Antico Nuovo by Chad Colby

yep

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if the korean restaurants just started calling their jook, risotto, they too can charge $8 for valet parking.

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It’s certainly possible that the Korean restaurants are actually subsidizing their customer’s tickets whereas Antico is not.

Knowing Koreans, I highly doubt it

Grandfathered-in pricing?

Assuming it really is the same valet company, the restaurants may have different contract terms. Maybe Colby requires them to have insurance and Gonjiam doesn’t. Or maybe the valet company jacked up their rates because they figured a name-chef Italian restaurant can afford to pay more than a “really tired K-joint.”

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“Chad Colby, chef-owner of the new Italian restaurant Antico in the Larchmont area of L.A., decided to employ just one crew member and have limited hours: dinners only, weeknights only. He said adding lunch would likely not be worth it because his labor costs would soar.”

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After reading that article makes sense why he’s doing what he is. He’s basically running a restaurant on the premise of how you can be profitable but making as little money as possible and keeping costs to a bare minimum. While its not gonna get him rich he probably spent very little on the buildout and isn’t as vulnerable to inconsistent business if his break-even point is very low.

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Anyone go recently, is it better now?

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I still can’t get over the valet policy. So bizarre.

“The chocolate ice cream is … practically a sorbet, made with just milk solids and no cream whatsoever”? I suspect he means “just milk,” which is normal for gelato.

Chi Spacca was originally supposed to be a wine shop?

I’m really out of my depth on this comment because I’ve neither been to Antico or read the review because of the paywall (it’s not available on Proquest yet) but do they describe the qualities of the ice cream?

My ice cream knowledge is checkered at best but I’m curious if use of actual milk solids rather than milk is a real technique. I’m asking in particular because I got the chance to try Perfect Day’s ice cream made from lab grown whey and casein with no actual dairy products in it and it strongly reminded me of Breyer’s ice cream. As Dave Arnold’s described a few times in Cooking Issues, traditional Breyers ice cream was originally made with milk, cream, sugar and vanilla (and largely milk if I remember correctly). As a result, Breyers can be good as a fresh batch but grow icy over time in storage, which is kind of the impression I have with the Perfect Day ice cream (as did the one other person I know that tried it independently).

All of which is to say, is there some kind of desirable trait by using milk products or solids for a more icy, sorbet-like texture? Personally, I’m not really seeing the appeal but I wonder why they would otherwise mention the use of just milk-solids.

…or it’s just a typo or misunderstanding like @robert might be implying.

Dry milk solids are a common ingredient in industrial ice cream but wouldn’t really fit with Antico’s “preserving ancient techniques and traditions” mission statement. Somebody could ask Brad Ray.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzDrvi0B1Pi/

True!

Ice cream sounds delicious from the review, as does most of the food. The only thing that doesn’t sound delicious is communal tables, which for me is a big ugh.

Confused by the reviewer’s statement that Colby makes his own chinato with herbs from his garden. Chinato is a wine. Presumably Colby has not become a wine maker. Maybe he is following this methodology: Homemade Barolo Chinato – Stefan's Gourmet Blog However, according to the blogger, when you make your own, it is merely an “acceptable substitute” for the real thing because commercial versions are matured for over a year in oak barrels. Who knows - maybe Colby has acquired oak barrels as well.

I do want to try the restaurant if I can get over my aversion to communal tables.

Chinato is made by infusing wine with cinchona bark etc. You don’t need to make the wine yourself.

they’re using a carpigiani machine.

Antico’s ice cream is impossibly smooth, with a texture somewhere between Häagen-Dazs and a McDonald’s soft serve cone. A strawberry version made with Harry’s Berries is light and bright like a gelato but with a long, fruity hangtime you would associate with higher fat content. The chocolate ice cream is somehow even more ethereal; it’s practically a sorbet, made with just milk solids and no cream whatsoever, but with a deep, dense chocolatey-ness that growls and purrs like a Ferrari F8.

the place is about half communal seating and half two and four tops.

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