M.B. Post to open next week; bring on the beach-y cocktails (plus, more openings)
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M.B. Post, the restaurant from former Water Grill chef David LeFevre, is expected to open Monday in Manhattan Beach. It’s just steps away from the water, so where better to enjoy a summer cocktail (ok, it’s still spring, but there’s no need to get all literal at a bar)?
The cocktail menu -- created with the help of general manager Jerry Garbus and augmented with LeFevre’s nectars, salts and jams -- is a combination of updated classics and beach-y remixes. (Cocktails to go with English pea soup, olive-oil-poached tomato and creme fraiche; or pomegranate couscous with lavender feta, marcona almonds and mint; or spring garlic bacon tart; or Alaskan halibut cheek and chips with Meyer lemon remoulade; or grilled veal short rib with sesame soy glaze and spicy kimchi....)
The Manhattan Avenue is a sweet-savory version of a Manhattan: rye whiskey, Vya sweet vermouth and sea-salt-caramel-vanilla-bean bitters. It gets strained into a martini glass partially rimmed in bacon dust, garnished with a cherry soaked in a peaty Scotch.
The Greyhound gets taken a few steps further than the Salty Dog; the Old George (pictured) is Chopin potato vodka and fresh grapefruit juice poured over basil and ice, topped with a raspberry-pink-peppercorn jam and candied grapefruit in a glass partially rimmed with kosher salt.
Other cocktails on the menu include the Mo-Pho-Jito -- think mojito with the flavors of Southeast Asia -- silver rum, kaffir lime, mint and ginger nectar with a coriander honey gastrique. And what’s a cocktail-menu-by-the-beach without a Margarita? M.B. Post’s Avila’s Heir has serrano pepper and yuzu-infused agave nectar.
1142 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach; (310) 545-5405; www.eatmbpost.com.
Also now open:
The Malibu Inn: More drinks by the beach at the rock-n-roll Malibu Inn, which recently was renovated and this week reopened with a menu from consulting chef Angelo Sosa, a former ‘Top Chef’ contestant. 22969 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu; (310) 456-6060.
The Fat Dog:A new gastropub, the Fat Dog, is open on Fairfax Avenue. It’s dog-friendly. 801 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 951-0030; www.thefatdogla.com.
M Street Kitchen and Stella Rossa Pizza Bar: The restaurant formerly known as La Grande Orange in Santa Monica is suddenly M Street Kitchen, with an adjacent pizzeria called Stella Rossa Pizza Bar. 2000 Main St., Santa Monica; (310) 396-9145; www.mstreetkitchen.com.
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