A-Frame and Their Big Bag Daiquiri, King Tubby

Anytime I’m heading to Culver City, I try to find excuses to stop in at A-Frame. I have always been enchanted with the A-frame building (former IHOP, yo) and I genuinely enjoy the food as well as the cocktails. I shouldn’t play favorites but this is my favorite of all of Roy Choi’s restaurants.

 

A couple of months back, I had the clam chowder and just fell in love with it. It’s not your typical clam chowder where it’s just all cream and ostensibly clams but could pass for chewy bits of rubber. A-Frame’s has fresh herbs to balance out the thick broth and you can go crazy with the carbs with huge pieces of bread instead of worthless croutons (I’m a crouton-hater). The chowder also has a ton of chopped smoky bacon. I could just have this chowder and be happy. But you know what? I love other things on the  menu just as much including the beer can chicken which I also ordered this night.

Angela Gomez, formerly of Cana Rum Bar, has taken over the bar at A-Frame. When I first walked up, there wasn’t a table yet so we decided to have a drink at the bar first. I was choosing between the King Tubby or Pale Rider. She asked me if I was in the mood for a big, bad daiquiri or a Negroni. Well, if you put it this way, a big bad daiquiri it is! And that’s how I ended up with the King Tubby (Jamaican rum, Nicaraguan rum, Averna, lime, Angostura bitters). The Pale Rider (Gin, Cocchi Americano, Dolin Blanc, grapefruit bitters) will have to be saved for next time.

Angela swung by to check on us and asked what I was thinking next. Instead of getting the drinks list again, I asked her for something to go with the meal. She brought over Venice Walk of Shame (Jameson, plum, honey, house-made jasmine bitters). If you’ve ever wandered around Venice in the wee morning hours, I dare you to not think it smells like Jameson mingling with the flowering jasmine. Oh, and look to see who’s walking around…

The drink, by the way, is perfect.

 

I hadn’t even thought about the corn bread (as I tend to ignore carbs that aren’t noodles) but my friend wanted to get it and I’m so glad we did. This was incredibly crumbly — in a good way. It had already been buttered but I was intrigued to try it with the tangy sauce they brought with the corn bread. Oh, it was neat. It reminded me of freshly grilled corn you got on the streets. Elote…

 

Octopi LA. I’m not going to make any jokes because this is a serious dish for any lover of tenacle-y parts. The sauce was hardly necessary to gobble down all the octopi.

 

The last dish we tried was the tonkatsu. Instead of rice and curry, A-Frame’s version came with a great slaw and Korean rice cake noodles. I enjoyed the texture of the rice cakes and the pork was a generous portion. We had ordered too much so I had the rest the next day. I definitely recommend heating in a toaster oven rather than a microwave.

For my final drink, I got the Luddite’s Sweet Revenge (Guyana rum, gin, pineapple, lime, thyme, cacao, tiki bitters). Who says rum drinks are all light and citrusy? They obviously have never heard of tiki drinks. Luddite’s was a lovely way to end the night. Here’s my dessert right here.

 

A-Frame

12565 Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066 – (310) 398-7700

 

© The Minty 2013