Executive Chef Aaron Robbins, Food & Beverage Director Kieran Harrington, and pastry chef Stephanie Franz pose on the outdoor patio at Sea Level, the restaurant at Shade Redondo Beach. Photo
It was over a year behind schedule, but Shade Hotel in Redondo is finally fully open. All of the guest rooms are complete (and as the management was happy to note on a recent evening, fully booked), and the restaurant and bar are transitioning from preliminary menus to more challenging fare. It’s a smooth finish for a project whose travails included the discovery of long buried railroad tracks under the foundation, problems with underground water that required a redesign, and other issues that almost doubled the construction budget.
That’s history now, and most of the diners who have sat outside to admire the sunset over the harbor over cocktails and small plates probably had no idea that the whole project was in peril only a few months ago. The exterior is still a bit austere because the landscaping hasn’t been finished, but you can see that the horizontal garden that grows up a wall for three stories is going to be stunning.
The hotel shares an architecture and design concept with its sister hotel in Manhattan Beach, but with important differences. The Manhattan Beach hotel is surrounded by city streets and concrete plazas, and as such the only view that matters is of the interior. Shade Redondo uses the same architectural motifs but faces all guest rooms toward the marina. Though the interior design is similar, a sleek modern style with cool colors, the rooms are larger and decorated with original art by local artists. The most unusual thing about them is the bathtub on each balcony, a feature that may not get much use in midwinter. On the other hand it might, because who wouldn’t want to have a hot bath with a view of the ocean even when it’s chilly out.
Local residents are more likely to see the inside of the restaurant than the guest rooms, and here too the architect has taken advantage of the view. Everything on the side toward the marina and the courtyard is glass except the pillars that hold up the building, and if they could have figured out a way to make those transparent too they probably would have. There are retro-futuristic design elements and colored lighting that make the area around the bar look slightly like an art deco spaceship, and wherever you look it’s visually interesting.
The menu by Executive Chef Aaron Robbins offers what is described as “Coastal Cuisine with a Twist,” which in practice means a multicultural contemporary cuisine using fresh ingredients. At a recent meal the kitchen was firing on all cylinders, dealing out citrus-cured sashimi, a roasted beet salad with goat cheese and roasted pistachios, and a brilliant plate of sea bass over spinach and citrus beurre blanc topped with spiced macadamia crumble. They also turned out more traditional favorites like crisp fried chicken with sesame honey and an excellent New York steak with an herb crust and wild mushroom and port demi-glace. In-house pastry chef Stephanie Franz, who won $10,000 in the “Cupcake Wars” competition and used to own Cupcake Couture in Manhattan Beach, delivers desserts like a feather light pumpkin cheesecake with salted caramel and pepita crumble and a silky salted chocolate topped pot de crème on a cake base.
The hotel has an ocean-view large meeting space that is complete and a rooftop pool that isn’t, but will be soon. Whatever you think of the modern design – and some people will love it and others won’t – it has a contemporary flair unlike any other beachfront hotel this side of Santa Monica.
