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Restaurant: RepubliqueLA

I'm noticing a style of hip restaurant in Los Angeles -- maybe they've been around awhile and I'm late to the game -- but Bestia and Republique fall into a similar category of intensely flavorful, almost extreme-eating restaurants. The flavors and weight of the food are incredibly intense. As are the prices. These are not regular-night-on-the-town food excursions. These are splurges, I just got a raise or bday party type of spots. Nothing we ordered will sound too exotic - beef tartare, charcuterie, a couple salads, roast chicken, beef short rib, a couple pasta dishes - but everything was intense. There is almost no other way of putting it. You should not eat like this often, I imagine one would become quite unhealthy. My favorite dish was the roast chicken. Roast chicken is usually the most boring dish on a menu and rarely made better than one can do at home (or get from Pollo a la Brasa on Western). But here, the meat was delicious and the drippings very juicy and tasty. I'm sure it was expensive butter (and lots of it), but yum.

I want to also note, the "Martinez," their version of the Martini was one of the best - if not the best - "alternative" martini I've ever had. A real simple drink - gin, vermouth, maraschino, and bitters - it was not a martini, but a riff on a martini and I quite enjoyed. In some ways, it was like part-martini and part manhattan.