SPQR 1911 Fillmore St San Francisco, CA 94115 Dining date: 12/28/11 SPQR is a neighborhood restaurant in the Lower Pacific Heights area of San Francisco. A sister restaurant to also-notable A16, the cuisine is “Italian-inspired;” that is, Italian food based on seasonal, local produce. It’s sort of a merge of Italian and Californian cuisines. The…
Drago Ristorante 2628 Wilshire Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90403 Dining date: 11/30/11 Downtown’s Drago Centro serves some of my favorite Italian food in the city. I’ve been there a number of times, but never to sister restaurant Drago in Santa Monica (one of chef-owner Celestino Drago’s first restaurants). The upscale Italian menu is fairly similar…
Delfina 3621 18th St San Francisco, CA 94110 Dining date: 11/26/11 It’s hard to believe that Delfina has been open for 13 years. It’s as popular as ever, still being a very busy restaurant and oft-difficult dining reservation. Its popularity as a quintessential neighborhood Italian restaurant has helped Craig and Anne Stoll open up two…
Drago Centro 525 S Flower St Los Angeles, CA 90071 Dining date: 10/20/11 Given that I work in walking distance of Drago Centro, I visit semi-regularly. Most often it’s for happy hour, but occasionally I’ll drop in for lunch too. Drago Centro was one of the DineLA participants that extended their special for an extra week; given that…
Mercato di Vetro 9077 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood, CA 90210 Dining date: 10/27/11 Mercato di Vetro is sbe group’s (The Bazaar, Katsuya, Cleo) latest restaurant venture, an Italian concept in WeHo which opened earlier this month. The concept is an extensive menu of Italian small plates split into antipasti, salads, wood oven, meat, fish, raw, and pasta – all…
Scarpetta Montage Beverly Hills 225 North Canon Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90210 Dining date: 10/13/11 This was my first visit back for dinner since my truffle-laden opening night experience (though I did visit for brunch last month). This meal would be a lot different, for sure, as DineLA brought me back. The menu looked promising…
Gjelina 1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd Venice, CA 90291 Dining date: 7/20/11 I’ve wanted to visit Gjelina for some time now…though, not enough to drive all the way across town. Until now. Opened in 2008, Gjelina has been consistently popular during its lifetime. So popular, in fact, that when making a reservation two weeks in advance, only 6pm and…
Sotto 9575 West Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90035 Dining date: 5/25/11 My first trip to Sotto was rather disappointing and I wasn’t sure I was going to return anytime soon. Lo and behold, less than two months later, I’ve already been four times now. I credit Matt (mattatouille) for convincing me to return to…