Recently I had the opportunity to visit the new Broad Museum and dine at the adjacent restaurant Otium. This is my second visit to the Broad but the first visit was a very quick one that I spent mostly exploring the architecture. The one art piece I have yet to experience is Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Room. I've actually experienced another of this artist's installation before-in Denmark at the Louisiana Museum. In that case, they let people in 3 at a time. At the Broad, you go in one at a time for 45 seconds and have to sign up once you get to the museum. Unless you get there first thing, the line gets booked fast. The Broad's collection was previously on display at BCAM at LACMA when they teased the County museum with potential donation of their collection and then turned around and changed their minds. In addition to the previously seen Koons balloon dog, flowers and rabbit, there are Basquiats, Warhols, Rauschenbergs, all the big names in mid-century art plus a lot of recent artists. My favourite part of the collection are the Kara Walkers. I fell in love with her work when she curated a small installation at The Met in NY (combination of her own art with pieces she chose from the collection). Her work initially appears genteel and delicate (in the form of silhouette cut-outs) but then you realize what the cut-outs are representing (all the horrors of the slave era) and you just have to stop and think. The Broad includes a large series installed on a curved wall as well as steel cut outs in the form of a play house.
After our time at The Broad, we went over to Otium to have dinner. This is a new restaurant by Timothy Hollingsworth, formerly of French Laundry. We were at the Chef's table (unbeknownst to me until the end of the evening) which is a counter height giant polished single piece of wood with a live edge. The kitchen is open but in a way that is more open than any commercial kitchen I've seen. There is no counter separating the kitchen from the dining room. You can simply walk right into the kitchen. And several people did. I was with a group of design industry people and we were all in love with the counter stools that we sat in. (We never did figure out whose chairs they were.) The food was a pre-set menu consisting of a raw hamachi (with the most delicious little tomatoes), salad, roasted carrots (from the farmer's market so quite small and ugly but so good), spinach pasta with egg and clams (I could've eaten a giant bowl myself), fish with an amazing green sauce, chicken with the most tender meat and ridiculously good potatoes (despite looking quite ordinary), and a beef that was a bit rare for my taste but again with a delicious sauce. Dessert was a mille feuille with small blobs of hazelnut cream in the middle. I had a cocktail that ended up being way fancier than I realized-it came with a shot glass containing a tea ball with dry ice spewing out a tea scented smoke. The smoke really did smell amazing, and the banana cocktail under the shot glass was really good (if way too big for me) but I'm not sure how the tea smoke affected the cocktail.
All through dinner I had been observing the kitchen and noticed a few things. The staff were very calm and serene (unlike other open kitchens that seemed frenetic). It was also incredibly organized and clean. And there was one young man who appeared to be everywhere, directing, tasting and otherwise seemed in charge. I assumed he was an executive chef or sous chef because he seemed too young to be the main guy. As we were about to leave, I googled him and lo and behold, that was indeed Chef Timothy! As I blurted out 'hey that is the chef' to a fellow diner, one of the waiters came up behind me and asked if I wanted to meet the chef! Of course!! So he brought me to the chef, told him I was at the chef's table (which is how I discovered why our table was so special) and I blathered on about what a great meal it was and thanked him. I left him with a mention of how clean his kitchen is. I'm sure he was blown away by my eloquence! (Not.)
The menu prices ranged from $15 ish for the starters to $30 and up for the mains (including a really pricey steak). The portions are on the small side and the portions for the chicken, beef and fish were not much bigger than the starter items.
Here are a few pictures from our evening.
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