Best Bet to open in former A-Frame space on Washington Boulevard
By Dolores Quintana
It’s official, chef Jason Neroni will bring the much-anticipated restaurant, Best Bet, to the former A-Frame restaurant space in Culver City at 12565 Washington Blvd as reported by What Now Los Angeles. No specific opening date has been announced yet, but it is estimated that the opening will take place in either late winter or early spring of 2023. The classic A-Frame building has undergone extensive renovations and will now boast a bright red Forza Forni oven and tables from Ojai Oak and artwork by Pascal Shirley and Evan Sung, local craftspeople and friends of the chef. The space definitely will have a 70s-style vibe.
Chef Neroni has a passion for pizza that comes from his years growing up in New York City and spending the summertime months in Italy at his family’s home in the country. According to the press release, the restaurant has been in the works for three years and is a personal expression of the chef’s culinary journey and international travels to France and Japan where he dove deeply into the cuisine of each country.
The restaurant will combine the specialty meats and unique salumi that can be found in Italy made by small-batch Italian companies that Neroni has had relationships with for years. The restaurant will also source ingredients from local farms at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market like asparagus, spring peas, and morels. Chef Neroni has plans for wood-fired style pizzas, Montanara style, Sicilian style and a blending of New York and Neapolitan pie styles. All the dough will be proofed and rolled at the restaurant.
The press release gave us a preview of the new pizzas that Neroni has in development like wood-fired pizzas with ingredients such as scampi, nduja vodka sauce, sliced garlic, herb breadcrumb, Meyer lemon and fior di latte, Sicilian focaccia-style pizzas with ingredients like wood smoked onions, ricotta, garlic, aged pecorino, anchovy, breadcrumbs and Montanara-style pizzas with ingredients such as taleggio fonduta, arugula pesto, and crunchy olives.
In addition to all those delicious pizzas, the restaurant will have green garlic knots with smoked tomato sugo or taleggio fonduta, marinated 2 peas in a pod beans with Cerignola olives, toasted hazelnuts, and porchetta di testa, and spaghetti verde with fresh crab, uni butter, and jalapeno vinegar will appear. The plans for drinks at the restaurant include “a predominantly funky, fun California wine list as well as modern riffs on classic cocktails.”
