Lawry's the Prime Rib
100 N La Cienega Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211

For me, Lawrys has always been synonymous with prime rib, but in my one visit here I amazingly did not eat the prime rib. I wanted to go long ago, but after trying another restaurant in the group, Five Crowns, I was somewhat turned off. The restaurant is located in Beverly Hills on La Cienega down the street from many upscale restaurants including Matsuhisa and one of my favorite restaurants in LA, Sona. It finally took a special wine dinner to convince me and my friend to go back. The event was called the ABC (Anything But California) Wine dinner and it featured wines primarily from Oceania in this case, Australia and New Zealand.

This was my first time at a wine dinner and I did not know what to expect. Instead of dining at individual tables, the diners shared two long tables so smaller parties would be seated next to strangers. Fortunately we got two of the LAUSD's finest, both English teachers and very companionable conversationalists.

The evening started off with a little presentation by wine expert, Steve Hosmer. He spoke eloquently about sparkling wine/champagne and proceeded to open a bottle using an old napoleonic era bayonet to open a bottle of sparkling wine the old way, striking the top and forcing off the cork and the glass attached to it. Throughout the evening Steve continued to speak about each wine we were served, how the varietal came to be in Australia or New Zealand, and how to pair wine with food.

Hors d'Oeuvres - Sesame Seared Tuna on Star Fruit
Croser Sparkling Pinot Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley, Australia NV
A very respectable seared tuna, nicely colored and certainly a surprise from a restaurant I wrote off as a prime rib place. Although I felt the wasabi sauce was a bit grainy and didn't pair all that well with the fruit. The wine was a nice crisp sparkler that probably paired best with the tuna.


Hors d'Oeuvres - Gougeres
Croser Sparkling Pinot Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley, Australia NV
Cheese bread. Enough said. Warm and toasty on the outside soft and gooey inside, with a very mild buttery cheese.


Hors d'Oeuvres - Potato Pancakes with Caviar and Creme Fraiche
Croser Sparkling Pinot Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley, Australia NV
Probably my favorite of the three, the caviar was a domestic, that lacked some of the flavor and complexity of an oscetra or sevruga, but was enjoyable regardless. The potato pancakes were a touch too big and the outside was slightly overcooked making it hard slightly reminiscent of a tater tot from a cafeteria, albeit a much higher quality tater tot.


Crab Salad with Avocado and Mango
Knappstein Hand Picked Riesling, Claire Valley, Australia 2006
A fairly respectable crab salad, fresh crab meat paired with creamy avocado with a little mango mixed in for acidity. The wine was a dry riesling and fairly good with the dish, although I think I would have preferred a slightly sweeter wine.


Fennel-Scented Duck Breast with Pinot Noir Sauce
Wither Hills Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand 2005
Duck seems to be one of those dishes many top flight restaurants just do right. Given such stiff competition, Lawrys would have had to be extremely impressive. Sadly this was the weakest dish of the night. One piece of the duck was flat out dry, the rest were moist but still very tough. Nor did I care for the carrots and potatos that came with the dish. Ironically, the wine that came with this was probably my favorite for the evening.


Black Pepper Steak with Pomegranate Molasses
St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz, Barossa, Australia 2005
Well a place that does prime rib should know its steak and these guys sure as do. The steak was perfectly cooked, tender and flavorful. The sauce was thick and tangy and complimented the steak without overpowering the natural flavor of the beef. To go along with the peppery steak, we were served a nice spicy Shiraz.


Coffee Cream Tart in a Cocoa-Espresso Crust
Cockburn's 10 Year Tawny Port, Porto, Portugal
The dessert was fairly pedestrian, very intense coffee flavors, although that is to be expected with coffee and espresso. The best part of the dessert was the name of the port, its is pronounced Co-burn's although the phonetic pronunciation is far more entertaining.


The meal ended with some light conversation over coffee. Throughout the evening I had spoken to the staff about speaking with the chef, and touring the kitchen. Surprisingly, the waitstaff told us the chef rarely saw patrons because of his extreme shyness. On the balance, the kitchen tour we received was far more thorough than most.


The tour included a lengthy description of the business, including import numbers and turnover. I find it hard to believe, but they claim they can serve over 1000 guests during a busy evening, with normal weekends having numbers in the high hundreds. We got a look at the meat locker, which smelled overpoweringly strong, as well as a chance to see the trimmings Lawry's uses to make its gravy. Warning looking at that picture might not make you want to come.


The wine dinner has made me reconsider Lawry's and I will be definitely be back to try the prime rib. While the restaurant is not a fine dining experience on par with Melisse or Sona, nor is it a one-dimensional prime rib joint. In fact, the head chef supposedly enjoys the chance to show off his cooking prowess. I say supposedly because we did not have a chance to speak with him. We did however end the evening speaking to Mr. Hosmer.


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