Zagat – LA's Top 10 Newcomers

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So, who’s on top this go-round? The winners in the four big categories were split up among four different eateries this year. Matsuhisa took top honors for Food (see the full results below), The Edison won Top Decor with its speakeasy style and the hospitality of Urasawa nabbed it Top Service honors. Perpetually crowded Spago was named the area’s Most Popular restaurant. As far as new dining options go, Paul Shoemaker’s Savory was named the Top Newcomer (this list is also below).

Area eaters have mixed emotions about food trucks, calling it both the best and worst development in the LA dining scene. That said, 24% of surveyors report following food trucks or restaurants via social media, and good news for them: Zagat now rates 57 mobile eateries, including top-rated trucks like Kogi Korean BBQ.

You can scope out all of the 2012 Survey results on ZAGAT.com. If you want to pick up a copy of the book, we’ve a special discount for you. Head here and enter the code “LARESULTS” for 15% off the cover price (premium members save 35%). Just act fast, as the discount code is only valid until September 30. Stayed tuned to the Buzz for more results from the Survey.

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Steamed black mussels can be a starter to share or a main course

Every chef dreams about opening his or her own restaurant — someday. For Paul Shoemaker, that day jumped closer when he arrived for work at Bastide one morning in 2008 to find out that owner Joe Pytka had abruptly decided to close it down, just weeks after Shoemaker had earned 31/2 stars from The Times for his refined, sensual cooking. (Bastide reopened a year and a half later with a new concept — bookstore café — and a new chef.) After an experience like that, it’s easy to understand why Shoemaker would opt for working for himself.

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Though the location in the Point Dume Village strip mall seems unlikely, it made sense to Shoemaker since Malibu is where he met and married his wife. Shoemaker brings his experience working with Michael Cimarusti at Water Grill and Providence—and his sadly stunted stint as executive chef at Bastide—to bear in dishes that combine the pick of regional produce with the refined touch of haute cuisine. A recent salad of arugula, prosciutto and burrata incorporated figs grown down the road. A perfectly pink hanger steak in Bordelaise with smoked butterball potatoes came with sautéed spinach from a farm just 40 miles away. The breads are all baked in-house, including the crust for his artisanal pizzas, made with a 200-year-old Neapolitan starter yeast.

Best of all—besides potential desserts like chocolate-brioche bread pudding with pistachio crusted vanilla gelato—is the price tag (dishes rarely cost more than $30). Now that’s something to savor indeed.

Point Dume Village, 29169 Heathercliff Road, Malibu

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I had to wait for the Pacific Coast Highway to re-open after the rains subsided in Southern California to find what friends described as the best new restaurant in Los Angeles. Well, not exactly in Los Angeles, but in the same county, not far from the pricy beachfront homes of the Malibu Colony.

Savory is about a 25-minute drive from Santa Monica. But it’s a drive well worth taking to sample the American cooking of Chef Paul Shoemaker. In a warmly lit, small dining room, Shoemaker—who used to cook at LA’s best downtown fish place, the Water Grill—uses local ingredients to turn out smashing plates that will spoil you.

It’s a pleasure to see a menu that only has about 18 selections, including starters and main courses. (Oh, there are three or four desserts, too.) But what selections! It was the sea urchin pasta that brought me back for a second night. Fresh uni harvested along the coast combined with a perfect swirl of pasta for one of the richest, most pleasurable dishes I’ve ever tasted. It’s a starter that could suffice as a meal thanks to its opulent flavor.

You can’t go wrong with the Jidori chicken with mushroom risotto. “Jidori” is Japanese for “chicken of the earth,” but for Americans, it’s the latest way to identify free-range chicken. This entrée looked deceptively simple, but to my mouth, the chicken might as well have been raised on a diet of 100 percent butter, and the accompanying risotto was perfectly done.

If I’d had a third night, I would have sampled the short rib with celery root and Swiss chard. But I’m happy to report I tried all four of that night’s desserts and found none lacking. I’d rank them in this order of preference: a blueberry tart with a side of homemade blueberry ice cream, chocolate bread pudding, crème fraiche cheesecake and a banana split. Don’t avoid that latter because I placed it at No. 4; it’s a world-beating banana split!

Savory is primarily a restaurant for locals. Residents have few nearby, fine-dining establishments—despite the affluence of many people with a Malibu mailing address. When we arrived, the hostess was impressed that we’d driven “all the way from LA.”

“Everyone dining here tonight has a [Screen Actors Guild] card,” remarked my dining companion, wine and food writer, and Los Angeles resident Anthony Dias Blue. That was probably an overstatement. However, on the second night, we sat next to a corner booth occupied by Brad Garrett—from Everybody Loves Raymond—who canoodled with a tall, lithe, blonde date. And the Southern California good looks of other diners suggested they could be ready for their close-ups at a moment’s notice.

If you don’t opt for dessert at Savory, stop for ice cream at a Malibu gelateria that just opened. It’s on the drive back to LA, about 10 minutes back down the Pacific Coast Highway on the left, in the Malibu Country Mart. I can’t say much for the name, Grom, but it’s probably the most expensive ice cream I’ve ever bought over the counter. It’s $5.25 for a modest scoop. But a little scoop will suffice. It’s that rich.

Founded in Italy, where the company boasts more than 40 outlets, Grom just landed on the West Coast from New York, where ice cream aficionados swear by it. I had the dark chocolate with a second scoop of cappuccino, and I think every sweet taste bud did a little dance. The ice cream is shipped from Italy, and pretty photographs of strawberry fields and other farmland on Grom’s walls tout that the chain uses only fresh, organic ingredients.

Malibu can be quiet on winter nights, but now there are two places that make venturing out worthwhile.

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Laid back and low key, Chef Paul Shoemaker has turned an old Chinese restaurant in a shopping center off Point Dume into a sought after dining destination, with some of the best food in Malibu.

Chef Shoemaker is originally from San Diego and did a stint at Bastide, while earning three and a half stars from the L.A. Times, under the flamboyant owner and filmmaker Joe Pytka. After taking a little time off, Shoemaker has generated a buzz at Savory for his straightforward, yet inventive, locally sourced cooking. Critic Irene Virbila said that Savory is ‘worth the drive’; we think this restaurant is an essential L.A. drive. “Keepin’ it real” with a few Bob Marley posters and a lava lamp in the kitchen, Shoemaker could be the coolest, and one of the most creative, chefs in whites right now. Just don’t expect to see him on Top Chef anytime soon, or even crossing Pacific Coast Highway.

You keep a pretty low profile. Is that intentional?
I just want to cook. To me cooking is cooking it’s not ego or drama. I’m just going behind the stove. I am who I am. When you go the doctor, you trust him to fix you. If I was an actor, I’d be on TV.

Why did you choose Malibu to open your first solo venture?
I believe in the Alice Waters approach to think local and eat local. It makes sense. Zuma means the land of plenty which the Chumash Indians thrived off for so many years and I get it now being out here. We have anise that goes wild so we set the tables with it. We have wild sage flowers, we have all kind of stuff just blooming out there that we just go and pick.

Did you grow up with a sense of Indian spirituality or as this something you discovered on your travels?
I grew up down in San Diego with all the Indians on the Rincon Reservation. So when I moved up here they called the Chumash tribe and they both did a ceremony to bless the building. This point is very sacred land. There has been Chumash in this area going back 10,000 years. This is one of their sacred spots. When you’re out here away from the city, to me this is Malibu – this beautiful land. Everything else is just a road way. We’ve got Church Estates down the road and Emilio Esteves up the street with his pinot noir, which is probably the best out here, and he’s growing all the sunchokes for me so I’ll do a sunchoke soup. A lot of people out here who own property, have side business as a winery.

Why do you think there is such a lack of fine dining – or just good restaurant choices in Malibu?
I’m not sure but rent out here is huge and it’s a challenge trying to keep the price point down and the food quality up. We are overbooked and understaffed right now. Irene (Virbila) awakened us after only a month. We had a soft, quiet opening, so her review helped but we are still kind of hidden out here.

Sounds like that’s what you’re striving for, right?
I don’t cross PCH. I live right up the street and cruise around in a golf cart. The land and restaurant are right there, the farms and oceans are right there. You should see the fish it’s so fresh. When there is no surf all the divers go out. Surf rats come to the back door and bring lobsters from their secrets spots. We sell them all half a pound to 5 pounders. I don’t even need to invest in a tank, we sell them all. It’s 98 percent local here.

What are some of your popular menu items?
I’m on the line, in the kitchen cooking every night. I think you should lead by example. I bake bread in the kitchen every morning from brioche to small baguettes. We sous vide Jidori chicken with the breast and the thigh at different temperatures. Other popular dishes are hanger steak and striped bass. Right now we make a salad with local figs, burrata, prosciutto and wild arugula. That will change with the seasons, but I can’t take things like crab cakes off the menu. It might sound pedestrian, but customers love them. Also, mussels and pizza will stay on throughout the season. We’re dancing with this menu. It will evolve, but there is no pressure of life out here, you can harvest the land and bring it to the table.

Speaking of that, what was it really like working for Joe Pytka?
I did what I had to do there (at Bastide) I got the review, I got the stars. Joe Pytka, I love the guy, he’s awesome. I drank so many great wines when I worked there, 20,000 a bottle, he didn’t care. He’s a very generous guy, he cares and really respects chefs. He just loved chefs and I loved that place, I miss it.

What was your vision for Savory and how has it evolved since you opened?
I had the mindset here of a real casual neighborhood wine bar bistro, kind of like a Gjelina (in Venice), a local hang-out spot. What I’ve learned, is that we have A-list celebrities out here and CEO’s, Malibu winemakers, locals, they define it. They want attention to service and attention to tables – fine dining service. They want to come on this journey. This food is from so-and-so’s farm. Come back next week, we’ll have pork belly. They want that knowledge. It’s not Gjelina, it’s become a culinary journey. When I buy that second unit (hopefully), I want to have a tasting menu. The community is taking it that route, I didn’t even have time to define Savory, the community is defining it. It’s progressing into, I wouldn’t say Bastide or even Providence, but it’s turning into its own identity. I’m just taking it for the ride, this restaurant is constantly progressing.[The Feast]

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Produce and more from truly local sources

After taking some time off after the end of his tenure at Bastide, chef Paul Shoemaker is back behind the stove again.

And just as his former employer morphed into a burger-hawking bookstore, Shoemaker’s cooking has changed too, shifting toward simpler, ingredient-driven fare at his newly opened restaurant, Savory, near Point Dume in Malibu.

Although the location is a bit of a drive (even from Santa Monica), the Malibu location gives Shoemaker access to certain resources that make Savory’s menu one of the most locally minded around.

Much of the produce and wines are sourced from Malibu farms and vineyards; the restaurant is across the street from a fig orchard and farm. And from the waters off of Point Dume come hyper-fresh halibut and the occasional spiny lobster catch–the supply of the latter competing with the draw of good waves that distract the surfer kids who dive for the restaurant’s crustaceans at night.

The crab cakes’ ($15) crisp crust deceivingly houses a wonderfully light and creamy filling, served with a tart Meyer lemon sauce and the smoky spice of Piment d’Espelette–a turf counterpoint to the crab’s surf. Fresh fettuccini with clams ($23; pictured) has a similar lightness, Shoemaker forgoing the globs of butter typical of the dish, opting for a vegetable-broth-based sauce enriched with olive oil and the liquor of the steamed bivalves, the bowl dotted with bright half-orbs of cherry tomatoes. Both dishes exhibit what seems to be Shoemaker’s ethos at Savory: simple food, done immaculately.

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Malibu resident Paul Shoemaker has built a reputation in his profession as the executive chef
of haute cuisine restaurant Bastide, on Melrose. This week, he’s opening his own restaurant,
Savory, a project close to his heart—and home—on Point Dume.
The location, familiar to most Malibuites as the home for nearly 30 years of a Chinese restaurant
and before that for several years, a diner, is now bright, tranquil and inviting, taking advantage
of natural light and the view from the plate glass windows. Shoemaker, deemed by many to be
one of the West Coast’s rising young chefs, is overseeing every detail at Savory from the floor
plan to the table candles. “My philosophy is that everything matters,” he says.
The tables and a long, full-service food bar are made of honey-colored wood. The white china is
simple and generous; the flatware substantial. A wooden bowl at each table holds fleur de sel.
One wall is lined with custom wine racks.
Shoemaker says he plans to stock approximately 40 labels of wine—20 red, 20 white. “I envision
a bottle at every table,” he says, adding that prices will be reasonable. Custom-roasted coffee
is ground to order and brewed in a state-of-the-art machine. “We’ll be offering the best cup of
coffee in Malibu,” the ebullient chef says. The iced tea is brewed. The milk and butter are organic.
The restaurant plans to bake its own bread. Shoemaker describes the menu as “American food
with a French influence.”
A sample menu, printed on paper made from bamboo, is short but diverse. It focuses primarily
on seafood and vegetables. Selections range from a salad of heirloom beets to crab cakes,
steamed black mussels and the Jidori chicken that is seen on the best restaurant menus.
Shoemaker stresses that the menu will be locally sourced and will change frequently to reflect
what is currently in season. He says he has already lined up a variety of Malibu produce,
including lemons and salad greens. The Malibu-grown produce will be augmented with
selections from local farmers markets. Shoemaker adds that he plans to offer fresh local fish,
and anticipates having spiny lobster in the fall.
“For the Chumash, this was the land of plenty,” Shoemaker says. “Zuma means bountiful [and]
that’s the philosophy of Savory. It’s whatever inspires, simple and beautiful. I want to keep it
local, just cook and not worry.”
The restaurateur says his first date with his future wife was at Zuma Beach. The couple were
married in Malibu and now live on Point Dume, within walking distance of the restaurant.
He describes this stage of his life as bliss. Shoemaker plans to start with dinner for the first
month at Savory, adding lunch when his staff is settled and comfortable.
But he’s also looking further ahead. “I’d like to do outreach,” he says. “Teach kids how to eat,
show them the restaurant. Cooking is an art, an affordable art.”