caught between a bottlerock and a hard place

BottleRock
1050 S Flower St.# 167
Los Angeles, CA 90015
(213) 747-1100
http://www.bottlerock.net/

price: $$
verdict: omg, i love it!

every once in a while, i have a spectacularly crappy friday that requires a lot of indulgent activities to forget. this past friday was one of those days....oh how irked i be!

not allowing myself to wallow in negative energy, i called a friend up and we headed straight for bottlerock to do a little bit of spirit lifting with some liquid spirits. what a great choice it was too because bottlerock is a super cool, hip, delicious place in downtown with various nooks and crannies for an utmost chillaxin' experience. i felt like i was sitting in the middle of bevmo or something, but cooler.

we got there 1/2 hour before the curtain closed on happy hora. good thing too because i ordered a chardonnay and a malbec for a great price per glass to get me those fuzzy fire water feelings. delicious!

we also ordered 2 delicious happy hour eats. the pricing was more than happy. i love shit priced at $5. seriously.

the green curry mussels were OFF THE HOOK. super plump, juicy, and fresh. i jocked that curry sauce like a curry virgin and sopped that sauce up with bread until every drop was gone. magnificent.

we also ordered the antipasto, a selection of cheeses, cured meats, candied walnuts, and olives so that i can nibble as i sipped me wino. lovely.

understanding that this dinner was meant to heal the spirit, we decided to order as much as our stomaches could handle. we started with the chicken ballontine which was a round of roasted chicken breast stuffed with meats, pistachios, and sweetbread. this fancy turduken-esque inspired chicken was accompanied by a mustard seed sauce, vinegared cucumbers and carrots, and a pistachio foam. the entire dish is a "cold" dish and reminded me of a vietnamese meat patty we eat called "zaw (rhymes with jaw)." after a quick conversation with the server, it is clear that most of the dishes are asian inspired even down to the marinated cucumbers and carrots which tastes like the condiments you get in a banh mi. it was tasty!

we then ordered the pork belly risotto which was THE BEST DAMN DISH of the night. the portion is small so don't expect to get full from it if that is all you plan to eat, but the taste is larger than life. in my opinion, it's ideal to have a smaller portion size for this decadent dish or else it is way too much. seriously, how many globs of fat can you eat? the pork belly is uber fatty and the risotto was aldente and creamy. it's topped off with dried shredded pork (that i use to eat as a poor college student) with a side of pig ear terrine. spicy greens topped the dish to cut through the fattiness of the dish. it's like my mom's home cooking gone to culinary school. this dish is a must if you like pork belly. so freakin' good!

yes please! directly into my pie hole!

the roasted half chicken. full entree which was delicious in its own right, but nothing to make deals with the devil for. this dish could have been excluded from our friday gorge fest.

bone marrow with fried capers and sweetened onions. again, you have to like fatty tasting things. the bone marrow tasted like globs of vasaline to me. even if you were to spread that on bread, all you really did was make vasaline bread. i've had them better elsewhere, so this dish could have been skipped as well. the fried capers were excellent though. truly excellent especially since i've never tried them prepped this way.

the whole meal concluded with a cakey chocolate chip cookie sandwich with vanilla ice cream courtesy of milk creamery. probably not neccessary for the overextended bellies of ours, but it was important to me that we ended this particular friday on a sweet note...and it was. thanks bottlerock!