Your Sqirl Away update: Calm down, it won’t be open until August
A bowl of black-eyed peas, with braised beans and celery, poached eggs, aioli, mustard greens and country toast.
What: Sqirl Away, a take-out extension of Sqirl, Jessica Koslow’s much-loved toast-and-rice-bowl restaurant in Silver Lake. Which is not so much a second Sqirl but rather like what Mozza2Go is to the Pizzeria. The new place will be open later than Sqirl (which closes at 4 p.m.), probably until 7 p.m. (Translation: Dinner!)
Where: Right next door to Sqirl, in the space once occupied by Lou Amdur’s wine shop.
Why: Because Sqirl, as all of us who obsessively order Koslow’s crispy rice bowls and pastries know, is tiny. It’s also relentlessly crowded, the lines often spilling out the door onto Virgil. Lots of regulars not only line up, but order stuff for take-out, which is somewhat problematic, for many reasons. Koslow’s addictive bowls of this and that are glorious, but -- like tacos -- they’re best when eaten pretty immediately. If you’re the chef, you know this, of course. And you start realizing that it would make a bit more sense to make food that’s actually meant to be take-away.
What’s on the menu: Not, we’re very sorry to say, Koslow’s toasty rice bowl. Sorry. You’ll just have to keep getting in line at Sqirl for that one. But, not to worry, Koslow will finally have an outlet for new dishes, dishes that are built to be portable. “It’ll give us more time to develop more to-go dishes,” Koslow said about Sqirl Away on Tuesday, as she walked through Sqirl with a deli cup filled with popped amaranth seeds and what looked like shrimp puffs but were made from tapioca and onion. Like what? Chilled soup, Koslow said, maybe because the temperature was already in the upper 90s on Virgil Avenue at the time.
When: The end of August, if all goes well. And because it’s Los Angeles, it probably won’t. So be patient. Eat a bowl of black-eyed peas and celery with aioli and country toast and calm down. All things come to those who wait. Even toast. Maybe especially toast.
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