Still Crazy After All These Years
Campanile remains highly innovative Campanile remains highly innovative and worth the expense
By Richard Foss
There aren't many L.A. restaurants that can claim they've actually changed the way we eat. Well, not with a legitimate claim, as many places have opened with much fanfare and promised, unsuccessfully, to re-educate our palates. Although everyone's list of true groundbreakers will be slightly different, most probably include Spago, Matsuhisa, and Chinois on Main. Most will also include Campanile and the La Brea Bakery, two innovative businesses under one roof.
La Brea Bakery changed everyone's standards for bread - before it opened, there were decent bakeries around L.A., but none that offered so many rustic European styles or that had such ambitious ideas about making them available all over town. As for Campanile, executive chef Mark Peel's fusion of Mediterranean ideas with then-unfashionable American dishes was a revelation, and his focus on quality ingredients and heirloom vegetables awakened diners' interest in the components of their meals.
After 18 years in business, the place is still popular - but is it still good, and is it worth the relatively high bill? I went there for lunch with friends to find out. We were seated in the sunlit front room - still one of the prettiest places to dine in town - and allowed a few minutes to muse over the menu. The fusion of Italian and down-home American can still be surprising - few chefs would consider pairing an Italian pork loin with ramps, the famously stinky wild onion native to the Carolinas, and there were other intriguing combinations.
As interesting as the menu was, we started with something that wasn't on it. When we asked our server his recommendation for a starter, he suggested penne Bolognese ($14), which sounded rather pedestrian compared to the menu offerings. But we were wise to heed his advice because the course was exceptional. The tube pasta was cooked like Chinese potstickers, boiled and then fried on only one side, so that each noodle had two different textures. Along with the lightly sweet, herbed tomato sauce with shreds of beef, it was an excellent way to begin the meal.
In fact, it overshadowed one of the main courses, a grilled Tasmanian ocean trout served over a mix of sweet peas, spring onion, and morel mushrooms, then topped with Green Goddess dressing ($21). The fish had been oven-roasted - a bit over-roasted, in fact, though the slightly dry fish was adequately balanced by the moist layer of vegetables beneath. The element that was out of place was the dressing, which had nothing to do with the rest of the items. I would have counted the entrée as a modest success without this misstep; as it was, I scraped the dressing off the fish and ate the rest, intermittently wishing I had ordered more pasta Bolognese instead.
My companions had the crisp flattened chicken with mashed potatoes, lemon and garlic confit ($22) and the sautéed black bass with pancetta and roasted cherry tomatoes ($22). The "crisp flattened chicken" had only one problem - namely, it wasn't crisp. In traditional Italian cooking a very hot brick is set upon a boneless breast so that it cooks from both sides, but on the day we were there I'd guess the brick was barely warm. The chicken skin was moist and the flavor was fine, but it wasn't what we expected. The potatoes that came with it were good, and the lemon-garlic confit was delicious, so the dish wasn't a total failure even though it wasn't what we hoped.
The sautéed black bass, however, was a complete success; I don't generally think of wrapping fish with shreds of thinly sliced ham, but it worked very well. The pancetta was crisp, and combined with the flaky fish, crunchy fennel, and fruity grilled tomatoes made for a rich variety of flavors and textures. This was cooking at peak expertise - all the flavors built to a subtle and satisfying whole, and proved that Peel isn't resting on past glories. The dish wasn't flashy or outrageous, but like the starter pasta, it sure did work.
As to whether a meal at Campanile is worth the expense, I can only say that it was to us. Lunch for three with glasses of wine and two bottles of sparkling water ran about $100 - not what I'd pay every day, but a real treat we'll remember for a long time. It was a pleasure to revisit one of the places that formed our sense of what a modern L.A. restaurant could do and be, and find that Peel and his staff still have the chops that first brought Campanile to our notice.
Published: 06/07/2007
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