BIN 8945 In The News

West Hollywood chef Carpenter's star rises with modern bistro

By Lisa Jennings

It isn't always easy matching wines with the lively spices of Caribbean and North African dishes, but that's what makes the new Bin 8945 in Los Angeles such an intriguing wine bar, says partner and executive chef Matt Carpenter.
The wide-ranging and moderately priced wine list created by managing partner David Haskell was initially meant to be the draw, but reviews since the restaurant opened in June also have highlighted Carpenter's eclectic menu, which can only be described in Hollywood terms as French bistro meets island shrimp shack meets Casablanca.
Wine director Haskell — whose rèsumè includes stints at Guy Savoy in Paris, as well as Le Cirque, Aquavit and Tao Asian Bistro in New York — focuses on Old World wines and offers only a few from California. That's all the better for Carpenter, who says a red Burgundy is better with his flavorful blackened "Bajan"-style catfish than a California Chardonnay.

You're originally from Los Angeles, so why the Caribbean and North African twist?
My mom is from the Bahamas, and my father is half Cuban and half Jamaican. I have a huge family in the Bahamas, and I grew up going back there often, and going to all the food festivals, like Junkanoo, which is around Christmas.
We're calling Bin 8945 a modern European bistro with North African and Caribbean influences. As we were developing the concept, David [Haskell] and I spent time in France and traveled throughout Burgundy, Bordeaux, Vichy, and all we did was eat and drink. We got a real sense of what bistro cooking is, and that's what I've modeled the menu after. I'm trying to respect the whole bistro culture. It's not fancy. It's not new. It's not avant-garde. It's almost timeless. What's been fun for me is being able to bring the flavors and spices from my background, while still respecting classic dishes.

What are some examples of dishes on the menu that reflect your heritage?
We have a classic mussels dish, which I do with a coconut-curry sauce. I make my own curry powder, with fenugreek and tumeric and other spices. The sauce also has diced, sautèed Italian sausage, which I also make, and it's served with great crusty bread.
I also do a steak-frites dish with fries cooked in duck fat. The steak is marinated in Belgian beer. It's one of those dishes that David and his dad tried, and they were worried that it wouldn't work because people here are so used to steakhouses where steak is just steak. But it has become out best seller. The duck fat fries were inspired by a restaurant in Bordeaux called La Tupiña.
I also do a home-style chicken dish — the Caribbean equivalent of a coq au vin — but it's jerk chicken marinated with scotch bonnets and other spices, and smoked. It's from a family recipe, and it's served with my Mom's recipe for peas and rice, which is authentically Jamaican.
For desert I serve a raisin duff, which is a really moist, streamed pudding my aunt in the Bahamas makes in a pillowcase. That's just the way they've always done it. She ships them to me, and we serve them soaked in brandy with a hard sauce, which is a creamy blend of butter and sugar.
I'll do more North African dishes in the fall, but now I have a chicken kofta, which is like a meatball made from ground chicken and cremini mushrooms. They are poached, then grilled to order and served in a mushroom jus.

Is part of the wine bar's appeal the fact that the menu is so challenging to match with wines?
It becomes almost like an adventure. The way the menu is set up, you start with a raw bar with oysters and ceviche. I also do a tuna tartare, which is spicy with diced cornichons, onions, Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard. David pairs these with a lot of sakes and Belgian beers. You can move on to small plates and do wine flights. It was designed to let people come in two or three times a week and have a different experience. They can create their own tasting menus and David will match dishes with wines. It's a large menu, considering we only have 44 seats with more than 30 items.

You offer a full menu until 2 a.m. How successful has late-night business been?
We're finding on Sunday night, and other late nights, we're getting a lot of the local chefs, sommeliers and servers. There's a restaurant in New York called Blue Riibbon, where people in the industry go after work, which is kind of what David had in mind when we created this place. We've become the chef hangout. To me that's quite a compliment. We definitely want our late-night business to be more than what it is, but it's just going to take time to get the word out.

You have done apprenticeships with both Michel Richard at Citronelle in Washington, D.C., and Ludovic Lefebvre at Bastide in Los Angeles, two chefs that have pushed the envelope for French cooking in America. How has that influenced you?
They are two very respected French chefs, and they are good friends of mine. But their food is very different from what I do. I try to do things a lot simpler, but with a strong French foundation. I don't think that's where I'm at in my culinary career, in terms of being avant-garde. First ou have to master the classics.
This is my first head chef job, and I was very nervous. I was wary about my cuisine, not too sure that people would understand it. But the response, and the good reviews, have been a blessing — and a little bit of luck.

BIN 8945, 8945 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069 310.550.8945

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