A new wine bar Palate was opened at the car dealership part of Glendale city. The wine selection is impressive, we tried a few glasses including two ‘biodynamic’ wine from France. The food menu is smaller but creative, it covers quite a range.
The neon pink lights, giant potted grapes and drapery reminds me of a technicolor greek mythology movie. We tried the Mason jars: potted duck rillettes. The preserved duck meat was very moist and smokey (especially good with wine). it’s our favorite of the night.
Persimmons, Speck, Wild Arugula Salad with Cider Vinaigrette: the persimmons was so sweet, while the arugula was too rough and bitter. The opposite flavors and texture was too jarring. Agnolotti: Sweet Potato, Ricotta, Brown Butter, Sage. Even though the pasta was cooked al dente, there wasn’t much of a texture to grasp on. The ingredients on paper sounded more interesting than the outcome. It is still a lovely dish to eat though.
The Crispy sweetbread with Melted leeks and Swiss chard did not have much flavors. Dessert: Lavender Creme Brulee, it was topped with too much whipped cream on top.
The creative menu sounded very promising but I didn’t find a MUST-GET dish this time. But I want to come back to try other dishes. Their menu was at least thoughtful and tried to please your palate, especially compare to many lazy chichi wine bars in Los Angeles that offered the likes of ‘proscuitto wrapped date’ or ‘mac and cheese’.
Palate Food and Wine 818-662-9463
933 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91204
Tags: small plate, Wine Bar
You do seem to like wine bar~. The ambience? The stingy me always prefer restaurants cos the food is usually better and in bigger portions for the same price(of course for bars, drinking is the main event not eating). Good restaurants won’t be lacking in good wine anyway and that is more than enough for weak drinkers like me. The best is: have a great meal and wine in a restaurant, then go to a bar and hang out.
Haha probably ambience (good for dating and girls night out). I think an advantage of wine bar to restaurant is that you could just order a few small dishes to share if you don’t feel like having a proper dinner (too heavy if you’re full). The food is usually better than the average bar food…one stone 2 birds? ^^;;
Palate’s menu only really has about 3-5 entree items, while the balance of the menu is appetizer-sized items, ideal for sharing, with only a bite or two per person, assuming two at the table.
And there seldom is an entree priced at $20 or more, thus also keeping the economics in line.
Now the wine selection can drive up the price significantly, but Palate has a very nice selection with modest markups, and that is often the reason people go in the first place.