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Bruce Kalman, coleman farms, Deathbed Food, DeathbedFood, di stefano cheese, Diane Wagner, drake dairy farms, drake family farms, dtla restaurants, jj's lone daughter, laurel tavern, library bar, local and sustainable, local and sustainable restaurants, news, paso prime grass fed beef, spring street bar, thao farms, the den of hollywood, urbano pizza bar, weiser farms
Fresh, Local, Sustainable Ingredients Make To Die For Dishes at Urbano
Recently, one of my favorite Chefs, Bruce Kalman, became the Culinary Director in charge of several bar/restaurants in Downtown LA and Hollywood including Urbano Pizza Bar, The Den of Hollywood, Library Bar, Spring Street and Laurel Tavern. I recently had the chance to check out Urbano Pizza, aptly named as it’s in the heart of DTLA, where Chef Bruce treated us to a variety of popular dishes.
First off, the ambiance of the place made me feel right at home. Warm yet modern and inviting. And the music was awesome the entire time … including playing my favorite Johnny Cash “I Walk the Line” song.
As with many places now, they have an open kitchen. Theirs included the absolute freshest produce I’ve seen in awhile. Where can I get garlic and/or brussels sprouts like this?
One answer may be at the places where Chef Bruce shops for the restaurant. As their menu states, Urbano is …
Committed to using as many local and sustainable resources as possible, including: Weiser Farms, Coleman Farms, JJ’s Lone Daughter, Thao Farms, Drake Dairy Farms, Di Stefano Cheese Makers, and Paso Prime Grass Fed Beef.
I’d absolutely love to follow Chef Bruce one day as he goes about the business of selecting his ingredients. That would be fascinating!
And their dishes reflect those absolute highest-level ingredients.
So, what did we sample? We started off with one of their absolute most popular dishes, the Pork Meatballs. With Drake Farms aged goat cheese, they were definitely memorable and will be a must-have for me going forward there.
As for the “Bar” part, we enjoyed a Baladin Nora (an herbed spiced ale from Italy) on draft. Urbano has a collection of 12 Draft Beers and a variety of Bottle Beer. At Happy Hour (Mon – Friday, 3-7), the Draft beer is only $4 … and their pizzas are half off!
Next were warm olives with smoked almonds, Calabrian chiles and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Warm olives? Whoa … I didn’t think olives could be a DeathbedFood contender, but heated up like these, they are a strong possibility!
I always adore Roasted Garlic. This, served with warm bread and absolutely to-die-for olive oil, really delivered. The olive oil was definitely DeathbedFood Olive Oil and I must find out where he gets this!!
I’m not sure if I’ve ever had “Pulled to Order” mozzarella before. Served with toasted bread, balsamic and arugula, it was lovely.
And, of course, since it’s called “Urbano Pizza Bar,” we had to try some pizza. Bruce suggested that we try the Potato Pizza (as it’s unique) and the Spicy Sausage Pizza (as it’s the most popular). Both were incredible:
- The Potato Pizza – with Weiser Farms Fingerling potatoes, brussels sprouts, roasted garlic, and guanciale (which added a hint of sausage flavor). Great combo!
- The Spicy Sausage Pizza – with house made pork sausage, Calabrian chiles, cage free eggs and fennel pollen. I’m full supportive of the “Put-an-egg-on-it” movement (A16 in San Francisco also supports it!) and loved it on this pizza.
All told, Urbano will be one of my go-to hangouts in DTLA now. Can’t wait to order more of those meatballs and try more of their menu soon.