The New Kid

Besha Bids Auf Wiedersehen to Spago

Night at the museum
Night at the museum Photo: Spago

Besha Rodell casts her tongue towards Spago, days before the restaurant shutters for the summer to undergo its grand renovation. Recounting the personal memorial services going on amongst each present party, she swears it’s “an interesting scene” and notes the end days for Puck’s Austrian heritage dishes like goulash and schnitzel, as big menu changes look set to sweep out the classics. Clearly the critic holds the restaurant in high esteem, bemoaning the lack of “curious culinary tourists” and positing, “Until this past weekend, Spago was serving some of the most flawless cooking in Los Angeles,” from a kitchen she notes is “steeped in balance and technique.”

Blown away by the perception that “every bite was carefully thought out” during her meal there, Rodell questions the need for the changes to come, knowing that Puck has a pass for serving signatures other chefs (and chain restaurants) have beaten to death because, well, he invented them and still makes them shine.

“Some restaurants fall gracefully into a kind of time warp, a testament to a dining era past. For certain places that’s fine, but Spago is too good to become a museum,” she ends, parroting Puck’s own fears and bidding adieu to the restaurant until September. [LAW]

Besha Bids Auf Wiedersehen to Spago