Review: littleSpoon’s breakfasts, lunches bring different vibe

When littleSpoon opened in July, with a cafe-luxe decor and intriguing breakfast/lunch menus that were a little off the beaten path without getting crazy, I wondered if it would add dinner. Charlotte and its speckled breakfast history made me a little nervous for a place that looked capable of doing interesting stuff at any time of day.

Dinners were planned, said owner Alesha Sin Vanata, but as occasional, “specialized” events.

Vanata, who described herself then as a “culinary autodidact” rather than saying her food skills are self-taught, has a fondness for the unusual word choice. This is evident throughout the place, from song lyrics on menus (Rapper Nas currently sits atop the online menu with “Mmm ... Fried chicken, fly vixen / Give me heart disease but need you in my kitchen”) to the menu structure itself. That’s divvied into “Snack,” “Spork” and “Hand” (meaning you snack on the first group, use a fork or spoon with the second and pick up the third.)

It doesn’t always work (wait: so what do you use on the Snacks?), but it’s always worth perusing. Which, appropriately, goes for the food, too, from chef Miles Payne.

The livermush sandwich is life-changing – if your life has heretofore shied from that local delicacy. It’s got everything: crunch and give, sharp and sweet, court and spark. A slice of the stuff, perfectly cooked, rests with a creamy egg salad and brightly dresses arugula on a length of chewy ciabatta. Perfect.

The porchetta sandwich, if you’re particular about your regional Italian fare, would be closer to the Florentine lampredotto (chopped tripe on a roll with parsley sauce that has a kick) than porchetta (slabs of juicy roasted pork, with plenty of fat). This is thinly-cut-up pork belly, which results in tendrils of chewy resistance along with the occasional sweet bite, and puts it on brioche with aioli and chimichurri.

Its sum is greater than its parts, but it misses the lush, porky essence, and though servers tell you it’s “a little fattier” than you might expect, I think most people would still be surprised.

“Shrimp toast” is equally surprising, but not in a bad way: The menu doesn’t tell you they’re cooked with beer, nor that the texture is nearly chunky shrimp salad, with a sriracha-tinged mayo. It’s nice, just not clearly described.

The chicken banh mi is delicious and wrong: Plenty of shredded chicken and a smear of pate don’t have enough pickled carrot and cilantro and hot pepper to hit the balance of the Vietnamese icon. The bread’s wrong, too. It’s good, just not banh mi. (I remember saying early that littleSpoon had a banh mi but wasn’t calling it that. Mea culpa.)

Don’t miss marvelous battered and fried ribbons of carrot and parsnip, dubbed root vegetable pappardelle, or #BTF, potatoes (sometimes purple!) that have been baked, torn into rough hunks and fried to crunchy edges and soft interiors.

You’ll need sides with these sandwiches, and the snacks tend to the small, so if you’re hungry and there are two of you, you’re going to be in the $40-$50 neighborhood for lunch. Breakfast, with “porridge” (steel-cut oats with quinoa and coconut milk), cinnamon toast brulee (thick slices of brioche blanketed with sugar) and “slab bacon” (Heritage Farms pork belly, house-cured, cooked to perfect char and meltiness), will be a bit less, depending on how many handle-less cups of latte or drip coffee you decide on.

Servers stay warm, despite frequent slowdowns, while the place, with heavy white crockery, good flatware wrapped in towel-like linens and wood tables with metal chairs, oozes a gold-colored light, from its bare-bulb fixtures to its hewn cabinetry.

It’s its own thing, all right, as the owner says on the website: “We aren’t necessarily reinventing the wheel here, but we are bringing a different vibe.” It’s a West Coast/L.A. thing, she says, and I buy that, though more because of the Asian food references and a laid-back-yet-self-conscious feel than from the Eminem/Dr. Dre/50 Cent “Crack a Bottle” lyrics on the drinks menu.

And about dinners? Look for those specialized ones, with details going up on the website, Vanata says, such as a January fish fry with guest Brit chef Jamie Spafford (“Sorted Food” on YouTube), and a Valentine’s Day tasting menu with Charlotte-based Toska truffles. Expect Test Kitchen Thursdays sometime in the new year, says Vanata, in which Payne and team will intro new small plates and cocktails on the first and last Thursdays of the month.

This story was originally published December 18, 2014 at 3:56 PM.