The Residency at UMAMIcatessan

Sometimes you gotta believe what you read about on the internet. Trolling through my daily food bloggeries, I remembered Thrilist mentioning the glorious return of Chef Micah Wexler (of Mezze) to jumpstart the new pop-​up series at UMAMIcatessan, where they bring in renowned chefs from across the country to run 10-​weeks of an intimate, boundary-​pushing series.
Chef Wexler is LA-​grown and shows his love of our city’s rich culinary mixes. Each week was a different theme, and we landed on Thai Town. Chef and the manager Mike had just come off a stint in Asia, and discussed the different inspirations for each dish. It was incredible. Being asian, I really appreciated how authentic each dish tasted. I could sense the right herbs, fish sauce, etc. It was done to perfection. The first 2 dishes were perhaps the best thai food that I’d ever had. And it was Chef’s second time ever cooking thai. Read: He’s legit.
And then we talked about Italy (my favorite of everything, ever) and Chef and Mike agreed — a killer pesto genovese just is incomparable. They really know their food, and enjoy sharing their learnings from around the world with their clients.
Aside from an amazing 5 course meal, for $ 45, Chef Wexler, Mike, and Morgan have this down to a science. It felt like a Chef’s table at a restaurant, but casual enough to roll by in a tshirt and sandals. It felt like friends sharing a meal, and learning together. It was such a great experience, and I cannot wait to be back. The setting is intimate (taking over the coffee bar in UMAMIcatessan) and casual, perfect for the back-​and-​forth banter between chefs and clients. I left full, happy, and eager to see what next week would bring.