Hi, I'm Chef Rudy Soremin, Princess Cruz's head of culinary arts, and the menu maker for a catch by Rudy, that's me, come serve with us when I want the Alaskan king crab of Food News. I listen to start call restaurant show on AM 830 KLA radio. And welcome back! It is the Labor Day holiday weekend version of the SoCal restaurant show, and we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 AM until 12 noon, right here on AM 830 KLAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024, and it can also catch us on the AM 830 KLAA app, and the halos are home for the Labor Day weekend, three game set with Seattle middle game in the three game set tonight, so come on out and enjoy the ballpark. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show, and we're enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's world variety produce. Okay, we're going back to Tel Aviv by way of Los Angeles, and we're speaking about the new Carmel Melrose on the site of what a lot of LA listeners will remember as the village idiot, a wonderful British pub that had a good long run, and we're speaking with the managing partner of Carmel Melrose, Rani Benari. Rani, welcome back. I think the first thing we want to talk about, as we get back into this, is you and your partners spend a lot of time on the floor at Carmel Melrose, which is kind of different from the way a lot of restaurateurs that have more than one restaurant interact with their guests, and everybody seems to be having a good time from the hostess to the person that seats you to the staff. There's a very fun vibe at Carmel Melrose that doesn't seem contrived. Tell us a little bit more about that because it's unusual. Yeah, absolutely. Actually, one of our biggest priorities is making sure everyone's having fun. I think it really does start with the staff. We want to make sure the staff is really happy to have them in a good time. They're tight, they know their stuff, but they're having a good time and they're not, you know, upset about it. It's a balance. It's a balance that we have in the kitchen. It's a balance that we have on the floor. It's a balance that we have amongst ourselves to keep the standards incredibly high and with no compromise, but to have a good time while you're doing it. Well, sir, you seem to be succeeding. Now, talking about something fun and we're going to get into the food in a minute because we want to give a chef a soft his do, you have a pretty serious cocktail and bar program at Carmel Melrose and a lot of fun cocktails that are in the mix, and again, it's very interactive. You see your bartenders shaking and mixing and stirring, and it just adds to the experience. And you have some unusual specialty cocktails, and let's kind of tell our audience, Rani, if we can, about a few of them, why don't we start out with if you can kind of give us the description of the hyphabreeze? Yeah, so a Japha breeze. Japha is like the southern part of Tel Aviv, and the goal is really in all of these cocktails to bring a little bit of that Mediterranean element to it while keeping the cocktail, of course, very balanced. The big kind of element there that you see is the caramelized, caramelized zathar honey, which adds that little spice element to it while still leaving the cocktail very light and refreshing. So all in all, it's gin, aloe liqueur, cucumber, which is infused into the gin, and then a caramelized zathar honey with a ghost flow, it's a little beer float on top. But again, the goal is light, refreshing, summery, and the Japha breeze. Yeah, that's the vibe. How about the habasta? Habasta, yeah. Pineapple pulp, house from blend, really, you know, a little bit of like almost a little tropical element to it with watermelon juice, which you'll find everywhere until the watermelon, you know, on the beach, it's our thing. With mint lime and watermelon and cordial. So again, lots of watermelon elements to it, big part of television culture, so we want to keep that in there. Love it. Now, another cocktail that kind of caught my attention, Negronis seem to be coming into their own in Los Angeles, and typically, a Negroni is for a lot of people, an acquired taste, or they either love it or hate it. And, you know, you're starting to see a lot of versions on restaurant menus around town, which kind of brings a smile to my face, but you do something a little different with your Negroni and it is a miscal Negroni. You got to tell us about that. Yeah, at the end of the day, we're still in Southern California, and we do want to give, you know, where we are and the whole thing about, you know, even told, including an arch cuisine in our style, is to take a lot of seasonal and local elements into account. So using having a miscal Negroni, where Negroni, they're incredibly popular, you know, in the middle, you know, in the whole Mediterranean right now, as I'm sure, you know, doing a miscal Negroni to bring it to SoCal is just another thing that, you know, brings us home. I love it. Now, let's transition and talk about the food. Almost every table orders what you call the bread, but that doesn't do it justice at all. Give us the description of that because it's just absolutely addictive. Yeah, the bread is a must. It's the 72-hour fermented Moroccan friend of bread, which is made in our wood-burning oven. It's baked order. It's a must. It's a must for every table, anyone who eats bread, of course, but I really say anything anyone asked me, what are the non-negotiable must we have to order, but bread is the first thing that comes to mind. Anne, what do you serve it with? Because the bread just doesn't come to your table alone. There's some other tastes that go along with that. Yeah, of course. The bread is topped with a seasoned mix, and then it has the Trina and Matbuha dip with the sirena was to go on the side. Excellent. Now, another dish, because of course, you know, Rani, we eat with our eyes, and when you see these things, you know, walking through the dining room, it's, "Oh, what's that?" And I need to order that. So when you just see the name on the menu, it's a little different than actually seeing it walk by, but one of your standout starters is what's called on your menu. My grandma's mushrooms cigar. Tell us about that one, if you will. I really call that Chef Ose's signature dish. Most, most cigars in, you know, the Middle Eastern culture and typically done with lamb, the mushroom cigar is Ose's take on it. It's really his grandma's, you know, version of the cigar. It's with a Baja pine nuts and a Chuma pepper, so it has a little bit of a kick to it, but essentially it's a rolled, crispy dough with a mushroom mix inside in those elements I just mentioned, with also a Trina and Chuma dip. So it really has a nice kick and crunch, and it's a great bite. It's honestly one of my favorite bites out there. Well, and I think with good reason. Now, getting into a little bit more of some of the other elements, tell us about the kind of unexpected kampachi tartar. Yeah, absolutely. So kampachi tartar comes on a chickpea tastada, and essentially it's like the tartar mixed with a little salad, a grape cilantro blossom. It's actually on a base of labanette at the bottom of the, on top of the tastada with a little salad and tartar on top. Again, one of those really citrusy, fresh, great bites, really, really fun. It comes in two, we basically say, if any table orders it, make sure that at least one per person, nobody wants to share that. That's an excellent bite. No kidding. Now, Chef Asas also has a way with vegetables, and a dish that really impress, impresses both taste-wise and visually, is this black fig carpaccio. Tell us about that one. Oh, yeah. So again, our menu rotates and changes a lot. Very seasonal, and the black fig carpaccio has been on for a little over a month, and it'll stay as long as the figs are great. But it's essentially black fig sliced relatively thin with honeycomb, serrano, chili, chives, almonds, and little balls of a stretch of salad on top. Also, it's sweet, spicy, the crunch from the almonds, the citrus almond to it. It's a very well-balanced, lovely bite. Again, our goal is to make really, you know, Chef Asaapagold, really every bite is a lot of fun. It's a lot of different flavors. No kidding. Now, of course, pasta is very popular in Los Angeles, and Chef Asaap doesn't neglect there, but there's some twists and turns. So hopefully the corn tortellini is still on the menu. Please tell us about that, even if it isn't. Yeah, so Chef Asaap actually is half Italian, half Syrian. So pasta is a big part of his background. He's actually spent time also as a chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Italy. So the homemade pasta is a big element in our menu, and while the items will self-rotate, there's always going to be a good amount of interesting pasta. That said, the corn tortellini. Actually, a couple months ago, it was a Jerusalem artichoke tortellini. Now corn is the filling, and it may or may not rotate again. But essentially, it's handmade tortellini with a corn filling, and it comes with a sugar-snappy sage butter and Parmigiano regiano on top. Again, very impressive. Now, before we need to say goodbye, you're seeing Branzino on a lot of restaurant menus. But again, Asaap has a little bit of a take on his Branzino. People are into seafood. Let's hear the description of that, if you would. Yeah, the bane differentiator. One is that it's done. Open flame gives a lot of crisp and fun texture to the Branzino. And the noblazurbs salad on top. It's essentially a mix of herbs, almonds, grapes, makes every bite of the Branzino. You have the sharp on the grill, and the fish flavor mixing with the citrus, and the sweetness of the grapes and the crunch of the almonds. Just well-balanced, just a great bite. That's what I had for dinner last night. Well, Ronnie, you're in good company. As we need to say goodbye, one more time about where Carmel Melrose is, and what you're operating hours are. Yes, Carmel is located on Melrose and Martel. We are open Tuesday through Sunday nights for dinner and Saturday and Sunday for brunch. Ronnie, congratulations on the fast start. And I'm glad that, you know, from everything I've seen, you are definitely catching on earlier in the game, which in LA is not an easy thing to do. So again, congratulations there. We have been speaking with the managing partner of Carmel Melrose, that being Ronnie Benari. Definitely a restaurant worth your consideration. It is the SoCal restaurant show. When we return, it is the California Restaurant Foundation's Restaurant's Care Resilience Fund grants. They have been awarded for this year. We're proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Produce. We'll be back before you know it. [Music]
