Back to the Lab

Well, the transformation continues apace. As of last year, North of the USC campus now has the wonderful Bacaro, and as of three weeks ago, we now have The Lab on the Eastern edge of campus. It’s a gastropub (it is quite charming to hear that quaint term from early 90s London being bandied about as new and hip over here out West now), done up with the feeling of a laboratory of sorts. I think it works rather well, and I entirely approve of the science theme.

The good news is that it actually does seem to be trying to do food somewhat a cut above the sort you get at your generic college campus dive. It succeeds with plenty of room to spare. I can see it as another place where both students and faculty can feel at home and find something on the menu that they like. There’s a surprisingly good selection of beers (no Duvel, Hoegaarden or Leffe, but I did spot a Chimay, so they pass) and several wines (did not explore the list on this first visit).

My risotto was pleasantly fresh tasting, with ingredients (including several different types of rice) nicely differentiated, and far better than the sort of thing I’d expected, I will confess. My companion’s tomato and mozzarella flatbread was less successful and more in line with expectations – the tomatoes of little flavour, the mediocre mozzarella further ruined by grilling – but not terrible. We split our entrees and so each got a bit of the rough and the smooth, so all was well. I had a bottle of Dry Blackthorne cider. Not exactly the queen of English ciders (not even close), but pleasant and fitting to have, somehow. Brought back memories. Have a look at their website for more pictures and the menus.

The tables -trying nicely to be lab benches- seem to be finished in the paint you use for blackboards, but there was no chalk around for testing. There were several boards on the walls around the place, with even some authentic looking scribbles on them. Perhaps the science students have discovered the place. Excellent. There are those industrial-looking lamps hanging down low over the benches, for an overall quite pleasing effect, and the nicest touch of all is that the menus are actually bound together using clipboards. Quite excellent.

So here’s another reason to stay in the USC neighbourhood in the evenings from time to time, I’d say. Grab a bite to eat here, or at Bacaro, or one of the other places recently opened (or some of the older favourites), and take in one of the huge number of events going on around campus, or just hang with colleagues and friends. Tonight I did both, heading over after eating with a colleague and friend to see the excellent Persepolis again. There was a showing of it on campus (followed by a presentation and a Q&A session -which I had to skip- with Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi).

Bacaro’s still by far the culinary champion by far, and will remain my first choice of places to grab a bite to eat in the area (with the often forgotten La Taquiza close behind), but it is great to see new choices showing up in the area with some regularity now. When the subway stops come (not too long to wait now), this is all going to work so well together with downtown events and venues as well. It is truly exciting.

-cvj