Featured Restaurant - Gjelina

1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
310-450-1429

There is nothing better than finding a hidden gem of a restaurant in a big city, and finding that it is operated by wonderfully sweet and accommodating people. Those were my first thoughts as I entered Gjelina in Venice, CA, with beautiful wood bars and classic made-to-look-older-than-it-is décor. After meeting with the wine buyer, Henry Beylin to taste him on the Carina Cellars wines, my friend Patrick Garvey and I took a seat on the sunny back patio, excited to order from the eclectic California fresh menu. Since we both wanted to order one of everything for ourselves, we ultimately settled on sharing three different dishes.

We started with the marinated beet and avocado salad with blood oranges, hazelnuts and a sherry vinaigrette. The presentation was beautiful and the sharp citrus of the blood oranges offered a beautiful contrast to the naturally sweeter flavors of the beets and hazelnuts. Our next dish was a delicious chickpea stew with greens, couscous, and spiced yogurt, which had a nice bite to it without overdoing it. The couscous also added a unique texture to the courser chickpeas. For our main dish we shared a mouth-watering Diestel ranch roasted turkey sandwich with prosciutto and pesto aioli, which was served slightly toasted. I’m a huge sucker for turkey sandwiches, and have to say that this is one of the best that I’ve had in a while! The prosciutto was a nice touch, but it was really the flavor of the turkey that made this dish.

As a special treat, Henry gave us a complimentary dessert of banana and chocolate bread pudding with fresh cream and caramel, and it was every bit as fantastic as it sounds! To top it all, Patrick ordered a glass of 1993 Tokaji Aszu, 5 Puttonyos from Hungary. I had never heard of such a wine before, so Patrick told me that Tokaji is made in the Tokaj-Hegyalja region of Hungary and is a sweet wine, topaz in color (also known as Tokay). What makes this wine so unique is that after the Aszu grapes are picked then are thrown into huge vats and trampled until they have the consistency of a paste. After that the wine is placed in wooden casks and undergoes a long fermentation process over the next several years. The amount of “puttonyos” refers the amount of dough added to a cask…the higher the number, the sweeter the wine. This particular Tokaji was spectacular, and offered thick notes of honey mixed with lovely floral, and was the perfect pair with our bread pudding. We left lunch that day feeling incredibly satiated and I’m excited to visit Gjelina again on my next sales trip to Los Angeles!