Eater Sneak Peek: Drago Centro Downtown

We started Fall Tracking Celestino Drago's new Drago Centro at City National Plaza a few weeks ago, but that was just the outside. Yesterday Drago and managing partner Matteo Ferdinandi offered us a little sneak peek inside. Construction is moving at a fast pace, and most of the elements are there: Beautiful caramel-colored banquettes just waiting for proper placement against the walls; Murano glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling; a stunning, custom-built glass wine tower centering the room; the bar and its Enomatic wine system. Soon the patio---both for dining and a lounge---its skylights, the trees and planted foliage, and the enormous kitchen and all its new toys will be in place for a mid-November (fingers crossed) debut. We also learned a bit more about the menu.

When we asked Drago how this will differ from his other restaurants, he said the menu will still be signature Drago but with modernized classic Italian dishes added, things you don't always see on menus in LA like I Pizzoccheri della Valtellina, a Northern Itlian pasta filled with cabbage, potatoes and Fontina cheese. Also, Ian Gresick is the chef de cuisine, late of Patina. Our favorite part of the whole place has to be the bank vault room---workers had to cut through more than two feet of solid cement and steel just to get inside (the walls and the roof) and created a private room with an exhibition kitchen. It's literally under the Figueroa sidewalk. At least now they know what it takes to break into a bank vault...
· Fall Tracking: Drago Centro [~ELA~]For more stories from Eater LA, go to la.eater.com.

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