Halloween isn’t a holiday that’s traditionally associated with fine dining, but this spookiest of traditions was at the heart of a surprise restaurant opening in downtown LA earlier this week. On Monday night, while early trick-or-treaters gallivanted outside (and some of them inside), the Ace Hotel quietly closed out their previous ground floor property, LA Chapter, and ushered in Best Girl.
The name is a callback to another onsite Ace property; the first movie ever screened at The Theatre next door was on Halloween, back in 1927. That film was called My Best Girl and stars the legendary Mary Pickford, and the new restaurant takes its name from the film.
Best Girl is helmed by Michael Cimarusti, an unassuming chef who has quietly taken over LA’s sustainable seafood scene. He’s already well-known for other properties focused in that area, including the New English seaboard-inspired Connie & Ted’s in West Hollywood, the market Cape Seafood & Provisions on Fairfax, and his flagship fine dining seafood restaurant Providence on Melrose, which he operates with co-owner Donato Poto. Cimarusti and co also opened a brand new seafood stall, Il Pesce Cucina, in the Century City Eataly location this week — so he’s nothing if not busy.
Cimarusti’s partnership with the Ace is one of his first properties that is not entirely seafood-focused, and perhaps the room to experiment has served him well. In his first turn away from fish-first dining, Cimarusti has concocted some real left field knockouts, like the Porterhouse steak for two ($62), that steers clear of fussy baked potatoes or spinach by doubling as the filling for tacos. Served with housemade cream, salsa, guacamole, and a heaping pile of warm and soft corn tortillas, the steak was transformed into an LA street food staple. My companion ordered the steak rare, and it was perfectly seared on the outside and delightfully juicy and pink inside.
What came before was just as pleasing, half a dozen oysters with pickled horseradish were a cut above standard offerings, crisp, succulent, and hinting that Cimarusti still has better connections (or taste) in the seafood world than most chefs ever will. The crudo of the day ($18) had a bit of spice in a jalapeno garnish; a nice, round mouthfeel thanks to the avocado; and a hint of the sea with aonori (a Japanese seaweed called “green laver” in English). A recent visit to the Ace’s New Orleans property, Josephine Estelle, tipped me off to the importance of crudo in a meal, and though this dish is small and slight, it adds immeasurable levity to the evening.
Cimarusti’s sustainably sourced fish showed up in the form of smoked black cod in the Frisee salad ($19). It was paired with a 63-degree egg, a treatment precise enough that it was neither runny nor cold and hard like boiled eggs might be. Even so, the crunch in this salad outshone both fish and egg, and it was fun to attempt a bite with all three elements included.
Maybe it was due to my strong pre-dinner bourbon cocktail, The Wildcat (which came with a charitable donation of $1 to a local organization dedicated to ending hunger, Lunch On Me), but I didn’t fully understand the Porterhouse was designed as tacos, and somewhat foolishly ordered a side of crispy potatoes ($9) to accompany it. Still, I have a soft spot for fingerlings, and these were meaty and tasty. They probably would’ve paired better with the menu’s other steak, a hanger ($32) with cipollini onion, honey nut squash, and horseradish.
For dessert, we opted for the Apple Crostata ($9) a gorgeous little pastry dish with apple butter, vanilla ice cream, and cider syrup. Due to the colder ingredients on top, it wasn’t as piping hot as I would’ve liked, but tasted divine paired with an after dinner shot of chartreuse. A proper after-dinner drinks list is a good reminder that, above all, this is an Ace Hotel property, where there’s never a shortage of all the classic elements of hospitality.
Which is the other thing that made our dinner such a treat — service as attentive and personal as Best Girl’s makes every diner feel like they’re a VIP. That attention to detail and hospitality is the real tradition that Best Girl has set out to, and will carry this exquisite new restaurant into many, many more Halloweens to come.
