Seeing stars
Gale Anne Hurd’s Vertical Wine Bistro is truly something to look up to
By Dan O'Heron 01/07/2010
If the night sky over Old Pasadena appears to have lost some of its luster, it’s because a cluster of shooting stars has landed at the Vertical Wine Bistro.
The leading light is Vertical’s owner, Gale Anne Hurd, the Hollywood filmmaker renowned for producing the “Terminator” trilogy, “Aliens” (winner of four Oscars and seven nominations), “The Incredible Hulk,” “The Abyss” (another Oscar winner) and “Armageddon.”
When she’s not putting a futuristic sci-fi spectacular or an adventure thriller on film, Hurd is visible at the restaurant four nights a week. The building, constructed in 1906, features a staircase embroidered with European tiles that lead to a glass-domed rooftop, a fireplace and a glass-encased wine-storage wall that separates the bar and lounge from the dining room.
A notable luminary is Vertical’s managing director and sommelier, David Haskell. Trained at the Michelin three-star Guy Savoy in Paris, Haskell was born into stardom — his parents had dined at virtually every Michelin multi-starred restaurant in Europe.
Another star with a fat part in the operation is Doug Weston, Vertical’s executive chef. His resumé includes a stint at Joe’s Restaurant in Venice when it was awarded a Michelin Star, a rarity in California.
The three stellar personalities are aligned to provide customers with a chance to explore unique pairings of seasonal California bistro fare with an intriguing array of wines, beers and cocktails. While many fine-dining restaurants claim that well-chosen flavors of food and drink combine for a gastronomical treat more delicious than either alone could provide, Vertical proves it.
The other evening, while I was at the bar munching on a cured salmon and crème fraiche corn fritter, I asked Haskell for a match. I figured he’d give me a flowery recital promoting expensive wine, but instead he poured me a Japanese beer. It was a perfect mate and didn’t need explaining.
Later, in the dining room, when I suggested that a certain big California red wine might go well with my short ribs, he countered, “No, that’s too easy.” Uh, oh! Would Haskell scorn my selection with a biting remark like, “Your French clone belongs in a circus?”
No. Simply, he smiled politely and poured a Don Julio 1942 tequila. “There you go. Don’t get excited. It’s aged for about two years. The 1942 stands for the year the agave was planted.” The combination made history.
In order to develop personalized pairings, guests are encouraged to talk one-on-one with Haskell. “I want to help guests discover new flavors and really explore their passion for matchmaking food with wine and other beverages,” he said.
Haskell’s career includes stints at managing the dining room at New York’s Le Cirque — where he hosted patrons with well-publicized names like Kissinger, Jagger and Lauder — plus ownership of West Hollywood’s BIN 8945. He wouldn’t reveal any names, because, “Like a priest, I never tell who is drinking what with whom,” he said.
Prices at Vertical aren’t bad, considering the quality of what is served to whom by whom. In the space of a few Haskell wine and food pairings, I was pleasantly surprised by the difference between what I had expected and what I received. Unlike some bars where the person next to me is apt to have a personality that encourages birth control, the company I kept here at a wine-tasting event was convivial, polite and well-versed in everything from cabbages to kings — none of those clicking and clucking tut-tutting sounds of mutual and self-satisfaction.
While it smirks with sophistication, there’s no dress code to decipher. “We welcome the everyman, except the ones in baseball caps, as long as they like food, drink and culture,” said Haskell.
Boss Hurd agreed: “We maintain our foundation as a neighborly and approachable destination for enjoying great food and wine.”
And cheese!
People who prefer their cheese slices separated with paper may not appreciate Fiscalini bandage-wrapped cheddar — a snack cheese so delicious you’ll want to eat it out of hand even if it means getting burned plucking it from a casserole.
Earlier one evening, pointing to numerous recent restaurant business failings all over big cities, I asked the producer Hurd why she got into another very tough and competitive business.
“I’ve wined and dined in fine places all over the planet, sophisticated places with convivial atmospheres,” she says. “As a customer and resident in Pasadena, I was looking for something here that didn’t exist. Now it does.”
Hurd went on to say that her experiences in the film world carry over to the food field. “To make a great movie, you have to begin with the right concept, then put together the right team to carry it out, like we’ve done at Vertical,” she said.
But opening a restaurant in these tough times?
“Well,” said Hurd, “It also helps to have a good landlord — and I own the building.”
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