Anthony Bourdain Loved To Eat At This Italian Steakhouse In Los Angeles

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Anthony Bourdain was a quintessential New Yorker who craved pastrami sandwiches when he was away filming his food and travel TV shows, and whose favorite pizza was an NYC classic – Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn. But the late celebrity chef naturally had favorite dining spots around the world as well that he discovered during his travels. When Bourdain found himself on the West Coast, one of the places where he loved to eat was Italian steakhouse Chi Spacca, one of the best steakhouses in Los Angeles.

Chi Spacca means she (or he) who cleaves, and the restaurant's logo is a meat cleaver, both reflecting its inspiration of how an Italian butcher might cook. It touts on its website that the L.A. Times called it an "ode to meat," and Food & Wine dubbed it a "meat speakeasy." Bourdain ate at Chi Spacca for the first time in 2016 while in L.A. to film an episode of "Parts Unknown," and he raved to Thrillist at the time that it was "amazing," saying, "I really, really, really appreciated it and enjoyed it."

Bourdain went into more detail for Grub Street, saying he had an "enormous, meat-centric dinner." His meal included "fantastic" salumi, grilled octopus, warm figs, roasted and stuffed zucchini blossoms, and amberjack (a type of fish that's plentiful in South Atlantic waters) collars. He rhapsodized about his "impeccably rested" Bistecca Fiorentina, a Renaissance-era steak dish we still eat the same way, saying, "I will think back often on that huge slab of bone-in beef." Bourdain also praised the beef-and-marrow pie, calling it "impossibly rich" and saying it "flooded my head with awesomeness."

Chi Spacca is a dinner-only steakhouse with a seasonal, farm-to-table mindset. Guests sit in an intimate, 30-seat dining room that features an open kitchen and wood-burning oven. The location's previous restaurant had popular salumi nights, which inspired Chi Spacca to establish L.A.'s first "dry cure" program and make its own Italian charcuterie. Patrons can order the Antipasti Misti from the menu's Salumeria section to sample an assortment of the cured meats.

The Bistecca Fiorentina that Anthony Bourdain savored is a 50-ounce, dry-aged, bone-in Porterhouse, and at $295, is the menu's most expensive dish. There's also Costata all Fiorentina, a 36-ounce New York steak for $215. Other meats include Hanger Steak, Porcini-Rubbed Short Ribs, Milk Roasted Pork Loin, and Lamb Shoulder Chop. There's Pollo alla Diavola su Crostone, spicy roasted chicken on toast, and seafood and fish as well. The Bourdain-ordered beef-and-marrow pie is one of three savory pies, and there are also Spuntini appetizers, salads, side dishes, and breads, including the signature crisp and cheesy Focaccia di Recco. Burnt Cheesecake with pine nut brittle and Whole Candied Apple Pie are among the desserts.

True meat lovers can book a Pig's Head Dinner, meant for four to eight people. The meal is built around a crispy, roasted Berkshire pig's head, and includes salumi, seasonal sides, and the Focaccia de Recco with ham for $125 per person.

Chi Spacca opened in 2013, three years before Bourdain's first visit, and is co-owned by Nancy Silverton, a James Beard Award-winning legend in L.A.'s culinary landscape. Her 2020 cookbook, "Chi Spacca: A New Approach to American Cooking," features many of the restaurant's recipes.