A new restaurant called Caulfield’s is now open at The Thompson Hotel in “phony” Beverly Hills, a concept from Laurie Mulstay and Ron Marino, founders of Hollywood’s The Bar and Magnolia and Santa Monica’s Bar Chloe. This is another entry in the recently emerging trend of restaurants paying homage to U.S. culture and recipe history, as found at Tar Pit and Township Kitchen Americana, and soon to be fawned over at Venice’s planned Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. So, who is heading up the kitchen here?
Chef Cody Diegel, formerly of Magnolia and Xai Veranda, is overseeing a selection of classic, Yankee-specific breakfast, lunch, and dinner dishes that includes bourbon maple syrup on your French toast and rosemary smoked salmon in the morning, small plates of beer mussels and sweet corn agnolotti, charcuterie (we think it’s required by law at new restaurants nowadays), steak for two with a tomahawk chop, whole branzino, house burgers, and Caulfield’s own peanut butter cups for dessert. We probably don’t need to tell you there will be hand-crafted cocktails and craft beer, too, but we’re going to anyway.
While the 110-seat three-room space is graced with bistro chairs, mahogany panels, Pullman booths, and large murals influenced by one at The Algonquin showing mid-20th century intelligentsia and black-listees cavorting together (think Rock Hudson with Jack Kerouac cozying up behind him, Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, Fritz Lang, and yes, even that social animal Salinger), the wine department is overseen by Christian Hammer formerly of New York’s Pastis, Balthazaar, and various Andre Balazs projects (but no relation to The Hebrew Hammer, we’re told). The bar manager, meanwhile, will be Anthony Settecase, who brings his wisdom from past gigs at New York’s Pravda, Downtown’s Las Perlas, and recently a stint at Bar Chloe.
Following the failure of Bond Street, will ditching sushi for steak pull industry honchos into its backroom to smoke cigars over a two-scotch lunch while signing Hollywood’s big thing? Hey, the vibe still works for Grill on the Alley, so maybe only time will tell.
Caulfield’s, 9360 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills.
