Next: Hollywood

D is a movie buff.  He’ll happily watch anything – even movies he himself describes as “terrible” (sometimes I think he likes those the best!).  So if there was ever a restaurant made just for him, Next: Hollywood is it.

Take a look at the trailer and see how many movie references you can count!

Dinner starts with champagne while looking over a draft “script” by the chefs – a fun opening ploy.  Then things started to roll (ha!).  We had little caviar bites topped with champagne gelée inscribed with the end of Rhett Butler’s famous utterance, “Damn” (the rest of the quotation is written on the film strip upon which the bites are served), and a bowl of fennel pollen popcorn to munch on.

Opening credits concluded, we moved on to…

Classics

The Breakfast Club: Morel “sushi”, Parmesan “sandwiches”, watermelon gazpacho

Cool Hand Luke: Sugar “egg” that cracks to reveal trout roe, coconut, puffed rice

The Wizard of Oz: Fava bean, raisin, romesco

Next up…

Sci fi

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Octopus and scallop over dry ice

Jurassic Park: Excavated bones, with tiny bite of jamon

Star Wars: Puff of tempura frog inspired by Jabba the Hutt

Blade Runner: Noodles with duck

Shift into…

Grit

(Because I don’t know what else to call a genre consisting of gangsters, horror, and cooking rats!)

The Godfather: Taro, ricotta, and olive cannoli

Ratatouille: One perfect bite of ratatouille tart

Horror: Pork neck, beet “blood”

Pulp Fiction: Bulgogi Big Kahuna Burger

Then the finale…

Fantastic desserts

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: Foie gras, strawberry

Marie Antoinette: Rhubarb, raspberry

“Life is like a box of…”: Truffle Shuffle, Coffee and Cigarettes, Some Like it Hot, Nutty Professor

Mary Poppins: Menthol, fernet, honeydew