A2 Rating Scale (out of 5):
THE BASICS:
WHAT: A New American Restaurant in DTLA.
WHERE: The Arts District – In the old One Eyed Gypsy Building.
WHEN: Lunch, Dinner, Late Night (Kitchen closes at 11PM but bar – which is really the most important – stays open ’til 2AM)
THE DISH:
WHAT TO KNOW: Osso, which means ‘bone’ in Italian, comes to you from the duo behind Cliff’s Edge (which is one of our FAV restaurants in this city — these people are doing something very right) and Ami Lourie who helped build the Momofuku Empires in NYC (yes please). The 45 seat restaurant, which was once a brothel back in the day, gives you that exposed brick vibe mixed with Moroccan chic décor. The bar is on point and they make full use of the small stage with live music performances (Jazz night is Thursday starting at 10PM).
WHAT TO ORDER: the FRIED CHICKEN ($17/half or $34 whole) comes with potato salad and is MELT IN YOUR MOUTH good. A 1/2 order (with some sides) is enough for 3 people or less. They roll your BUCKET of chicken out on a cart with about 15 different sauces lined up to choose from. Talk about addictive. The foie gras torchon ($17) is surprisingly good for an American Restaurant serving this very French dish and comes with some deeelish jams and toast. The hamachi crudo ($13) is served in a pho broth with crispy shallots and my only problem with this dish is that there is not more of it.
WHAT TO SKIP: The bread and butter. We ordered this because we were famished but no one needs bread doused in that much butter – I don’t care if it’s home-made or not.
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM: ummm there is no dessert? Ruuuuude.
WHERE TO SIT: There isn’t a bad seat in the house considering it’s pretty much just a large warehouse. The one problem, the acoustics aren’t the best so sometimes it can get supes loud…especially if there is a large group celebrating a bday sitting right behind you (ahem ahem).
WHO TO BRING: I’ve been on a date and I’ve been for a GNO (girls night out – duh) and I’ve seen many large groups celebrating various events. Soooo pretty much all occasions. That being said, I would maybe opt out of bringing that long time friend you haven’t seen in forever and have so much to catch up on with as it can get hard to hear. And maybe grandma and grandpa or your conservative parents wouldn’t like how loud it gets either.
WHAT TO WEAR: I mean it’s a nice restaurant that turns into a bar/lounge but then again you are downtown a few blocks away from skid row…I was a tad overdressed in my over the knee boots and mini skirt but hey, it was GNO and we had a big night ahead of us!
WHAT ELSE: Happy Hour is from 5PM-6PM, Tues-Fri.
OUR NIGHT: The service started out a bit rocky when the host walked right past me and didn’t even acknowledge my presence and then FINALLY took us to our table (does Jonathan Gold have to deal with this?). And then we put in our order (it says it takes 40 minutes for the chicken) so we added some apps to hold us over; they brought EVERYTHING out 10 minutes later and at once. Like our drinks hadn’t even arrived yet and there wasn’t enough room for everything on the table. We sat down at 8:35PM and had our entire meal in front of us by 8:45PM. This is my PET.PEEVE. Hi, we’re trying to have a relaxing dinner here. #FAIL. I will say, Ami did his best to make it right by bringing over another table to hold the rest of our food (don’t judge us, we were hungry) and comped us a round of tequila shots so all was forgiven.
EDDR LIFE LESSON: Tequila makes everything better.
A2 FINAL THOUGHT: While DT isn’t the easiest place to get to, I will def be making a specific trip back for Osso. And shoutout to Ami for making me realize I still know how to throwback a shot.
Needing more fried chicken in my life right about now,
Alie
Osso ↔ 901 East 1st Street, LA, CA 90012 ↔ 213-880-5999
