Luxury Life & Style - Westside - (Page 80)

delicious diversions endorse the tenderness of the elk medallions whilst his surly teenaged sister insisted on an entrée portion of kids’ mac and cheese. Saddle Peak similarly is full of surprises: a beautiful swirl of perfect pear purée around the rim of a bitter endive salad plate, the curried coconut soup poured table-side from a cast-iron Japanese teapot over tender tapioca pearls, the poached bone marrow done just so and served with a dainty espresso spoon on an otherwise manly plate of beef filet. Saddle Peak Lodge may look like a place where one expects faux-hunters to pick buckshot out of a piece of ripe plated grouse but in truth, they’re doing real food with real service and doing it well. A special note on wine: Saddle Peak has an absolutely stellar wine list, thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of General Manager Iain Walling, a Patina grad who has the heart of a sommelier. Iain went out of his way to greet us and then returned enthusiastically with a special bottle of wine he shyly suggested we try before I’d even had a chance to crack the surprisingly dense list. That this bottle was a $215 Jonata pinot noir from the Santa Rita Hills (with vaunted Screaming Eagle pedigree) was less meaningful to me than the enthusiasm with which Iain wanted to share it. I know that moment so well from my own professional experience; the desire to taste a special bottle in the hopes that those you share it with will understand why it’s worth uncorking. Thank you, Iain, for that generosity, and while the Jonata pinot in the 2005 vintage, a first release, was a bit too extracted and alcoholic for my personal taste, professionally I realize that it’s a wine destined for huge scores and cult status so I appreciated the opportunity to pair it with the filet of beef and that junior-high endorsed elk we’d also chosen for our dinner at the Lodge. We’d quickly depleted our critical Cheerios supply and with it, the Petite Gourmande’s patience. While a glass of 1966 Dows kindly apparated with Mr. Sexton’s dessert, we knew it was time to decamp so we left it untouched. The little one was done and then some, and she was keen on letting everyone in our near vicinity know about it. Driving home from Saddle Peak Lodge meant a particularly windy, white-knuckled drive in the mountains, a fact driven home for us by the cheerful valet who reminded us that an unlucky diner had been killed in a recent car accident, después de la cena, tomando la ruta peligrosa. I was glad once again that Mr. Sexton prefers iced teas to anything fermented since we were taking that dangerous route, and as we strapped the heavy-lidded infant into the car seat, I also BLT Steak felt a real appreciation for the gracious reception and outstanding dinner we’d received at Saddle Peak. They’d made us welcome, fussy baby and all, and that’s classy service. We’d make it our local gourmet hangout if only there were a few more guardrails on the winding way home from Piuma to Tuna Canyon – the food and wine are that good. If you are looking for genuine haute cuisine served with a real commitment to service, albeit under the glass eyes of some dusty stuffed friends, then head up to Saddle Peak from your neck of the woods. You’ll be glad you made the drive. We certainly were and look forward to returning on a weekend night when we harried three are again reduced to a romantic duo, as it is a real culinary crime to waste Dows ’66, a mistake we won’t make the next time we visit Iain and his talented colleagues at Saddle Peak Lodge. Saddle Peak Lodge 419 Cold Creek Road Calabasas 818-222-3888 saddlepeaklodge.com BLT STK 411 FYI Confused? I was. I had heard the buzz about the new steakhouse on Sunset, the latest outpost in Chef Laurent Tourondel’s empire, but I confess I didn’t immediately get the homage to a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. It’s actually an acronym for “Bistro Laurent Tourondel,” but somebody should have discouraged this eponymous nomenclature for us Amerikuns. And just to add to the confusion, there’s a nearby rival steakhouse, STK, on La Cienega’s Restaurant Row corridor, which is also a recent New York export compliments of the One Group and restaurant impresario Jonathan Segal. I was heartily wishing I had had my fabulously organized assistant, Miss MG, make my dinner reservation at BLT Steak as I grumbled at the 411 operator, fumbled my Bluetooth, battled traffic on Sunset and had absolutely no idea of where I was actually going for dinner. STK? BLT? CUT? Sizzler?! Did I really need another stupid steakhouse dinner with predictably overpriced sides of veggies and fantastically expensive cuts of beef? Luckily, my mood improved once I picked up Mr. Sexton at his office in Beverly Hills; nothing is quite as nice as admiring a handsome guy waiting on the corner and then realizing that he’s your husband. I also realized that BLT Steak now occupies the space that 80 Luxury Life & Style Premiere Issue 2008 saddlepeaklodge.com

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