Do Virtual Volcanos and Laser Beams Make Beef Tenderloin Taste Better?

Dish from Elementa, a new experiential dining show at the Gallery in Downtown LA. | The Gallery At the Gallery, a new Downtown LA tasting menu, projections amplify the dining experience On February 28, the Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles went live with its “Elementa” dining experience, a menu set to an interactive, multi-sensory show designed by Mousetrappe Media. The Gallery is a venture between Darin Ulmer and Chuck Fawcett, a team of theme park industry veterans, and Joshua Whigham, a protegé of José Andres who took over the chef de cuisine role at the Bazaar in 2009.

LA has a long, storied history of theme restaurants such as the Prohibition-era Jail Cafe, and Burbank’s Bob’s Big Boy, a souvenir from the carhop era that still stands. Families can still head down to Buena Park for roast chicken and live jousting matches at Medieval Times. Planet Hollywood, the ode to the ’90s movie star, was another chain that Ulmer cited as an inspiration for his dinner show at the Gallery.



While no one expects a great meal at the majority of theme restaurants, Elementa serves a legitimately high-end tasting menu with circus-like theater and striking visual effects projected on the walls, windows, and tables. This unique restaurant strives to bring levity and fill a space that’s missing between the dinner show and theme park entertainment. It’s also reasonably accessible, especially compared to two-Michelin-star Alchemist in Copenhagen, a theatrical $800 meal that’s divided into three acts across multiple spaces, which offers, at least fundamentally, something similar to Elementa.

On the second evening of service, guests were welcomed with a cocktail upon entry and then escorted to community tables with their name cards projected onto its coated surfaces. A sculpture set at the table as a centerpiece, with five anxious diners surrounding it, not quite knowing what to expect. This is the scene at 7:09 p.

m. as a spotlight is shown down, and all eyes are turned on the mysterious Curator. The Gallery Outside the Gallery in Downtown LA.

The details: Elementa is a ticketed five-course dining experience that costs $200. There’s one show nightly that begins promptly at 7 p.m.

; latecomers must wait to enter the theater until each brief performance has ended but must arrive no more than 15 minutes late. The venue suggests arriving 30 minutes before the show for a cocktail in the Horizon Lounge. Guests can choose optional wine, cocktail, and non-alcoholic pairings for an additional cost.

The menu, show, and soundtrack are orchestrated to take diners on a multi-sensorial journey through the five elements over the course of two hours: earth, air, water, fire, and the aether.The logistics: Located in South Park, a commercial district in Downtown, the Gallery sits on the busy intersection of Olive and Olympic. Street parking is typically available at the suggested arrival time of 6:30 p.

m., and there are plenty of lots in the area. Additionally, the Seventh/Metro Center station is six blocks away, accessible from the A, B, and E line trains.

The vibe: Inside the dining room, a canopy of burgundy, navy blue, and black ceiling panels serves as camouflage for the lighting truss fitted with projectors. The Curator dons a black sequined blazer and begins the show as whimsical Disney-style music reverberates throughout the theater. On the tables, the sculpted art pieces glow with rings of purple, blue, gold, and green using projections.

Each course features a different set of interactive scenes cast onto the walls and tables, with a brief show given by the Curator. During one course, the table appears submerged underwater as fish swim across the table. Opening your hand draws in a school of multicolored fish, while closing it into a fist sends them away.

A diner traps a fish between opposite index fingers, causing the fish to vibrate and warble, all the while ripples of water pulse from around the communal table. A scene turns dining tables into planetariums studded with stars floating in a midnight blue sky broken up by thin laser beams that shoot out from one’s hand.Another course sets each long table ablaze with molten red and yellow lava as diners sip glasses of wine from inside a virtual volcano.

Later on, a scene turns dining tables into planetariums studded with stars floating in a midnight blue sky broken up by thin laser beams that shoot out from one’s hand. The activities bring everyone together at each table for the common goal of unlocking all the secrets to manipulate the projected images.The menu: Chef Joshua Whigham brings his considerable experience cooking modern Spanish cuisine into an entertaining dinner.

“It’s meant to integrate with the show and theme, as much as I can given the kitchen's limitations,” says Whigham. As much as the chef would prefer to cook over a live fire, his menu captures the five classical elements using avant-garde techniques.The amuse bouche is a blueberry and yuzu koshō sphere served on a spoon (a nod to Andrés’ famous liquid olive sphere).

The first course, earth, is a plate of glistening roasted red, yellow, and white beets, with strawberries covered in a crown of spiralized sweet potatoes, all atop a bed of gritty cocoa dirt. The dish walks a fine line between sweet and savory ingredients at its extremes. The water course is a slice of smoked hamachi over kabocha squash puree topped with salmon roe.

Taking North Africa as inspiration, the next dish, air, consists of a grilled eggplant boat loaded with duck and pickled eggplant coated in chermoula and chopped pistachios. The Gallery The “air” course with grilled eggplant, duck, chermoula, and chopped pistachis. The Gallery Tenderloin with mushroom soubise.

For the fire course, a peppercorn-crusted tenderloin is set over silky mushroom soubise that gets some tang from escabeche. Whigham laments the absence of a wood grill to better articulate the theme on this plate, regardless, the steak delivers spice in a vinegary but pleasant broth. Finally, the aether, the dessert course, is inspired by boba.

A purple ube pudding at the center represents the vastness of space encircled by celestial bodies in a coconut and tapioca pudding. When Elementa completes its run, Whigham will serve a different thematic menu at the Gallery.The drinks: I arrived early and had an old-fashioned at Horizon, a cocktail lounge with its own drink and food menu.

Horizon features Los Angeles-themed drinks, such as Angel’s Flight, a watermelon vodka cocktail, and Devil’s Gate, a spiced drink made with Johnnie Walker. The wine list leans safe, with affordable Napa wines that include Groth Cabernet Sauvignon and Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. The supermarket-level wine list could be more adventurous, but it does the trick.

The verdict: The owners anticipate knee-jerk reactions to this novel dining experience for guests who would describe it as gimmicky, accepting that this type of meal is not for everyone. When people go to theme restaurants, expectations are usually low, as are often the ambitions of the restaurant. For Elementa, the Gallery has brought in a veteran chef to write a menu that matches the spectacle of the show.

While much of the modernist technique employed by Whigham has all but disappeared from LA menus, save for the occasional foam at Mélisse or Providence, it does befit the setting. Whether or not there’s value will depend on each person, but to my surprise, I found myself pretty engaged with the immersive visuals, which made Whigham’s menu even more memorable.The Gallery operates Fridays and Saturdays at 330 W.

Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90015, with shows beginning at 7 p.m. Get tickets here.

The Gallery The “aether” dessert with ube pudding. The Gallery Smoked hamachi over square puree with salmon roe..