FROM LEFT: Brendan Collins at Waterloo & City; a variety of cured meats and pâtés
Waterloo & City
It might be named after one of executive chef-proprietor Brendan Collins’ native London underground lines, but you won’t find bangers and mash or spotted dick (or any other naughty-sounding nibbles) on the menu at Waterloo & City—though there are fish and chips and shepherd’s pie at Sunday lunch.
Chef Collins says his menu “is more based on French and Italian food.” However, the cuisine is far more diverse than that at this new British gastropub on a rapidly gentrifying stretch of Washington Boulevard in Culver City.
The pizzas—including one topped with savory Indian butter chicken, Greek yogurt and cucumber—and the fried piquillo peppers with tuna tartare and avocado will have you exclaiming, “Blimey!” The standout portion of the menu, however, is the eclectic array of cured meats and pâtés, including a smoked-tongue and carrot terrine with sweet-and-sour chiles—perfect for sharing with mates over a pint or one of the “pubtail” drinks, such as a classic Pimm’s cup or Piccadilly martini with vodka, pickle juice and tomolives.
Brazen décor touches like recycled church pews and wallpaper with mildly racy scenes ironically sketched in classic blue-and-white English china patterns set just the right cheeky tone. After all, it’s the collegial ambiance that’s really British. And the attitude, which Collins sums up as, “We are what we are. And we enjoy it!” 12517 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City; waterlooandcity.com
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Salt's Cure
Chris Phelps and Zak Walters are chefs and co-owners of Salt’s Cure, West Hollywood’s newest meat-lovers’ restaurant and adjoining butcher shop. The restaurant’s constantly changing brunch, lunch and dinner menus feature soups, salads, sandwiches, cured meats, seafood and more, and everything is made in-house or acquired from a California farm or rancher. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” says Walters. “We’re just trying to perfect what we know and love.”
LOS ANGELES CONFIDENTIAL: Why did you decide to open a restaurant/butcher shop?
CHRIS PHELPS: We were thinking of getting a warehouse space to get a restaurant- supply thing going, but then we saw this awesome space. We’re both chefs, so we had to have a restaurant.
LAC: What kind of food can people expect at Salt’s Cure?
ZAK WALTERS: Slow food is a big thing we’re going to do. Chops and roasted meats are very easy but comforting and good. I like the pâtés, and I’m really into our cured beef. I’m also a big sandwich fan; we make all of our own deli meats and bake most of our own bread.
