Although our Rum Runner tasted springlike, Chris LaRocca sounded positively summery yesterday evening when we visited Kota Wood Fire Grill to learn how its opening was going, after various prelaunch events that started last Thursday.
“The staff did tremendous – absolutely tremendous,” said LaRocca, co-owner of the restaurant-development company Culinary Architects. “This is the 37th restaurant that I’ve opened, and … Saturday night was by far the best soft opening that I’ve been associated with.”
Despite glazed sidewalks and a President’s Day lull, customers flocked to the restaurant at 522 N. Grand Blvd. Kota is serving both lunch and dinner, and its menus feature a wide range of appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches and other entrées.
LaRocca’s personal favorite? “I love the ahi tostadas, because instead of it being a corn tortilla or chip, we put it on a plantain,” he said. “So you’ve got the plantain, and then you’ve got the Cuban coleslaw, and then your ahi, and then the mango-habañero sauce over the top – and it’s just a lot goin’ on, a lot of good flavors.”
He also praised the shrimp and grits appetizer and, under the drink menu’s Kota 21 section, the eight liquor-infused shakes.
Otherwise, from the dinner menu, LaRocca expressed particular pleasure with an entrée that chef Jason Tilford created as an alternate to a strip steak: the smoked pork chop. “That’s stuffed with apple and fig chutney, and it’s got a maple-ancho glaze,” he said. “And it’s just, like, wow. I’m surprised. We’ve had a ton of people order that chop – it’s a big 14-ounce chop. It’s a big-boy chop.”
This article appears in Feb 1-28, 2010.