Lou Amdur
By Leslee Komaiko
For dineLA.com
Lou Amdur took the long route to restaurateur. First he had successful careers in academia and software. But when an interest in wine grew into an obsession, the Minneapolis native and former New Yorker decided to go with it. Four years ago, in a most unglamorous Hollywood mini mall that is also home to a laundromat and Thai massage parlor (“Ask for Tam,” says Amdur), he opened a wine bar called Lou. If you’re not familiar with Lou, dock yourself one point in the cool department. And if you are, you get why lots of folks want to keep it their own little secret.
What brought you to this coast?
My wife. She got a job offer at LA Weekly and she took it. I was still living in New York for a couple years and we were having a bicoastal relationship and that sucked so I moved out.
The idea of a wine bar doesn’t surprise anyone now, but when you opened Lou, it was pretty novel.
A number of years ago I was in Paris and I was at a wine bar that I still love: Jacques Melac. It’s a pretty modest place, no white tablecloths, surly waiters, a place you go to have rustic wines from France and some rustic things to eat. I really liked the place. Not like I wanted to do a Disneyland replication. But it was where I got the inspiration.
A lot of folks comment on the fact that you are in a mini mall next to a laundromat. Did that give you pause?
I looked for over two years. It’s not always easy to find a space to do what you want to do.
And the economy was nice and healthy then.
There weren’t many vacancies. Doing a start up and not having any experience, I thought it would be dumb to do a build-out from a raw retail space. I was starting to get discouraged. When you’re not spending a million on your place, you can’t be terribly picky. This space became open. It was a failing Thai restaurant. I took over the lease.
Did your wife or friends discourage you?
Mostly it was me that needed to be convinced. The parking is not great. I thought that would be a problem. In the end, my wife said, “You can keep looking for 25 years and it’s your little imaginary project.”
You have said your focus is on natural wines. What is a natural wine?
I have a very simple definition of natural wine: a wine that doesn’t have a lot of additives added to it when you grow the grapes and when you’re making it. People have this naïve idea that wine is just grapes and yeast. Most modern wines are made with any number of additives. They’re not really bad for you. It’s less about health concern and more about the taste of the wines.
Tell me about a new discovery.
I just bought about $15,000 worth of wine for summer time. There’s a red wine I have been enjoying made by Eric Texier, a 2007 Rasteau, a Southern Rhone wine. He is something of a poster boy for natural wine. He is a retired nuclear engineer who did a 180 and become a grower and maker of wines.
How much is a glass?
$10 [at the restaurant]. This is a wine you should be able to find in wine shops.
What does it go nicely with?
What doesn’t it go nicely with? I don’t think you could go wrong bringing that to a barbecue. It’s not a 2007 Rhone made in a big style. It is relatively low in alcohol which is a bonus for food, not super tannic, with a lovely refreshing acidity you don’t always find in red wines. Another wine I’ll pick is a Vouvray from a grower Breton, a 2009, that is friggin’ delicious.
Remind me: do you take reservations?
For six or more.
Why this policy?
I wanted to keep it a neighborhood place so people could stop in for a glass of wine. I don’t have a reservationist. It’s just me. I’m a one man shop. Open Table is a nice idea. But they don’t scale down for a space like mine. So that’s why, just practical reasons.
I know several wine people who are very passionate on the subject of stemware. But am I correct that it isn’t a big deal in your book?
Passionate meaning what?
In the extreme, they take their own glasses with them to restaurants.
I think as an adult you should try to hold the excesses of your geekery from people.
I brought this up in part because of one Yelp comment that maybe the glasses at Lou aren’t up to the wine.
I responded to that guy. People who think they need to use a specific type of glass for that type of wine are deluded. If you think you can’t enjoy a red wine in my 10.5 ounce glasses because I am not serving them in the proper Bordelaise glass, that’s pathetic. By focusing on the glass, you’re misguided. I think we have pretty nice stemware: thin rim Austrian magnesium crystal. I wish my red wine stemware were a little bigger. But it’s not like Libbey caterware.
Let’s say we’ve got someone who just doesn’t like wine all that much. Should they stay away?
Well if you can drink alcohol, we do have beer and delicious French hard cider I love turning people onto.
We’re not talking warm Christmas cider.
No. It’s about five percent alcohol, sparkling and dry. Basically it’s a sparkling apple wine. We call it cider because that’s what it is in France. If you are an alcoholic or cannot drink, we’re a wine bar. I don’t have a soda machine. I don’t even stock soda. We do have Abita root beer which is delicious and we have a real brewed ginger beer. People ask about non alcoholic beer. I tell them, “If you can bring me a delicious tasting one, I would love to have one.” But they suck.
You had assorted careers before this one. Is this your favorite?
So far. I’ve been doing it for five years. I made some mistakes along the way.
Like?
Not having a partner. I don’t think you can run a restaurant unless you’re working with your husband, wife or a partner.
Because?
The simple act of being away from your mate.
You could bring someone on now.
I couldn’t because of economics. I don’t pull enough profits. I have been fantasizing about expanding, trying to think through what the business model would be like. It’s important to listen to your heart: what’s my dream of what my place would be like. With this space I did a lot to be expedient.
So would you make Lou bigger or open another one or what?
If I did another wine bar and kept this one open, I’d like to do something different. It would be a different type of wine bar.
How many types are there?
There are any number of different types of wine bars. There’s one in Paris where they just pour Bordeaux. In Pasadena there’s one that just does Champagne. There are wine bars that just do Sherry.
So it’s about having a specialization?
A specialty or a fancy preservation system or a really cheap wine bar.
What compelled you to get into the restaurant business anyway?
What happens to you is wine begins to call to you. I noticed one day I was at work, when I was in my software job, all afternoon long I would be thinking about wine, reading furtively, looking at maps. I had been and still do a lot of reading about wines. I realized it was beginning to be a problem. If you start to become obsessed about something, you can try to battle it or try to make it a healthy thing. My decision was to assuage my wine demons by opening a place like this.
Tell me about Monday nights.
We do a fixed price, wine tasting supper that is three courses, sometimes four courses. You can get it with wine or without wine. It is $55 with wine pairings. It’s often thematic.
Is DJ Olsen still the chef?
Yes.
Do you think he ever feels like he doesn’t get the props because your name is on the restaurant?
Because I am shy, I don’t like using my own name. On my website I don’t have a listing of my name so he probably has more of a profile than I do.
Yet you used your name for the restaurant.
I like the sound of the name. I had different ideas for the name of the restaurant. Everyone I asked about it, they all shot every idea down. I had to name the place. It’s a friendly sounding name. It has good associations. I’m there to quash those good associations.
Was pig candy on your menu to start with? And did you know that it was going to be such a sensation?
The original menu I had planned was very wine bar like: very minimal food, salami, nuts and some other things. It didn’t work out well for me. So that was something I had had when I was teenager in the 70s at keggers in Minneapolis growing up. It’s a Midwestern thing I think. I didn’t invent it. I didn’t name it.
What do you do when you’re not thinking about or drinking wine?
Pretty boring stuff: fart around with my tomatoes in my backyard, growing a bunch of different chili peppers. Sometimes we go to the opera or hear some serious music at Disney Hall. Every Sunday I try to go to the [Hollywood] farmers market for me. Second, I do like to go some place. We were in France for a week last month.
Do you travel only to ‘wine places’?
I like places that have old sh*t, new sh*t and food and wine. There you got your France, your Italy. You got your Spain, probably less so Germany and Austria. I’ve been to Italy three times and France twenty times.
Does your wife like wine?
She does but she is not a geek, not a fellow traveler.
Tell me some of your favorite LA restaurants?
Beverly Soon Tofu. Soot Bull Jeep for Korean barbecue. (My wife is a vegetarian so I don’t get to go there that much.) I love Daikokuya, a ramen place downtown. You have to get the extra porky, double strength broth. For sushi I love Hiko on the Westside. There is a little instruction manual when you walk in. There’s no picture taking. It’s obvious why: when you’re there he is so focused, he doesn’t want anyone distracting him. He is beautiful to watch in action.
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