Mark Gold is celebrating Eva’s first anniversary in style, with a pair of intriguing dinners at his seasonal, highly personal restaurant. September 8 is the official anniversary date, which will feature an 8 P.M. surprise. On September 15, Gold is teaming up with Alex Weiser of Weiser Farms on a five-course tasting dinner that benefits Share Our Strength, an organization that works to eradicate childhood hunger around the world.
“Alex Weiser is a very good friend of mine, so it’s a chef and farmer dinner,” says Gold. “I plan to utilize his product and the approach is very simple, just great farm-to-table food.” The dinner costs $65 per person and includes an amuse, “potato with clam,” “cod with caponata,” “chicken with charred onion” and “chocolate with chocolate.” Intelligentsia is handling coffee service and Gold plans to pair one course with either coffee or tea.
On September 29, Gold is hosting four of the city’s best chefs for a blowout anniversary dinner: Michael Cimarusti (Providence), Walter Manzke, Josiah Citrin (Melisse) and pastry star Sherry Yard (Spago). They’ll join Gold in the kitchen for a single seating that’s limited to 50 diners and costs $175-plus per person. “I was limited on the number of chefs I could include because of the size of the kitchen.” Given that, he invited longtime friends, all “very well-respected chefs in Los Angeles.”
Since Gold has now been in business for a year, he’s had some time to reflect on how the reality of his first restaurant compares to his expectations. “It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be in terms of running the restaurant,” says Gold, who’s also had to contend with the flagging economy and that in Los Angeles, "people tend to go to what’s new and hot at the time.” Still, he insists that, “It’s been good and the numbers are growing.” He’s also enjoying his freedom, and in year two, he won’t have to contend with things like securing a CUP or clearing parking hurdles. He said, “Year two, we plan to grow... [but will] continue to keep our feet planted in the community.” [The Feast]
