Spotlight // The Lodge Dinners
YOU’VE GOT SOMETHING LODGED IN YOUR TEETH
The love of food comes in many forms. The Lodge Dinners embody the purest spirit of a love of food: that is to say, the love of an experience. Food, like art, or style, or sexual attraction, is not just one thing. It’s a complete experience, and when freed from the boundaries of a typical restaurant-going, license-boasting, supplier-chain-wielding organizational structure, the possibilities are endless. That’s what Carlo, Regan, Lauren, and Oliver of Mar Vista hit upon when they founded The Lodge Dinners just one year ago.
Through Santa Monica’s Melisse, Carlo LaCuesta met this bunch of foodies and they decided their appetizer into eventually opening their own restaurant would be through a series of pop-ups. And lo, The Lodge Dinners were born. Quarterly, on a Sunday evening, they host an al fresco dinner at their run-down 1952-built house in Mar Vista, and the masses come, they eat, they drink, and they be merry.
What’s your food philosophy? What are you trying to do different with the Lodge dinners that you haven’t yet seen in LA?
A word that comes up a lot in meetings is that these dinners are experiential. The cuisine is always going to be great, but it’s more about what happens when you’re there. You’re in someone’s backyard but we create a really enchanting environment. We’re trying to create an experience more than a certain type of cuisine. We get our chefs through word of mouth and whoever wants to play, and when a chef signs on we tell them this is their show. That’s what’s really cool about this is we have a lot of up and coming talent, and usually at a place like Melisse or The Tasting Kitchen, they’re in the background not getting any limelight, and when we do these dinners, the spotlight is theirs.
How many lodge dinners has their been?
Four so far; our next one on June 8th will be version 5.0, then there will be one more this summer and that’ll be it for 2014.
How tough is it to get a reservation?
We immediately offer most of the tickets in pre-sale to close personal friends, chefs and chefs’ guests, which doesn’t leave a ton for the general public. Signing up on the site is signing up for the chance for the remaining tickets.
How many cooks are in the kitchen?
There are rotating guest chefs. The first Lodge Dinner was helmed by chef Ingmar Lara of The Tasting Kitchen. The next Lodge Dinner will be prepared by Venice’s Barnyard chef Jesse Barber.
What is the menu for the next dinner?
Scallop Tartar with salsa verde, calabrian chili, squid ink & sea salt
Seared Octopus with chickpeas, chili & chervil
Butter lettuce salad with burnt herb vinaigrette, feta, pistachio & fennel
Seared tuna with goddess aioli, warm tomato viniagrette, nameko mushrooms, shaved radish & herbs
Lamb with marinated ricotta, stone fruit, treviso, pecans, & salsa verde
Stone fruit financier with maple, bourbon whip cream.
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Is it about having a place of your own or is it something more than that too?
We started this because Regan and I thought it would be so fun to open a restaurant, and yet it’s become something really special that didn’t need to be Carlo and Regan’s pet project, it needed to stay exactly what it was. When we got catering offers, we thought: do we want that? Not really. We love our regular restaurant jobs. What we wanted was this magical night that happens a handful of times a year and these strangers come together and share a fabulous meal. It’s something so special and unique.
At 32, I’ve had successes and failures. This isn’t a huge success, we’re not making any money on this but I’m really proud of what it’s become.
What are some of your favorite restaurants in LA?
Luq on Melrose, The Tasting Kitchen, Gjelina, Waterloo and City, A-Frame, Corner Door and Café Stella.
Any other notes on the food?
Our only stipulation for the next Lodge Dinner is: no pork belly.
Photographs by Puno of Made with Map.
Words by Kira Hesser
