The Perfect Night Out: The 12 Most Outstanding Restaurants of 2013
In Los Angeles, which is becoming the shared-plate capital of America, no restaurant carries out the concept as imaginatively and flawlessly as Bäco Mercat. Give chef Josef Centeno a few square inches for plating and something startling appears, a mesmerizing amalgam of influences that seem based in America but travel worldwide.
The pan-seared rib eye at Bäco Mercat.
PHOTO: PEDEN+MUNK
Bäco Mercat is named for Centeno’s “bäco,” which is a flatbread sandwich. He invented it. He’s proud of it. Each version is undeniably tasty, and his signature bäco wrapper reminds me of the flour tortillas made by hand in Tex-Mex spots throughout San Antonio. Other dishes on the menu thrilled me more, but the customers were transfixed by everything. They were remarkably quiet, spellbound by the food. Here’s something else that startled me: Hair of the Dog, a beer from Portland, almost impossible to obtain. I’d never seen it in a restaurant.
The first dish to stun me was Abkhazian-chile-spiced hamachi crudo with avocado and, of all things, a crisp potato pancake. The hamachi was stellar and the potato pancake better than any I’ve eaten in any of the Jewish delicatessens throughout L.A. This was Jean-Georges Vongerichten meets Barney Greengrass. Geoduck was cooked a la plancha, with a small bowl of luscious chowder on the side. Pork di testa, which is fatty, came in olive oil, which is also fatty. It sounds excessive but somehow was not.
The housemade sweet-and-sour sodas
at Bäco Mercat.
PHOTO: DYLAN + JENI
The four of us at my table decided Centeno’s food was a little Spanish, a little Basque, a little Moroccan, and a little Mediterranean. Or maybe Maghreb would better sum it up. The desserts, prepared by the chef, are precisely what you usually get when chefs move into the pastry department: singular in style. Here every one of them is supremely creamy, with the texture of banana-cream pie. In fact, I recommend the banana-cream-pie rice pudding.
A DRINK AND DISH NOT TO MISS
Hair of the Dog “Adam” Hearty Old World Ale, dark, sweet, and smoky
+ warm eggplant salad and cucumbers (really slightly sour pickles)
Source: GQ Magazine