Reservoir Restaurant in Silver Lake

FIRST of all, let me say how pissed i am that LA Mill cafe and The Park in Echo Park are no longer BYOB. because they are applying for permits right now,  you can neither order a drink nor bring your own beer or wine in. the worst of both worlds!!

it's for this reason that my wife and i ended up at RESERVOIR, a new place, natch, near the silver lake reservoir, across the street from club spaceland in the old netty's space. 

the place only opened a few weeks ago, and may need to work some bugs out, but we were quite pleased with the place. its pedigree is similar to several other newish eastside places: seasonal, market-driven cuisine, and a chef who'd toiled in prestigious kitchens (lucques, AOC, blair's) before finding the chance to open her own place.

the wildcard is the way the menu is structured: you pick your main, and then match it to one of several arrays of sidedishes. so sara got the scallops, which were seared with a bit of curry and fantastic, with tuscan kale and potatoes, while i got the short rib and paired it with farro with pine nuts. (this is trickier from the chef's point of view that it looks, as all the mains have to match all the sides.)

we also had a beet salad with hazlenuts which was quite fine, and the service was friendly and warm and on time.

setting and sleek modernist design quite cool, tho for some to be sitting at netty's (or looking out at the 7-11 nearby) and paying real restaurant prices will be dissonant. 

overall, i'd say it's similar to canele' in atwater village -- another case of chick-chef from fancy place looking for her own place -- tho at canele' the emphasis is on simpler dishes and pure ingredients. 

the chef at reservoir is working hard to make every dish distinctive. my wife prefers it slightly to canele'; i know the atwater place better and my heart belongs to them.

my one caveat about reservoir is that the wine list was good but a bit pricey: every glass i was interested in was $12 or up. we paid the $15 corkage and dug into the domaine carneros pinot i'd happened to have on me, which was not perfect with anything but close enough with all of it.

Photo credit: Reservoir