Silver Lake Supper: Dusty’s & Speranza

I found myself in Silver Lake for dinner a couple times in the past week or so. Once I mentioned Dusty’s had poutine, the gay boyfriend was all over it. He had that along with their salad of the day, a Waldorf made with endive.

I seem to recall the poutine being a bit better. The gay boyfriend thought they were okay. Since he is obsessed with all things Canadian, I will take his word for it.

I don’t usually order beer for I have a special fondness for Delierium Tremens (must be the pink elephants). I should have known the bottled sort wouldn’t be as good. And Dusty’s didn’t have the proper glasses. So the server poured only a bit into my glass and it was all head. I poured more without really thinking about it (uh oh) and it frothed over like mad. Sigh. Not enjoyable at all.

At least my cioppino was good. I even though the rice in it was a welcome addition.

I really feel Dusty’s could be really good and I’ve heard it’s amazing for brunch but since I’m not in the neighborhood enough to test this theory, I’ll say this meal was just fine.

Dusty’s Bistro

3200 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026 – (323) 906-1018

 

Sometimes we have the best sort of luck. My dining companion wanted pasta and we hit up Speranza three days after they just re-opened recently. They had been closed as part of the process to get a beer and wine license. They mentioned they had been closed since August but started the process back in April. Wow, it takes some time to get that precious license! But we’re so glad they did because they served up some nice apertifs. I like my Lillet cocktail. A lot of the wines were only $6 a glass.

We started with the pear and fennel salad served with a horseradish dressing. The slight spiciness intermingled with the pear quite well. We also had a beef carpaccio that was very nice.

I asked for the veal ossobuco and our poor flustered server wasn’t sure they had veal but then suggested another veal dish to me. Bless his heart.

We also shared the pasta alla borga. The fish roe in this was almost overpowering. It’s a good thing I like fishy (in a good way) pastas.

Our server brought us cookie “crumbs” but stumbled along his explaination he would have given us whole cookies but due to the opening, somethingsomething something, he said we could have nothing or the crumbs. We took the crumbs. Bless his heart.

Now this is a cute neighborhood joint that I want to return over and over to. I loved the flowers everywhere, the blankets on the chairs in case you got cold and even our sweet bumbling server (bless his heart).

Speranza

2547 Hyperion Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90189 – (323) 644-1918