BLD - Tweet a Dish

Last week BLD restaurant began a promotion in which each week chef Diana Stavaridis asks for people to tweet in their ideas for a dish to be featured on the menu that Thursday and the author of the the winning idea is invited in for dinner for two. BLD (named for breakfast, lunch and dinner) is Neil Fraser of Grace's more casual/approachable restaurant, serving American food in an open space on Beverly Blvd near CBS Television City.

I was the inaugural winner of the BLD "Tweet a Dish" contest and so two friends joined me for dinner at BLD last Thursday evening. (Two of the three meals were comped as the prize for winning.*) My suggestion had been lamb with herbes de provence, grilled asparagus and purple potatoes. When we received the menus, there under the specials list was the Plat du Jour: Tweet-a-Dish "Braised Lamb Shank with Herbes de Provence, Potato Lemon Puree, Grilled Asparagus, Sauteed Fennel, Lamb Jus. It was priced at $21.

I had been curious to see how Chef Stavaridis would interpret my idea and it came out looking and tasting much better than I had envisioned. The meat was braised for 12 hours and so the lamb was falling off of the bone. The grilled asparagus was there and instead of purple carrots she improvised some potato lemon puree. Lamb and asparagus are such spring ingredients, it was nice to have such a seasonal meal. The lamb jus had a great flavor. The whole dish was just bursting with flavor.

Two of us had "my" lamb special and the third member of our party had the lamb burger. He enjoyed his burger very much. What I tasted was good and the fries were nice and crunchy, but he looked at our lamb shanks with envy. We shared as there was plenty of food for all of us.

We began the meal with a vegan tomato soup and a spanish tuna tartare. The tuna tartare was served on bagel crisps, a creative touch in keeping with the neighborhood. Sometimes these tweaks come across as forced but this worked even better than the common wonton like cracker frequently served with tuna tartare.

Dessert was a banana cream pie. The three of us were unable to finish it as the slice was large and although it was delicious we were stuffed.

It was fun to see my dish and my name on the menu that night. I guess you can call it my first time as a menu consultant.

You can follow Diana's twitter account here. Each week you can tweet in your ideas to @BLDChefD for a chance to win. She came out to chat with us when they brought out the lamb dish and my advice for future tweeters is to suggest seasonably applicable dishes (i.e. now is not the time for a hearty & heavy winter dish).

BLD restaurant is located at 7450 Beverly Blvd at the corner of Vista. Phone: (323) 930-9744. Website: http://bldrestaurant.com/

* People, please tip on the full non-discounted amount when you are comped something.