Good Food
Old-school California cuisine gets a facelift at Paley
The menu at Paley may sound retro but Jonathan Gold says Chef Greg Bernhardt’s take on California cuisine is decidedly contemporary. Give the Paley Plateau, gochujang beef tartare and popcorn ice cream a try.
By Camellia Tse • • 1 min readThe next time you’ve got business in Hollywood, do it over Martini mussels and a Paley Plateau in Hollywood. That’s this week’s restaurant recommendation from our favorite food writer, Jonathan Gold.
If such menu items sound retro, that’s because they kind of are. Paley is named after the founder of CBS, William S. Paley, and the restaurant is located in Columbia Square where CBS had its LA radio and television headquarters from the 1930s until the late 2000s. The restaurant has been there for ages too. But now Chef Greg Bernhardt, who honed his chops at Church & State and Perch, has put a decidedly modern, local and seasonal spin on it. The Paley Plateau is a gorgeous plate of raw oysters with soy vinaigrette, shrimp cocktail, and scallop crudo over fresh melon with lemon verbena and finger lime caviar. The Martini mussels are, as the name suggests, cooked in gin, vermouth and herbs. The foie gras mousse is airy and topped with thin cross-sections of stone fruit, edible flowers and pistachios. The beef tartare gets its blood-red hue from Korean gochujang and is served with ruby red grapefruit segments.
Other highlights on the menu at Paley show off Bernhardt’s skilled manipulation of fire: the smoked chicken liver paté, the coal-roasted A5 Wagyu beef tataki and the grilled duck breast with ginger-infused pomme purée and umeboshi sauce. Didn’t think Japanese pickled plum sauce and duck go together? Think again; turns out they do. There are good vegetarian items on the menu too, like the coal-roasted carrots and the wild rice with cabbage, ginger and Blue Lake beans. Seal the deal with ice cream infused with popcorn that is topped with brown butter powder and salted chocolate rocher. Only in Hollywood.
Read Jonathan’s LA Times review of Paley and find more of his restaurant recommendations here.
Recommendations: The “Paley Plateau,” beef tartare, foie gras mousse, smoked chicken liver paté, coal-roasted A5 Wagyu, grilled duck breast, coal-roasted carrots, “Canoe-Harvested Wild Rice” and popcorn ice cream.
Location: 6115 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90028 | (323) 544-9430