Bestia 2121 7th Pl. Los Angeles, CA 90021 Dining date: 3/28/13, 4/27/13, 6/7/13 Bestia opened in downtown LA late last year, and continues to be one of the most popular restaurants in the neighborhood. Ori Menashe is the chef here (formerly of Angelini Osteria) cooking up Italian food based around a house salumi program, a…
Maccheroni Republic 332 S Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90013 Dining date: 2/2/13 and 3/16/13 Maccheroni Republic opened at the end of last year, from the old owners of Locanda Veneta in mid-city. The location couldn’t be more different, from the Beverly Hills-adjacent Locanda Veneta to this spot across the street from Grand Central Market in…
Dining date: 7/1/12 Any casual reader of this blog may realize pasta is one of my favorite things to eat (all kinds of noodles, really). I’ve dabbled in preparing different pastas over the years with my most successful perhaps being the oxtail ragu with pappardelle. Following up on that effort, I’ve been meaning to make…
Dining date: 2/5/12 I recently purchased a KitchenAid stand mixer (due to a deal I could not refuse) and immediately had dreams of freshly baked breads, cookies and pastries. However, while researching optional attachments, I came across the pasta extruder, a play-doh like attachment that basically pushes dough into various shapes to be cut. I…
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…
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…