THE GRILL ON THE ALLEY
UNVEILS NEW MENU ITEMS
In celebration of turning 30, Beverly’s Hills’ The Grill on the Alley, along with its other Grill restaurants, including The Grill on Hollywood at Hollywood & Highland, is giving its lunch and dinner menus a make-over.
According to the powers that be, these new dishes are designed to provide guests with a greater ability to customize their menu selections. To keep up with dining trends, The Grill is embracing ‘sharable’ side dishes—encouraging guests to try more items on the menu and share.
“We have been in business for thirty years and part of that success is listening to our guests,” CEO and Co-Founder Bob Spivak said. “Since day one, our culinary team has been creating custom dishes on request. In fact, some of the new side dishes were inspired by those requests.”
Even the way The Grill’s famous sourdough bread is served has been updated to include a trio of spreads, adding a new look to an old favorite. Alongside The Grill’s classic sweet butter, guests will now receive a fresh sundried tomato tapenade and extra virgin olive oil with balsamic vinegar, crushed red pepper and thyme. Subtle, but it’s the little things that do matter most and often make the biggest impressions.
The new menu also includes seven preparation styles for steaks and chops along with a smaller portion of two popular items. At dinner, guests can now convert any steak or chop entrée into a surf and turf by adding half of a lobster tail.
During our recent visit to The Grill on Hollywood for lunch we found a vibrant outdoor patio scene loaded with convention-goers and other suit-and-tie types. The Grill has always been the place for “power lunch” and while the Hollywood location doesn’t necessarily feature the “heavy hitters” in town like the original Beverly Hills location, it’s still a place where lunch and dinner aren’t rushed. It’s where you relax, enjoy the wonderful and professional service, and enjoy a hearty, well prepared meal.
Since it was lunch time, we started with the fresh squeezed, hand shaken lemonade. A great drink on a hot day. Then we went with the new Spinach Salad with fresh baby spinach tossed with sliced button mushrooms, red onions and egg tossed with warm bacon vinaigrette. While I wouldn’t really call this salad “light” it is savory. It is also entrée sized so you can make it your meal or split it to get your greens fix satisfied and enjoy other menu items.
For our main entrée, we split the hefty and hearty 20 oz. Cowboy’s Rib-Eye Steak served Prime bone-in. Cooked just right, the steak satisfied beyond belief. Preparation styles for steaks include Boef Onions with Bordelaise; Béarnaise Sauce; Green Peppercorn Sauce; Truffle Butter; Bleu Cheese Herb Crust; Oscar Style; and Pepper, Bacon, and Onions.
Other new items include the12 oz. Prime New York Steak, Australian Twin Lobster Tails, Center Cut Blackened Ahi Tuna Steak, and Filet Steak Salad.
The new sharable side dishes are impressive. We just had to go with the Lobster Mashed Potatoes, made with Yukon gold mashed potatoes tossed with Maine lobster claws and knuckles and drizzled with brown butter and chopped chives. This one is rich and delicious although there was a little too much chives for my taste.
Meanwhile, the Cauliflower Gratin, which honestly, I didn’t expect too much from, was fantastic. Made with roasted cauliflower with emmental cheese sauce, crispy bacon and crusty bread crumbs, it’s so ridiculously flavorful. Add cheese and bacon to anything and it’s going to be a crowd pleaser.
Likewise, the Wild Mushroom Risotto, made with a variety of wild mushrooms slowly cooked with arborio rice risotto until tender, finished with butter and fresh grated grana padano, proved to be my favorite of the new sides. Again, it was rich and loaded with flavor. I would have bet that the Lobster Mashed Potatoes and the Braised Brussels Sprouts, prepared with roasted Brussels sprouts with carrot, onion and bacon hash drizzled with balsamic vinegar and tossed with roasted pecans, would be my winners. They were both satisfying (especially the Lobster mash) but the risotto just had that little something extra, and went nicely with the steak.
I must say it is impressive to see an Old School restaurant like The Grill be able to change, develop and elevate its menu.
“Bob and I created the original menu thirty years ago in his apartment,” says Executive Vice President John Sola. “It’s exciting for us to develop our classics dishes even further and create new versions our guests will love.”
The Grill on Hollywood is located on the main restaurant level at Hollywood & Highland. Call (323) 856-5530.
Story by Jose Martinez
Photography courtesy of The Grill on Hollywood
