My best friend Marisol nearly flipped out after spotting low-list celebrity Jasmine Guy standing outside of Grace Restaurant in Santa Monica last week. She’s always been sort of a celebrity hound, giving the same kind of raving reactions to anyone she meets. While Marisol was having her moment, I focused on the real star of my evening: Grace’s doughnuts, the sole reason we had braved the I-5 freeway for an hour. The restaurant does a Wednesday night Doughnut Shoppe, with a changing menu of gourmet doughnuts ranging from cinnamon and sugar to an all-out chocolate-covered strawberry. Doughnuts are my achilles heel (I once ate 13 glazed Krispy Kremes in one painful, albeit glorious sitting), so naturally, I had to have these.
A plate of all eight doughnuts offered runs $25, and comes with three laughably tiny (especially if you’re sharing) scoops of ice cream, probably to use as a palate cleanser in between bites of the deep-fried confections. Though the vanilla ice cream was good, there wasn’t enough of it and in a few minutes the scoops had become little pools of melted ice cream that some of us used as additional sauce for the doughnuts. At least it wasn’t a total loss.
My favorites were the carrot cake, which tasted like a fried version of the cake with a light cream cheese glaze. The s’mores doughnut had a dollop of marshmallow creme on top that was torched to resemble the crisp bubbly outer layer of a well-fired marshmallow. Lemon-glazed was also a big hit, not too sweet or tart. But alas, the one we all had high hopes for, the chocolate-covered strawberry doughnut, fell flat. We had visions of plump, whole or macerated strawberries somehow encased in a warm doughnut with a finish of a dark chocolate glaze. Instead, it was more of a jelly doughnut, with a watery strawberry jam of sorts under a light drizzle of chocolate. How sad we were.
Though our party of four came strictly for the doughnuts, we couldn’t help but order a plate of the Grilled Tenderloin of Wild Boar ($32) to split. The plate comes with roasted Brussels sprouts, a potato gnocchi and a violet mustard sauce. Wild boar tastes like a leaner version of pork, crossed with the tough meatiness of beef. A thumbs up from the entire table, it is recommended.
Grace also does a gourmet burger night on Sundays, and here’s an interesting, short read: Grace’s Chef Neal Fraser was the first California chef to beat a Food Network Iron Chef.
Information: Grace Restaurant, 7360 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. 323-934-4400. www.gracerestaurant.com
- Cynthia Furey
