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Citizen Smith Rocking Out in Hollywood

The way to make money in Hollywood in the fast paced restaurant game is to have a prime location, valet parking, a full bar with all the latest martini’s, plenty of Hollywood babes and food that appeals to almost everybody, such as American comfort food. Citizen Smith has done that in the four months or so it has been open, and part owner/chef Taylor Boudreaux, originally from Louisiana, has created quite a monster that appears to creating its own momentum. He was originally at Mastro’s, a restaurant that usually invokes passionate comments from supporters and detractors alike. I suspect Citizen Smith falls into the same category.

With about 250-300 covers a night, any chef would be happy with that. The lighting as you might expect is very low, so if you are over 25, make sure to take a flashlight or one of those $10 Owl magnifying glasses they advertise on the telly in order to see the menu. If you are too embarrassed to do that, the servers are bright, articulate and well trained, and will be pleased to assist.

Great place for people watching, and the DJ seems stuck on the eighties playing a variety of artists such as Tears for Fears, Police, Phil Collins and such. Later on, a different DJ seemed stuck on electronic music, but by that time nobody was really noticing, as tables of shouting people tried to get heard over the din. Obviously this is not the place to go for a quiet dinner, but it still is a lot of fun. I also discovered that they tore down a bit of history to create this restaurant, i.e. Wolfman Jacks original Hollywood studio.

The impressive décor created by designer Thomas Shloos has a Moroccan theme with tea-cup candles, and a huge Moroccan sliding door that leads out to a patio, that started filling up as the evening wore on. A candlelight bar creates a great atmosphere, and when we arrived about 7.45 pm, there was no trouble finding a table. But by about 10 pm the place was packed, with not a table to be had.

The kitchen has received mixed reviews since opening, but the numerous celebrities who have shown up seem to be satisfied, as more keep coming. Taylor has his brigade of six working feverishly in a small space, but the bread is very fresh and lovely and hot, and is served with the Prince Edward Island mussels-a good way to start a meal here.

One of the biggest sellers at the restaurant is the mini-burgers, three on a plate and a definite trend that is waiting to happen. Citizen Smith is not the only restaurant serving burgers this way, but it sure has to be the hippest. The burgers are served with caramelized onions, but if you prefer French fries, then a mountain of them will come along with the burgers.

Fried chicken with spice and honey Dijon mustard was another winner, beautifully tender and another big seller at the restaurant. The secret to making chicken this tender is to marinate for 24 hours in buttermilk. After the chicken things went down hill slightly with the pork chop and steak served with very dull tasting spinach. No real flavor here at all, but at least the pork chop is a dish well worth having, nice and plump and cooked just right. The steak was not up to the Mastro standards, lets just leave it at that, although the prices are similar.

The Apple Pie dessert was a tad disappointing as well, the pastry too crumbly and the apple carved up in rather unappealing lumps, and there was far too much of it for the dish. Citizen Smith is a must visit for a night out in Hollywood, where the action really is right now, and there will certainly be items on the menu that you will really enjoy.

Fact Sheet
Citizen Smith
1600 N.Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood
323.461.5001
Citizen Smith Website

Valet Parking $8
Lunch: 11 am to 3 pm
Dinner: 6 pm to 2 am (Sun-Wed)
              6 pm to 4 am (Thu-Sat)
Dress: Hip and Casual
Noise factor: loud
Price dinner for 2 w/drinks: $167
Corkage: $25

By Michael Hepworth | May 25, 2006 in Restaurant News | Permalink

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Previous Reader Opinions...

Run from this place as fast as you can. First and foremost I'm FINALLY getting over my - what doctors called - food poisoning from this place. I had heard about Citizen Smith from a few friends who had been and had OK (at best) experiences. They told me it was overpriced, food was bland and the drinks beyond overpriced. I'm one to try things myself - mistakenly. I went there with three friends, was totally hassled by this moronic, overweight black bouncer at the door. He questioned why we were there (umm, gee i duno sir - why would we be entering a restaurant!). We were seated after a little wait (even with reservations!) and then escorted to a too small table. Even having a name here doesn't help as my somewhat high profile friend's assistant was the one who made the reservation. After a round of drinks I was ready to take out a loan - overpriced and over watered. Hey bartender - how about learning to mix properly if you are going to plan to pay off your condo with our bill! The food was - as suspected - bland bland bland. I'll spare you the rest of the night's experience as it was dull thanks to the attitude of the staff. Our moronic bouncer made an appearance again seemingly causing some issues at the door - good to see it wasn't just us. Bottom line is that with in hours of returning to home I started to "expel" (and other fun stuff). Wound up going to the doctor on Wednesday AM - proclaiming it was food poisoning.

Posted by: Mark LeBeau | January 5, 2007 3:38 PM