Wood & Vine's Charcuterie | Hollywood, Los Angeles

When chef Gavin Mills says he's not interested in processed foods, he really means it. At the newly opened Wood & Vine, Mills' menu is thoroughly house-made, down to the ketchup served with the fries.

Mills' dedication to the hand-hewn extends to the charcuterie menu, adding Wood & Vine to the growing list of restaurants with extensive meat-curing operations, like Salt's Cure or Waterloo & City.

Whole, pasture-raised Duroc pigs from Gleason Ranch in Northern California provide the meat to which Mills applies the ancient alchemy of salt, smoke and time. Nearly half of each animal goes to supplying his ever-rotating charcuterie menu (five items for $12).

The curing program is a young one, so don't expect to see Mills' prosciutto until early fall, but the other selections will more than tide us over: mustard- and fennel-spiced andouille sweetened by a turn in the smoker, snappy Spanish-style chorizo, or pork rillettes studded with briny olives (pictured).

Terrines are the porcine medium in which Mills most excels. One coarse-ground creation was richened with cubes of bacon and smooth bits of foie gras; another was shot through with sweet patches of dried figs soaked in Madeira.

Wood & Vine, 6280 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; 323-334-3360 or woodandvine.com