{"id":3355,"date":"2014-07-02T19:07:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T19:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/food\/renaissance-goes-through-a-renaissance-new-menu-debuts-today-poolside-parties-to-come\/"},"modified":"2014-07-02T19:07:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T19:07:00","slug":"renaissance-goes-through-a-renaissance-new-menu-debuts-today-poolside-parties-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/renaissance-goes-through-a-renaissance-new-menu-debuts-today-poolside-parties-to-come","title":{"rendered":"Renaissance Goes Through a Renaissance: New Menu Debuts Today; Poolside Parties to Come"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sip05\"<\/p>\n

The gravlax at Sip at the Renaissance Hotel. Photos by Brian Addison.<\/em><\/p>\n

When one walks into Sip at the Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Long Beach, there is one major bummer: the massive glass windows overlooking the corner of Ocean and Pine have equally massive curtains, shuttering out what would otherwise be a fantastic view of urban life in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose will be the first to go,\u201d noted Pam Ryan, General Manager of the Renaissance. \u201cThen we will contemporize the furniture, give it a bit of a face lift, activate the space more with a better ambiance and, of course, better food.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sip01\"Ryan doesn\u2019t enjoy the fact that when people think hotel, they think tourism and banality. She thinks that hotels have the role of not only catering to their guests, but catering to locals. Hotels should play with attracting not just the conventioneers across the street looking for TGIFs on the water but locals who crave unique, locally driven places to hang and drink\u2014and that\u2019s precisely what she plans on doing, beyond the recent renovation that occured earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, her commissioning of local artist Esic (aka Zach Howard), the co-founder of The Rogues Gallery. His surrealist style\u2014visit Rogues and see his swimming elephant mural<\/a> along Alamo Ct. at the gallery\u2019s East Village Arts location on 3rd\u2014will be used to help cover the edge of the balcony lining the upper terrace that sits above Sip. Ryan notes that, come the end of July, Esic plans on doing an \u201cinverted ode\u201d to Wyland\u2019s massive whale mural on the outside of the Arena.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Ryan wants to activate not only the Renaissance pool, but insists that pools throughout the Long Beach hotel scene should be open to the public every now and then.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve replaced the furniture already,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cCome Sundays, we plan on having a \u2018Sunday Funday\u2019-like event where we bring out a DJ, host a local craft bartender, and charge a minimal cover charge for anyone who wants to hang out poolside\u2026 We\u2019re even looking to have a speakeasy-like VIP room in the back where this beautiful space that is currently being unused will cater to our new cocktail menu.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sip06\"<\/p>\n

The calamari bolognese.<\/em><\/p>\n

Beyond the physical, there is Ryan\u2019s hope that the hiring of former Top Chef contestant Janine Falvo<\/a> to head Sip as its newest Executive Chef to oversee a new menu bring the space a lift in food quality. Once home to Suzanne Tracht\u2019s inaugural Long Beach restaurant, Tracht abruptly left once her contract was done and the space has since then struggled to maintain an identity, with its last chef, Michael Poompan, leaving for the Ritz-Carlton.<\/p>\n

Falvo hopes to ditch the American-inspired fare of Poompan in favor of sticking to her own Italian roots. Her family\u2019s heritage, based out of Calabria in Southern Italy (whose local chiles she uses often), has always been the source of her culinary inspiration. The area\u2019s love of seafood is, for Falvo, the perfect starting point for her new adventure in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

\"Sip04\"Falvo\u2019s ocean-to-fork menu, debuting today, offers tidbits like fried oysters with caramelized onions and roasted jalape\u00f1os that sit on top of an awesome tartar sauce made with pickled ramps.<\/p>\n

Italian food and deconstruction are Falvo\u2019s strengths, as exemplified through her take on gnocchi bolognese. Rather than the typical ground beef for the red sauce, she grounds fresh calamari and adds a more-than-admirable dose of spice that makes it almost feel like an gorgeously chunky arrabbiata. Or her “Falvo family sausage,” which she puts chunks of over maxima clams with fennel and Calabrian chiles.<\/p>\n

When it comes to deconstructing dishes, her take on Nordic gravlax is nothing short of impeccable: lemon cucumbers with a strong dill marinade sit underneath vacuum-pickled salmon while deep-fried balls of cream cheese sit atop sliced beets and are paired with thinly sliced and baked bagel chips. Even better? The anise-like flavor of the salmon pairs perfectly with the restaurant’s house gin made by TRU\u2014something Falvo insists that guests try when having the dish.<\/p>\n

Speaking of gin, Falvo has honored Long Beach history with gin-and-juice popsicles that are sure to be a poolside adult favorite.<\/p>\n

Falvo\u2019s success with Sip hasn’t come easily. Following the departure of Poompan, she was thrown directly into the lion\u2019s den on Grand Prix weekend, facing a cohort of Real Housewives (including that ever-picky GiGi Hadid) and Shahs of Sunset who insisted they have their own menu.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I grabbed a napkin and created an entirely new menu on the fly,\u201d Falvo said. \u201cThank God they approved. In fact, they loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The growing popularity of Falvo\u2019s dishes encouraged Ryan to move Sip away from the apps-and-drinks-only type of establishment and encourage Falvo to explore with full-on entr\u00e9es. First up to be offered to the public is her brined-and-smoked chicken that sits on top of a pickled ramp Italian salsa verde and comes with grilled Castelvetrano olives and deep fried cherry tomatoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a ton of work,\u201d Falvo said. \u201cI\u2019ve been at it non-stop but in the end, I believe people will get it. We want Sip and its food to be its own thing for both guests and locals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sip is located at the Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Long Beach, 111 E. Ocean Blvd.<\/em><\/p>\n

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