Steve Samson Zach Pollack

Steve Samson & Zach Pollack

6 course individually plated menu, fifty four dollars/ Bar bites (stuzzichini) $4-$8 /cocktails $12/Italian regional wine pairing, or by the glass or $20 corkage

Stuzzichini (snacks)
grilled bread with pesto modenese $4
fire-roasted mortadella with house-made giardiniera $6
crescentine with salumi and stracchino $8
eel spiedino with anchovy butter and sultanas $8

Menu – 6 course prix fixe fifty four dollars
wood oven-smoked black cod with potato and frisee
minestra nel sacco
robiola tortelli with brown butter and parmigiano
tagliatelle with sweetbreads, chanterelles, and leeks
bollito misto with traditional accompaniments
fried milk with roasted grapes, candied pine nuts, mosto, and creme fraiche

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All guest checks include a service charge of 18%. While additional gratuities are appreciated, they are neither required nor expected. Substitutions politely declined. Vegetarian options are not available during this chef’s brief tenure. Substitutions politely declined.

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September 23-25 “Agli Isolani” (“For the Islanders”)

$44 per person for food- individually plated/Stuzzichini $2-$8/cocktails $10-13 each/Sardinian and Sicilian wines or $20 corkage

PRIX FIXE: FOUR COURSE ITALIAN MEAL

ANTIPASTO |grilled mackerel ‘in scapece’ with cauliflower, crispy buckwheat, cured lemons, and pesto pantesca (Sicily)

PRIMO |‘maharrones de pungiu’ with zucchini, its flowers, chilies, and bottarga (Sardinia)

SECONDO | grilled lamb ribs in agrodolce with wild fennel, oranges, and parsley (Sicily)

DOLCE | pecorino ‘seadas’ with bitter honey, juniper, and figs (Sardinia)

add cannoli (Sicily) for $4.00 each

STUZZICHINI (appetizers)

marinated castelvetrano olives $2
chickpea panelle with ragusano $5
charred octopus with caponata siciliana $7
pane guttiau with white beans and bottarga $8
‘porcetto allo spiedino’ with chicory and myrtle $6

It is no mystery that Italians take tremendous pride in their culinary heritage. A trip to virtually any town in Italy confirms this. Not only does every region have a cuisine uniquely its own, nearby towns and even households might make the same dish very, very differently. These ubiquitous variations—perhaps the only unifying characteristic in an otherwise nebulous definition of Italian cooking—are in part the result of tangible elements like geographical features and political boundaries, but they also stem from deep-seated cultural differences that have developed throughout Italy’s tumultuous past.

Sicily’s history as a political doormat for civilizations passing through the Mediterranean—from the Greeks and the Romans to the Saracens and the Bourbons—has left a very palpable imprint on the island’s bold cuisine, whose flavors recall northern Africa more than they do northern Italy. Likewise, Sardinia’s cuisine is distinct from those of the mainland, but by contrast to Sicily’s, Sardinian cookery is less the product of social intermixing through centuries of foreign occupation, and more the result of isolation. The island’s rugged terrain and often inhospitable coastlines have given rise to a profound and enduring tradition that can only be described as pastoral. Even today, there are three sheep for every person in Sardinia.

As cooks who have devoted our lives to Italian cuisine and spent time in kitchens in both Sicily and Sardinia, we are excited to offer you a meal that we hope will provide a glimpse into these deliciously different regions.

About Chefs Steve Samson and Zach Pollack:

Samson and Pollack met in 2006 while working in Los Angeles. They immediately connected over a common reverence for traditional Italian cooking, though they had come to love that cuisine from different situations. Samson, born to a Bolognese mother and American father, was exposed to the pleasures of Italian food at a young age. Whether it was the experience he gained helping his mother in the kitchen at home or annual family trips to Italy that eventually propelled him toward a career in Italian cooking, one thing is certain: once Samson left medical school to become a chef, he never looked back.

By contrast, Pollack’s obsession with Italian cuisine began later in life, while pursuing a degree in architecture from Brown University. During a semester abroad in Florence, Pollack, though impressed by the architectural masterpieces around him, was uniquely mesmerized by the local food scene. The profound appreciation for Italian cooking which for Samson had accumulated slowly throughout his youth seized Pollack in a matter of months, and, like Samson before him, Pollack realized that a career in anything but Italian food was simply not an option.

United by their almost religious devotion to Italian gastronomy, Samson and Pollack dreamed about opening a restaurant together from day one. In January 2009, they had the opportunity to do so when asked by restaurateur David Myers to open Pizzeria Ortica in Orange County. There, they created a warm and inviting destination where customers could enjoy Neapolitan pizza and other regional Italian dishes. Together they garnered rave reviews from numerous publications, specifically for their wood-fired pizzas and homemade pastas. Notwithstanding the restaurant’s off-the-beaten-path location, Samson and Pollack attracted the attention of international culinary publication Starchefs, which honored them as Rising Stars in 2010; they were the only chefs in Orange County to receive this award. Yet despite the numerous accolades they received at Ortica, the two chefs always yearned to bring their cooking home to fellow Angelenos. At present, they are working to open a southern Italian restaurant here in L.A. where blistered Neapolitan pies will feature alongside lesser-known regional specialties.