Bokado is a new Spanish restaurant, bar, and gourmet market, conveniently located ten minutes from my home in Studio City. I first read about it on LATimes.com last month, then added it to my lengthy “to do” list.
The LA Times wrote:
The casual space blends the comfortable grace of a Basque asador (grillery and roast house) with a congenial full bar where updated pintxos (tapas) include spicy patatas bravas, artisanal cheeses and oysters Rockefeller.
When my husband Peter came home early from work last week, we decided to go out for a light dinner and drinks, because it was way too hot to cook, and almost too hot to eat!
Bokado, which means “little bites” in Basque, sounded perfect. When we arrived, the outdoor patio tables were already filled, so we went inside (where it was nice and cool) and grabbed seats at the bar. The interior is modern but also really charming, with the small gourmet market (or gourmet counter really) at the entrance.
As we walked in, we couldn’t help but stop and admire the red-hot standing Berkel slicer near the front window. Someone once told me that the reason chefs prefer this motorless, hand-cranked meat slicer is because the blade doesn’t heat up when slicing paper-thin pieces of meats like prosciutto. On electric-powered slicers, the blade can become too hot, which in turn changes the flavor of the meat.
After we settled in our seats and ordered, I noticed that Bokado owner Frank Leon was in the house, graciously stopping at every table to say hello. Frank also owns La Loggia, a nearby Italian restaurant that we’ve gone to for years, and next to La Loggia is a tapas bar conveniently called “Next Door”, which Frank owns as well.
The tapas (or pintxos) we had at Bokado were delicious and filling, but we still need to go back for a full dinner. I really liked the bar atmosphere because it was light and relaxing, so I’m sure we’ll be spending a lot of summer evenings there with friends.
On our way out, we stopped to take a closer look at the goodies for sale at the cute, little market. The entire back wall was stacked with gorgeous baguettes, and the refrigerated display case held bottles of truffle oil, cheeses, meats and small containers of imported ingredients including quince paste. I like the flavor of quince because it’s not overly sweet, but have never purchased the paste to use at home.
When I asked to buy a container, the gals behind the register couldn’t find a price list anywhere, because as it turned out, they weren’t ready to actually SELL any of the market items yet! Peter and I just laughed and said we’d pick it up on our next visit, but owner Frank overheard the conversation and insisted we take home the quince paste as a gift. Thanks Frank!
The Entrance. Outdoor patio area is to the right (see first photo above)
Gourmet Market
Goodies!
Charming Decor
Bar Menu
Beer List
Roasted Olives and Chilies.
Mac and MANCHEGO Cheese, Chicken Croquettes
Charcuterie with Pan Con Tomate
My Quince Paste!
Note: This restaurant is now closed
Bokado
12345 Ventura Blv.
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 752-9222
Full Bar
Note: Bokado is open for breakfast and lunch too!
(no website)
More photos of Bokado on Flickr
These photos are beautiful!
I love the entrance.
xo
Wow! How lucky for you that this is so close. It looks like a great place – I like their food cases/displays – having done a little retail food in m time. Will have to check it out.
If I had a place like that so close to my house, I’d definitely be a regular. Great photos, Jo. In that cooler case I see the king of all dry cured sausages – Chorizo Cantimpalo. Just looking at that makes my mouth water.
I love the Manchego Mac & Cheese – a clever Basque twist on a well-known comfort dish. The Spanish know how to eat, they really do.
And for the record, it’s never too hot to eat. Not to me, anyway. Too hot to cook, definitely. But when it comes to eating, since when does weather get in our way?
За такие посты надо награды давать, на полном серьезе!
Ahhh, Los Angeles, how I miss thee.
Delicious! I love the food case/ displays
very nice to walk and have a Bokado!
enjoy!
Thanks for sharing:)
And you can visit me if i can visit you:)
Welcome!
foodcreate
I think you sold me when you said mac and manchego cheese! I’m definitely going to need to take my girlfriend here for some tapas action
that was a nice read
Thanks Surat!
funny how I googled this place to see if they have a website and this was like the 3rd hit from the top =)
Well I am taking my gal there this evening. It got me hungry.
Guess we are slooooow learners. Even Pau Gasol can tel you that.
Finally folks are discovering that Spain does have the best food in the world. Very ironic when they camped in the Americas and good ole California over 500 yrs ago… Actually the reason we are here
Hey when you wrote this “when slicing paper-thin pieces of meats like prosciutto” and since this is a Spanish restaurant you probably meant to say Jamon Serrano
Thanks for the write up
Elche