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Caitlin Cutler, co-owner of Ronan, is very fond of Malvasia. (Photo by Liam Brown)

Ronan’s Caitlin Cutler on Malvasia, Skin-Contact Sauvignon Blanc, and Country Music

June 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I love to talk about wine with people who share my passion for it. We open bottles, we trade stories about travel and soil types, terroir and residual sugar, and we talk of taste and food and restaurants. We recommend wines to one another, we drink, and we learn a lot.

In Wine Talk, I introduce you to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet as I make my way around the world, individuals who love wine as much as I do, who live to taste, who farm and make wine. You’ll appreciate their insight, and I hope you’ll learn something from them as well. 

From the moment I perused the wine list I knew I wanted to feature its creator in Wine Talk. It (and they) had me at the Claus Preisinger Zweigelt and the Martha Stouman Nero d’Avola, not to mention the Alfredo Maestro “Amanda.” This small, concise list was put together by someone who cares about what her guests drink with their food.

This was in May, and it was my first visit to Ronan, a restaurant in Los Angeles that is now high on my “Brockhaus Approved” list. The meal was something to write home about — read the review here — and I’ve been back once more since then, and plan to be a frequent guest.

Asking around, I was told that Caitlin Cutler was the woman behind Ronan’s wine program. She also co-owns the restaurant with Daniel Cutler, her husband and Ronan’s chef. They have a good thing going on Melrose Avenue.

Caitlin runs the front of the house, and her presence is one of calm and confidence. She’s a welcoming person. Her past work experience includes stints in the corporate finance and real estate development worlds, and then she entered the restaurant industry, serving as general manager at two Los Angeles Italian restaurants: Sotto (now closed, it’s where the couple met and fell in love) and Alimento, Zach Pollack’s Italian restaurant in Silver Lake.

The pair opened Ronan in September 2018. During the first year of Ronan’s existence Caitlin was pregnant — they now have two children — and the couple faced the challenges familiar to all mom-and-pop restaurant owners. Reviews were favorable; Bill Addison, of the Los Angeles Times, loved the French Dip-inspired calzone, and Eric Wareheim’s endorsement of the pies brought scores of people in asking for the “Instagram pizza.”

The inevitable dip in traffic came, as the “see and be seen” crowd came and went, but the restaurant’s team labored on and word about the food at Ronan spread. Then came COVID-19. (Jenn Harris has written a wonderful piece on Caitlin and Daniel’s life the day after Los Angeles ordered all restaurants to cease service; you can read it here — LA Times subscription required.)

It’s been, needless to say, a rough, harrowing time, the days and nights since March 31, 2020, for restaurants and the rest of the world. The National Restaurant Association, in a study published in September 2020, reported that nearly one in six restaurants (representing nearly 100,000 establishments in the United States) “is either closed permanently or long-term,” resulting in the unemployment of nearly 3 million individuals. It added that the industry “is on track to lose $240 billion in sales by the end of the year.”

Some meatballs: Ronan’s pork polpettini are things of beauty. (Photo by The Brockhaus)

Ronan survived, about which I am glad, and if you’ve never been to the restaurant, I urge you to book a table. Order the focaccia and the burrata. If you go on Wednesday, all wines made by women are offered at 30 percent off. Try the meatballs, and if the calzone is on the menu, go for it.

Meanwhile, here’s Caitlin Cutler in Wine Talk.

James Brock: How has COVID-19 changed your work and life?

Caitlin Cutler: I am able to spend a lot more time at home with my kids. My husband and I co-own Ronan, and prior to COVID, we both worked five to six nights a week. When safer-at-home orders came out, we had to alternate who would come into work, because one of us had to stay home with the kids (no childcare!). It really gave me the personal and professional balance that I was craving, but couldn’t quite allow myself to have, and now I work at the restaurant three nights a week. 

Caitlin Cutler and her husband, Daniel Cutler, are the couple behind Ronan, a great restaurant in Los Angeles. (Photo by Liam Brown)

JB: Tell us about three wines you think are drinking well at the moment. What makes them worthwhile? How about a food pairing for each one? 

CC: “Bon Jus” Sauvignon Blanc is our skin contact BTG right now, and it just slaps for summertime. I had never had a skin-contact Sauvignon Blanc before this wine, and I’m not particularly partial to the grape in general, but leave it on the skins for 15 days and we’re in business. The wine is unfiltered, no additives, and you can almost taste the coastal Santa Barbara laidback vibes in the glass. Pairing: Sea bass Zarandeado at Ronan.

The “chilled red” is really having a moment, and I am fully behind it. We have three chilled options on the list at Ronan right now, but the one that has my heart is “Soul Love” from Tessier Winery out of Healdsburg. It’s a blend of Riesling (50 percent), Trousseau (20 percent) and Mourvedre (30 percent), and it just sparkles behind its psychedelic label. Don’t let the playful nature of the label fool you, this is a fantastic, nuanced bottle. Tessier is run by a husband-and-wife team, and is 30 percent off on “Women in Wine Wednesdays” at Ronan. Pair with the classic Margherita pizza, do or don’t add anchovies (do).

From Austria, courtesy Claus Preisinger. (Image courtesy Midfield Wine Bar)

I just have to close out this list with the “Puszta Libre!,” a biodynamic Zweigelt from Austrian wine producer Claus Preisinger. This wine never sells unless I suggest it to a table, and it is such a missed opportunity for so many guests who want a bold red, but don’t know how to get out of their comfort zone. I promise you all there are sophisticated reds outside of France, Spain and Italy! Pairing: The pork meatballs at Ronan with a side of some thick focaccia piping hot and dripping in good Sicilian olive oil over the toasted rosemary garnish. 

JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why.

CC: I like collecting wines from significant years. My husband and I were both born in 1985, and for our wedding we got two magnums of Emidio Pepe 1985 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. I would probably get two more from my daughters birth years (2015 and 2019) now, while I can still afford them.  

JB: What is your favorite grape variety, and why?

CC: Hands down, Malvasia. This was the first grape that taught me how much depth there was to discovering wine. I have had bottles that are light and floral, I have had bottles that are earthy and, dare I say, masculine. I have had it still and I have had it sparkling. I have loved it every which way and I can’t wait to try many more iterations. 

JB: How about one bottle that our readers should buy now to cellar for 10 years, to celebrate a birth, anniversary, or other red-letter day? 

CC: I wish I had a good suggestion for this, but I tend to focus on lower cost, newer production on my list. I would say find something sentimental to you and cellar that. Maybe a bottle you had on your first date, or a producer you love from a significant year. Nostalgia can add a lot to your experience years down the road. 

JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle (outside of your home and workplace)?

CC: I adore Esters Wine Bar in Santa Monica. The service, the vibe — it’s all so welcoming and yet special at the same time, and you can find really fabulous wines by the glass that you don’t see everywhere else around town.  

JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?

CC: It’s not about what the restaurant wants you to drink or what will impress the table next to you.  It’s about you. This is your experience, and we are just here to facilitate it. Talk to your server or the person who does the wine list, ask questions and they will lead you to the hidden gems that fit your needs, but make sure you listen to your gut and drink what you want to drink that night. Sometimes it’s what they suggest, but sometimes it’s a dirty martini or your go-to bottle of Chianti, and that’s A-OK too. 

This bottle makes a wonderful gift.

JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?

CC: In 2014, it was my boss’s birthday and I went to Silver Lake Wine to buy him a bottle of wine. He was a chef with many years of wine knowledge under his belt, and I was a novice restaurant worker just beginning to scratch the service of my wine studies. I went into Silver Lake Wine and bought him a bottle of Rojac “Royaz” sparkling Refošk. He opened it for us to share and it knocked his socks off. He put it on the opening list of his trendy new restaurant in Silver Lake and I had never been prouder. 

Ronan’s dining room features communal tables, booths, and bar seating. (Photo Courtesy Ronan)

JB: What has been the strangest moment or incident involving wine that you have experienced in your career thus far?

CC: I had a friend of a friend (who I didn’t know and had never even met briefly) email me multiple times and repeatedly ask me to waive corkage for his upcoming reservation for a party of six. Ronan was three months old at the time, and we were still paying off our contractors from the years of construction leading up to our recent opening, never mind tackling paying back our investors. I was so insulted that a stranger thought it was appropriate to bring their own wine in and not expect to pay a fee (mind you, our corkage is VERY reasonable). I am so happy that the pandemic brought to light how hard the financials are from a restaurant perspective, and moments like that seem to be a distant memory. 

JB: Your favorite wine reference in a work of literature?

CC: Country music is my guilty pleasure, and any time a female musician talks about drinking red wine and plotting revenge on an ex, I can’t help but smile. 

Want more wine? Read on:

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A Canadian Makes Good in Mendocino
Bouchaine’s Chris Kajani Tackles the Challenges of a Pandemic
A Bosnian Winemaker Finds a Home in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA
From a Michigan Backyard Vineyard to Sonoma
Paul Hobbs Knew She Had Talent
Ian Cauble: From ‘Somm’ to SommSelect
Eric Sigmund is High on Texas Wine
Jeff Cole, Sullivan Estate’s Winemaker
Jon McPherson Talks Tokay and His Mentor Father
Two Reds From Chile
An Italian Chardonnay From the Cesare Stable
Mi Sueño’s 2016 Napa Valley Syrah
Joshua Maloney on Riesling and Manfred Krankl
Brothers in Wine
Two Bottles From Priest Ranch
A Derby Day Cocktail
Nate Klostermann is Making Some Great Sparkling Wines in Oregon
Matt Dees and the Electric Acidity of Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay
Baudelaire, Pinot Noir, and Rosé: Kathleen Inman’s Passions
Colombia, France, and California: This Winemaker is a Complex Woman
Michael Kennedy Talks Sailing and Zinfandel
Spain Opened the World of Wine for Spottswoode’s Aron Weinkauf
Alta Colina’s Molly Lonborg Wants a Bottle of Château Rayas
Mumm Napa’s Tami Lotz Talks Wine and Oysters
James MacPhail on Pinot Noir, White Burgundy, and Russell Crowe
A Very Proper Sparkling Wine
Talking With David Ramey
A Merlot That Your Snob Friend Will Love
French Couple Make a Sauvignon Blanc in California
A Perfect Afternoon Chardonnay
Terry Theise Talks Reisling
A New Wine Wonderland
Paris Wine Goddess Tells All
Rice Village Wine Bar Has a Cleveland Touch
A Texas White Blend for Your Table
A Pinot Noir Full of Flavor
This Pinot Gris From Oregon Pairs Well With Cheese
Willamette, Dammit!
A Value Rioja
Drink Pink!
Underbelly Veteran Goes for Grenache
A Man of Letters and Wine
Ms. Champagne Wants a Nebuchadnezzar
The Wine Artist Goes for Chardonnay
This American Loves Spain and Its Wines
Houston’s Wine Whisperer Has a Soft Touch
Blackberry Farm’s Somm Pours in Splendor
Mr. Pinot Noir: Donald Patz of Patz & Hall
A Cork Dork Wants to Spend More Time in Tuscany
Sommelier Turned Restaurateur Daringly Goes Greek
Texas Master Sommelier Debunks Wine Geeks
A Bottle From Gigondas Changed This Houston Man’s Life
Oil Man Falls in Love, and the Rest is Good-Taste History
Ryan Cooper of Camerata is a Riesling Man
Mixing It Up With Jeremy Parzen, an Ambassador of Italy
Sommelier at One of Houston’s Top Wine Bars Loves Underdogs

Pork meatballs that I'd happily eat every six days.

A Near-Perfect Meal: Ronan Delivers

May 16, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Ordering the focaccia was an afterthought, a recommendation proffered by the waiter to accompany our burrata Genovese. It was, however, a beautiful piece of bread, among the best I’ve had in a long, long time.

It’s served in a shallow bowl, on top of wax paper. The paper prevents the bread from sitting in the copious amount of olive oil that’s been drizzled over the focaccia, quality oil that I, once the bread was gone, spooned into my mouth.

The bread has a crisp exterior, one to which large flakes of salt adhere — some of the salt melts into the (in parts) charred surface of the bread, and a few pieces of fresh rosemary are also there.

A focaccia of supreme quality.

The interior is another story. Moist, warm, chewy, a touch of smoke. This bread’s crisp/chewy ratio is sublime. It’s cooked in Ronan’s wood-fired oven, as are the pizzas — Angela ordered The Brooklyn (shaved mushroom, Parmigiana, red pepper flakes, and oregano) — and the char on the crust is exactly as I like it: fully blackened in some areas, partially at other spots. Prime ingredients, ample olive oil applied after cooking.

The Brooklyn pie at Ronan, more than worthy of that great NYC borough.

It was Mother’s Day, a fine Sunday in Los Angeles, and since we were unable to celebrate with our mothers in person (one lives near Houston, Texas, the other in Jupiter, Florida), this was the next best thing: A meal outdoors, to honor our mothers, at a restaurant that had been on my to-experience list since we moved to LA.

The outdoor patio runs along one side of the restaurant, and it’s a pleasant place, made more exciting on the day because we had the honor of sharing the space with Norman Lear.

Burrata, basil pesto, toasted pine nuts, basil leaves, black pepper, olive oil … and this was a great pair to the focaccia.

We brought a bottle of wine from home, a Vietti Perbacco (2018) — Ronan’s corkage fee is $25 for the first two bottles, $40 per each after that — and began with the burrata Genovese. (I’m looking forward to having a meal at Ronan on a Wednesday, when all wines on the list made by women winemakers are offered at 30 percent off regular price.)

The burrata was the way to start. The inclusion of whole basil leaves injects a spark of additional freshness to the dish, and the cheese is as good as you want from burrata. Slicing into the ball of dairy and gathering a spoon of solid and liquid approaches a magical experience, and the toasted pine nuts and basil pesto and olive oil and salt that completed this course left nothing out in flavor and pleasure. The focaccia, yes, is advised, because you can sop up the olive oil and cheese with pieces of it. You won’t leave anything uneaten.

I like everything from Vietti.

The pork meatballs were my choice. I love meatballs, and make them often. I generally use a recipe I adapted from this one by Michael White, and it’s a good one. Ronan’s version of meatballs has a new admirer, and if they are on the menu when I’m next at the restaurant I’ll be tempted to order them.

lt’s difficult to find meatballs better than these.

A lesson in cooking meatballs: If using a skillet on top of the oven, leave the meat alone long enough to form a crust all around; they do this at Ronan, and the result is a satisfying mixture of textures that, for a moment, will make you feel all is well in the world. The meatballs are served in a small bowl along with a tomato sauce, a liberal amount of Parmigiana, olive oil, and basil leaves. Comforting, yes, and that’s good. But the cooking technique is worthy of adoration.

On this saucer is butter that will make you rethink butter.

I have to mention the butter. It’s listed as “Housemade Cultured Butter” on the menu, and that it certainly is. It’s presented at the table on a small saucer, a saucer that it shares with a pool of olive oil and coarse black pepper and salt. The culture is rich, almost too rich — if such a concept exists. Is it needed on the focaccia? That is debatable. But I applied plenty of that culture to my bread, and I’ll do it again.

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