1 week Ago
Arctic char bento with seasonal salad and rice at Doto. Doto adds a California izakaya-inflected all-day menu with hand rolls, crudo, breakfast burritos, and bento boxes along Hoover Street Jewel’s departure left a gaping hole in Virgil Village when it closed summarily last June. Now, a new restaurant that opened with the blessing of Jewel’s owner, Sharky McGee, has taken its place, called Doto.
Here, Jared Dowling, also the chef of the stylish Edgemar in Santa Monica, brings California izakaya fare to the bright and breezy space, serving miso arctic char bento boxes, halibut crudo, and breakfast burritos from morning to evening. Partnered with Thomas Greek, an architect and investor at Edgemar, Dowling leans on his three-and-a-half years spent with Yess chef Junya Yamasaki at London’s Koya Noodle Bar to employ Japanese flavors and techniques on peak-season produce. Doing its best to serve the neighborhood like Jewel once did, Doto starts each day with drinks using Amigo Coffee Roasters and pastries by Sugarbloom Bakery.
Breakfast comprises a mushroom breakfast burrito with charro beans and Oaxacan cheese, a bacon breakfast burrito with tater tots and scallions, a patty melt with egg and beef patty with Mammoth Bakery milk bread, and a Spanish-style tortilla with togarashi aioli. Konbu pickles and Bub & Grandma’s bread with whipped butter give way to yellowtail crudo with yuzu soy and halibut with ramp ponzu and hot sesame oil. Temaki hand rolls come with spicy hamachi, tuna, or halibut, while fresh salads incorporate mizuna and sugar snap peas or Garcia farms Cara Cara oranges with pistachio.
Doto Seating and interior of Doto. Smoked char siu comes as a thick slice of Gloucestershire pork, snap peas, and Napa cabbage slaw, while the bento box, sure to be the daytime hit, comes with a choice of miso arctic char, grilled skirt steak, or mushrooms. A grass-fed burger comes with Comte, caramelized onion, and pickle relish over a Bub & Grandma’s potato bun.
Once dinner rolls around, there are many of the same dishes from the all-day menu sans the bento box, though Dowling adds steak fries with wasabi au jus and slow-smoked lamb shoulder with flatbread. Operating within the rapidly gentrifying Virgil Village neighborhood, Dowling says he wants to make sure Doto could serve the community as Jewel did with an all-day menu. Though prices for some items skirt $20 or even $30, the breakfast dishes are substantial in size.
But he hopes to strike a sustainable balance between using farmers market produce and charging a reasonable price for dishes. “I’m supporting local communities by buying their products, and that comes at a certain price. We also want to keep the restaurant afloat, so I know that’s kind of a Catch-22,” he says.
Doto is open Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.
m., Thursday to Saturday until 10 p.m.
Closed on Mondays. It’s located at 654 N. Hoover Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90004.
Reservations are accepted from Friday to Sunday in the evenings. Pork char siu with pea tendrils and pickled turnips. Bub & Grandma’s bread with whipped butter.
Halibut eastside with hot sesame oil. Radicchio salad with medjool dates and candied walnuts. Toriko fried chicken.
House kombu pickles. Delta asparagus with poached egg. Cappuccino.
Doto The bar area with records. Doto Doto patio..
