Bouchon – Beverly Hills

We absolutely love going to Bouchon for Ad Hoc’s fried chicken night. Everything is served family style and it is delicious

Wine from their list

Oysters to start – Fancy Sweet, Gigamoto, Kusshi, Luna, Shiny Sea

BYO Wine

Ad Hoc Fried Chicken with Cornbread and Honey Butter – serving size is so generous that we had enough leftovers for next night’s dinner!

Cheddar Cheese Grits – I could make a meal of just the grits – they are off the charts delicious

Heirloom Tomato and Cucumber salad – refreshing and “healthy”

Bouchon Sundae

Sundae with hot fudge sauce added – not exactly diet food.

What a marvelous meal!

Bouchon – Beverly Hills

Ad Hoc Fried Chicken night at Bouchon is not to be missed. It was an occasional event but they are considering making it a monthly affair. If they do, just go.

John had a Chopin dirty martini with blue cheese stuffed olives

I had a glass of white wine

Oysters – Kumamoto, Hama Hama, Beausoleil, and Fancy Sweet

BYO Red Wine

Ad Hoc Fried Chicken with Biscuits and Gravy – The chicken was delicious with crispy skin and tender, juicy meat. The biscuits with the gravy was over-the-top Southern “goodness.”  Portion size was huge!

Leftovers for tonight’s dinner

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

N.Y. Cheddar Grits – this is based on Chef Katie Hagan Whelchel’s grandmother’s recipe.  This was sensational. Not only did we eat every bite, but we could have had a seconds! In fact, I did ask for another portion to go with tonight’s leftovers and they graciously acknowledged my request. Customer service is not an afterthought at Bouchon – they go out of their way to please you.

A word about Chef Whelchel. She is terrific and her cuisine is innovative as well as perfectly executed and just delicious. Her dishes at Bar Bouchon are well worth a visit. My favorite is Egg with lentils – ragout of duck confit, French green lentils, poached hen egg and brioche crouton. In fact we had this just 2 days prior to our Ad Hoc fried chicken dinner.

Eggs with lentils

lovely runny yolk

Both Bouchon and Bar Bouchon is well worth a visit repeatedly and obviously we do so all the time.

Bouchon – Beverly Hills

You don’t have to go to Yountville to indulge in Ad Hoc’s fried chicken. You do have to brave Los Angeles traffic, but it is worth it. Chef Rory Hermann has nailed the Ad Hoc fried chicken to perfection. Our server, Brandon was superb and the over-all experience was in a word, fantastic!

John started with a dirty martini. I started with Sancerre – no photo.

Oysters – Kushi from the Pacific Northwest, Luna from Carlsbad, Cook’s Cove from Prince Edward Island, Misty Point from Virginia and Umami from Rhode Island – Bouchon has some of the best oysters in Los Angeles and is a perfect start to any Bouchon meal.

BYO Red Wine

Ad Hoc Fried Chicken – 2 pieces gone as we couldn’t wait to start eating before snapping the picture served with

Macaroni and Cheese

Red Wine Braised Cabbage and New York Cheddar Biscuits and Sausage Gravy (photo below)

Chicken plated – biscuit on the right. All I can say is that this was one wondrous plate of food.

You just can’t ask for better food and service!

Bouchon – Beverly Hills

As soon as I got the email from Bouchon mentioning that on Memorial Day they were serving Ad Hoc Fried Chicken, I immediately called and made a reservation. Knowing that our friends Sybil and Simon had just returned from a trip to Yountville and had experienced Ad Hoc at brunch, it was a no brainer that they should join us at Bouchon for Ad Hoc’s fried chicken. Everything was served family style in the Ad Hoc tradition.

BYO Wine – a Magnum of Dagueneau Silex, one of our favorite wines, set the tone for the evening.

Front of the bottle

Pate de Campagne, cornichons, pickled radish, mustard, country grilled bread ( this was not part of the special menu – we added it on as a first course)

THE AD HOC FRIED CHICKEN – crispy crunchy skin with moist tender meat – Chef Rory Herrmann nailed the recipe!!

For those who want to make the chicken at home see here:

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/lemon-brined-fried-chicken

N.Y. Cheddar Biscuits and Gravy

Macaroni and Cheese

Braised Collard Greens with bits of bacon

Berry Cobbler – a huge portion

A fun evening and the fried chicken definitely lived up to its reputation

Bouchon

We originally planned to have a late lunch/early dinner at Bar Bouchon. But with the cold, overcast weather, we decided to have an earlier lunch and moved upstairs to the main dining room. It was packed, but the service was exemplary. The food was equally superb.

The full main dining room

Another view of the dining room

Claude, our server

Champagne from their list

Misty Point Oysters from Virginia, Kumamoto Oysters from Humboldt and Bagaduce Oysters from Maine – perfect

BYO Red Wine

Soft Scrambled Eggs with Chives and then the piece de resistance:

Chef Rory Hermann arrived bearing a beautiful winter black truffle from Perigord that he shaved tableside

The finished dish with a lovely flaky croissant on the side – A+

My husband’s comment; “Not only do pigs find the trufffles, but pigs like us love to eat them!”

Escargots de Bourgogne – marinated snails in garlic-parsley butter and puff pastry –  the puff pastry is placed on top with the snail underneath

The best way to eat this is to remove the snail and pastry from the snail dish,  turn it over and have the puff pastry on the bottom. That way you really taste the snail, the puff pastry absorbs just the right amount of garlic butter plus you have extra garlic butter to soak up with the baguette bread.

Steak tartar made traditionally with capers and cornichons topped with a raw quail egg and espelette aioli garnished with nicoise olives on the side – an excellent version of steak tartare

The tartare mixed up

Steak frites – pan-seared prime flatiron, caramelized shallots, maître d’hôtel butter & French fries – the steak was cooked to our liking – rare – the maître d’hôtel butter oozed on top and the fries were crispy with not one hint of grease.

A lovely lunch with great food, wonderful wine and delicious food. What more could one ask for?