I’m not the biggest fan of the pastas at Little Dom’s. In my experience the red sauce Italian stuff is just gloppy and artlessly prepared, with the pasta frequently overcooked.
The last time we were there, my dad ordered some sort of pappardelle with a meat ragu. First off, the sauce was just dumped onto the past without being stirred into it - a major red flag - next, when he stuck his fork in for the first bite, the entire entree lifted up off the plate. The pasta had fused into a pasty blob.
When I eat there, I tend towards the more modern preparations, roasted meats and items that lean more towards New Orleans than (Little) Italy.
If the spaghetti looks like this (meaning the pasta is “clean”)
They’re doing it all wrong.
Little Doms isn’t really that old school, although they do a fine spaghetti and meatballs. If you want red sauce old school italian near the Dresden, Palermos just up the street probably fits the bill better*
I am sure that is true of 99% of restaurant food. Anything you can eat I am sure you can say “Somewhere someone’s grandmother is making a better version of this at home for 1/10th the price”.
If that is your criterion for eating out…you are limited to eating at places like Alinea, and that’s basically it. Because those are the only places I can imagine for which that would not be true.
Hey, maybe you know so many people with grandmas that you can access super cheap absurdly amazing dishes of any type you want at any time you want…but for most of us, we have to go out to restaurants and eat what chef’s prepare for us.
Salt the water
Undercook the pasta slightly
Finish cooking the pasta in the sauce
Use a little of that salty pasta water
Finish with a light drizzle of olive oil (or cheese and fresh herbs)
All those episodes of watching Molto Mario paid off for me!!! Those steps are engraved in my head
it makes perfect sense to me, and i respectfully disagree with your opinions on this matter. unless you’ve opened and tried to run a red sauce italian restaurant in, say, manhattan or los angeles.
making meatballs at home for you and your family is one thing. making them for dozens six or seven nights a week and trying to turn a profit is absolutely another, different thing.
How does elevating what was essentially peasant and working class food to the level of “fine dining” make sense? I’m talking about the same preparations, no “reimagining” involved.
To draw an analogy, would you feel the same way about a down home place - fried chicken, ribs, collards, etc. - charging fine dining prices for the same food you could get in South LA or elsewhere at a significantly lower price for the same quality and taste?
there are plenty of places that serve expensive “down home” style food in manhattan and los angeles. “fine dining” prices is a nebulous term.
and sometimes i don’t want to cook.
look, if you don’t want to order spaghetti and meatballs out, fine. don’t. but look, a bugatti veyron and a toyota camry are essentially the same thing, based on a traditional model. they don’t cost the same, because they don’t cost the same. this is the way the world works.
Sorry but your second paragraph holds zero water as there is a significant difference between a Veyron and a Camry.
They both share a basic layout - four wheels, steering wheel, rearview mirror - but that’s where the similarities end. The Veyron has suspension members made from forged aluminum. The Camry’s are stamped steel. The body and structural members of the Veyron are aluminum and carbon fiber. The Camry makes do with steal and plastic. The interior of the Veyron features fine hides, etc. The Camry does not. I could go on here but I’ve likely already bored you to death.
In this case, I’m speaking about a direct like-for-like comparison where the ONLY difference is price and perhaps service. Nothing more. To continue with your example we’d be looking at a $35K Camry and a $1.5 mil Camry where the only substantive difference was the price and perhaps the service you get at the dealership.
I have absolutely zero problem paying $$$$$$ for a meal where the restaurant is beautiful, the dishes are innovative and prepared with carefully sourced ingredients and the service is efficient and friendly but not overbearing.
What we’re talking about - or what I’m talking about - is charging $$$$ for an entree like humble spaghetti and meatballs when you’re likely to get a better version at home or at a neighborhood joint.
Did I address Carbone anywhere in any of my posts? Perhaps you’re conflating my posts with someone else’s.
I’ve worked in the restaurant business as a writer and in kitchens and I resent your half-assed attempts to talk down to me.
I have been to Maple Block and there is absolutely nothing about it that says “fine dining”. Perhaps you need to spend some time boning up on the terminology given your aggressively pretentious handle.
So you won’t pay $$$$ for spaghetti and meatballs if the restaurant is beautiful, the dishes prepared with carefully sourced ingredients and the service is efficient and friendly but not overbearing, simply because the dish is not innovative?
Actually no, I wouldn’t. In addition, can you point me to this magically innovative place that serves old school spaghetti and meatballs? The two concepts - innovation and a 100 year old dish - are mutally exclusive, no?
Note that I mentioned I’m not referring to a reimagined dish. If I visited a high-end restaurant that offered some sort of unique take - say meatballs made with wild boar and foie gras over a house made pasta - I’d have absolutely no problem ponying up the dough.
service. rent. taxes. insurance. staff. ingredients. and. you.have.to.make.money. all mommy has to do is feed you.
look, man, we could go 'round and 'round on this all day. it’s just two people with differing opinions; nothing more, nothing less. you’ve presented no facts and haven’t changed my mind.
let’s let it go and stop boring the populace.
i support your choice to not eat spaghetti and meatballs that cost over a certain amount. i congratulate you on your killer spaghetti and meatballs recipe.
can i eat what i want where i want, now, please?
Let’s please remember to keep the topic food-related to the best we can, and specifically food-related with respect to Old School Italian in Los Angeles (or perhaps even somewhere near Los Angeles).
If people here wish to discuss the price-to-value of food, paying $X for a particular type of food or dish, or just QPR generally, there is a place for that on this board, but it is not here.
Discussions discussing the normative aspects of paying a certain dollar amount for food vis-a-vis a specific poster is not acceptable, nor are normative judgments about any specific poster based on their willingness to pay, or unwillingness to pay, for food while dining out.
Jemange says: If the spaghetti looks like this (meaning the pasta is “clean”)
They’re doing it all wrong.
That pasta at little Dom’s: what you’re looking at is how all the authoritative books on authentic pasta say you gotta do it – if the sauce and pasta are all mixed together it’s like it came out of a big sloppy pot of noodles and sauce, an offense to Italian sensibilities. What everybody is sorta missing is that Italian restaurants 60 years ago (that “old school” we’re talking about) did spaghetti the way Americans were used to – how Mom served the Chef Boy-ar-dee. And then Jack Denton and Marcella Hazan wrote books to set us straight on the subject.
I would vote for either Casa Bianca (comfort food) or Columbo’s (old-school with a great bar), both in Eagle Rock.
