Instead of the cornbread, grits, hoppin\u2019 John and other specialties he\u2019d brought to life in kitchens such as Husk, McCrady\u2019s and Audrey, Brock\u2018s menu is more esoteric, covering profiteroles filled with candy cap mushroom ice cream in a pine-cone chocolate syrup. He\u2019s centering California rice in an abalone-and-celtuce stew. Ssam-like pork belly is served with figs, nasturtium and avocado pur\u00e9e.<\/p>\n
Brock spent much of his career weaving his Appalachian upbringing with broader Southern specialties. At Darling \u2014 which he pronounces \u201cDarlin\u2019,\u201d without fail \u2014 Brock\u2019s steadfast love of fermentation features prominently, and it\u2019s seen in both the dishes and a larder stocked with pickled produce and vinegars.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Abalone and celtuce stew with Koshihikari rice on the opening menu of Darling.<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to fully understand the taste of this place [L.A.], and that\u2019s my goal, I can\u2019t cook Southern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As Brock attempts to feel out L.A.\u2019s rhythm in the kitchen, he\u2019s feeling it from behind the DJ booth.<\/p>\n
Darling\u2019s layout is split in two: one side a dining room surrounded by folk art \u2014 some from Brock\u2019s personal collection \u2014 and the restaurant\u2019s larder shelves, and the other a lounge and bar with a direct view of that custom-built music booth, where a rotation of DJs including Brock plays 45-rpm records well into the night.<\/p>\n
The chef began collecting records in high school, then roughly 15 years ago fell in love with listening bars in Japan. The primary reason he relocated from Charleston to Nashville, he said, was to be closer to the Music City\u2019s scene. In the last three years he\u2019s become even more obsessed with music than with food \u2014 especially building speakers, understanding the mechanics of mixers, taking apart hi-fi audio systems just to reassemble them again.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brock in the DJ booth of his West Hollywood restaurant and listening lounge.<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
On a semi-recent trip to Japan he discovered Tannoy speakers and fell down the rabbit hole from there; by the time he landed back in the U.S., he\u2019d found a set of his own \u2014 originally customized for a producer of legendary supergroup the Highwaymen.<\/p>\n
Brock reconfigured his house to accommodate them, then decided to share that love with the public and flipped his steakhouse, the Continental in Nashville, into a now-closed listening bar. He purchased a collection of 3,500 45-rpm records, organized them by decade, and listened through every single one.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Darling chef de cuisine Ben Norton, left, with chef-founder Sean Brock.<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
The monthly rotating menu from Brock and his chef de cuisine, Ben Norton, feels a little like music. The quick-disappearing cheeseburger \u2014 of which only 24 are made each night \u2014 gets painted with what the kitchen calls \u201cliquid cheeseburger\u201d: beef fat infused with two-week-made tomato concentrate and the pan drippings from cooked cheeseburgers. It feels akin to layering the same instrument over itself in a track.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m learning at a rate that is just exhilarating, and I\u2019m learning so much,\u201d said Brock, a former James Beard Foundation Award winner for best chef in the Southeast who has been spotlighted in shows such as \u201cChef\u2019s Table\u201d and Anthony Bourdain\u2019s \u201cThe Mind of a Chef.\u201d \u201cTo be able to be at this stage in my career, three decades later, and to feel like a student again? I\u2019m addicted to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A carjack is used to press two pans together to squeeze out the essence from certain ingredients, but the gem of the kitchen is the custom-built wood-fired grill. Nearly everything at Darling gets touched by some element of fire \u2014 even the salads and some of the cocktails.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The listening lounge and bar of Darling in West Hollywood.<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
The bar program, led by Baroo and Bar Benjamin alum Jason Lee, is also set to change monthly. The drinks might include a cocktail of vodka, sourdough cordial and charred Jimmy Nardello peppers, or rum with allspice, roasted eggplant and coconut cream.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty modern without drawing attention to itself,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
The expansion to L.A. isn\u2019t just about Brock\u2019s need to experiment and reinvent. He says it\u2019s also helped him physically.<\/p>\n
Brock suffers from neuromuscular condition myasthenia gravis, resulting in muscle pain so intense it can be debilitating. Heat and humidity, he said, exacerbate it. In L.A. he\u2019s somewhat freer from the effects and can focus more clearly on creating.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Grilled artichokes with yuzu creamed corn and Santa Barbara uni at Darling.<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
The Southern chef is living about 15 minutes from the restaurant, and commutes back to Nashville for half of the week to spend time with his wife and two daughters \u2014 ages 4 and 6 \u2014 as well as his new pizzeria there.<\/p>\n
He says the back and forth doesn\u2019t faze him. He also knows he\u2019s drawn a lot of eyes with his expansion to L.A. He won\u2019t let that faze him, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spring out of bed in the morning when I\u2019m challenged and when I\u2019m scared \u2026 and now everybody\u2019s watching,\u201d Brock said. \u201cIt has to be great, and I love that. That\u2019s why I\u2019m here: because of the pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darling is located at 631 N. Robertson Blvd. in West Hollywood, (323) 203-0236, and is open Wednesday to Sunday from 5:30 to 10 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Brock\u2019s biggest concern, he said, is that people will want cornbread. One of the most influential Southern…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":284406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,3596,146634,18120,146633,146636,170,18050,6276,2961,224,5337,50789,2987,34961,146632,146635,22662],"class_list":{"0":"post-284405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-chef","11":"tag-cornbread","12":"tag-cuisine","13":"tag-darling","14":"tag-first-restaurant","15":"tag-japan","16":"tag-kitchen","17":"tag-l-a","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-menu","22":"tag-nashville","23":"tag-record","24":"tag-sean-brock","25":"tag-steadfast-love","26":"tag-west-hollywood"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115334016484155212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}