The most critically acclaimed restaurant in the Beach Cities, the only one to win a coveted Bib Gourmand award from the Michelin guide, always looks closed. The windows in their small strip mall location are black, and often covered by a low awning that obscures them. The place has a sign that is difficult to read by day and invisible at night — the lights above it stopped working over a year ago and haven’t been fixed by the landlord.
People find Baran’s 2239 anyway, led by critical acclaim and word of mouth from people wowed by the friendly service, intimate casual atmosphere, and Chef Tyler Gugliotta’s innovative cuisine. Tyler’s enthusiasm for different cuisines has caused shifts in the menu over time, strongly influenced by Italian ideas when they opened, adding a strong Mexican and pan-Asian influence a few years later. There are elements of all of these in the current menu, but more completely merged than before to create a multi-continental fusion.
The restaurant has been altered very little since they opened. Aside from reupholstering the chairs along each side and adding a few seascapes, it looks like it did on opening day in 2016. The staff is mostly the same too, but that’s not surprising because most are members of the same family. Jason, Jenna, and Jonathan Baran run the front of the house and know most of their regulars well, remembering food and wine preferences with remarkable acuity. They’re likely to remember what you had on a previous visit even if that was months ago, as I found out on my most recent visit.
Their advice can include letting you know about changes in the menu that might not be apparent, because some favorites have been tweaked. The buttery onion focaccia bread used to be delivered in squares with herb and parmesan butter, but it now arrives as a small round loaf with both that butter and fresh burrata cheese. I like it so much by itself that the accompaniments are almost unnecessary, but I always give in and dip a few times anyway.
The salad and vegetable selection often changes, but recently Chef Tyler has been experimenting with serving different cooked vegetables over Italian white beans. When we stopped in a few months ago it was grilled green beans, and last week it was roasted romanesco cauliflower. It’s an unusual technique that is very successful; the beans are served in herbed stock with rosemary for a very different but complementary texture and flavor. The standout among the vegetables, though, is the misnamed but amazing eggplant fritto misto. Fritto misto (mixed and fried in Italian) is usually a mix of vegetables and shrimp that are battered and fried, often served with lemon and Parmesan. The item served at Baran’s is quite different. Slices of eggplant are fried in a tempura-style batter, then laid over a date agrodolce, a sweet and sour sauce made by boiling down the date puree with vinegar and spices. The fried vegetable is then topped with chopped tomatoes, a scattering of mint leaves, and a sprinkle of parmesan. There’s a little Italian flair, a little Middle Eastern influence, but it’s not exactly like anything I’ve had before, and it’s stunning.
Another vegetarian item merges Tyler’s interest in Mexican food with his Italian roots: pillowy, handmade gnocchi in a Mexican-style roasted corn and crema sauce with chives and pecorino cheese. A sprinkling of nasturtium flowers added a gentle, peppery, herbal overtone and made it beautiful. I haven’t had anything remotely like this, and it’s safe to say that unless you have been to this restaurant, you haven’t either.
We tried three meat entrees and one pasta on this visit, the latter being the colorfully named pasta asesino — yes, assassin’s pasta. The freshly made noodles were topped with a very zingy chili-laden pork sugo with a garnish of aromatic green herbs, a simple dish that any Sicilian kitchen would be proud of. There is often some item like this on the menu at Baran’s that reminds you that as creative a chef as he is, he can deliver something simple and wholesome when something wonderful needs no embellishment.
The meat entrees were duck and chicken yakitori, their famous smoked and fried chicken, and grilled Spanish octopus with white beans over roasted garlic hummus. The octopus was gently spicy with a touch of paprika oil, and a pepper-olive tapenade with pine nuts added depth of flavor. The yakitori was four meatballs of mixed ground duck and chicken that had the sweet saucing typical to classic yakitori houses. What was unusual was mixing the two fowl, which gave the richness of duck and the lighter texture of chicken. This is listed on the menu as a main course but is actually more appropriate as an appetizer for two or more.
The smoked and fried chicken has been on the menu since the early days of the restaurant, and it’s a crowd pleaser. The sweet, spicy chili sauce, soy gastrique marinade, and topping of pickled red chili peppers is similar to Korean fried chicken, but Koreans don’t smoke their chicken before battering and frying it. It makes a big difference, both for the smoky undertone and the way that smoking renders out some of the fat, leaving the meat moist and tender but not so juicy that it soaks the breading. Every time I visit, I’m tempted to get this, and when I give in, I always enjoy it.
When it comes to what to drink with your meal, I recommend you trust the staff with pairings. Jason recommended an “Annia” white blend from Massican of Napa with the vegetable starters, a Begue Mathiot Chablis with the items that followed. I would have never thought of pairing a Chablis with the rich meatballs and spicy chicken, but both wines were a success.
We had over-ordered main courses and shared one dessert, a matcha tart with housemade chocolate ice cream. For the stunning meal with attentive service, the price was reasonable. Most entrees are in the $30 to $35 range, modest for creative cooking of this caliber. Baran’s is obviously a passion project for all concerned. Jason mentioned that various would-be investors have approached them with plans for expansion, but they’ve turned them all down. The Baran family and Chef Tyler obviously like working on this very personal scale, and they’re following their muse.
Baran’s 2239 is at 502 Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa. Open Tuesday through Saturday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday morning for breakfast burritos only. Small parking lot. Wheelchair access okay. Wine and beer served. (424) 247-8468. Barans2239.com. ER
