Beach April 2018

each food
Everything
in its place
by Ryan McDonald
Blue corn-crusted barramundi at Baran’s 2239 awaits a hungry diner. The restaurant epitomizes the “farm-to-table” trend transforming the South Bay dining
scene. Photos by David Fairchild
Baran’s 2239 in Hermosa Beach has become one of the most desirable
reservations in the South Bay. How do they stay on top?
On a recent Tuesday evening at Baran’s 2239 in Hermosa Beach, the
first table to pay their bill was not the first table to be seated, nor
the second, but the third. Judging by wisps of their conversation,
they were three friends, one of them in town on business. They were open
to their server’s suggestions — their first choice of chardonnay was possibly
more “minerally” than what they had in mind, he told them — and they
proceeded steadily through wine and shared plates. Altogether, they were
in the restaurant for barely an hour.
The first guest to step through Baran’s doors that night, a woman, sat by
herself at a table near the restaurant’s northwest corner until her male companion
arrived. They grazed on barramundi and Brussels sprouts at a pace
closer to snacking than savoring, as though procuring the dishes involved
nothing more than walking from the sofa to the cupboard. They had arrived
with the sun still high enough to cut through the marine layer, and they left
in the dark of a night threatening rain, arms linked and laughing easily.
Since it opened two years ago, Baran’s has become perhaps the most desirable
reservation in Hermosa, and has helped define the South Bay’s culinary
renaissance. Heaps of positive reviews, including this publication’s,
have praised its inventive menu and warm ambiance. It is now sustained
by both devoted regulars and a growing number of food pilgrims from other
parts of California and the nation. Last year, Frank Bruni, a political columnist
for The New York Times and the paper’s former restaurant critic,
tweeted, “This place rocks. One of LA area’s best.” Social media fervor ensued.
The buzzy momentum has relieved the do-or-die-stress of a young
restaurant, only to replace it with the challenge of seating everyone who
wants to come.
Last month, I spent a night observing the cooking, serving, eating and
drinking that happens at Baran’s in an effort to understand what makes a
restaurant successful in an industry notorious for thin profit margins and a
high rate of first-year failures.
Co-owners Jason and Jonathan Baran and executive chef Tyler Gugliotta,
also a partner, still exhibit the hunger of a startup, but they are not blind to
their success.
“It’s awesome how many people still say they have never heard of us.
We’re full, but it’s exciting to know how many people still haven’t been
here,” Jonathan said.
12 Easy Reader / Beach magazine • April 12, 2018