Every Wednesday two of us drive to the farmers market in Santa Monica and are at the stalls by half past six, before the chefs from across town have taken the best of it. We are back on Sunset by nine, and the dinner menu for the rest of the week is mostly written in the van on the way home.
What we look for
In late summer it is stone fruit, tomatoes and sweet corn, and we buy more than we need because they will not be this good again for a year. In winter it is citrus, chicories and the first peas. We go to the same eight or nine growers every week, so they know what we want and set it aside.
If a dish you loved has gone, the season has usually gone with it.
The rest of the week
Fish comes in each morning from a boat-to-door supplier out of San Pedro, and beef from a ranch in the Central Coast that dry-ages it for us. Olive oil comes from Ojai, and a few of the olives on the bar menu come from our own terraces.
This is why the menu changes in small ways most weeks. If something you loved last time is gone, ask; the kitchen can usually tell you when it will be back.
