First came Bombo, chef Mark Peel’s Grand Central Market food stall that not only served piping bowls of broth-bound fish, but offered a seafood case for those looking to shop. While the pastas, heavier items like braised beef and the seafood counter washed away with the new tide of Prawn Coastal Kitchen, Peel’s streamlined rebrand, much of the original concept—and menu—remained: pressure-cooked curries and broths full of shrimp, salmon and shellfish; seafood sandwiches; salads; and house-made lemonades and teas.
Earlier this week, the co-founder of La Brea Bakery and former chef/owner of Campanile evolved his fast-casual concept once more, this time branching out to Pasadena for his first Prawn restaurant. As of Monday, the bright and nautical-themed 1,500-square-foot space in One Colorado is home to a number of Peel’s signature Prawn dishes, including the Thai lobster roll and seafood-starring grain bowls, as well as a raw bar and new items such as scallops in a spicy shrimp broth with toasted peanuts, roasted onions, squash, potatoes and rice; and the soba noodles with crab, shrimp, cabbage, mustard greens, scallions, peanuts, mushrooms, kombu and a small mountain of roe.
Photograph: Courtesy Prawn
Going fast-casual at first raised eyebrows, given Peel’s background in fine dining: the chef came up in the kitchens of Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, working in kitchens such as Chez Panisse, Spago and Ma Maison. But Peel’s goal is to bring high-quality ingredients and fine-dining technique to diners quickly and affordably—a pivot he sees as necessary in the competitive and more casual-leaning realm of L.A.’s evolving dining scene.
“Fine dining is almost like an artist’s workshop,” Peel told Time Out earlier this year. “You have really talented people, and you have lots of ingredients and you have really good equipment. You can do anything you want to, but nothing in quantity and nothing very fast. This is very focused; we can’t do everything, but we can do what we do fast and very well. So it’s a real shift.”
Eventually, Peel says he’d like to open as many as 10 Prawn locations, with a focus on finding that menu sweet spot of $15 or under. For now, you can visit his stall in GCM, or sample some of the seafood-centric dishes you can find at Peel’s new Prawn:
Photograph: Courtesy Prawn
Prawn is now open in Pasadena at 16 Miller Alley, open from 11am to 10pm, daily.