The First Must Visit Palisades Restaurant & We Gave Darling A Second Chance

Jordan Okun (0:07)

And do you believe in second chances?

Max Shapiro (0:10)

You asking me that question?

Jordan Okun (0:11)

Because we, I'm asking the audience. Because we do.

Max Shapiro (0:15)

I do.

Jordan Okun (0:16)

We do.

And one such person we decided to give a second chance to was Sean Brock and his West Hollywood restaurant, Darling, which when we ate there well over a year ago, we hated. And I couldn't even tell you what kind of restaurant it was. It was, here's what I know. It was confusing. It was bad.

Max Shapiro (0:41)

It was bad.

Jordan Okun (0:42)

That's what I remember. But recently we have been hearing and seeing they were less confused and less bad over at Darling. Sean Brock had returned to his Southern cooking roots, which was promising to hear. And it had ranked outrageously high on the LA Times 101 list by Bill Addison, who also wrote a glowing review.

Max, you had eaten at Husk before back in the day and enjoyed it. And you truly wanted to give Darling a second chance, despite the old bartender at Darling calling you a white turd.

Max Shapiro (1:19)

A rich white turd. And I want to say thank you for calling me rich and assuming that I'm rich, that's very generous.

Jordan Okun (1:26)

Well, you know, as we talk about...

Max Shapiro (1:27)

I present as rich.

Jordan Okun (1:28)

You present wealthy.

Max Shapiro (1:30)

Yeah, I do present as wealthy.

Jordan Okun (1:33)

Do I have kind of all that backstory on Darling correct?

Max Shapiro (1:38)

Yeah, and you know, I don't know if you remember when it first opened, he said he's gonna change the entire menu every four weeks, right? And immediately I thought that was a problem because once you get a dish dialed in, boom, time to replace it.

It's just it's just not sustainable. It's not smart.

Jordan Okun (1:56)

And again, not being in his comfort zone of doing Southern cuisine. You know, a lot of bounty talk, so much bounty talk.

Max Shapiro (2:07)

We get it. The produce here is delightful. And you can make your Southern cuisine using our produce.

Jordan Okun (2:14)

He wanted to do something different. And I, you know, in a way, I understand it as an artist, possibly being sick of doing the same old thing, wanting to do new things.

And it didn't work. And it was clear it didn't work because he pivoted, as we said, back to Southern roots of cooking. So the darling second chance, Max, where the hell do we start? Let's start with the good.

Max Shapiro (2:42)

I was pushing this pretty hard.

Jordan Okun (2:44)

He was, I didn't want to go.

Max Shapiro (2:46)

And you know, I've wanted this to succeed from the beginning because I live five minutes away.

Jordan Okun (2:51)

Not that I don't believe in second chances, I do. But with certain restaurants, I mean, look, let's start with the good. A big part of darling is about, there's a DJ booth. There's always someone spinning great tunes, very soulful music.

Who was there when we were there?

Max Shapiro (3:08)

Anderson Paak.

Jordan Okun (3:09)

Anderson Paak.

Max Shapiro (3:10)

But he wasn't spinning any records.

Jordan Okun (3:11)

He wasn't playing, but he was there and vibing to the music. That's a soulful guy. At the bar. So it's like soul is really a part of this. And I don't equate soulful art and food and living with that stretch of Robertson, with Lisa Vanderpump and the heart of the party of West Hollywood. Okay, so that is why I didn't want to return, because all of that.

But Max really believed in Sean and this possibility of a pivot to southern food. And so, a second chance was had. Let's start with the good.

Max Shapiro (3:52)

I've had good meals from Sean before. I know what he's capable of.

You want to start with the good. Shall we start with the Anson Mills cornbread, with smoked tomato jam and Bordier butter?

Jordan Okun (4:04)

I would first like to give a shout out to whoever that waitress was.

Max Shapiro (4:07)

Yes, she was delightful.

Jordan Okun (4:09)

Max recognized her. She was like a career...

Max Shapiro (4:12)

She's worked at many places.

Jordan Okun (4:13)

Waitstaff, right? And she... total pro.

Max Shapiro (4:18)

She was good.

Jordan Okun (4:19)

Total pro. So it felt hospitable.

Max Shapiro (4:22)

Yeah, she was very sweet. Cornbread.

Jordan Okun (4:27)

Cornbread was absolutely delicious.

Max Shapiro (4:31)

Very good cornbread.

Jordan Okun (4:32)

The fact that...

Max Shapiro (4:33)

Texturally very, very nice.