“Entourage” at Providence
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If your favorite game is Name That Restaurant while watching the HBO series ‘Entourage’ (‘appies’ at the Ivy, ‘lobbies’ at the Palm, drinkies at Mortons), then you most likely spotted Providence in this week’s episode, ‘Sorry, Harvey.’
The next challenge is to spot the culinary ‘anachronisms,’ also known as playing Who’s That Bread?
As ‘E,’ one of the main characters, steps into the restaurant, it looks as if nothing’s amiss. To be expected, there’s some extra foxiness at the host’s stand. The actor portraying the vituperative Harvey Weinstein is already seated at a table sipping a ’53 Margaux. (Is that really on the wine list?) And then you see it -- the ugliest hunk of bread ever, sitting on a cheap wooden cutting board. Where are the pretty rolls from Le Pain Quotidien, served with little discs of butter and a cellar of salt, complete with tiny spoon? Weinstein’s wielding what looks like a hollow-edge santoku knife and slices off a piece of bread.
Then he turns to the waiter (who’s really a waiter there) and says, ‘Hey, pal, how long do we have to wait to get a lousy-ass ‘berg wedge? You slice the [expletive] thing, you put it on a plate, and you bring it over here.’
Imagine chef Michael Cimarusti, instead of preparing an amuse of watermelon soup with lemon foam served in a tiny glass, cutting a wedge of iceberg lettuce and throwing it on a plate. Maybe he’s back there throwing cigarette butts in the stock too. A ‘berg wedge?
Providence, 5955 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 460-4170, www.providencela.com.
-- Betty Hallock
Photograph by Connie Aramaki/For The Times
