LAReview
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Kettle Black
This spot is Permanently Closed.
The cavemen had it right: cooking things over a fire is the best way to cook things. Exhibit A: S’mores. Exhibit B: Any piece of meat you’ve grilled. Exhibit C: Everything that comes out of the wood-fired oven at Kettle Black, an Italian spot in Silver Lake that straddles the line between upscale and casual.
Unlike cavemen when they figured out the fire thing, Kettle Black isn’t doing anything revolutionary. The menu reads like a modern Italian Greatest Hits, with plenty of pizza and pasta, a crudo here, some panzanella there. But as a neighborhood Italian restaurant, Kettle Black doesn’t have to be revolutionary - it just has to taste good. And it’s doing pretty well on that front.
The restaurant sits right on the main Silver Lake drag and has quickly become the kind of place where locals stop in for a glass of wine and a bowl of pasta one week, and bring a bunch of friends for a birthday dinner the next. The space is clean and open, with a covered patio facing Sunset that’s waiting for you and your negroni to take advantage of it.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
The real reason you’re here though is right at the back of the space - that wood fired oven. From the meatballs, to the pizzas, to the wood-fired bolognese sauce, everything that comes out of the huge round container of fire is worth your time. The menu is simple, shareable, and full of crowd pleasers. The waitstaff are also truly helpful and engaged, and deal expertly with the inevitable dad jokes thrown their way when you end up here for dinner with parents. Because you will be bringing your parents here at some point.
Kettle Black isn’t a life-changing restaurant. It is, however, the kind of restaurant you could use more of in your life. Which is more than enough reason to go check it out.