces the fire, so eight seats watch dinner being cooked. The rest of the room is lit the old way.

The kitchen

No gas, no induction, no fryer. A brick oven, a grill over embers and a cook who knows which wood burns sweetest.

Seats: 64
Courses: 6
Woods we cook over: 4
At the oven floor: 800°F

01 To begin

Hearth bread

Sourdough blistered on the oven floor, cultured butter, smoked sea salt.

Cooked over Oak, on the oven floor · 90 seconds

Six oysters on ice in a brass tray with grilled lemon and chili mignonette

02 Raw

Pacific oysters

Six from up the coast on crushed ice, grilled lemon, a mignonette of fermented chili.

Cooked over Only the lemons, over alder · 2 minutes

Ember-roasted heirloom carrots over whipped feta with pistachio dukkah

03 Garden

Ember carrots

Heirloom carrots roasted buried in the coals, whipped feta, pistachio dukkah, dill.

Cooked over Buried in oak embers · 40 minutes

A whole grilled branzino with salsa verde, charred lemon and fennel

04 Sea

Whole branzino

Grilled whole in a fish cage, salsa verde, charred lemon, shaved fennel.

Cooked over Almond wood · 14 minutes

Wood-fired lamb chops on smoky eggplant with pomegranate and mint

05 Land

Lamb over vine

Chops seared hard on grapevine cuttings, smoky eggplant, pomegranate, mint.

Cooked over Grapevine · 6 minutes

Grilled caramelised peaches with brown-butter ice cream and burnt honey

06 Sweet

Burnt honey peach

Stone fruit caramelised on the grill, brown-butter ice cream, shortbread crumb.

Cooked over The last of the coals · 3 minutes

The night

From five until the embers are banked.

5:00 pm
Doors open. The terrace catches the last of the sun.
7:30 pm
The windows go gold and the first seating sits down.
9:00 pm
Every table candlelit, the oven at its hottest.
11:00 pm
The bar takes over: a short late menu and a long list of amaro.
12:30 am
Last pour. The embers are banked for tomorrow.

The terrace at golden hour over the ocean

The whitewashed building at dusk with three glowing arched windows

The zinc bar late at night with two coupes and a candle

Glowing oak embers under a cast-iron grate

Behind the pass

Smoke, stoneware, brass.

The details are the room. Tap any picture to see it large.

A cook slides bread into the wood-fired oven on a long peel — The oven at full fire

A chef's hands finishing grilled prawns with herb oil — At the pass

Handmade stoneware plates and ink-blue linen on an oak shelf — Stoneware & linen

The zinc bar late at night — The bar, late

The restaurant's arched windows at dusk — From the street

Reservations

Pick your table.

Choose a night and a time, then the seat you want: the counter facing the fire, the round table by the oven, or the terrace.