Despite living in LA for my entire life, I enjoy visiting certain cities like Chicago. In addition to many excellent museums, they have some cutting-edge restaurants like Alinea, Frontera Grill, Smyth, and Oriole. One restaurant on my bucket list is Girl & the Goat, and I was thrilled when I learned that they would open a location in LA.
Stephanie Izard is the Executive Chef and owner of four Chicago restaurants, Girl & the Goat, Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat, Cabra, and bakery Sugargoat. If you are wondering about the preponderance of “goat,” it’s because izard is a goat-antelope that lives in the French Pyrenees. Izard was awarded the title of “Iron Chef” after winning season 1 of Food Network’s Iron Chef Gauntlet and Best Chef: Great Lakes” recipient 2013 by the James Beard Foundation.
Girl & the Goat is in the Arts District in the newly developed At Mateo, a mixed-use destination for shopping, dining, and gathering. It’s brick-covered warehouse-style buildings. A cobblestoned pedestrian path cuts through the project with ample outdoor dining available.
The interior is vast, with soaring exposed ceilings and many indoor plants. Large windows and skylights throughout the property deliver abundant natural light. You don’t need your flashlight app to illuminate the menu.
The restaurant features the signature hits from its Chicago flagship, such as Sautéed Green Beans, Goat Liver Mousse, and Sticky Glazed Pork Shank. At the same time, she wants to leverage crafting new dishes inspired by local flavors like shrimp with crispy greens, tangerines, pickled veggies, and pepitas, and roasted oysters served sliced toasted baguettes drizzled with oyster sauce mayo.
Sautéed Green Beans with roasted cashews ($15) has a dressing consisting of fish sauce, lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic, and other ingredients giving it a definite umami taste.
Giardiniera is an Italian condiment frequently served on Italian beef sandwiches in Chicago. They use a golden beet giardiniera in their Roasted Beet ($16) dish with pepita nuts and a yuzu kosho vinaigrette.
A wood fire grill gives the Lamb Sirloin Skewer ($21) a pleasant smoky taste. The rhubarb relish, cilantro-yuzu vinaigrette, fried garlic nicely complements the lamb.
One of their most popular entrees is the Sticky Glazed Pork Shank ($34). While pricey, it has a lot of prep involved, including brine and a 3 ½ hour braise with coconut milk, chopped fennel, and shiitake mushrooms. If you prefer eating the pork as a sandwich, you can stuff it in naan bread or lettuce cups.
There’s also a full vegan menu available and a Sunday Brunch. This Little Piggy ($19) is a brunch signature item featuring a cheddar scallion biscuit sandwich, including a Sichuan sausage and a fried egg.
Girl & the Goat, 555-3 Mateo St, Los Angeles, CA 90013; girlandthegoat.com