At downtown’s Miro: Rare whiskey and a ‘hyper-seasonal’ restaurant

There are two bottles of Yamazaki Sherry cask whiskey (a hard-to-find Japanese whiskey) at the basement whiskey lounge at Miro, the new restaurant and bar at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Figueroa Street in downtown L.A. (formerly Cucina Rustica), which opens tomorrow.

It’s a pan-Mediterranean, “hyper-seasonal” restaurant with Greek, Italian, North African and Spanish influences, by chef Gavin Mills (formerly of Wood & Vine and Tavern) and general manager Tyler Dow (formerly of Faith & Flower), that just happens to have a whiskey-heavy bar and an additional whiskey room in the basement.

Why call it hyper-seasonal? Because Mills says he and his team will go to no less than four farmers markets a week to buy all of the produce (all non-GMO) for the restaurant. One of Mills’ favorite dishes, by the way, is roasted cauliflower with ras el hanout, labneh, pomegranate, mint and preserved lemon.

Upstairs, in a sun-drenched dining room, there are floor-to-ceiling windows, a marble bar (with a focus on classic cocktails), a charcuterie station (where Mills will make eight kinds of charcuterie), pasta station (all the dough is house-made) and a private dining room that showcases the restaurant’s 125 different bottles of wine (123 of which are natural wines).

Descend two flights down a stonewall stairway and you find a dark dining room outfitted with plush blue seating and a bar that can light up in different colors, depending on that evening’s mood.

The basement whiskey bar at Miro.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

And beyond the bar, there’s a whiskey lounge with brick walls that used to be the wine storage area. This is where Dow geeks out over the bar’s collection of rare vintages of whiskey from around the world.

“You don’t have to have a beard or really tight jeans or a Fixie bike to come down here,” he said. “It’s exclusive, but we want to be inclusive.”

So there are no reservations required. You can walk in, grab a seat on one of the Chesterfield leather couches and treat yourself to an ounce or two of Dow’s rare finds. Some of his “unicorn bottles” include a 32-year Port Ellen and a Karuizawa Noh 13-year-old whiskey.

And if you need help choosing a bottle, Dow has put together his own whiskey bible — a blue book with a handmade cover that holds information on every bottle available at the lounge. Dow also has the room fully stocked with sherry glasses for whiskey flights, and he’s having all the ice cubes cut into the shapes of jewels.

“It’s super cool, super geeky, super rare,” he said.

Miro will be open for lunch by reservation only, Wednesday through the end of the week. Beginning next week, the restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner, also by reservation only. The restaurant doesn’t plan on staying reservation-only, and is working toward welcoming walk-ins in the near future.

888 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 988-8880, www.mirorestaurant.com.

I’ll take two fingers of the Port Ellen please. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Jenn_Harris_

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For the Record

April 26, 2:53 p.m.: An earlier version of this article said there are six bottles of Yamazaki Sherry cask whiskey available at restaurants and bars in California. There are more than six bottles available.

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