DTLA: City Tavern at 7th & Figueroa Now Open

City Tavern located at 7th + Fig in Downtown Los Angeles is now open. Much like its Culver City sibling, City Tavern serves up a menu of gastropub nosh, craft beer and cocktails from Brent Falco and Cari Hah.

A good drink to waken the palate would be the Queen of Hearts. Just a bit sweet and tart, it primes you for a great meal.

Queen of Hearts – Leblon cachaca, Giffard fraises des bois (strawberry) liqueur, lime

I have always admired the veggie plate at the Culver City location and was glad to see it in Downtown. It was a mixture of pickled and roasted vegetables like Brussels sprouts, fennel, broccolini and cauliflower three ways- pickled, roasted, curried. It’ll probably change seasonally but you can count on the nuts, olives and cornichons always.

 

If seafood is more your style, I tried both the Hawaiian style poke and crudo.

 

I liked the crudo a bit more with the rich mounds of fish, avocado and plenty of fish roe.

 

City Tavern in DTLA has a patio and when we have our warm summer nights again, the Rose All Day would be perfect for both day and night.

Rose All Day – rose sparkling champagne, Beefeater gin, Leopold’s sour cherry liqueur, Maurin cherry liqueur, lemon

 

I think I’m a 12-year-old boy sometimes. Bring on the meatballs. Or possibly a dinner guest from an era where meatballs were a thing. There’s no easy way to say it so here we go- City Tavern’s (meat)balls are large and bouncy. Be sure to bathe ’em in lotsa sauce!

 

Some days all you want is a platter of meat and cheese. City Tavern delivers with piles of it. Make sure you get extra mustard to make mini sandwiches.

 

Our meat fest continues with the pastrami burger for those nights where you want to eat meat and more meat.

 

You always remember good fries. To go with the pastrami burger, one must get the fries. Unless of course you’re one of those odd people who don’t like fries (who are these people?).

I appreciated the Pineapple Express for the flavor bomb. A little bit sweet, a little bit spicy, a little bit… salty? Yep, the unicorn tears or salt, really tied everything together. It kind of reminded me of getting fruit from a street vendor. Plus, mezcal.

Pineapple Express – Nuestra Soledad mezcal, lime, pineapple juice, agave, jalepeno, Miracle Mile celery bitters, unicorn tears

 

Do you need a salad after all that food? Of course you do. Nothing beats fresh ingredients and this salad had really crisp lettuce.

 

City Tavern – Round 2! And on another night, I headed back to City Tavern to try more of the main dishes.

One of my favorite dishes we tried were the shrimp and grits. Perfectly grilled shrimp with a flavorful BBQ sauce.

 

Nicknamed the “best green beans in the world,” we got this dish both times we were at City Tavern. With the shallots, they really are great green beans. I will leave you to decide if they’re the best though.

For a Manhattan twist, try the Bitter Me Happy. The rye cocktail subs in Cynar for the sweet vermouth and two kinds of liqueurs for the sweet element. The result is a nutty, slightly bitter drink that’s approved by Manhattan lovers everywhere.

Bitter Me Happy – Rittenhouse rye, Cynar, Luxardo apricot liqueur, Luxardo hazelnut liqueur, Angostura bitters, Miracle Mile bitters

City Tavern takes on the classic pub fare like roast chicken but with a twist. Called Chicken Two ways, the chicken drumstick was surrounded by bits of chicken in the sauce.

My friend ordered her steak medium well which is more than I would have liked it cooked but it was still pretty juicy looking. It’s served with those great City Tavern fries.

If I had really thought about it, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the pot roast but only because we had so many other things. I took a couple of bites and wanted to keep eating but was too full. The great thing about pot roast is it’s great as leftovers. Sandwiches!

We had the most stunning looking carrot cake for dessert. We ate this all up and I don’t even like carrots! I particularly liked the baked carrot shreds as the garnish on top of the thick whipped cream. If there was ever a reason to just have drinks and dessert for dinner, City Tavern would be the place to go.

City Tavern DTLA

735 S Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90017  —  (213) 239-5654

© The Minty  2014