Gastropub LUKE Opens In Los Angeles' Woodland Hills
Restaurateur Lorenzo Hartzog has opened LUKE in the heart of Woodland Hills, housed in the former La Frite location.
The gastropub's atmosphere is warm with dark woods, elegant crystal chandeliers, cozy round booths, and exposed beams. Diners can sit at the long bar, in big booths, al fresco on the patio, or in comfy tables in the main dining room.
Appetizer highlights include smoked and roasted mixed nuts tossed in paprika, herbed olives with garlic, chicharrones, grilled sourdough with burrata cheese, baby kale and smoked tomato salad, roasted cauliflower with pomegranate and pistachios, roasted carrots with yogurt, and a Caesar salad.
Main courses include fried calamari with shishito peppers, creole shrimp and cornbread, prime beef yakitori, dry aged meatballs, prime ribeye dip sandwich, albacore tuna sandwich, a dry aged bacon burger with burrata, salted fish fried rice, burrata and lobster bruschetta, crispy pork belly, organic lamb chop with pistachio butter, braised beef shank sugo, and a Lake Superior whitefish marsala.
Desserts from pastry chef Joy Cuevas include apple pie nachos, a chocolate crunch bar, caramel budino, and a buttermilk panna cotta.
The bar menu is full of interesting choices including a basil Collins with vodka, St. Germaine, basil, and lemon; a cranberry lime caipirinha with leblon cachaca, cranberry, lime, and brown sugar; the laid back with gin, lagunitas ipa, di amore amaretto, and grapefruit, and the writer's elixir with cynar, Tanqueray, St. Germaine and lemon.