Negroni Caffe Bar in Beverly Hills and Beating the Parking Gods

John and I ran a quick errand at Eataly in Century City (buying jars of Calabrian peppers – he eats them with eggs EVERY day). We had an hour of free parking, and we both love beating the parking gods, so we left rather than enjoying their restaurants, which we know well. We make a lot of Westside L.A. decisions based on parking, so we went to Beverly Hills, where city lots offer 2 hours free. Does this make a ton of sense, knowing we were about to freely spend on drinks and food? Not really! But oddly satisfying!

Bound for Wally’s, we passed our beloved high-end Mexican place that had closed. This was, what, maybe the fifth really nice restaurant we especially liked that had given up. Don’t invite us to your new joint—it won’t last. Our lamented spot had craft margaritas, house-made slow-roasted salsas with unique flavors like habanero and vanilla, and specialty tortillas. Sigh.

The empty space was now filled. Had a happy hour menu which we we were surprised by, given it was called Negroni Caffe (a coffee bar?) and Bistro (but had sushi, according to the menu). Now we had to go in.

We could choose a salad and entrée, menu seeming to lean vegan. I had a cauliflower concoction, roasted florets in a kind of soup, sauce, and purée—tasted good. John opted for a Mexican salad and a sushi course, while I chose an Italian chopped salad, hold the garbanzos. Since Negroni started in Argentina, spread to Paraguay, and has an outpost in Miami, of course they had sushi and chopped salad. Nope, I don’t understand it either. But we were enjoying it.

I had a glass of my standby Pinot Grigio, while John opted for an actual cocktail, since that is really their passion. He picked a Cacao Old Fashioned, fat-washed with organic cocoa butter. Say what? Fat-washing is a slow filtration process that imbues the liquor with flavor via the fat, explained the bar manager, who stopped by for a chat since the place wasn’t busy yet. Okay! I needed some fat-wash experience. John ordered me the Porn Star Martini, basically to be a wise guy—Tito’s vodka fat-washed with vanilla yogurt, blended with passion fruit, and finished with prosecco you pour in at will. It was delicious, and I was grateful not to be driving.

Time for one more eclectic dish to share: truffle carpaccio! Duh! That’s how they roll in Argentina via Miami. Forget the cheapo truffle-oil-on-meat vision you have in your head. This was actual, numerous, generous, thin-shaved truffle slices atop beef. The creamy component came from aerated aioli molecular gastronomy globes atop the beef, with parmesan shreds and chives to finish.

We loved it.

We’ll be back to get our world food and fat-wash fix again, thanks to Argentinian founder, restaurateur, and bar innovator Pablo Sartori’s latest foray.

For one thing, we never ordered a Negroni.