dining<\/a> realm is at the leading edge of a new national movement in NA pairings thanks to driving, sobriety culture and the dampening effects of GLP-1 products. At Sushi Nakazawa\u2019s lauded original Manhattan location, only 5 percent of the clientele is opting for NA beverages, while it\u2019s 25 percent at its 5-month-old outpost along Robertson Boulevard.<\/p>\n\n\tDowntown restaurant Kato, a repeat on the World\u2019s 50 Best list in recent years, was an early and enthusiastic adopter of NA pairings. \u201cYou can draw a clear parallel with the advent of serious cocktail programs in fine dining spaces 20 years ago, when those drinks became culinary,\u201d explains Kato\u2019s bar director Austin Hennelly. \u201cSoon we\u2019ll look back at the time right before right now and won\u2019t believe alcohol-free beverages weren\u2019t taken seriously in sophisticated restaurants because this is now what a significant percentage of people want to drink.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCustomers, especially younger generations who on average drink substantially less, are driving the demand. In turn, these fine-dining establishments \u2014 which operate on thin margins \u2014 are developing their NA programs as meaningful alternative revenue streams. (Their cost is often almost as much as alcoholic programs.) \u201cWith small restaurants in particular, when you remove wine, the numbers are very tight,\u201d explains chef Aitor Zabala, who owns West Hollywood\u2019s three-Michelin-starred Somni, where on many evenings up to half the clientele is opting in to NA pairings. \u201cYou need to offer more than water.\u201d Some restaurants, including Somni, also offer hybrid menus as a way station for moderate drinkers and the NA-curious alike.<\/p>\n
\n\tTrade tech advancements are helping those at the vanguard of the new NA movement. \u201cEven in 2023, I was pretty discouraged by what was available,\u201d says Sushi Nakazawa\u2019s beverage director Dean Fuerth, pointing to \u201cdealcoholized wine where the soul had been taken out of it.\u201d Since then, the implementation of vacuum distillation \u2014 which separates alcohol and other compounds from wine \u2014 has allowed for better preservation of the original character. \u201cA few years ago,\u201d he adds, \u201cit may have felt austere and stripped, and now it tastes like a dead ringer for the real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWine has a long history and tradition of formalized pairings in fine dining. Sake and cocktails followed far more recently. Right now, NA is a Wild West, often integrating principles and techniques from the kitchen \u2014 the seasonal, farm-to-table ethos; the interest in fermentations, clarifications and infusions.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s an area where we\u2019re seeing quite a lot of innovation,\u201d says Daniel Patterson, chef and owner of Hancock Park\u2019s 5-month-old Jacaranda, where NA now accounts for about 20 percent of pairings. (He earned multiple Michelin stars and James Beard awards for his prior work in San Francisco.) Patterson highlights the house-made teas offered on Jacaranda\u2019s NA pairing menu. \u201cFor me, tea is one of those things that requires such skill in the choosing and the roasting \u2014 there\u2019s really a strong parallel with wine, in terms of the intent and the gradients of quality and the connoisseurship. It provides an equivalency of quality and excitement to wine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe pioneers of NA pairing are enthusiastic about the burgeoning movement, but most excited about what\u2019s next. \u201cThe boom began just three or four years ago,\u201d says Somni\u2019s Zabala. \u201cIt\u2019s still so young. We don\u2019t know the future. But it will be even better.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThis story appeared in the Oct. 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kim Stodel, bar director at three-Michelin-starred Providence a few blocks west of the Paramount lot in Hollywood, steeps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[578,48,52,51,972,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-492965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-dining","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-local","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}