Red O's pork belly sopes
I’m going to admit something to you that may get me disbarred from the L.A. Food Bloggers Association, if there was one. I don’t know who this Rick Bayless is. At least I didn’t really before I was invited to a blogger dinner at the new Red O Restaurant (Bayless created the Mexican cuisine menu but doesn’t own the venue). Red O, in the former Chocolat space on Melrose, had only been opened for two days and was already booked solid for a month, and here I was lucky enough to land a seat.
And for those who don’t know, Rick Bayless is a world-famous chef with PBS series Mexico — One Plate at a Time, several cookbooks and the title of “Top Chef Master” under his belt. Very impressive indeed. So remember earlier this year when foodies were all twitterpated about how L.A. would be the site of his first restaurant outside of Chicago? Well, now you, too, know what the big deal is. Apparently his guy knows Mexican food and he was gonna show off his skills right in our town.
Mattatouille and Teenage Glutster pondering the tequila.
For dinner, I was joined by bloggers Lindsay of LAist, Mattatouille, estarLA and Teenage Glutster as well as two publicists. We were treated to a seemingly neverending stream of tasty delights from pork belly sopes to Heirloom tomatoes and steak salad to Lamb in Chile Colorado.
And even given a tequila flight of Oro Azul Tequila Blanco, Corralejo Reposado Tequila, Don Julio Aņejo Tequila and Jose Cuervo Reserva De La Familia. (Thanks to Glutster for the list as I was on the other end of the table and couldn’t hear the sommelier’s description of each one. Blah.)
