There’s a new kid in town-friendly, spirited and with the easy kind of good will everyone wishes lived in their neighborhood. The town is Brentwood. The lucky neighborhood is Wilshire and Barrington. And the new “kid” on the block is a great eatery called Foodies. Just upstairs from Pollo Inca, it’s stripped-down simple in style with an unassuming menu that calls out the best of new California classics-ahi tartare, Cobb salad, seared seafood with mango salsa and lots of pasta. What makes Foodies such a stand-out is exceptionally high quality ingredients, good natured servers who neither tell you their first names nor condescend to recite a few suggestions and the culinary skills of its master chef.
The owners, chef Mark Brown and General Manager Jonathan Weiss, started out working together at Ma Maison, and they had such a good time they promised themselves that someday they would open a place of their own-as good as Ma Maison, but different. For one thing, the food would be American and the meals would be affordable so people could make a habit of coming everyday if they wanted for lunch or to hang out after work. It would be comfortable, casual and the food would be “healthy” without making a big deal of the fact. In short, it would be an “American Grill.”
Judging by the crowds around noon on a weekday, Foodies has proven to be habit-forming. What’s so good it’s addictive? For starters, try the air-baked fries. I’m too politic to call them French, but picture a bountiful mound of perfectly crisp, moist and tender potatoes with only half the fat-but all the flavor-of traditional fries. The secret is in the processing, which involves coating precut potatoes with potato starch and then baking them in a special oven that works a bit like a popcorn popper.
Another great dish we enjoyed was the rib-eye salad. It came big enough to threaten a landslide off the plate, a glistening mlange of soft, spring lettuces, subtle blue cheese, chopped tomatoes, corn and black beans all crowned with generous thin slices of charbroiled beef and a handful of deep-fried onion rings. What made it memorable was the vinaigrette made with a light, fruity olive oil spiked with slivers of mint. Big enough to share and good enough not to.
A very popular dish is the Macadamia Nut Encrusted Salmon with Apple Maple Glaze. Fresh Atlantic salmon is sauted with fresh warm Granny Smith apples, encrusted with Macadamia nuts and served with a sauce of lemon juice, maple syrup and butter.
An excellent barbecue tofu was crunchy on the outside, creamy and tangy inside, with just a hint of sweetness and lip-tingling spiciness. Served on a bed of delicate fried spinach, it was another winner. All these dishes come from recipes Brown perfected as personal chef-to-the-stars such as Wayne Gretzky and Kirstie Alley, where healthy cooking became a passion for him.
Foodies serves excellent wines, reasonably priced, by the glass and offers an interesting selection of micro-brews, just the thing to drink with the warm J&J pretzels, served in lieu of rolls.
Foodies: 11701 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles 310.473.8272. Closed Sundays.