Jar restaurant in Los Angeles may look the part of a good ol’ boys club, with its masculine brown decor and serious hunks of meat on the menu.
However, the driving force behind this consistently popular chophouse is a woman: Suzanne Tracht, a chef whose attention to appetizers and side dishes sets this restaurant apart in an increasingly populated world of fine-dining steakhouses.
Sure, Tracht’s aged steaks are sublime. And her best-selling dish is a pot roast, which is slowly braised to a rich, fork-tender finish. She loves to make magic with humble cuts—such as a gelatinous beef tendon.
Yet the seasonal nonmeat items get just as much attention, if not more, from blogging reviewers who rave about the pea tendrils, Japanese purple yams or tomato salad with sweet onions and pickled ramps. A squash blossom is stuffed with chunks of lobster, fried in a light tempura batter and served as an appetizer with a spicy ponzu sauce. Wedges of baby iceberg lettuce are topped with Roquefort. The creamed corn side dish is plump with juicy kernels fresh off the cob.
It’s a chophouse even a vegetarian would love.
“Suzanne is cooking food that people really want to eat,” says acclaimed Los Angeles chef Nancy Silverton, who recently opened Pizzeria Mozza across town and will soon open its adjoining sister restaurant Osteria Mozza, both in partnership with New York chef Mario Batali.
Jar offers the sort of food that people wake up at 2 a.m. craving, Silverton says.
“The menu is not very adventurous,” she says. “It is familiar, and it tastes good. I love the chopped sirloin with a fried egg on top.”
Los Angeles Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila describes Jar’s food as “upscale chophouse fare with a sly, sensual twist.”
“There’s not a dish on the menu that shouldn’t be there. That kind of editing and attention to detail sets Jar apart,” Virbila wrote in a 2004 review. “It’s not only good, it’s absolutely reliable. How rare is that?”
Even the name of the restaurant—“Jar” is an acronym for Just Another Restaurant—reflects Tracht’s unpretentious approach.
When she opened the restaurant in 2001, Tracht aimed to create a modern steakhouse at a time when most concepts in that genre were still serving slabs of beef in pools of melted butter with predictable baked potatoes on the side.
PHONE: (323) 655-6566 WEBSITE: OPENED: 2001 CUISINE: American chophouse PER-PERSON DINNER CHECK AVERAGE WITH BEVERAGE: $55 BEST-SELLING DISH: pot roast with carrots and caramelized onions SEATS: 120 AVERAGE WEEKLY COVERS: 840 CHEF-OWNER: Suzanne Tracht
Jar began as a partnership between Tracht and Mark Peel, who at the time co-owned the restaurant Campanile with Silverton.
“Our families were friends,” explains Tracht, who spent several years in the early 1990s working in the kitchen at Campanile.
During that time, Campanile was one of the hottest reservations in town. Yet Tracht, who eventually became chef de cuisine at Campanile, managed to have two children while furthering her career.
“I learned a lot about food at Campanile,” she says. “I made a bit of a name for myself. It really helped to broaden my career.”
Menu SamplerCrab deviled eggs $9 Braised pork belly with watercress and radish salad, port sauce $12 Jar chopped salad with chicken, Parma ham, fennel, red onion, green olive, cabbage and feta $11 Butter lettuce salad with breakfast radishes, Parmesan, lemon-garlic vinaigrette $11 Char sui pork chop $28Kansas City steak, 16 oz. $39Prime porterhouse, 24 oz. $48 Chopped sirloin, fried egg, and green peppercorn sauce $20 Braised oxtail with bourbon and parsnips $24 Sautéed pea tendrils with garlic $8Kabocha squash with leeks and sage $9 Duck-fried rice $9 Chocolate pudding $9 Banana cream pie $9 Yin meets YangLater, Tracht was recruited to head the kitchen at the now-defunct Jozu, a Pacific Rim-meets-California restaurant, owned by Andy Nakano. There, she met Preech Narkthong, a chef who has become for Tracht a culinary Siamese twin of sorts.“We’ve never left each other’s side since, and we don’t even have to sleep together,” Tracht says with a laugh.The two couldn’t appear more mismatched. The petite, dark-haired Tracht, 43, is originally from Arizona, and began her culinary career as a teenager as an apprentice for chef Siegbert Wendler at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa.Narkthong, 62, was born in Bangkok, Thailand, and looks more zen master than master chef, with his shaved head and wispy white mustache. He moved to the United States as a teenager and worked in the kitchen at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles before opening his own restaurant, called Marquis.In the end, however, it’s what they have in common that enables them to work well together, Tracht says.“We both have an appreciation for food, and we like the same flavors: not froufrou, but straightforward,” she says.Together, they left Jozu to open Jar, where Narkthong now serves as chef de cuisine.Tracht says she and Narkthong balance each other.“In the kitchen, Preech has a nice, even attitude. I get a little jumpy sometimes, so we complement each other,” she says.Reopening JarWhile the menu worked from day one at Jar, the original decor did not. Jar debuted with a retro interior design that had been described as evoking “The Jetsons,” with pastel colors and an open, airy dining room.“It might have worked better in a desert community,” admits Tracht. After nearly three years, however, it became apparent that change was necessary.Signature dishes by chef-owner Suzanne Tracht at Jar in Los Angeles.Peel had exited the partnership to focus on Campanile, and Tracht joined with current partners Phil Rosenthal, who produced the television show “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and his wife Monica Rosenthal.They decided to close the restaurant for three months for a complete overhaul of the decor, which now is more along the lines of a 1940s supper club, with polished wood paneling and muted lighting.“We knew we had to do this to do better,” Tracht says. “I believe in reinventing yourself.”For many restaurants, a three-month closure can mean instant death. But Jar’s clientele couldn’t wait to come back.The new interior offered a “certain comfort level,” says Bob Silverstein, one of the original investors who was later bought out by the Rosenthals. He now serves as the restaurant’s wine director. “The bar area, for example,” he adds, “has seat backs so people can come in from the neighborhood and have a quick bite.”Small plates, big plansSilverstein has developed a wine list that he says is “accessible and provides great value.”“We try to spot trends and get categories open that offer selections into those trends,” he adds. “The menu is very wine friendly.”Mussels with fennel salt and lobster béarnaise sauce, a Kobe-beef flat-iron steak with herb butter.It was in the bar that Nancy Silverton for several years hosted Mozzarella Monday as a guest chef, offering such small plates as burrata cheese with braised artichoke hearts, pine nuts and currants, or mozzarella with garlic confit and mint pesto. The wildly popular weekly event has continued, though Silverton, who is busy with her new venture, is no longer present, except perhaps as a guest.Jar is known for its holiday menus on Easter, Passover and Thanksgiving. And the restaurant features a Sunday brunch with the signature pot roast making an appearance in a hash, along with such dishes as lobster Benedict with two poached eggs, char sui pork, pea tendrils, and a lobster béarnaise sauce.“Jar’s success starts with having a great chef with a vision for using top ingredients,” Silverstein says. “It’s an updated version of food you grew up with.”Tracht and Narkthong also are developing new ventures together. A second location of Jar is scheduled to open at the Renaissance Hotel in Long Beach, Calif., later this year under a licensing arrangement.Adessert of chocolate pudding. In addition, Tracht and Narkthong are planning to open Suzpree, a new concept scheduled to debut next year in Los Angeles’ Century City neighborhood. The restaurant is scheduled to go just below a space slated to include Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Craft in a new building that also houses a large Hollywood agency. Suzpree, a play on Tracht and Narkthong’s first names, will likely feature noodle dishes from around the world, fresh seafood and oysters on the half shell, Tracht says. Narkthong, who will be a partner in the new venture, describes potential dishes along the line of a Chinese egg noodle with chicken-pork sausage, Manila clams and kabocha squash, or jade noodles with duck confit in a ginger broth.“It’s going to be more casual than Jar, more fun, quirky and loud,” Tracht says.“This is something we’ve wanted to do for a while,” she adds. “Jar is still our anchor and that won’t change. But we’re ready to grow.”
