Restaurants in Los Angeles 01: Chez Tex, where to eat in LA, CA - USA

Photo: Chez Tex restaurant at Los Angeles, CA

CHEZ TEX IS hardly a splashy debut. With only a handful of tables, the spot, a onetime art gallery, is so minimalist that the century-old railroad ties embedded in a brick wall qualify as the chief design element, while both the menu and drink list fit on a sliver of paper. Still, the Main Street restaurant opened by Hayley and Jesse "Tex" Feldman, with Ashkan Ghassemzadeh (formerly of République) as chef-clearly has its ambitions.
The 36-year-old Ash, as he’s known, emigrated with his family from Iran in the ’90s and grew up in the Valley. He came to cooking when, after earning an engineering degree from UCLA, he got a gig threading live spot prawns on skewers at Michael Cimarusti’s Providence. Despite the compressed selection (12 savory dishes), there’s a sharp sensibility at work in Chez Tex’s tiny kitchen, which you can glimpse via a pass-through window.

Breaking into a splotch of bright yellow, a yolk creates richness in a generous serving of wild mushrooms. Skin-on Weiser Family Farms peewees arrive whole with a mound of beurre de baratte, which provides an insanely delicious tang as it mingles with the salt on the potatoes. Intensely vivid, the beet-multigrain risotto offers a surprising depth of flavor, while the fillet of local red snapper is darkly singed, drawing out the kick of kombu in a Thai curry-dashi broth. Ghassemzadeh doesn’t merely build roasted pumpkin into his version of kale salad but adds ruby red pomegranate seeds that evoke Persian cooking.

Photo table: Chez Tex menu sample Los Angeles, CA

Equally impressive is the tone of the place. It’s nice to be able to hear yourself talk above the chill ’70s soundtrack as you sip a New Holland stout. The arched passageway nearby at Pacific and Windward is as moody as ever, but Venice is changing. Amid the tension between the area’s heritage and the influx of money, a new neighborhood restaurant is emerging. Drop-in casual, as weightless as the Japanese peaches resting on downy whipped cream, and subtly personal, Chez Tex may be just that.

218 Main St., Venice CA

where to eat at Los Angeles