AQ Restaurant & Bar Finally, a restaurant with a whiskey lounge

Boldly entering the dining wasteland that is Mid-Market, AQ's out to season-ify season-less California starting today via a (surprise!) seasonally changing menu and (double surprise!) seasonally changing interior, both of which spruce up a 100yr-old ballast-brick shell with equinox-specific trees sprouting up through the basement, and warehouse windows on the (triple surprise?)...walls!

The open kitchen'll be minded by a dude who once crossed swords knives with Daniel Boulud & Joel Robuchon, and'll serve dinner devour-ables like Monterey squid-topped charred avocado and suckling pig with honeycrisp apples, plus lunch deliciousness like warm chicory with a crispy pork jowl vinaigrette and a slow-cooked burger slathered in smoked tomato ketchup.

The booze program will be Jack-shepherded by a 'tender 15 Romolo just LOST, with wines from a bookable downstairs private cellar/dining room, local craft beers poured from an industrial pipe-like custom tap system, and aperitif cocktails like the Palaquin, a Lillet concoction with lemon juice, honey syrup, lavender bitters, and Brew Free or Die IPA from 21st Amendment, which definitely sounds repealing.

Most excellently though, they've also got a basement-level lounge where you can enjoy a whiskey cabinet that'll be stocked by November's end (and then, again, restocked every season) whilst reclining on black leather couches reminiscent of a psychiatrist's office, also where you learned (surprise!), that one dream about crossing swords with Daniel Boulud and Joel Robuchon is totally normal.