For those of us who eat around, David Slay’s cooking is as much a part of our Southern California culinary life as Wolfgang Puck’s and David LeFevre’s. I mean, his dishes are all over the place—and they rarely, if ever, fail to amaze.
I don’t know what Slay’s food was like when he was the best chef in St. Louis; my regional snobbery makes me think it couldn’t have been as good. (Which may indeed be anything but classic Californian exceptionalism!) But I got to know him, too, when he moved to Los Angeles many years ago and opened David Slay’s La Veranda in Beverly Hills . His cooking was simple, clean, not flashy, but always so good.
The only dish I remember, because it is a food from my childhood reimagined as an adult dish, is his pastina of the day. Pastina is a small, star-shaped noodle – a great dish for a sick child who needs to eat but doesn’t want to eat anything that involves chewing. My mother used to make it, using a box made by Ronzoni, with melted butter and salt, which was about as exotic as her cooking.
Reuniting with pastina in a real restaurant, reconsidered by a skilled chef and made with a different flavor every day, was downright exhilarating. Mixed with porcini mushrooms or seafood or just some meat broth turned the little stars. It made them shine. And he told me that David Slay was inspiring… and unpredictable.
After Beverly Hills, Slay moved his food to Orange County, where he opened Park Avenue Steaks & Chops, which has since closed, and il Garage, both in Stanton, near Anaheim — and both were built around his obsession Slay to grow his own vegetables, a love of clay that dates back to St. Louis. And he grows the vegetables served at his namesake Manhattan Beach Steak & Fish House. To which Slay Italian Kitchen added.
And more recently Kill Hermosa (also known as Slay Beach Grill), in the space that was home for many years to El Gringo – an oddly shaped eatery at a curious intersection that seems to be neither here nor there. (For the record, he also created Slay Estate and Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills; Slayer’s label is all over the wine list.)
It probably took more than a few bottles of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to transform the terminally funky El Gringo into the casual Slay Hermosa. For those of us who have inhaled tacos and burritos in space over the years, it seems like a crazy impossibility. And yet… there it is. There’s a downstairs living room, a sort of adjacent outdoor patio around the corner – and up a steep flight of stairs, a fantastic rooftop space with a beautiful view of the Pacific a block away. (How the servants manage to get food from the kitchen downstairs is a wonder. They must have the legs of triathletes!)
As we’ve come to expect from David Slay, the unexpected is the norm at Beach Grill. At first, there was a rumor that he was opening a Mexican restaurant. And indeed, there’s Cholula sauce (of sorts) on grilled oysters, red jalapeños on daily fish crudo, and salsa verde on crispy striped bass. But this is no more Mexican than Italian, or Cape Codian, or old-school American—elements of which crop up here and there. This is Californian cuisine. But more than that, it’s dinner done David Slay style.
That daily fish crudo, recently yellowtail, is as fresh and flavorful as anything served in our best sushi bars—and the wasabi-flavored caviar gives it a sense of wonder that made me want to i can lick the plate Seafood is one of the dominant ingredients – chilled prawns with aged tomatoes and basil; shrimp a la plancha; bacon-wrapped scallops (with wildflower honey); a club sandwich with whitefish fillets (with Old Bay spice mayonnaise), sauteed sole fillets, crispy striped bass, mussels in a chardonnay and tomato broth, salmon niçoise.
For his summer menu, vegetables are everywhere. I could only have eaten the portobello mushrooms baked in a combined salsa verde and Caesar dressing (a very large mushroom at that); pan-fried carrots; tomato and watermelon salad; beaten beet salad. But in the midst of all these wonders, just south of the All American Burger, I came across the Summer Jam Grilled Cheese Sandwich. I hadn’t noticed at first. But then, he ended up at a table next to eight young women, fresh off the beach, who liked it so much they ordered more.
He doesn’t know if it was the food of their childhood. But it was definitely my food. Although, of course, they’re not topped with a plum jam and both Fresno and Calabrian chili peppers and a blend of yellow cheddar and Havarti. I guess it was a taste of David Slay’s youth and in the Midwest, off to SoCal for a very tasty vacation.
Reservations are a challenge here. Parking is a headache. And it’s all worth it. David Slay always was. And I have no doubt, he always will be. I can’t wait for what’s next!
Merrill Shindler is a freelance food critic based in Los Angeles. Email [email protected]
Kill
- Rating: 3 stars
- Approach: 2620 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach
- Information: 310-921-8779, slaybeachgrill.com
- Kitchen: New American/Californian
- When: Dinner only, Tuesday through Sunday
- Details: Wine and beer; reserves beyond essential
- Atmosphere: Talk about an amazing change! In a space that was, for many years, the home Mexican joint called El Gringo, South Bay’s latest restaurateur David Slay uses every inch of the curious hillside space—inside, outside, upstairs on the roof – to offer some of the best dishes the master chef has ever created.
- Prices: About $65 per person
- In the menu: 9 appetizers ($8-$24), 5 salads ($14-$19), 4 burgers and sandwiches ($18-$29), 9 mains ($24-$51), 4 sides ($8-$14)
- Credit cards: MC, V
- What do the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to dine. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry and it’s nearby, but you’re not stuck in traffic.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)
