Hi @TheCookie,
It’s no interruption. 
Always good to hear recommendations on good dishes / places to eat. Thanks!
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Honorable mention: I hear SCARPETTA in BH is re-opening this week for a month. Although we found the restaurant inconsistent as a whole, we will really miss the Bone Marrow & Bolognese Ravioli (like osso buco in a ravioli) and the Pasta w/Tomato Basil.
J&V’s Meatballs w/Ricotta & Crostini and the Chicken Cutlets are really good too. But again, it’s all about preference. Some people find them too soft, but for me, a stiff meatball is a bummer.
Glad to know Funke has a new spot after his weird & abrupt departure from Bucato. Was it him or them? Hmmm. Anyway, I don’t know how they expected to go on when the whole concept was built around his heirloom (for lack of a better word) pasta making.
It was them. I mean, to be fair this is only from chatting with him when I’ve run into him at other restaurants, but at least from his perspective it was them. Although he had some hand in it. They seemed to not want to give him as much continuing autonomy as he wanted with his projects. To me, that’s insane, because if you are the money guy behind Funke, you should really just let him do w/e the fuck he wants. It appeared to come down to him being like “the place won’t survive without me” and them being like “nah, we don’t need you”. Why they thought that is anyone’s guess, I presume because investors often aren’t foodies in the same way that actual foodies are, and they figured people would still come in anyway because they had no fine understanding of how his heirloom pasta making was what made Bucato what it was. So he pulled out, and Bucato shuttered within 2 months.
So really there is some “fault” on both sides, but personally, I hope his new investors understand that if you back someone with that much talent and that much of a reputation, if you force them to make a call like that, they will just walk.
Although it was a major loss for us as diners, the ability of superstar chefs to walk away from investors that want them to kowtow to them is actually a major bonus to the LA dining scene, compared to up in SF where investors put up like $5-$10 million and have even most of the superstars by the balls.
This same kind of backdoor issues eventually produced Hatchet Hall after all. Hopefully Felix will be the same kind of thing.
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See, I just don’t get that. The restaurant was designed around his pasta making. I saw a TV thing about how they had a floor built especially for it. The different handmade pastas did look time consuming. Maybe the supply was not matching the financial needs.
I will say chefs can be difficult. But from what I read about the investors they didn’t seem like the best group to work with.
Like you I have a little personal experience with Funke. My young cousin worked under him at Rustic Canyon. We went and he came to our table, was really cool and gave a lot of praise to my cousin who was still learning. My cousin does not give much praise to chefs he’s worked under, but he loved this guy.
Evan Funke is very talented and dedicated to his craft. I hope he finds a good fit.
My personal opinion if that if you were an investor that failed to work with Evan Funke, you’re not very bright.
All I can say is that there are investors in the game that tend to look purely at numbers on spreadsheets, which is stupid in the restaurant industry, but it happens often.
It was unfortunate for everyone involved. I’m just glad Funke came back to LA…for a while there it looked like he might just leave the city, and he’s talented enough to go wherever he wants. He proved it by flying around the country popping up at places making pasta and taking over kitchens lol
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Very good point.
I’m sure you’ve already seen this, but Senor Funke is doing a one-night stand at Jon & Vinny’s later this month.
Alas, sounds like it may be more focused on pizza than pasta.
CC @TheCookie
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Yeah, I’ll be in Mexico City though, hope someone else here goes!
@Aesthete - Jealous. Love Mexico City. @President_Mochi - I called, but no answer yet. If it’s pasta I will definitely try to get in. The place is so tiny.
That’s what everyone keeps saying, so I decided to go live there for a month. Hopefully it’s at least a fraction of as awesome as everyone says lol
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You probably have enough information already. But I get really excited about Mexico. I can’t get anyone to go with me anymore.
The architecture, the shopping, the food scene is great. Mexico City has always had some of the best chefs in the world. But now it’s getting upscale, modern and cutting edge. Plus inventive little hole in the wall joints. Okay I’ll stop.
Pujol is supposed to be great.
http://pujol.com.mx/m/
It’s more urban - subways, traffic, pickpockets. Kidnapping has risen. Try not to wear expensive stuff. I have a friend from MC who hires a driver when he’s there. I will say his parents are wealthy, so more at risk. But really, drivers are not that expensive and worth it when you’re learning to get around.
Have a great time. If you have time, share experiences.
sure, it’s off topic, it may be apples and oranges and i sound like a bigger blowhard than usual, but, in terms
of experience:
the museo nacional de antropologia in d.f. just about blows the louvre out of the agua.
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i prefer the musee d’orsay to the louvre myself; the most interesting tidbit i can recall from going to the louvre was happening to be in line right behind a guy named paul who said he was the head winemaker for korbel. he was in town for some winemaking convention. the guy is in paris on an expense account, and as a winemaker, he’s fairly knowledgeable about food/wine pairings - and the only thing he ate all week were the baguettes split down the middle with a hot dog covered in melted cheese sold by street vendors: “… they’re so GOOD!..”. even thomas keller sometimes just wants a burger.
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Literally everyone I’ve asked thinks Pujol is not that great… but I’m still going to go because it’s so incredibly cheap, and I need to judge for myself.
What other fine-dining should I go to?
I was planning on just Ubering everywhere. It costs like $1-2. Do you know how much it is to hire a private driver for a month? What companies would I look at?
Wow! Not the best thing we had last visit, but definitely good!! Along with the ham and cheese crepe from the same stand.
Um, excuse me @linus @secretasianman & @Google_Gourmet, if I might direct your attention over this way… France Trip
neato. dig the d’orsay myself.
not really the point, though.
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