Bar Chelou (37 S El Molino, Pasadena)

Another Doug Rankin gem that was too good for this world, Bar Chelou was even better than the great Bar Restaurant in an even greater space. Build into the stunning Pasadena Playhouse, Doug gave us deceptively complex food in a beautiful but reasonably comfortable setting. So fun, so delicious.

If you've been to my house for any number of our dinner party series, you've undoubtably had more than a few things that were featured on this banger of a menu — namely the potatoes (atop garlic aioli, showered in nori), carrots (shredded in a lime/coconut dressing tossed with peanuts and crispy rice) and snap peas (showered in cured egg yolk shavings and crispy chorizo).

This was a fantastic restaurant that the simple denizens of Pasadena apparently couldn't wrap their heads around. I'm sure the rent was astronomical as well. When I asked Doug where he was opening next during the last night of Bar Chelou's service he laughed and said he would never open another restaurant in California again. Shame on us all for pushing Doug out of LA and into Denver of all places.