Gastrodeliciousness at Village Idiot

Village Idiot
7383 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90046-7526
(323) 655-3331

Ridiculously behind in my posts, this is what a great deal of travel does to the lowly food blogger. A few weeks back, D and I stopped into Village Idiot during errand running after trying to find Ricky the fish taco guy near the Silver Lake Farmer's Market. Fail, on that front anyway.  Gonna hafta give that another whirl because not only does Eat, Drink & Be Merry report in on Ricky's deliciousness, so does Diana Takes a Bite, Eating LA, Will from Food Digger, and the Twitterati (on the weekend, his name pops up consistently from noon through 4, both Saturdays and Sundays). I am nothing if not a trend hound.  At any rate, our errands took us farther west and we landed at Village Idiot, B & M's local haunt.

 

The large chalkboard on the east wall tells visitors about their specials, a Sunday Roast, guest beers on tap, luncheons and brunches, their Twitter feed, and so on.

Beers and wines.  I have stopped in a couple times, most memorably after a special benefit event at The Foundry in which they fed us almost nothing. S & I came over to the Idiot for delicious mussels.  Telling is the fact that I haven't visited more. When passing by and spontaneously hungry, Village Idiot is usually bursting at the seams with drinkers and diners. This is why. The why of the burstingness.

Heirloom tomato and ricotta salad with large flat leaf parsley.  The variegated stripes in these tomatoes made us think they were peeled, they were not and they were delicious. I like the surprise of ricotta instead of burrata here, but the salad was missing its red onion.

Squid salad with frisee, cherry tomatoes, arugula, preserved lemons. The flavor in this was immense from the preserved lemons. The greens being slightly overdressed can be forgiven because the squid were grilled to delicate, soft and easily chewable perfection.

Brussels sprouts with smoked bacon. YUM! The bacon chunks were huge, and the sprouts had a very present acidic note. Maybe balsamic? So good.

Echoing some of the flavor sensations of the Brussels sprouts was a grilled pork belly on collard greens with cooked apple slices. The salty pork, the slightly sour collards, the sweet apple. I have never had better pork belly anywhere. An incredibly Southern dish, this screams Americana.  Gosh, I want it for lunch today and am sorry to be spending my time far east of the Village Idiot.

D ate fish tacos in the end, despite having missed Ricky. Suggestion has powerful influence on a hungry man's appetite.  Snapper, grilled with cherry tomatoes, herbs, and onions. A giant cabbage salad, which we ate with a fork, not a tortilla. And a nice mound of little corn tortillas, fresh and warm if not housemade.

I wish we ate here more often, I wish we lived down the block.