Bottega Louie October 4th

Bottega Louie
700 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(866) 418-9162

I almost consider Bottega Louie as much a service to DTLA as a restaurant.  With a deli, a bar, a cafe area and a proper restaurant, Bottega Louie gives Angelenos a destination for several levels of food service, similar to what one might see in Manhattan. Think the lovechild of The Odeon and a Dean & Deluca with a dash of Balthazar thrown in for good measure. Not really quite as good as any of those offerings in and of themselves, but DTLA ain't Manhattan. I'll take what I can get and don't call me Sally.

Having eaten at BL several times since they opened and not once been super thrilled, I was super thrilled last night when we stopped by for a nosh after the Table20 L.A.'s Best Bartender Party at Takami down the street.

After a little stroll in the pouring rain, our foursome slid ourselves into chairs at a couple adjoining cafe tables and waited just a hair too long for service.  Once our server got us rolling, he was great.

Something I have always liked about BL is the sheer number of small plates on the menu and how many of them are veggies. Everything appealed to me this time, I had a hard time narrowing down my choices. D started with the beautifully roasted Brussels sprouts.

I ate an entire serving of grilled asparagus with a fried egg (yummy slightly runny yolk).

Claudia nommed on a dish of mixed squashes with rosemary, mostly pumpkin, and the spinach below.

We all drank more wine than necessary for a Monday, but it was Monday and we needed to get this week off to a good start even if I felt a little less than 100% this morning. WTF. Sometimes ya gotta say it.

Michael dove into the meatball Parmesan sandwiches.

LOOK AT HOW HUGE HIS HANDS ARE! HE IS A GIANT!

Slider trio.

The kitchen sent us out a basket of portobello fries and I gotta say they were deeelishious! Lightly breaded, deep fried. I would order these on my next visit.

We sidled up to the bar for a change of scenery after we were done eating. No more than 30 seconds after we planted ourselves onto barstools did the bartender have D tasting a few different kinds of bourbon. Quel surprise.

We had a great time. BL was hopping in the main dining room well after 10PM on a Monday, the service was great, and the food was filling, reasonably priced and tasty. I should be hitting this more often.