The ups and downs of American flavors at Vint’s

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

The earliest American cuisine stood strong on simplicity, serving up well-known, pared-down foods that had little to do with anything other than sustenance. Even the more worldly Americans kept their luxuries simple—Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream with just egg yolks, sugar and a few bottles of good cream. But at restaurants that lay claim to that lineage, the purest American foods are moving away from tradition, headed instead toward a global palate intent on pairing all sorts of flavors. At Vint’s, that’s only part of the story.

The rest of the story begins with Vint’s own convoluted past. For years, Vint’s cherished spot on Second Street housed Shenandoah, the venerable Southern restaurant that packed up and moved out to Los Alamitos. Soon after, the space turned over to Biggs, a Mediterranean-style tapas bar. Biggs initially boasted La Brea Bakery’s Nancy Silverton among its higher-ups, but that relationship ended before the restaurant really got up and running. So, too, did Biggs, quickly closing for a remodel only to reopen now as Vint’s.

It isn’t shocking, then, that Vint’s looks a lot like its small-plate forbear. The design is modern and unobtrusive, with warm red walls and mirrors stretched across the dining room. Everything seems tailored to the restaurant’s contemporary American style, save for the out-of-place wicker chairs.

Vint’s bills itself as an “American Kitchen” and thus runs tight alongside America’s culinary history. However, both its lunch and dinner menus appear constrained, locked down to a handful of standard-sounding dishes that don’t do much to excite. Thankfully, the food itself turns some of that skepticism around.

The lunch menu rests mostly between two slices of bread, relying almost entirely on a few sandwiches to carry the afternoon load. But the sandwiches—the Reuben and the tuna melt, among others—please enough to get by. More pleasing, however, are the sides, with a coarsely mashed potato salad and crisp fries staying close to standard Americana.

Most of the lunch menu gets ditched come evening, but there is one item that straddles both meals—the burger. Compared to the rest of Vint’s offerings, the burger seems adventurous, topped with a handful of greens, a fried egg and Harissa, a North African chili paste. The burger’s divergence from the usual ingredients pays off because it’s actually one of the best around—the egg squeezes out just the right amount of yolk, the sauce leaves just the right amount of heat.

By and large, the rest of the dinner menu fares well enough. The house salad is passable—a hapless pile of mixed greens dressed with your choice of house or butter vinaigrette, the latter coming across like the sour cream and vinegar packed in a jar of pickled herring. But Vint’s pork shoulder is a highlight. The dish is great, pairing the slow-roasted pork with a classic streak of apple. The pork is cooked tender and flavored nicely, though it’s a bit overpowered by the peppered broccolini served on top. The roasted chicken endures a similar fate. The chicken itself is cooked perfectly, yet the sweet notes of Cipollini onion and Meyer lemon offer a flavor contrast that’s good but unbalanced.

Alongside its entrees, Vint’s serves a hefty selection of beer, wine and rice-based vodka cocktails. The bar isn’t a full one, but it does have a commendable selection of drafts and bottles that are sometimes a struggle to find elsewhere, including Anchor Steam and Chimay.

Ultimately, though, Vint’s misses a number of details. In fact, it was all summed up when dessert was sent out with a pile of whipped cream instead of a scoop of the advertised vanilla ice cream—in my visits, there was usually something missing. And that seems to be the rest of the story at Vint’s. Although American cuisine is easily one of the most open and undefined in the world, Vint’s has boxed itself into a conceptual corner that forces some of its dishes into unremarkable flavors. But when the restaurant does succeed, it can shine, which makes you wonder what would happen if the place were to slough off its culinary borders.

VINT’S 4722 E SECOND ST | LONG BEACH 90803 | 562.434.3460 | VINTSRESTAURANT.COM | FOOD FOR TWO $30-50 | BEER, WINE

Tags: Food, Long Beach, Restaurants, second street, vint's