If you know the history of eating around the San Fernando Valley, chances are good you’ll feel a distant inkling of déjà vu as you walk into Alto Fire to Table in Sherman Oaks.
More than a decade ago, the space was home to Joachim Splichal’s Pinot Bistro, an early branch of his Brobdingnagian Patina Group. Alto doesn’t look like Patina; the design has been turned inside-out and upside-down. But there’s a decided sense of déjà vu as you head past the venerable Iroha Sushi (hidden down a garden path), and the Park Motel, which feels left over from a Harry Bosch thriller. Alto is new and fresh, but it sits on a block with roots.
Alto is a restaurant with a curious schedule. It’s open for dinner only, from Wednesday through Saturday. Considering the amount of work that went into the restaurant’s creation, this limited availability makes a statement — which is that Alto is a very special occasion. An event, really. A meal to approach with anticipation and wonder.
We are told it draws its “inspiration from the vibrant culture of the Rio de la Plata region … the time-honored culinary customs of Uruguay and Argentina with a contemporary twist … [and] traditional open-fire cooking techniques from the Pampas region [using] locally sourced ingredients from California’s finest family farms.”
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The website feels like the credits running at the end of a Hollywood extravaganza. The design is by the Eme Carranza Studio. The wooden dishware is by Lorenzo Design; the ceramic by Alfar. The knives are by Helios Ureta Heredia. The photographer (!) is Soledad Recatume. The “founder chefs” are Uruguayan Juana Castellanos and Argentinian Esteban Klenzi. They’ve both worked at fabled Michelin multi-stars including Mugaritz in Spain. Juana is in charge of creative direction and operations, the FOH; Esteban is in charge of the fire.
Which — unlike Dunsmoor in Glassell Park, and Betsy in Alta — does not feature counter seating in front of the flames. In the case of Alto, the fire blazes at the back of the main room — a pyre of logs, glowing and crackling, and pulling all your senses in their direction. It’s a fire that mesmerizes. It perfumes. It cooks and it brands the dishes with its mark — the mark of Pele, of Prometheus, of Vulcan.
It’s primal — and so far from the many sushi bars that have defined Ventura Boulevard for decades.
I do wish there was a bar in front of the flames, so that I could have a better sense of which dishes are cooked over the open flame … and which emerge from the kitchen. That the dry-aged bone-in short rib — the asado banderita — is touched by fire is clear. Ditto the lamb saddle — the cordero Patagonico — aged in beeswax for 14 days, and grilled over rosemary leaves. The Japanese eggplant is braised in honey and bay leaf broth. The peppers “slowly confited in beef oil” over the charcoal. And the pork “Txuleta” — an applewood smoked chop, roasted in kombu seaweed.
The wood flames are also busy with the boneless Black Angus ribeye with wild mushrooms. The Surf & Turf of skirt steak and Maine lobster. And the roasted “Lions Mane” mushrooms, charcoal oven roasted with grilled spinach and cauliflower purée.
Of the half Jidori chicken marinated in lemon and herb oil, flavored with roasted pepper aioli, I cannot say. But the potatoes “rescoldo” — definitely, for the term “rescoldo” refers to burning embers used for cooking. In this case, with a potato and crème fraîche foam.
And unexpectedly, I think the “burnt” avocado salad very likely was touched with flame. Ditto the roasted oysters. And honestly, even the empanadas — packed with remarkably good braised beef, and served with Bolivian llajua sauce (made with locotos hot chili peppers) — looked and tasted as if they had passed over a momentary bit of flame.
This is a remarkable restaurant where the accessory flavorings read like culinary poetry: rosemary honey tomato butter, roasted onions and peppers nectar, chimichurri butter, roasted garlic crumble, pistachio and fennel pesto, preserved lemon Basque refrito, eggplant smoky sauce, covered with foam, garlic chili oil, provolone crisp, cauliflower purée.
Say it loud, and it inspires. Say it soft, and it turns into a prayer. Or in this case, like cooking over a newly lit roaring inferno just down the street from where the swans swam at the venerable Sportsmen’s Lodge.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Alto Fire to Table
- Rating: 3 stars
- Address: 12969 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks
- Information: 747-2021661; www.alto.la
- Cuisine: Highly eclectic, leaning strongly to Argentina and Uruguay, with many dishes cooked over a blazing fire in the back of the restaurant.
- When: Dinner, Wednesday through Saturday
- Details: Full bar; reservations very essential
- Cost: About $75 per person
- On the menu: 4 Appetizers ($14-$18), 7 Starters ($12-$36), 10 Main Dishes ($20-$66), 4 Specials ($32-$93), 5 Dish Bar Menu ($6-$17)
- Credit cards: MC, V
- What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)