destroyer la los angeles california coffee sprudge

A minimal brunch cafรฉ with a 70s arcade game-themed website wasnโ€™t exactly the next anticipated move for Los Angeles chef Jordan Kahn, the sweet-turned-savory chef who last made waves at Beverly Hillsโ€™ now shuttered Red Medicine. But after a two-year pause from those intricately plated garden sculptures built to taste like Vietnam, heโ€™s back, this round in Culver City.

destroyer la los angeles california coffee sprudge

Daily-changing breakfast and lunch fare that looks artfully arranged with tweezersโ€”served from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.mโ€”is the fine dining approach Kahn is giving to avocado toast and beef tartare with smoked egg cream at Destroyer. But that shouldnโ€™t be entirely surprising considering the chefโ€™s prior time clocked in the kitchens of pros like Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz. Plus the year and a half he helmed pastry for Michael Minaโ€™s at XIV in West Hollywood.

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destroyer la los angeles california coffee sprudge

destroyer la los angeles california coffee sprudge

Naturally, for a morning place, thereโ€™s several caffeine options: filter coffee plus espresso-based beverages pulled on a new MAVAM Espresso machine are brewed with beans by way of San Franciscoโ€™s newly installed Coffee Manufactory (the coffee component within Tartine Manufactory) and Portland, Oregon micro-roasteryย Roseline. Beyond herbal infusions of foraged botanicals, Kahn sources teas via Song Tea, profiled previously on Sprudge.

destroyer la los angeles california coffee sprudge

Within a black, white, and gray-toned 40-seat space in Culver Cityโ€™s more creatively-minded Hayden Tract area, Kahnโ€™s plates pops thanks to a dusting of lovage powder here, and a pile of sunchoke petals there. And yet, despite the apparent complexity and sophistication of dishes ($6-$16), plus the care and visual intrigue each conveys, this is anything but a white tablecloth place. After all, Destroyer is counter-service only and ditches dinner.

Destroyer LA is located atย 3578 Hayden Ave. Culver City, CA 90232. Visit their official website here.

Photos courtesy Destroyer.

Kat Odell (@kat_odell) is a freelance writer based in New York and Los Angeles. Odellโ€™s forthcoming book,ย Day Drinking,ย comesย out in 2017 fromย Workman Publishing. Read more Kat Odell onย Sprudge.ย 

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