A newcomer, less than a year old, has soared all the way to the guide\u2019s highest slot? Yes. Swedish chef Marcus Jernmark stunned us both with his finer-dining debut in a glamorous subterranean lair on West Pico Boulevard. \u201cFiner,\u201d meaning: four substantial set courses, which change every six or so weeks, for a reasonable $150 per person in our era of $400 tasting menus. The restaurant, packed nightly, doubles as a master class on how to conduct an effective introduction to Los Angeles. This isn\u2019t someone trying to demonstrate what \u201cCalifornia cuisine\u201d should be; it\u2019s someone keeping us rapt with his own story. Jernmark\u2019s genius \u2014 pairing his Scandinavian instincts with the riches of our local harvests \u2014 doesn\u2019t jump out through a perfunctory scroll of Lielle\u2019s dishes on social media. Everything is meticulously plated, but you have to taste the flashbulb-bright acidity among hills of snipped vegetables and luxe seafood, and how he pairs meats and fruits for maximum dramatic tension. And the bread! Two loaves bookend dinner: Crusty-plush sourdough to be smeared with cultured butter that\u2019s nearly cheese, and golden cardamom buns soaked in a Jernmark concoction riffing on boozy spiced Swedish punsch.<\/p>\n
Lielle is astonishing from the outset, a rarity heightened by the front-of-house staff\u2019s united, enlightened mode of hospitality; the surroundings, designed to evoke a sumptuous wine cave; and a spectacular, diverse wine list worthy of the atmosphere. Is it the great higher-end debut of the decade? Quite possibly, and there\u2019s a bonus: Jernmark and his team just opened Mar\u00e9e, a bistro upstairs from Lielle, with fun brainstorms like mussels \u201cgratin\u201d and the city\u2019s next must-have burger.
Read Bill Addison\u2019s review of Lielle. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A newcomer, less than a year old, has soared all the way to the guide\u2019s highest slot? Yes. Swedish chef Marcus Jernmark stunned us both with his finer-dining debut in a glamorous subterranean lair on West Pico Boulevard. \u201cFiner,\u201d meaning: four substantial set courses, which change every six or so weeks, for a reasonable $150<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2554,58,56,1096,235,50630,50629,50623,50628,50626,628,50622,50627,160,28370,50625,50624],"class_list":["post-76677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-best-restaurants","tag-california","tag-california-dining","tag-city","tag-dinner","tag-hyperseasonal-ingredient","tag-jenn-harris","tag-jessica-koslow","tag-l-a-guide","tag-layer","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-lucia","tag-newcomer","tag-restaurant","tag-review","tag-ricotta-toast","tag-sqirl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117556559412083166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}