Strange review overall but check the bit about the wine list:
http://www.smdp.com/pasta-not-wine-is-best-at-bestia/116204
Another view:
http://www.laweekly.com/2013-01-03/eat-drink/bestia-reviewed-downtown-los-angeles/
What’s with the selections? This place clearly needs more SWS wines on the list!!!
Ok, I’m joking, but it is one of my wife’s accounts. I’ve been. The food is excellent. The writer’s description is pretty correct. It’s kind of a hip Sotto. Definitely a downtown loft vibe. The bar has some cool concoctions and an impressive spirit selection. I thought the salumi was good, though no better than many other spots. Some of the other dishes were really excellent. Octopus is really good. The beef cheek agnolotti and the cacao crostini dessert were awesome.
I spent a decent amount of time talking to Maxwell the somm. IIRC he came over from Jose Andres’ Bazaar. The guy looks like he hasn’t aken the SAT yet. Really young. Though quite knowledgeable and extremely enthusiastic. Inasmuch as they are fledgling and he knew we were serious winos, he seemed to be interested in input. Also because the list was not planned far in advance and is undoubtedly still to be tweaked and expanded as far as selections. He suggested me a glass of a really oxidative Italian white as an option to something else I contemplated. Didn’t like it and told him so. We did have a chat about how esoteric some of the selections are. My point to him is that a lot of drinkers are going to look for more standard, inside the box options and that even though a lot of somms and other drinkers like oddball pairings, there should be options for those that don’t. What was impressive about him was that he responded that he hoped to have some stuff on the list that would meet those demands, but hoped to be able to suggest options as he did (albeit unsuccessfully) with me. I settled on a Lioco wine, and half of that team (O’connor) happened to be sitting a couple of tables away. We’ll see as they settle in, but the guy is likeable,and by no means the pomp geek that some other somms are. I’m thinking of trying to set up a dinner there, but haven’t broached the byob part.
Bestia? Do you go there and eat the animals or have sex with them?
HAHAHAHAH
Ha ha, he suggested the same white to me. I told him I didn’t like it either. It was so hollow on the mid palate. He did have an apple brandy that was really good. I think he’s trying to be too eccentric with the wine list, catering too hard to the hipster crowd that has somehow made its way down to DTLA. Their glassware also sucks for their $20 corkage. Max is a cool guy though. He says they are looking to expand their list, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Like I said, seems like a typical “hipster” list, being eccentric for the sake of.
Otherwise, food is excellent there.
I know Maxwell from The Bazaar and he is into some very esoteric wines. Got to love his enthusiasm though. Last time we were at Bazaar with some non geek winos he surprised us with a really oxidized Jura Blanc that was way over the top on this night. I think he told us he was at The Tasting Kitchen in Venice before that. A very likeable guy and I am sure he will find his middle ground.
[quote="Charlie FuHa ha, he suggested the same white to me. I told him I didn’t like it either. It was so hollow on the mid palate. He did have an apple brandy that was really good. I think he’s trying to be too eccentric with the wine list, catering too hard to the hipster crowd that has somehow made its way down to DTLA. Their glassware also sucks for their $20 corkage. Max is a cool guy though. He says they are looking to expand their list, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Like I said, seems like a typical “hipster” list, being eccentric for the sake of.
Otherwise, food is excellent there.[/quote]
It was more than just hollow on the mid-palate. In the words of Neil “it started out real slow and just fizzled out altogether”. I just don’t like those really oxidized wines.
Truth be told Julian Cox gave me a pour of an Amaro at the bar that I thought was equally bad. Though to be fair I don’t like Amaro, and some of the hipsters at the bar were oohing over their selection and this one in particular. The regular mixology stuff they were making was tasty.
Did you like the food? If so, we should have a dinner there. We had quite a few things, and a lot was tasty. $20 corkage isn’t terrible. If they expand the list it might be a few sawbucks the Gonzales way, so hope so. If some of here are thinking a list is esoteric, one can imagine what John Q. is saying. But regardless of source, the list just needs to be deeper. They’d sell a lot more wine. Sometimes I think places that push heavy on the mixology sacrafice something on the wine side. I also agree that somms getting eccentric just for the sake of being different and edgy is not an ideal wine program. Suggest the eccentric, but carry some regulars.
Yeah, this annoys me…
I don’t mind if they have an eclectic list, so long as there is also some good stuff on there as well.
I hate having to be forced to drink a particular style or region of wine just because someone else thinks I should…
I’m not sure about this. It certainly isn’t true of the most interesting menus, not sure why it would be true of the most interesting wine lists.
Yawn…so what if another local place gets savaged…and two critics focus on other issues as their thrust of the article.
C’mon, Roberto…a slow day over on SM Blvd? How many care about this kind of micro-stuff? ![[stirthepothal.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f40faec63ca1018898a40805efbf9f0066a3d205.gif "[stirthepothal.gif]"){kind=small}
Absent the inflammatory word ("'savaged"), who would read this thread?
(I want to read more of your comments about the great off-the-beaten-path-non-Italian-wines you guys offer…) 
Just my opinion, I can understand yours though it isn’t necessarily a complete analogy. My simplest answer would be, as I said somewhere herein, they would sell more wine. I’d venture to say they’d also have fewer people disappointed in the wine they chose, though I agree there would be SOME people pleasantly surprised. I really don’t think many people were going to enjoy the white that Charlie and I tried. In talking to the somm., even he wants to expand the list and perhaps you’re not realizing how small and esoteric it was. Again, at least when I was there very early on.
Considering your analogy, I don’t think the food menu and the winelist are the same. First off, there are usually more wine choices available than menu items. When I was there, such was not the case (yet?). It’s a lot easier on the establishment to carry an array of wine aside from the inventory cost of the 6-12 bottles of this or that. Varying food items involve stocking extra perishables and the effort of the staff to prepare many different things. So a non-corporate, quality place can’t lend themselves to offering diners options of 50 different choices. I also don’t think that someone wanting a Cal-cab with the scallops is as much a circumvention of the chef’s plan, or an affront to his creativity, as much as asking for ketchup on the crudo. They’d be perfectly happy to give me a Wild Turkey and Coke with the meal, so why would they care if I get a wine not of their choice? Other than the inventory issue.
Anyhow, I’d be pretty confident that the winelist does expand, which really about the only repeat criticism I’ve seen of what is a good new place.
John. I love the place. Anytime you want to go we will crack bottles.
This might have something to do with the fact that I’m in the wine business, but my theory is that restaurants sell two things, food and drink, and that they should apply about the same standards to both. In other words, if a northern Italian restaurant doesn’t feel it has to serve grilled chicken breast with french fries to please people who don’t feel like eating Osso Bucco, why should they feel they have to serve Napa Cab?
To put it another way, the Slanted Door has received a lot of flak over the years for not selling CA Chardonnay, but they argue that it doesn’t go with their food, and I think they’re right. They are also doing extremely well, in business terms.
I just re-read the negative review, and it makes no sense at all. The man used to be a wine importer, and used to import a producer from Verduno, yet is so ignorant of the Verduno-specific grape variety Pelaverga that he can write ‘The Pelaverga grape is a novelty that only grows in that small region, and is sort of like Beaujolais nouveau — a light spring wine, almost like a rosé, that attracts multitudes of German tourists speeding down the autostrasse to quaff the new vintage before dinner.’
Well, either that, or a really interesting Piedmontese red wine that tastes great with a variety of foods, peppery and distinctive, found on many great wine lists, light in color but not in any other way. (Disclaimer: I import one.) If he’s rather drink a ‘Tuscan Cabernet Blend’, good for him, but that’s no criticism of the list.
I haven’t made it there yet, but it’s on my radar. I agree with Oliver. I thought the Daily Press writer showed a severe lack of understanding about wine. Tuscan/Sangiovese wine with pasta-really?? Yawn!!! Perhaps Olive Garden is better suited to please him. It is possible to have an interesting, obscure wines list. But in the end, whatever you decide to sell has to work with the food. I love skin macerated Friulian wines (which is possibly the white in question-not a lot of oxidative italian whites out there) and concede they don’t pair well with a lot of dishes, but there are matches to be found. I’m not sure it is prudent as a btw selection though.