WHY A mellow alternative to Silver Lake’s over-caffeinated coffee scene. WHAT Housed in a faux-lighthouse building on none-too-gentrified Hoover Street, this place started selling organic fair-trade beans at local farmers’ markets before opening the café. With free WiFi, a large covered patio and baked goods from Echo Park’s Delilah Bakery, it’s a funky and calm [...]
WHY Well-prepared Honduran baleadas (fat quesadillas), marinated chicken and conch soup served by non-English speakers in a spotless and attractive storefront restaurant. WHAT Overmortgaged on your Van Nuys house? Then come to El Katracho for one of the $6 lunch specials, and you’ll be fed for the day-and then some. Honduran cooking is rich and [...]
WHY Such amazing specialties as the yam priaw dawng (pickled crab salad), soft-shell crab curry and crispy morning glory stems with shrimp and fried shallot slices. WHAT Over the last couple of years Jazz Singsanong and her chef brother, Suthipom, have turned one of Thai Town’s better restaurants into a destination dining spot, thanks to [...]
WHY You’ll be tempted to continue ordering tapas until you’re full, but save room for the churros with chocolate dipping sauce, one of the best desserts ever invented.; WHAT This Montrose hot spot (no, that’s not an oxymoron) has a huge menu of delicious, light small bites (bacon-wrapped dates, croquettes, mushrooms of many kinds, grilled [...]
Thanks to our pal and colleague John Rabe of KPCC for this update on what’s happening with the venerable Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown L.A.: I guess the first thing to say is that Clifton’s Brookside Cafeteria, the historic downtown woodland-themed restaurant, has not technically been “sold.” Instead, Andrew Meieran (below, with tray), who owns the downtown bar The [...]
WHY Terrific, reasonably priced wines by the glass, a dreamy cheese and charcuterie platter, and the famed pig candy (basically, thick bacon caramelized with brown sugar). WHAT The perfect neighborhood bistro, Lou is a dark and fetching spot hidden next to a laundromat in a crummy strip mall. Stop in for a quick glass of [...]
WHY The excellent ‘game night’ picnic boxes were designed for nearby Dodger Stadium, but they’re available in all seasons and also work great for the Bowl, office meetings or even a take-home supper. WHAT One of the leaders of the Echo Park boom (it’s not evil gentrification, it’s a renaissance!), this starkly stylish café offers [...]
WHY Without booking a trip to Roma, you can taste farmstead mozzarella di bufala from a collection of artisanal cheese makers working in the DOP (Denomination of Protected Origin). The cheese, sourced from the marshy area of Agro Pontina (where the bufala roam) and Paestum, south of Naples (famed for its cheesemakers), is flown to [...]
WHY Enthusiastic tours of some of L.A.’s best ethnic-food enclaves, including Thai Town, Little Tokyo and the Chinese neighborhoods of the San Gabriel Valley. WHAT Jeff Okita and Alex Tao love L.A. and love to eat, and they’ve channeled those passions into six tasting tours: Little Tokyo, Santa Monica, Hollywood’s Thai Town, Downtown L.A. and [...]
The music may be more significant than the lobsters at the annual Port of Los Angeles Lobster Festival, but that’s not to say that the lobsters are bad. It’s just that the music is pretty damn good. This weekend’s lineup includes Saint Motel, Dengue Fever, We Barbarians and former Xers John Doe and Exene Cervenka, [...]
