A-Frame, Opening Soon Culver City

From la.eater.com It's always nice to see an A-Frame saved, even if it is more Alpine or IHop than Tiki.

David Reiss/Roy Choi Resto Named A-Frame, Opening Soon
Monday, September 27, 2010, by Kat Odell

Not long ago Eater revealed that David Reiss (The Brig, Alibi Room) and Kogi's Roy Choi would collaborate on a new Culver City restaurant located next to Waterloo & City on Washington Blvd. Construction is in full swing and according to Reiss the restaurant, named A-Frame after the building's obvious A-frame, should debut mid-Octoberish.

So far word on the street is that this spot will serve Korean fare (no shocker) that does not require utensils, hands only.
·Roy Choi On Board For Second Restaurant in Culver City [ELA]

More.

A-Frame opened last night. There's some info here:

http://www.urbandaddy.com/la/food/11699/A_Frame_Eating_Beer_Can_Chicken_in_an_Old_IHOP_Los_Angeles_LA_Restaurant

And more about the menu here:

http://losangeles.grubstreet.com/2010/11/a_look_at_roy_chois_menu_at_a-.html

And yep, apparently, it was an IHOP at one time.

Love all A-Frames.

In this tall A-frame cabin (yes, it used to be an IHOP), everything is meant to be spread out and shared like you’re on a sloppy backyard picnic where somebody forgot the forks. (It’s the latest collaboration between Choi and David Reiss, who owns the Alibi Room―aka the only place you can get Kogi’s short rib tacos without chasing down a truck.)

You’ll want to grab a table at the front under the peak, where the view’s best of your fellow picnickers, and soon you’ll be eating Hawaiian-Style Kettle Corn, Cracklin’ Beer Can Chicken and Carne Asada Tortas with your hands.

A-Frame
12565 Washington Blvd
(west of Boise)
Los Angeles, CA 90066
310-398-7700

http://www.lamag.com/digestblog/roy-choi-goes-hawaiian-frame/

After five years of serving “urban picnic” dishes like beer can chicken and furikake kettle corn, Roy Choi’s Culver City restaurant, A-Frame, is changing shape. Over the next month, the architecturally distinct spot situated in a former IHOP will transform into a hub for traditional Hawaiian cuisine. Think huli huli chicken, loco moco, and housemade spam musubi.

“A-Frame has always been Hawaiian,” says Choi. “Look at our popcorn, our ribs, our salad with Maui onions—but it was more of an impression than a direct interpretation.” Now, he says, they’re going all the way, thanks to A-Frame’s new chef, Johnny Yoo, who spent years working in food service on Oahu and a few months convincing Choi and owner David Reiss to rethink the restaurant as a whole.

The move won’t come as much of a surprise to those who follow Choi on social media; vague references to “Aloha” have graced the @Ridingshotgunla Twitter feed for the past couple of weeks. The new A-Frame will feature tropical décor including loosely Trader Vic’s-inspired murals by L.A. artist Eric Junker, Hawaiian music, new staff uniforms, and a revamped cocktail program. (*Fun fact: Choi was the executive chef of Trader Vic’s at the Beverly Hilton during his years at the hotel.)

But please, don’t call it tiki. “We’re stripping tiki of its kitsch,” says Junker, “and trying to remove all the cheekiness and condescension from the genre.”

Don’t expect crab Rangoon or mango salsa, either. “This is true Ono grindz,” says Choi, who is modeling the restaurant’s cuisine and vibe after island hangs like Honolulu’s Side Street Inn and the Hawaiian chain Zippy’s (“It’s like if you mixed an IHOP, an In-N-Out, a Costco hot dog stand, and a local spaghetti joint,” he says.) The chef has been visiting Hawaii regularly since he was 16 and went back recently for another dose of inspiration. “I never try to do something unless I understand a culture and feel we can represent it and respect it,” he says. “Back when I was a hotel chef I used to go almost every year, and at night I’d hang out with the locals at these restaurants where the wall between diner and worker is really broken down—everyone is like family.”

Choi hopes to translate Hawaii’s particular brand of blue collar cuisine for the mainstream diner “without sacrificing its soul,” he says. Hawaiian food features a mix of influences including Japanese, Polynesian, Filipino, and the American post-war diet of the 1950s, and staple dishes range from mayonnaise-drenched macaroni salad to spam and vegetable topped sushi, or musubi, to saimin, a pan-Asian spin on ramen.

All of this will find its way onto A-Frame’s new menu, which is still being finalized (see early renditions of a few dishes in the slideshow below), as is the decor (which may or may not include a wooden outrigger hung from the ceiling), and the cocktail program (here you can expect some tiki riffs).

The restaurant will remain open throughout the transition with the exception of a short closure just prior to the new concept’s debut. Choi and Reiss insist that the switcheroo has nothing to do with the success of A-Frame in its current form. “It’s like retiring after a championship,” says Choi. “A-Frame still has the most regulars of any of my restaurants. It was just time for a change.”

Be ready for it sometime in February. Aloha.

Roy Choi was the executive chef at the Trader Vic's in the Beverly Hilton in 2007.

On 2015-01-12 15:45, tikilongbeach wrote:
But please, don’t call it tiki. “We’re stripping tiki of its kitsch,” says Junker, “and trying to remove all the cheekiness and condescension from the genre.

Huh? I was good until I got to this part. What the hell? Kitsch I get, cheekiness okay, but condescension?!?

That is just the same old b.s. from the p.c.-worriers. Tiki was and is full of love for Polynesia, NEVER looking down or ridiculing it. Yes, it was naive in its heyday, and today maintains a sense of humor, but it was not patronizing.

Maybe that place needs to get some Tiki graffiti, to scandalize the oh so authenticity-conscious.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2015-01-12 22:37 ]

It sounds like Roy Choi has just spent some time with some down home Hawaiians
who think "Tiki" is disrespectful of their heritage, I know a few Hawaiians with those attitudes
and it is hard not to understand that point of view, to be fair.

But what is funny here is the hypocritical embracing of the Trader Vic’s influence
while dismissing the Tiki aesthetic.

But where is their sense of humor? The old Polynesians were playful, and Tiki the demigod was portrayed as humorous in their mythology. It seems more like a situation of "Hey, I can insult my mother, but YOU can't!"

I am all about the humor, Sven :lol:

I agree it is a PC thing, just when did certain Hawaiians start seeing Tiki
as disrespectful to their heritage, anyway?

I think Tiki has earned it's status as something historical/vintage
and shouldn't be judged by today's standards anyway, especially since the current generation
has godawful taste.

ATP, probably in the 60's and 70's. That is when a cultural Renaissance occurred and native Hawaiians started caring about their history and language again.

I Googled it.
http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=440

http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=437

I am looking forward to the re-duxe and new food

I like Roy Choi and his food. Have been a fan since Kogi first hit the streets and was just at POT again over the weekend.

While he does have some tiki bonafides from Trader Vic's, he's a chef/restauranteur not a tikiphile. I think it's fine for him to say that it's not a "tiki" restaurant. No one is critical of places like King's Hawaiian in Torrance, Aloha Cafe in Little Tokyo or any of the numerous L&L's around town for not being "tiki". They are Hawaiian joints.

While they appeal to some part of our tiki sensibilities, they are not really tiki places. I think there's a place for a revamped A-Frame and I look forward to trying out the new menu.

The most important question is: Where do we go for a cocktail after? Is Purple Orchid the closest destination?