Dunsmoor
Casual Dining Restaurant, Wine Bar
Los Angeles, USA
Dunsmoor Wine List
About Dunsmoor
Chef Brian Dunsmoor opened his eponymous restaurant in 2022, just as the city was emerging from the depths of the Covid pandemic. His intention was simple: to create a comforting, approachable neighbourhood restaurant that could serve as a new stage for what he calls “American heritage cookery,” an iterative evolution of the Southern-rooted food he became known for during a years-long run at West LA’s Hatchet Hall. And when Dunsmoor says “heritage,” he really means it – aside from a single four-burner French top stove used for making stocks and some light sautée work, the kitchen is run entirely with wood fire and hand tools. There isn’t a blender or food processor or Pacojet in sight.
A massive, custom-built hearth dominates the open kitchen and high-ceilinged main dining room, originally the site of a bank when the building was built in the late 1920s. What seem like a million candles illuminate the long tables and flicker against the soaring plaster walls and tall ceilings. The music is loud and punchy. The service is friendly and approachable. The sweet smell of burning almond wood dominates the air. It’s an atmosphere that is at once impossibly romantic and infectiously festive at the same time, and the room is undoubtedly one of the prettiest in the city.
Dunsmoor’s menu is simple and unabashedly flavourful, with a handful of simply-adorned crudos and tartares, a rotating cast of small plates (including a killer pork and green chile stew and the signature cornbread) and anywhere from three to five big pieces of protein, which are usually grilled over the coals and served nearly unadorned save for a forceful hit of finishing salt and perhaps a squeeze of lemon. The straightforward, smoke-inflected cooking provides an ideal counterpoint to Dunsmoor’s other calling card: wine.
The first thing one notices about Dunsmoor is the roaring hearth. The second is the fact that wine bottles are everywhere, adorning tables, lining the walls of the semi-secret wine bar located in the very back of the restaurant, resting on shelves and nooks, and glistening in the oversized copper trough used to chill the by-the-glass offerings. The messaging is clear: this is a place to drink wine.
Wine Director Rachael Davis has helmed the list since opening, and has created a fascinating, admirably diverse program that has made Dunsmoor among the best places to drink in the city. Drawing on a large cellar, her 60-odd selection list rotates constantly and seasonally, and features whatever seems appropriate to the menu and the moment. Neo-classics and postmodern darlings from Europe tend to rule the roost, though a strong supporting cast of top-tier American producers can be had, too – typically, there’s Werlitsch and Envinate and Ganevat and Lamy, but also Sandlands and Âmevive and Frenchtown Farms. Most of what’s listed is under $200, with a surprisingly deep array of rarer and spendier birds available via a conversation with Rachael or one of her sommeliers.
BYO
$30 per 750ml, no maximum
Great for
- By the glass