THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Towne

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Towne Restaurant Review:

Towne is the only restaurant in Manhattan Beach where you really do need a reservation on a weeknight during winter. The restaurant draws both a dinner crowd out for a fine modern American meal in comfortable surroundings and a late crowd that packs the bar five deep. The restaurant is named after co-owner Kevin Barry’s grandmother, Sue Towne, a Broadway ingénue of the 1920s, and is decorated with tasteful antiques in an otherwise modern setting. It’s homey but hip, which also describes the menu of chef Laurent Saussy, previously of Joe’s in Venice. Specialties include pumpkin tortelloni, bone-in filet with veal reduction and leg of lamb. Saussy even makes the desserts, highlighted by the Key lime bar and chocolate bread pudding. Nothing here is startling but it is all very good, and that’s what keeps the crowds coming back.