On the outside, miro is sleek and you could even say a bit sexy. Upon walking in, that sleekness gives way to warmth and it’s not just the exceptional use of wood, leather, and granite in the interior design, but it’s also the best way to describe Chef Gavin Mills. Chef Mills’ warm demeanor extends through his booming voice dappled with a lovely British accent but it’s in the way he talks about his team.
“I’ve been in kitchens my whole life…the best kitchens, in my mind, are the one’s where the chef gives you credit and talks to you,” Mills says. “Everyone works so hard — they’re on the line doing the food, making sure it’s how I want to be and how we, as a collective, do it.”
The corzetti squid ink pasta is an example of this collaborative spirit at miro. The dish was created by miro’s pasta team — the pasta maker, Elizabeth, and her partner Gabe came up with the dish. After a few tweaks, they created the crown jewel of the menu that features corzetti pasta flavored with squid ink and dressed in a gorgeous saffron sauce completed by cherry tomatoes, fresh tarragon, and tender pieces of lobster meat.
All of miro’s produce is sourced from local farmers markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays by Chef Mills. The kitchen butchers a whole pig weekly to provide the kitchen with chops, bacon, and some inventive charcuterie inspired by the head butcher’s Sri Lankan culture. At miro, everyone contributes to the success of the menu that changes seasonally and every person is an expert at his or her’s task from the grill master to the bartender to the mistress of charcuterie.
And if you are an Angeleno who loves a good whiskey, there is a small and intimate underground whiskey room tucked away where you can sample rare and hard to find whiskeys from India, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. Amrut, from Bangladore, India, won best whiskey of the world in 2011. miro has a bottle at the underground whiskey room where you can sit for a spell and learn a little more about how to be just as sleek, sexy and warm as miro is — inside and out.
