8474 Melrose Ave.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
323-655-6277
lucques.com
Price: $$$
By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter
Photography by RICH SCHMITT | Staff Photographer
For nearly 20 years, West Hollywood’s Mediterranean staple Lucques has been a culinary home away from home—a picturesque escape from the typical hustle and bustle found dominating the Los Angeles dining scene.
With a warm, colorful welcome—an element all too often lost within the white linens of upscale dining—I was greeted by a roaring fire. Shadows of lively dinner patrons flickered against the restaurant’s red brick walls, kindling a reminder of Sundays spent in my Italian grandmother’s kitchen. Rustic and charming, Lucques’ main dining room is designed to be transportive.
If you’re with a larger party (or just need more room to hand gesture), ask for a table in the back dining room. Drawing inspiration from classic Greco-Roman styling, the restaurant’s heated patio is reminiscent of a dreamy, romantic village courtyard—a hideaway where guests can receive year-round outdoor ambiance, complete with veranda vines. Much like its menu, Lucques’ decor is not heavy-handed. There’s not a single Coliseum replica in sight.
In operation since 1998, Lucques is the first restaurant opened by culinary superstar Suzanne Goin. Recognized across Southern California for her other two mainstays—The Hungry Cat in Santa Monica and Tavern in Brentwood—Goin’s nearly 20 years of achievement have recently earned her 2016’s prestigious James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef.
“Lucques” (pronounced “luke”) is named after a cultivar of olives grown primarily in the (former) Languedoc region of France. As expected, the restaurant’s namesake honors its most utilized ingredient—from the complimentary offering of green olives paired with almonds and freshly baked bread—to main entrees infused with the fruit’s aromatic oil.
I began the evening with the Lucques Gimlet—a vibrant cocktail of vodka, lime juice and a touch of fresh mint. Muddled to perfection, the gimlet goes down smoothly—perhaps too smoothly, as I found my glass empty after only a few sips. Delicious, but at its $16 price point, I would expect a little more generosity than a six-ounce pour. Oh, well—we were dining in West Hollywood, after all.
Our meal commenced with a colorful salad of winter greens and shaved roots atop a sweet beet purée, part of the Starters menu. The fragrant, house-made zhoug—a spicy yemeni herb vinaigrette—was well-balanced by the plate’s generous garnish of buttery chopped pistachios. Complex and hearty, I would have been satisfied with just this salad alone.
The sustainably sourced grilled Scottish salmon, off the Main Courses menu, came plated over a bed of crisped sweet potatoes and sautéed tatsoi—a versatile Asian green similar to spinach. Flecked with green olives and preserved lemon peel, the complexity of this dish intensified with each new bite. It’s not very often that a single dish will play host to three separate acts.
Other menu offerings included hanger steak with grilled chicories, garlic toast and lemon-anchovy butter, and grilled duck breast with shelling beans, duck sausage, black olives and mustard breadcrumbs.
Texture stood out to me as an ubiquitous theme across the entire menu—each plate blending and balancing its multitude of ingredients. Bitter flavors that run prevalent with greens like bok choy are always met with a savory counterpart.
For Dessert, decadence is celebrated in full. Sweet endings range from hazelnut cream and cardamom ice cream to Meyer lemon semifreddo. Full, but not usually one to pass on dessert, I decided to end the night in simplicity. Sampled from the confectioner’s plate, I choose a dark-chocolate-covered chunk of sweetened honeycomb.
I feel that it is important to point out that I have a dairy allergy that—more often than not—leaves me unsatisfied by the minimal options offered to me by most menus, but not here.
Lucques plays home to a team of knowledgeable, dedicated staff members whose sense of enthusiasm was felt strongly throughout each new coursing. Our server, Sarah, was a professional in the utmost sense of the term. She, like a few of her other colleagues, has been working at Lucques for nearly a decade—a fact that, when linked to an industry known for having a high turnover rate, only further exemplifies the restaurant’s outstanding consistency throughout.
After informing our server of my allergy, she quickly began rattling off ingredient lists and recommended dishes that the kitchen could alter without compromising their flavor profile. For many, this may not be much of a selling point, but for me—I felt comfortable and genuinely cared for. To my surprise, on Melrose Avenue, tucked away from posh and pretension—I felt at home.
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