Dinner at The Hill – Dec. 28th, 2011

The Hill Bar and Grill is located in the same building as The Saban Theater, which is an art deco gem in Beverly Hills. This theater originally opened its door in 1930 as The Fox Wilshire Theater and was designed by renowned theater architect  Charles S. Lee, who also designed The Los Angeles Theater and The Tower Theater, both in downtown Los Angeles. The Hill Bar and Grill is right next door from the theater and has all the same art décor adornments. The interior has been newly redesigned by tattoo artist Zoey Gingles. It still has it’s original tin ceiling, but everything else takes on a new modern flair. Near the bar are these very cool photos of women that are inspired from all things tango. The music is also very cool, Classic Rock all the way, Led Zeppelin, Jim Morrison, and Neal Young played in my very attentive ears. For a small space it appears to be very expansive.
Job, (pronounced Hope) Servin, is the Chef and proprietor. He is very hand’s on in the kitchen, creating hearty great neighborhood food. His friend and mentor Wolfgang Puck paid him the greatest compliment, when Wolfgang visited him at The Red Rock restaurant on Sunset back in 2005. Job did not know who he was, and after eating Job’s Chicken Ravioli, Wolfgang popped his head into the kitchen and told Job he liked what he was doing. He came back the next day and brought Job a signed copy of one of his many cookbooks. Job was completely surprised when he saw who the author was. Job claims that Wolfgang’s recipes are pretty basic, but he has learned a lot from him, and considers him a fantastic mentor.
Job’s parents hail from Acapulco, also where Job was born, and Zihuatanejo. Before opening The Hill Job was the King of Sunset Blvd, where he worked at Thunder Road House, Red Rock, Le Petit Four, and Carney’s. He wanted to open his own restaurant that would be a fun happy neighborhood place.

This is what I tasted: Chicken Strips with Honey Mustard Sauce,
Beef Skewers with Peanut Sauce, Minestrone Soup, Chicken Vegetable Soup, Cobb Salad, Warm Spinach Salad Hill Burger and Surf and Turf Burger, French Fries, California Pizza, Fish and Chips, Salmon, NY Steak, Philly Cheese Steak, Lobster and Shrimp Ravioli
My favorites were:
The Chicken Strips with Honey Mustard Sauce, the chicken is crispy fried and very succulent with great sweet honey mustard sauce. The Chicken Vegetable Soup had great flavor with nice strips of tender chicken, kind of like Jewish penicillin, the way my Grandmother Tillie used to make. The Warm Spinach Salad had warm wilted spinach, with sliced hard-boiled, bacon, and artichoke with a balsamic reduction sauce with bacon. The Surf and Turf Burger had amazing lobster pieces with quickly blanched skinny asparagus spears, meat is cooked medium rare. This burger is very juicy, quite the combo, perfect explosion of flavors in your mouth. This is The Hill’s signature dish and gets a lot of accolades from me. The delicious French Fries reminded me a some secret ingredient when I was in London as a kid and had French fries from a fast food restaurant, and could never figure out what that secret ingredient is that I loved then and still do now. The Fish and Chips, the fish is very moist with a great beer batter, one of there highly talked about dishes. The NY Steak was cooked perfectly with lots of pepper to make a nice crust, great piece of meat, mashed potatoes and gravy is equally yummy.
These are the great wines that I tried:
Red Wine – Siena, Farrari-Carano, 2009, Sonoma County, Sangiovese, with hints of black cherry, raspberry, cinnamon, butterscotch and caramel. This wine is so perfect with the NY Steak, brought out all the fragrant berries, but did not take away from the rich meaty flavor. Napa Cellar Pinot Noir it paired well with the Warm Spinach Salad, with just the right balance and not too much acidity.
White Wine – Casa Lapostolle Chardonnay – Chilean Wine was perfect with the Surf and Turf Burger, as well as the Fish and Chips, this wine had enough buttery flavors that it could stand up to the meat as well as the lobster. Greystone Chardonnay almost had a Sauvignon Blanc taste to it, with a lot of tangy fruit.
The book of Job tells the story of an extremely righteous man named Job, who was very prosperous and had seven sons and three daughters.
The story ends with Job restored to health, with a new family and twice as much livestock. The book of Job tells the story of an extremely righteous man named Job, who was very prosperous and had seven sons and three daughters. Constantly fearing that his sons may have sinned and “cursed God in their hearts”, he habitually offered burnt offerings as a pardon for their sins.[2] The “sons of God” and Satan (literally “the adversary”) present themselves to God, and God asks Satan his opinion on Job. Satan answers that Job is pious only because God has put a “wall around” him and “blessed” his favourite servant with prosperity, but if God were to stretch out his hand and strike everything that Job had, then he would surely curse God. God gives Satan permission to test Job’s righteousness.[3]
All of Job’s possessions are destroyed; the 500 yoke of oxen and 500 donkeys carried off by Sabeans, the 7000 sheep were burned up by ‘The fire of God which fell from the sky,’ the 3000 camels were stolen by the Chaldeans and the house of the firstborn collapsed, due to a mighty wind, killing all of Job’s offspring, but Job does not curse God but instead shaves his head, tears his clothes and says, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return: Lord has given, and Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of Lord.”[4]
As Job endures these calamities without reproaching God, Satan solicits permission to afflict his person as well, and God says, “Behold, he is in your hand, but don’t touch his life.” Satan, therefore, smites him with dreadful boils, and Job, seated in ashes, scrapes his skin with broken pottery. His wife prompts him to “curse God, and die” but Job answers, “You speak as one of the foolish speaks. Moreover, shall we receive good from God and shall not receive evil?”
Three friends of Job, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, come to console him. (A fourth, Elihu the Buzite (Heb: Alieua ben Barakal the Buzite), begins talking in Chapter 32 and plays a significant role in the dialogue, but his arrival is not described). The friends spend seven days sitting on the ground with Job, without saying anything to him because they see that he is suffering and in much pain. Job at last breaks his silence and “curses the day he was born.”
God responds saying that there are so many things Job does not know about how this world was formed or how nature works, that Job should consider God as being greater than the thunderstorm and strong enough to pull in the leviathan with a fishhook. God then rebukes the three friends and says, “I am angry with you….you have not spoken of me what is right.”
The story ends with Job restored to health, with a new family and twice as much livestock.

The Hill is very cozy and has great atmosphere, what was a dream is now a big success. The next time you’re in the Beverly Hills Wilshire area pop in for some fine happy flavors at The Hill Bar and Grill.
www.thehillbarandgrill.com

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