Santa Monica: Belcampo Meat Company Is Now Open

Belcampo Meat Company, Santa Monica is now open. I got to check it out during a limited-run preview last year with guest bartenders.

The Downtown Los Angeles location at Grand Central Market is very popular but there’s a big difference between DTLA and Santa Monica. They have cocktails in SaMo! Both butcher shops though feature food and lots of inventive ways to eat meat.

We started with the truffle oil chex mix. This as you can imagine is very addictive.

The drink paired with dinner was Rome with a View, a nice drink to open up your appetite and pairs easily with the meat-centric dishes that hit the table next. Plus, I love anything with Campari.

Rome with a View-  Campari, vermouth, lime, simple syrup,  soda

Hearts are the one organ meat I truly love. If I see heart, I’ll eat it. And beef hearts really should be more popular. Served with chimichurri, it was also a popular pre-main course app.

Some got the beef fritters as their appetizers. Have you ever wished Cuban potato balls were all meat? Or a better example, arranci weren’t all rice? Maybe something close to Seoul Sausage’s balls? Yeah, Belcampo’s are a good thing.

As mentioned, Belcampo brought in guest bartenders and I caught Andrei Kissin from the now shuttered Rivera and Karen Grill now at Sassafras. Andrei’s Vera Wang drink was the most popular of the night. It’s a mix of mezcal and Charaeu, an aloe vera liqueur. Chareau might be LA bartenders’ ketchup but it’s a tasty ketchup. Plus that aloe foam? Oh my!

Vera Wang – mezcal, Chareau aloe vera liqueur, lime, mint, absinthe, aloe foam

Belcampo is known for their burgers so it was no surprise we ordered them. The fries fried in beef tallow (beef fat) are pretty amazing.

I loved that little flag announcing my burger is Medium Rare aka, MR! Maybe because it’s a relaxed location and we had a few appetizers but I found the Belcampo burger to be the perfect size (sometimes I think they’re a little small when I’m dashing through the Grand Central Market for a quickie lunch).

For dessert we had panna cotta topped with fruit. It was a light way to end after our beefy meal.

As mentioned I caught up with Karen at Belcampo when she did her guest night there. She turned out Purple Rain, a Julian Cox gin drink from Rivera. Julian’s Soigne Group with Josh Goldman will be handling the drinks for Belcampo Santa Monica. I can’t wait to try them! Plus with Julian and Josh’s Brillianshine nearby, you can make quite the “soigne” bar crawl.

Sadly, Brilliantshine just closed (4/19/15). Try nearby The Chestnut Club instead for a mini bar hop!

Belcampo Meat Company

1026 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401 —  310-451-5750

© The Minty  2015