Corn dishes brighten menus at Tar & Roses, Gjelina and Cliff’s Edge
At a late August dinner party, one of the dishes was sweet corn with fresh mint and lime. I could have eaten the whole bowl myself. And at home, we’ve been making corn chowder for supper. I know, I know. The season is almost over. Sweet corn ice cream just slipped off the menu at Sweet Rose Creamery. But chefs around town are still playing with their corn, at least for a couple more weeks. So if you haven’t had your fill this summer, now’s the time before it’s really gone for the season.
Chef and owner Andrew Kirschner is working with the best produce the Santa Monica farmers market has to offer. And right now, he’s reveling in corn. Corn on the cob with goat cheese, espellete pepper, lime and cilantro (why didn’t I think of that?), and the ultimate bar food: popped corn with crisp bacon, brown sugar and chile. Luscious creamed corn accompanies his Kurobuta pork loin, keeping company with a roasted peach and earthy black kale.
602 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 587-0700. Corn dishes, $6 to $25.
Gjelina’s Travis Lett must have a thing for corn. He’s one of the first to put it on his menu each season, and he keeps it going all through the summer. How can you not indulge in his braised sweet corn lit up with Fresno chile, cilantro, lime and creamy white feta? He sometimes makes a sweet corn soup garnished with confit cherry tomatoes and cilantro, and his arugula salad is adorned with more cherry tomatoes, ricotta salata — and sweet corn. With the occasional special, it’s enough to make up your own sweet corn tasting menu.
1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, (310) 450-1429. Corn dishes, $8 to $11.
Is there a better spot to dine on a summer night than the terraced garden at Cliff’s Edge in Silver Lake? The secret back garden, fringed with bamboo and anchored by an immense sprawling ficus tree, is both private and sociable. And the new chef there, Vartan Abgaryan, fresh from a stint at Public Kitchen in Hollywood, is impressing the neighborhood with his hamachi crudo with verjuice and mint, chicken liver terrine with apricot marmalade, barbecued octopus with peach and pickled mustard seeds — and his white corn agnolotti with Parmesan and warm bacon cream. Did I hear bacon and corn?
3626 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 666-6116. Corn agnolotti, $18.
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