Pure and sweet [restaurant review]
One of the hit films of the 1960s was La Dolce Vita, a bleak comedy about shallow, thrill-seeking hipsters in Rome. The title, which means “The Sweet Life,” is ironic in that the sophisticates have wealth but not the capacity to enjoy it, nor to appreciate simple pleasures and natural beauty. The essence of the thing they missed might be called La Pura Vita, the pure life. That’s not the title of a film, but a new restaurant in Redondo Beach. The spinoff of a West Hollywood original has a mission to serve Italian food that is true to tradition, yet made entirely without animal products. That’s a tall order for a cuisine famous for the use of milk products, seafood, and meat, particularly since so many Italian recipes are so simple. In a caprese salad of tomatoes, basil, and cheese you taste the quality of all those ingredients, so you notice if one is an imperfect counterfeit of the real thing. I went to Pura Vita with the deepest of skepticism, despite emails from readers proclaiming the food is excellent. Excellent for vegan Mediterranean, I thought, setting a bar so low that it was a trip hazard. We arrived early for our reservation and waited inside the door, with a view of…
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