One style of bar that Los Angeles consistently gets right is the gastropub, especially when it comes to pairing it with a selection of craft beer. Lazy Ox Canteen is a great example, combining a New American menu with an eclectic beer list.
Much has been made of the food already on websites more food-focused than this, but I wanted to share a few pitures primarily for the benefit of RumDood’s vegetarian wife. Lazy Ox Canteen is probably best understood as a take on a Japanese pub, and the small-plates format allows one to construct a meal suited to your taste. Truly Chef Josef Centeno’s treatment of vegetables goes wholly underrated by a bacon-wrapped foodie community. (I would like to add that Chef Centeno rocks the seafood quite well also: I’m quite a fan of Lazy Ox Canteen’s smoked salmon with a Moroccan le tabil spice mix.) Clockwise from top left: shishito peppers, eggplant with tahini, assorted pickles and pickled beets with caramelized mushrooms.
Going back to the izakaya analogy (appropriate for Lazy Ox Canteen’s location in Little Tokyo), the drink menu offers a small collection of sake and shochu. I’ve been spoiled by having amazing sake and a variety of price points, and so I’ve been reluctant to dive into their sake list since it requires me to commit to a full bottle. Their wine list, by contrast, includes almost two dozen available by the glass with my favorite going to the Valdubón Crianza.
However, the true reason I like to drink (raison de boire?) at Lazy Ox Canteen is because of the beer. The taplist includes a pair of San Diego brews (Alesmith from Escondido and Green Flash from Vista) as well as couple of Belgians, including a gueuze! The bottle list includes Japanese lagers like Yebisu and Orion, but also large format Mikkellers which I rarely ever see on menus. The beer list rotates regularly and recently even included the excellent Avery duganA IPA on tap.
The extensive beer and wine list combined with a metamorphic food experience makes Lazy Ox Canteen one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles. Its Downtown location makes it an easy jumping off point for the rest of the evening (particularly to spots nearby like The Varnish and The Edison), but it’s also comfortable enough to make it the evening’s destination as well.
