CivicCouch

By Valerie Buck

The oasis is not a chic bistro, designed by a top name, low lit, contemporary furniture with nouvelle cuisine. Nor is it an ivy covered quaint café filled with charm and warm lighting. It’s a bar. A really old bar, and not the old “so old its new again” with red naugahyde booths haunted by Hollywood hipsters. It’s an old beach bar, where the newest thing is the flat screens slung around the circular space so the locals can watch their beloved Lakers and Kings. The typical menu is bar food; wings, burgers, munchies, some salads.

North End Bar and Grill in Hermosa Beach – not to be confused with North End Caffe in North Manhattan Beach is predominantly a neighborhood crowd. Most of the locals still refer to it by its previous incarnation “Critters”. It makes the news for the same neighbors griping about the little bar that a residential neighborhood sprouted around. Its wood paneled, with photos of the wall of men on horseback - instead of cars – the original regulars.

The dress code is as beach casual as it gets – with softball teams popping in post game. Jeans, flip flops, tee shirts, sweats, swimsuits covered by a tee shirt – and two guys who stopped in to watch Kobe after work.

But two times a week – something magic happens, so quietly you could miss the single sheet of paper set out on the bar, Monday Night Dinner Specials and Tapas Wednesday. The young girl bringing you your dinner, who looks barely old enough to drink is not your waitress, she’s the chef. Meet Jessica Jordan – and if you haven’t gone to North End on one of those nights – you are missing the best kept culinary secret in the South Bay. While Jordan looks like she could still be in high school, she in fact graduated from Mira Costa in 2003, and now several of her former teachers are very loyal for regulars. She took a typical local teen job at Beckers Bakery and went onto culinary school from there – working at Avenue restaurant as a line cook to build experience. Now, at 25 with clear vision rare for someone her age, she is taking charge of a project that gives her the creative freedom a larger relocation couldn’t provide, without the overhead to keep a snazzy setting in its electric bill. Her food is inspired and efficiency in ingredient use would make a kitchen manager proud. In fact, that is one of her duties around those menus.

“My inspirations are places that go above and beyond the ordinary. I hunt for new restaurants that have unique/regional/international inspired menus. I like to take ingredients that would be classified as one ethnicity and use them in a different ethnic food type. for example....sesame & ginger are considered Asian ingredients. I like to do something like Sesame Ginger Grits and served them with Miso Glazed Sea Bass.... making the grits not all that American,” said Jordan. It’s simplicity is brilliance. The concept talked about, but never quite executed – a bar, a sports bar, with amazing food, fine dining without the fuss. Some place the husband can watch the game, and the wife can marvel at the menu – while both in their sweats. Kobe is showing up twice – on the flat screen and in the sliders – while she can nibble on her Food Network fantasies like Prosciutto, Basil & Goat Cheese Calzone Pizza topped with a Balsamic Reduction and White Truffle Oil -$9. The romantic notion that the chef lovingly prepared the menu, gazing out the window before hitting a local Farmers Market for the best of everything is not a pipe dream. Jordan’s menu planning wins a hats off – and the flexibility that the two day a week duty gives allows her to personally select everything from the cuisine to which heirloom tomato makes it onto your plate.

“The most difficult thing about planning my menus is the weather! If it’s cold and windy my clientele drops. If it’s a beautiful sunny day business is better. It’s also hard to plan how much of each item will sell... sometimes the pork chops are a hot item and other times they are a dud. I guess it’s because the items are never really the same as the week before. My favorite time to plan the menu is during football season when the menu is based on the Monday Night Football home team. I do all items regional to that specific area. My favorite to make is New Orleans. I have never been, but some people highly doubt that because of things like my Fried Oyster Po boys, Jumbo Shrimp w/ Cheese Grits or my alligator gumbo.”

“My ingredients are sourced locally. If I have time I go to the Farmers Markets, if not I go to Whole Foods for produce. We use Santa Monica Seafood for our fish and Rocker Brothers for our meats. My friend also grows oyster & shitake mushrooms organically, his company’s name is “Shitake Happens”. People give the most feed back on the size of my Monday Night Dinners... ‘Oh my God its sooo big’. I did a 20oz prime porterhouse steak. They also talk about my baby back ribs... I know we are not a BBQ place, but mine are different. I braised them, usually in a ginger lemongrass BBQ sauce that I make. I leave them in the oven for about 5 hours and crisp them up on the grill. Knife and fork ribs! I also did an appetizer that was tempura lobster claws w/ Vanilla-Lemon Hollandaise, that got a lot of comments. I also have to say I love the fryer. I really wish i had a smokers because it would be limitless what would come out of there...”

The menu changes with every session, and EVERYTHING is taken into consideration. A rare cold blustery day finds comfort food taking stage. But this ain’t your Ma’s Meatloaf – it’s Spring Lamb Meatloaf, Mint Au Jus, Roasted Garlic & Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichoke, Lemon Olive Oil Aioli – for $17 – about half of what you would pay at that chic bistro or café. The soup that day was a Roasted Sweet Corn & Blue Crab Chowder, Baby Zucchini, Spring Onions, Oyster Mushrooms for $6, served in a bowl large enough that four people noshed to their hearts content. With a nod towards both the recession and the quality of food, all wine is discounted by $5 per bottle.

“My best sellers are hard to rate because the menus change so much but usually the filet mignon, any time i make it. My double cut pork chops usually stuffed with something like pancetta & goat cheese... whenever I make halibut it flies out of the place.... I also make a gigantic meatloaf whether it be lamb, veal or garlic clove stuffed, they all do pretty well. California really inspires me. We have the best of everything. There is no need for restaurants here to use lettuce grown in Mexico. We can be sustainable as a state,” concluded Jordan. The environmentally aware angle, emphasis on organic and locally grown foods and sustainability pledge are all typical hallmarks of the Generation Y2K movement, it also shows with the Facebook group “I <3 North End” (the <3 portion is facebook code for a heart shape). Every Monday and Wednesday she updates the menu using the group. One thing that is very clear is that this rising star will have opportunities heading her way – so pop into North End on a Monday or Wednesday before the mirage vanishes and visit paradise before its lost.

Click on any picture below to view full size.
All pictures by Scott Gorski