3 Square, five nights ago, Hans Rockenwagner brought forth on the plates in front of me, a new dining experience, conceived in his newest kitchen, and dedicated to the proposition that not all meals are created equal.

Now we are engaged in an internal struggle, tasting whether that bread, or any other bread delivered, can live up to Hans’s long enduring reputation. We are met with a great menu. We have come to dedicate a portion of our stomach, as a final resting place for three dishes. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate our entire appetite to meats and cheese and bread, we cannot pass up this bounty from the ground — white peaches, arugala and almonds — we hallow this salad.

The brave wife and I, who struggled with the menu, have cooperated, far above our poor power to narrow down choices, we split two dishes. The world walking down Abbot Kinney took little note, as we bit first into the flank steak. This was divine dining, rather, this new dedicated location for Hans looks somewhat unfinished in its simplicity.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that we eat the steak, and the fries, and the spatzel — that we here highly resolve that these dishes will not clog our veins — that these delectable morel mushrooms and white asparagus in the spatzel shall be eaten before we are at last full.

This restaurant, under Hans is a new birth for him — and that restaurant is priced for the people, with food for the people, shall not let his cuisine perish from the earth.

(my apologies to Abe)

3 Square Cafe + Bakery
1121 Abbot Kinney
Venice, CA 90291
310-399-6504 (P)
310-399-6518 (F)