Red Herring: A Former Eagle Rock Favorite Lands in the Heart of DTLA
As we finally finish out the decade, leaving behind the mundane and unnecessary while embracing the growth and inspiration to come for 2020, we find ourselves reflecting on how much Downtown Los Angeles has changed over the last ten years. The juxtaposition of the raw, gritty streets that have been walked along for over a century mixed with modern elegance, Michelin-starred restaurants, and an unmatched air of artistic energy is what makes DTLA one of the most unique urban pockets in the country — or even the world.
Red Herring first took up shop in Eagle Rock back in 2016 along Colorado Blvd serving up elevated comfort food. Chef Dave Woodall, formerly of Josiah Citrin and Raphael Lunetta’s Lemon Moon in Santa Monica and later moving through larger chains as an executive chef, opened the original Red Herring location with the intent to create an excellent dining experience that was close to his heart and done the way he always believed in after working his way up for so many years in the kitchen.
“That was a great way of getting into real entrepreneurship and actually having a staff and learning the value of really caring about your employees” says Dave. “When you manage somebody else’s staff, it’s kind of like much more stick and much less care. When it’s actually your staff, your family, you want them to want to be there, you want them to be happy. You want them to get something back. Nobody lives to work. They need to have a reason for what they’re doing other than just survival.”
Dave’s wife, Alexis Martin Woodall, an Emmy-winning TV producer who’s made a name for herself with hit shows like Glee and American Horror Story, is co-owner of Red Herring. She and Dave met back in college and have been together ever since. They’re the kind of husband-wife team that could make anyone envious. Couple goals? Oh, yeah. After college, Alexis came out to LA to make movies, and Dave followed in 2003 to pursue loftier culinary dreams. The rest is history.
We’re sure that like most major leaps in life, there’s not a right or wrong time — you just have to jump. Red Herring was doing wonderfully making a name for itself and thriving in Eagle Rock, but when the pair was approached by developers hinting at a Downtown location, they thought at first glance it was too good to be true, but the developers delivered.
“What do you grow into other than something bigger and scarier? If you don’t feel somewhat intimidated by the choices you make in life, you’re probably playing it a little too safe,” says Dave.
The chic, design-forward space is 3,300 square feet of beauty. Marissa Zajack, who led the design of the restaurant, is a good friend of the Woodalls. She and Alexis met while working on Running With Scissors in 2005. From brass accents to pink velvet and a stop-you-in-your-tracks mural by Mike Wilcox that splashes the back wall, you can feel your eyes widen as you gaze around the room.
“Watching her process jive with what we were doing, and her design kind of mirroring and dovetailing with what we’re doing in the kitchen along with our service model and what we needed to make the space what we wanted it to be is amazing. Art is a very solitary thing, you’re creating for yourself, but design is creating for someone else,” says Dave.
Now, let’s get down to what you’re hankering for: The food. The cuisine essentially echoes their former location, but with a DTLA twist. Since they’ve moved into a part of town with different expectations for a complete dining experience, it made sense to offer more variety. Red Herring offers up sophisticated small dishes at a lesser price, so one has more of a chance to try a bit of everything.
“Down here, people are accustomed to more and they aren’t thrown off by strange ingredients and things you might not see every day. They’re excited about it, so it’s a real opportunity to expand what we’re doing. We’re taking that same comfort food model and we’re polishing it.”
Professionally, Chef Dave has a background with French, Meditterean, and Asian cuisines, but Red Herring is definitely about American regional comfort food with a surprising North African spice panel. An expected favorite is a pork belly dish glazed with a red eye gravy reduction with peanuts, accented with berbere (an Ethiopean spice blend) and served atop grits. Another notable mention is the fabulous vegan and gluten-free ancient grain bowl that expresses asian flavors in solid, yet subtle ways.
“Our focus is really more on providence and sourcing. We want to be getting local seasonal products, be that meat, be that seafood, produce — whatever it is. It’s what makes sense, it grows together, it goes together. We’re trying to shorten the supply chain. There’s so much that goes into putting a plate of food up in a restaurant, so anything we can do to take the strain off the system that supports that process, it’s going to be more efficient, more ecological, and more sustainable in the long run.”
The bar program has been spearheaded by Justin Kim who crafted libational goodies such as Good, Grape, Grand, Wonderful, made with Plymouth gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and concord grapes, and a monthly rotating cocktail, The Red Herring, with all proceeds from this cocktail being donated to several food banks and shelters in the area. A small, yet thoughtful wine list features mostly California wines with a few appearances by natural and European varieties.
Red Herring will begin with serving dinner only until lunch and brunch hours begin in early 2020. Whether you’re a longtime fan of the original location, or have yet to discover what all the hype is about, be sure to fit dinner at Red Herring into your dining schedule for the new year. You won’t regret it.
www.redherringla.com/ | 770 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90017
Written by Dakota Nate | Photography by Robiee Ziegler
