First & Hope 710 West 1st St. Los Angeles, CA 90012 I’m always looking for new and exciting lunch spots downtown. When dineLA came around again, First & Hope struck me as a potential place. I’ve been for dinner, but until now had not realized they were also open for lunch. First & Hope opened…
Mastro’s Steakhouse 246 N Canon Dr Beverly Hills, CA 90210 If I were to make a list of places that I’m most often confronted with “you haven’t been there?!” this would be at the top of the list. I always hear about Mastro’s in the ‘best steak in LA’ debate along with CUT, which is…
Wolvesmouth Underground Dining Wolvesden – Various Locations In my opinion, one of the most exciting dining trends in 2010 was the pop-up restaurant (think LudoBites and Test Kitchen). In a similar vein but yet, entirely different, is “underground dining” – the most notable of these in LA is Wolvesmouth. Wolvesmouth (aka Craig Thornton) is the…
Fraiche Culver City 9411 Culver Blvd Culver City, CA 90232 Chef Benjamin Bailly is a bit of a blogger darling. During his short stint at Petrossian in West Hollywood, I read blog after blog post raving about his food. I’m not really a huge fan of caviar, and I don’t go out of my way…
Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge Orange County Performing Arts Center 615 Town Center Dr Costa Mesa, CA 92626 I tend to think of Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge as a sort of “Patina of Orange County.” The Patina Restaurant Group runs the gamut between fast casual and fine dining, and both Leatherby’s and Patina represent the latter. Plus, they…
Mo-Chica 3655 S Grand Ave Los Angeles, CA 90007 Executive Chef Ricardo Zarate has been one of LA’s rising star chefs in 2010, most notably for frequently being in the kitchen at the recently-closed Test Kitchen. Zarate has developed quite a following and now has a couple of restaurants in the works; however, Mo-Chica’s humble…
Test Kitchen: Closing Night 9575 West Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90035 Over the past four months, there’s no restaurant I’ve been to more than Test Kitchen (well, outside my weekday lunch rotation). Since its debut in August with Red Medicine, the restaurant has been a wild success featuring a diverse array of continuously changing…
LudoBites 6.0 at Max 13355 Ventura Blvd Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 This past Sunday was the final night of LudoBites 6.0. I was happy to have a chance for a return visit, coming full circle from my first meal opening night. It was clear that this was a night to remember, as a professional photographer…