Latest news with #JennHarris
Los Angeles Times
01-06-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Iconic Thrifty ice cream counters fade into memory with Rite Aid store closures
Like many who grew up in Southern California, Thrifty ice cream was a staple throughout my youth. Sure, McDonald's offered $1 smooth and airy soft serve cones (the machines seemed to work back then!) and Baskin-Robbins was lauded for its 31 flavors. However, Thrifty was the perfect middleman for my working-class family, offering nearly the latter's variety at close to the former's pricing. It's the place I fell in love with Rocky Road, never imagining you could fit so many distinct flavors and textures — chocolate, nuts and marshmallows — into a single sugar cone scoop. The days of enjoying a few scoops at Thrifty's counters, purchased by Rite Aid in 1996, throughout SoCal appear to be ending. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced a slew of store closures, including more than 20 locations in California. Those not closed will probably be sold off by Rite Aid. My colleague, food columnist Jenn Harris, strolled into the El Segundo Rite Aid to investigate what's next for the iconic cold treat. Brothers Harry and Robert Borun and their brother-in-law Norman Levin opened the first Thrifty drugstore in downtown Los Angeles in 1929. At first, they sold ice cream from various suppliers. However, as demand for the product grew, the brothers started producing the ice cream themselves. They opened the first Thrifty ice cream production plant in Hollywood in 1940. The plant relocated to a 55,000-square-foot facility in El Monte in 1976. Thrifty ice cream, like all of Rite Aid's assets, will probably be sold. It nearly happened in 2018, when Albertsons Cos. was set to acquire Rite Aid, and with it, Thrifty ice cream and the El Monte plant. But the deal never happened. Rite Aid did not provide any additional info when Harris reached out to them. There's also the possibility of finding the ice cream at a local restaurant. Ball Park Pizza in San Clemente has been serving Thrifty ice cream since it opened in 2014. And now that Thrifty sells its signature cylindrical ice cream scooper (around $30), you could buy a pint at one of the dozens of retailers who carry the ice cream in the freezer aisle, and scoop your own ice cream at home. Harris staged a taste test. After visiting two Rite Aid locations, she found a store that carried the Chocolate Malted Krunch flavor in both the scoop shop and the freezer section. She purchased a scoop at the counter, then bought a box of Joy cake cones near the register and a 48-ounce carton of the same ice cream and headed to the parking lot. She then used her Thrifty cylindrical scoop to craft her perfect scoop of ice cream and made her own cone. Both were eaten in quick succession. I'll let Harris explain the rest: 'The pre-packaged stuff was airier, like ice cream foam that melted slower on the tongue. The malt balls felt sluggish, their crunch muted by the time spent in the freezer. The flecks of dark chocolate less abundant. 'The cone from the scoop counter tasted both richer and creamier with a thicker consistency. There were crunchier malt balls in each bite. Even outside in the parking lot, beyond the comforts of the As Seen on TV aisle, it was noticeably better.' While Thrifty may continue to produce ice cream in tubs, the counter scoop — apparently the better option — is down to its last licks at Rite Aids. It be worth one last visit soon. For Harris' full breakdown, check out her article. California policies and proposals Fires and recovery Crime, courts and policing Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage. Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew J. Campa, reporterKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
Los Angeles Times
15-05-2025
- Los Angeles Times
19 must-try diners and restaurants for your next California road trip
A restorative meal can be a powerful motivator when the miles of a road trip stretch into a long, semideserted landscape. Just 45 more minutes until I can sip that cold, creamy date shake. Another two hours and I'll be wiping barbecue sauce from my fingers. In California, popular roadside restaurants often act as markers along our highways. The yellow Hadley Fruit Orchards sign off Interstate 10 is a call to pause for date shakes, a sandwich and a few bags of trail mix for the rest of the ride. The gargantuan EddieWorld ice cream sundae visible from Interstate 15 beckons with the promise of candy, burgers, pizza and beef jerky. The smell of Santa Maria barbecue wafting from a stand off the 101 highway means a quick stop for tri-tip is in your future. It's a state crowded with nationally recognized restaurants in the largest and tiniest of towns, boasting cuisines from all over the world. A Michelin-starred French cafe in Los Alamos. A Punjabi dhaba serving curries and potato-filled samosas in Bakersfield. A plate of pupusas and curtido at a pupuseria in Buttonwillow. The following is a collection of our favorite roadside meals and restaurants worthy of becoming your next destination, listed from north to south. — Jenn Harris No matching places! Try changing or resetting your filters Showing Places Marin County Seafood $ By Betty Hallock The oysters from Tomales Bay Oyster Co. in Marin County are highly coveted by shellfish lovers across California (and beyond). The oysters are hard to come by outside of the Bay Area, but if you're anywhere in the vicinity of the Marshall Store, owned by the same family — located a few miles north of their oyster farm on Highway 1 — it is a must-stop destination. The Marshall Store is the quintessential California oyster shack, set along the water on the edge of a long, narrow Pacific Ocean inlet with stunning views of the bay. Outdoor tables line the shore, and the menu features raw, grilled and smoked oysters such as the Preston Point, Tomasini Point and Golden Nugget that Tomales Bay is known for. The drive along the 1 is gorgeous and as you wind your way toward the Marshall Store, anticipation mounts. You're rewarded with oysters Rockefeller galore. Route Details Mexican Salvadoran $ If you watch 'Severance,' you know that the hours-long, mind-numbing stretches between major cities along I-5 could make you wish you were a severed employee of Lumon Industries. Such drives are an ideal job for your innie. Tita's Pupuseria Lonchera in Buttonwillow — right off exit 257 traveling north on I-5, about 120 miles from downtown Los Angeles — is a stop that will make you feel whole again. The blue-sky truck, founded in 1999 by Gonzalo and Bertha 'Tita' Sandoval and still run by their family, sets up in a lot with plenty of parking spaces. Tacos, burritos and quesadillas round out the menu, but home in on the namesake pupusas. Generous in size and tattooed with handsome griddled splotches, they ooze molten cheese with options for classic fillings: pinto beans, shredded pork, jalapeño, calabaza. The special plate comprises two pupusas, the essential curtido relish for tang and crunch, plus rice and beans. It's easily enough to fuel another half-day's drive. Route 20645 Tracy Ave., Buttonwillow, California 93206 Route Details Buttonwillow American Barbecue $$ This barbecue restaurant is where I stop any time I'm driving to or from wine country. It's right off of the 5 freeway, just south of California State Route 46, making it the perfect place to pause before or after you get on that long, dusty road that leads into Paso Robles. The dining room looks like a decades-old diner, with a wooden counter and stools that swivel. A cow wearing a vest and a bow tie holds a chalkboard sign advertising the day's specials. A pig in a chef's apron and toque holds a tray of bottles of the restaurant's signature barbecue sauce behind the counter. I'm usually the only one in the dining room not on a first-name basis with the staff. The barbecue platters are what the restaurant is known for, with plates covered in mountains of smoked brisket, chicken and ribs. The brisket is well marbled, with a bark that's wonderfully heavy on the black pepper. The barbecue sauce is more vinegar tang than sweet, with bits of onion and garlic you can see and taste. I never leave without buying at least a bottle or two to take home. Route Details Bakersfield Indian $ Fans of Balvinder Singh Saini and Mansi Tiwari's homage to dhabas, India's utilitarian roadside restaurants for truckers and other travelers, have followed the couple to several locations around Bakersfield over the last decade. After running the business from a food truck since 2016, the couple settled into a more permanent space in a medical complex in January. As ever, a whiteboard announces the daily lineup of snacks and dairy-rich curries in handwritten script. Among the familiar comforts of potato-filled samosas and creamy, gently spiced butter chicken, look for sarson ka saag, a deliciously mulchy Punjabi dish made with slowly simmered mustard greens. Breads are vital: Aloo paratha, layered with cumin-scented spuds, sells out early, but plain buttered roti is nearly as wonderful. Punjabi Dhaba's newest digs may be further from I-5 than previous outposts, but the goodness of the cooking merits a few extra minutes of driving time. Route Details San Luis Obispo Steakhouse $$ You are in the land of Santa Maria barbecue when you take the Tefft Street exit at Nipomo off Highway 101. Santa Maria itself is just 12 minutes south, and you might spot a roadside barbecue set up by talented amateurs raising money for their church or school. But if you are heading to Jocko's Steakhouse, which is maybe a four-minute drive from the highway, you will not be eating the region's famed tri-tip. Instead, you will want a Spencer steak, our Western way of saying boneless ribeye, which emerges from the immense iron grill beautifully charred on the outside and medium rare on the inside, with just the right amount of smokiness from local red oak coals fueling the flames. (Ask for your steak to be on the rare side of medium rare.) Beyond the native red oak, more Santa Maria regionality comes through in the bowl of smoky pinquito beans served on the side and the mild tomato salsa, which is intended for your steak. ('It's not for dipping,' says the menu, 'or we would serve tortilla chips!') You feel the spirit of California's rowdy ranching culture at Jocko's, which traces its history back to a saloon opened in 1925 called Jocko's Cage; it became a barbecue force in the mid-1950s after the bar started serving food on weekends. This is a place where your iceberg lettuce salad comes with a sliced red beet and is perfect with blue cheese dressing. You will eat more garlic bread than you intend. And for dessert there is rainbow sherbet, vanilla ice cream or cheesecake. If you're with a group, linguiça sausage, sliced and served with frilled toothpicks, is good for sharing, as are the artichokes and asparagus grilled over oak. If you are traveling with a designated driver, you may want to spend your time waiting for a table in the bar, where the cocktails are strong and the jalapeño poppers (armadillo eggs here) have the right ratio of ooze to crunch. Route Details Los Alamos Pizza $ When we talk about a California regional style of pizza, Los Angeles gave us two upscale templates: Wolfgang Puck's smoked-salmon-covered game-changer (caviar optional) at Spago, and Nancy Silverton's stunner overlaid with zucchini blossoms and a whopping dollop of burrata. But the conversation also should mention Clark Staub, a music executive turned baker who began Full of Life Flatbread in 2003. His crunchy-edged pies truly convey an essence of bread: They smell and taste of sourdough hot from the oven, followed by the scent of fresh herbs sprinkled among the crowning ingredients. These are a thinking person's pizzas. Some recent standouts include Coachella Valley dates, bacon and blue cheese; roasted red peppers, olives and feta; and Shaman's Bread, an ode to pizza maestro Chris Bianco's signature Rosa with charred red onion, pistachios and rosemary. The menu changes constantly, and weekends bring an expanded selection of starters and entree specials highlighting local meats or just-caught fish. The interior dining room brings the saloon vibes, though on a sunny day the best seat in the house is a table on the covered porch. Decide a designated driver ahead of time, because the wine list is an education in compelling California wines. Route Details Los Alamos French $$$ Daisy Ryan grew up in the Santa Ynez Valley and left for school at the Culinary Institute of America, followed by jobs around the country that included a front-of-house stint at Thomas Keller's Per Se in Manhattan. But she wanted to focus on cooking, and on her own terms, so she returned to California with her husband, Greg Ryan, to open Bell's in Los Alamos in 2018. It has become the clearest destination-dining draw in Santa Barbara County. Dinner is a more formal prix-fixe affair, but a road-trip lunch is the power move. Anticipate an indulgent midday meal with French inflections: an everything-style bagel spread with cured trout, capers and dill; escargot drenched in parsley butter; a crêpe du jour, perhaps with ham, cheese and Dijonaise; a daily salad composed of the season's vegetables and fruits glossed in buttermilk vinaigrette. Sandwiches include fried oysters on brioche and the most elegant egg salad on toast you've ever seen, or tasted. The aesthetics — faded checkered floors, pressed-tin ceiling, copper pots hanging in the open kitchen — are photo-spread immaculate. Is it tough to return to the highway afterward? Two of the state's most cleverly reimagined motels, Alamo Motel and Skyview Los Alamos, are within walking distance. Go ahead and stay a while. Route Details Buellton Eclectic $$ Rarely has waiting in line for lunch felt more necessary than at Industrial Eats. Ever-rotating menu options, handwritten on butcher paper, line the wall behind the counter where a staffer takes your order. They list a dozen pizza options, salads and hot dishes that can range from beef-ricotta meatballs and stuffed shells to miso cod in dashi with spinach and avocado and a riff on char siu pork over sesame noodles. Got all that? Then you near the counter and see more possibilities printed on sheets taped to a deli case or fastened to clipboards: burgers, cheese plates, seasonal specials like seared peaches over toast with burrata and prosciutto. Remarkably, most everything delivers. I've been happiest with pizzas and the most imaginative-sounding creations. The above-mentioned peaches embodied summertime, their freshness magnified alongside a plate of chicken livers sparked with pickled shallots, chiles, guanciale and a jammy-yolked soft egg. Founding chef-owner Jeff Olsson died of cancer in 2023, but his wife, Janet Olsson, and her team maintain their shared vision of joyful, skillfully rendered abundance; Industrial Eats is one of the most popular restaurants in the Santa Ynez Valley for good and lasting reason. Route Details Santa Barbara County Barbecue $$ By Stephanie Breijo This is Americana on a plate. Cold Spring Tavern, well worth a detour no matter how pressing your schedule, started humbly as a stagecoach stop in 1868. Nestled in the shade of tall trees on a bend in the road, this multigenerational family business is now one of the Central Coast's most scenic places to find Santa Maria-style steak: the gloriously seasoned tri-tip grilling out in the open on weekends, its scent carried by the breeze. Whether for a steak sandwich or simply a hot toddy near a roaring fire, locals and passers-through gather at this historic restaurant, which rests about half an hour from downtown Santa Barbara and a quick turn off of Route 154. There's the restaurant, which features multiple cozy wooden dining rooms decorated with antiques and string lights; an adjacent log-cabin bar, which includes a large fireplace and multiple animal busts; and the surrounding structures, some of which date back more than 150 years, including an old jail. On weekends it feels like a party, with live music and a Santa Maria-style grill set up outdoors for quicker walk-up sandwich orders. But dining in reveals a full menu of chili, baby back ribs, wild game, smoked-duck BLTs and plenty of fresh pies for dessert — a full dining experience not to be missed. Route Details Santa Barbara Mexican $ La Super-Rica is a California original, a culinary mecca in a taco shack setting devoted to chile, cheese, charred meat and masa. It's true that there are other Santa Barbara taquerias with more inventive salsas (pistachio at Mony's) or adventurous cuts of meat (beef head, cheek or lip tacos at Lilly's, with eye and tripas on weekends). And, yes, you will be standing in the fast-moving line with other out-of-towners who may have read about the long-ago accolades from Julia Child or spotted a replica of the white-and-aqua stand in Katy Perry's 'This Is How We Do' video. Yet as an Angeleno with hometown access to some of the world's best tacos from nearly every Mexican region, I rarely pass the Milpas Street exit off the 101 without joining the crowd. My late husband and this paper's former restaurant critic, Jonathan Gold, was a Super-Rica partisan, and both of my now-grown children remain loyal to the restaurant founded in 1980 by Isidoro Gonzalez. But it's not nostalgia that brings me back. I'm here for the tacos de rajas, strips of pasilla chiles, onions and cheese melded onto tortillas constantly being patted and pressed from the snow drift of masa behind Gonzalez as he takes your order; for the crisp-edged marinated pork adobado, either in a taco or in the Super-Rica Especial with pasillas and cheese; for the chorizo, sliced and crumbled into a bowl of queso; or for the tri-tip alambre with sauteed bell peppers, onion and bacon. It's never easy to decide, especially with Gonzalez's board of specials. But I never leave without Super-Rica's soupy, smoky pinto beans with charred bits of chorizo, bacon and chile. Route Details Santa Barbara Italian $$ By Bill Addison For food-obsessed Angelenos, road trips have been built entirely around lunch at Bettina, a pizza-plus-small-plates restaurant located just off a Highway 101 exit in the wealthy Santa Barbara enclave of Montecito. Brendan Smith baked bread at famed Roberta's in Brooklyn (during his stint there he met Rachel Greenspan, his wife and business partner); the crusts of his blistered, puffed-edged pizzas bring the same delight as a hunk of sourdough that's just cooled enough to eat. The season's ingredients inspire the kitchen team's most compelling pies. Springtime brings creations like asparagus, pancetta and truffled cheese, or garlicky English pea pesto dotted among mozzarella and fromage blanc with snap peas and sweet torpedo onions. These sound too fancy and you want a meat lover's instead? It's excellent too. Clever antipasti (cacio e pepe arancini, fluffy meatballs in vodka sauce), upbeat service and an approachable wine list, heavy on Italian and California options, round out the appeal. In warm weather the charms of the industrial-chic dining room spill outside to the surprisingly lovely patio in a mini-mall courtyard. Route Details Ventura Seafood $$ By Stephanie Breijo After a day on the road, few things feel more tranquil than fresh oysters eaten right on the beach. Along the coastal edge of Ventura, owner Mark Reynolds and his team shuck Kumamoto and Laguna Bay oysters, plus clams, uni and other shellfish, some of which come sourced from Reynolds' own sustainable oyster farm in Baja California. Slurp the Jolly Oyster's raw oysters — or have them grilled and covered in a rainbow of flavored butters such as habanero or Creole — or opt for uni tostadas, tacos or ceviches at picnic tables right at San Buenaventura State Beach. To make the most of your meal, enjoy a walk on the sand dunes while you await your order or after you've finished. This weekend-only seafood shack also offers everything you need to keep the shellfish party going: bags of clams and unshucked oysters, essentials such as shucking knives and charcoal, and free shucking lessons. Note: Beach parking costs $10, but State Park staff can provide 30-minute free parking passes, and nearby street parking can be found for free. Route Details San Bernardino County Shop Abandon all willpower, ye who enter here. California's largest gas station lies nearly halfway between L.A. and Las Vegas, and it's a wonderland of candy, jerky and any other road-trip snack you can dream up. Rows of chocolate-covered pistachios, gummy Lego bricks, sour straws, spiced nuts, flavored popcorns, oversized lollipops and every manner of licorice make this oddity in Yermo a munchies mecca. There are also food stands in the menagerie, and the best is Jedidiah's Jerky, which vends traditional pork and beef varieties as well as duck, elk, wild boar, venison, goose, alligator, tuna and more. EddieWorld is perhaps the finest snack shop I've ever come across. It's dizzying, it's open 18 hours a day, and I'd wager it's got almost any snack you could ever want. Look for the giant ice cream cone atop a building — you can't miss it. (Yes, there's ice cream too.) Route Details Malibu Seafood $$ Just as you crest over one of the many hilly, picturesque curves of PCH, it comes into view: The beachy, roadside blue-gray seafood shack and a sign emblazoned with its mascot, a smiling lobster, cocktail in claw. Malibu Seafood — now more than a half-century old — serves some of the best fried and grilled seafood in Los Angeles. What began as a fisherman-owned seafood market gradually grew into one of Malibu and all of Highway 1's can't-miss stops for fried oysters and fish and chips, whether you're stopping en route to the beach or breaking up a long trek up or down the coast. Ceviches, chowders, fish sandwiches and more come served with a view of the ocean, enjoyed via picnic tables spread across tiered patios. I'm fortunate enough to have grown up eating here, and the quality hasn't wavered since my childhood; I almost always pull off for some fried oysters when I'm passing through Malibu. Located just off one of the world's most famous highways, this can be a quick and scenic stop (though weekend crowds, especially during the summer, can cause lengthy waits). If you're near your destination, grab some fresh cuts of fish, poke or seafood salads from the market side to bring a taste home. Route Details Redlands Jamaican $ The Jerk Grill is located about six minutes' drive south of the 10 freeway in Redlands. Chef and owner Lerone Mullin prepares a full menu of Jamaican favorites inspired by the food he helped his mother cook on their farm in St. Mary Parish. His jerk chicken is marinated in 15 spices, smoked and then grilled. It's based on a family recipe for the jerk chicken his cousin used to make and sell around St. Mary. The Jamaican patties feature a flaky, buttery crust around a warmly spiced beef filling. Mullin's oxtail burger is a creation worth traveling for, with a glorious mess of ground beef, gravy, oxtails, cheese and grilled onions spilling from a bun. His oxtails are fortified with a rich brown stew, potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, onion and garlic. The onions are grilled until sweet, crisp and plentiful. The pockets of potato in the meat are almost creamy. Unsurprisingly, it's on the heavier side, so you may want to ask a friend to drive for a bit while you nap. Route Details Banning American $ I love seeing the bright yellow Hadley Fruit Orchards sign off of Insterstate 10. It's a frequent stop on the drive to my grandmother's house in Palm Desert to stock up on dried fruit, snack mixes and salted nuts. And it's the place to stretch your legs if you're headed west for the coast. During each visit, I spy license plates from all over the country, and tour buses filled with tourists from Asia and Europe. Paul and Peggy Hadley founded the company in 1931. In 1999, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians took over the company. It has since moved to a new location and doubled in size, with the addition of a cafe and large seating area. It's the store's date shakes that continue to make this a must-visit detour off the freeway. The date shake is a drink you can find all over the Coachella Valley, made using fruit harvested from the area's many date palms. Maybe it's the nostalgia of the store itself, or the comfort of knowing I'm almost to my destination, but I believe the Hadley date shake may be the best of them all. It's made using Deglet Noor dates, an oblong-shaped fruit with a deep golden hue and a flavor like honey. The dates are blended with milk to form a paste, then mixed with ice cream to create a rich, thick shake. I prefer the pure flavor of the dates to shine, but the shop will make your shake with banana, chocolate, honey-roasted peanut butter, coffee, strawberry or malt. And yes, you can even order a vegan date shake. Route Details San Juan Capistrano Barbecue $$ By Stephanie Breijo Veer just off the 5 Freeway, head toward Mission San Juan Capistrano and you'll spot it at the corner: Heritage Barbecue, home to some of the best Texas-style smoked meats in the country, done with California flair. Daniel and Brenda Castillo produce some of the most tender brisket and beef ribs, the most flavorful pulled pork and tri-tip, and the most creative house-made sausages and seasonal specials, all of which keep me drooling at their mere memory. This is barbecue worthy of a road trip in and of itself, but as it rests just about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, it's a perfect place to stretch your legs and fill your belly. I've met family members here for meals at that halfway point, and I've also pulled off the freeway to pick up a large tray, transporting it all the way down with me. The high quality can draw snaking lines that stretch past the smokers and down the hill into the adjacent parking lot, but Heritage Barbecue offers same-day orders online — meaning you can enter this into your GPS to determine your arrival time, place an order and get back on the road without the wait. Route Details Californian Brewery $$ There is a period of my recent history (let's say pre-pandemic) that I associate strongly with the city of Oceanside. I'd sneak away from L.A. for secret visits with friends, or make it a single-night road stop on my way to see my folks on the border. Every time I go, to this day, I stop at Local Tap House. Known lovingly as 'LTH' to the hardcore locals, the restaurant lets you know it is special from the first bite of whatever you order. I've had just about everything on this menu over the last eight years and nothing has ever been disappointing — and sometimes I ask myself: How often can I say that about a place, anywhere? Well-respected local chef Daniel Pundik has built a devoted following for his confidently coastal Californian gastropub menu: Start with the deviled eggs, truffle butter pretzel or the Black and Blue Brussels sprouts. Then go for the crunchy Asian salad, Korean beef short rib grilled cheese or my lifelong favorite, the short rib French dip; it just hits the spot. House and draft cocktails are great, but we're really all here for the taps, elevating the region's finest breweries: I lean toward Artifex, Belching Beaver, Golden Road, Coronado or Latitude 33. It's never a wrong time for Latitude 33's Blood Orange IPA. Route Details
Los Angeles Times
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Do you love or hate brunch?
The meal with a slice of cantaloupe at the end. Plus, breakfast burritos, Issa Rae's new pizzeria, remembering the Napa Valley icon at the middle of the 'Apostrophe War' and 'the art world's strange relationship with food.' I'm Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week's Tasting Notes. Chefs famously hate brunch. It's not considered a 'serious' meal. All that day drinking. All that hollandaise sauce. And, in recent years, plate after plate of avocado toast. Would their Blood Mary-soused customers even notice if the food wasn't as sharp at brunch as at dinner? And yet, here in Los Angeles some of our best chefs are making brunch a meal to take seriously. As senior Food editor Danielle Dorsey points out in our newly released guide to 32 great L.A. brunch spots, the same scallop tostada, crudo and lobster bisque roll you find at dinner at Ari Kolender's Found Oyster, is served at brunch. Jenn Harris says 'Top Chef' star Brooke Williamson is serving elevated versions of brunch classics at Playa Provisions. Betty Hallock loves the Japanese breakfast picks at Azay, in Little Tokyo (where I'm also a regular). And at Neal Fraser's Redbird I love the tender biscuits with strawberry-rhubarb jam, duck confit chilaquiles plus shrimp and grits. Then there is the excess of Baltaire in Brentwood, 'with tableside mimosas, a Champagne cart, a Bloody Mary cart, caviar bumps and a raw bar,' Harris writes, as well as prime filet Benedict and a 'Wagyu cheeseburger stacked on a buttery brioche bun with truffle mayonnaise.' The whole thing 'feels like a lavish party, with music from a DJ and a crowd that arrives dressed for the occasion.' It all fits with what Dorsey says in the guide's introduction: 'Weekend brunch invites us to suspend belief. It's easy to pretend that eggs don't run $10 for a dozen as we order forearm-length breakfast burritos and plate-sized scrambles. Furthermore, it's an excuse to say yes — yes to adding avocado, bacon and another round of drinks.' Of course, 'The Simpsons' nailed the idea of brunch back in 1990 when Marge's bowling instructor Jacques (voiced with a full sitcom French accent by Albert Brooks) tried to seduce her with a brunch invitation: 'You'll love it. It's not quite breakfast, it's not quite lunch, but it comes with a slice of cantaloupe at the end. You don't get completely what you would at breakfast, but you get a good meal.' Columnist Jenn Harris focused this week on the breakfast burritos of Pasadena. Namely, those of the storefront spot BBAD (her current favorite) at the Pasadena Hotel and Pool lobby and content creator Josh Elkin's breakfast chimichanga available this month at Dog Haus, with special mentions for Lucky Boy Burgers and Wake and Lake. Plus, she throws in the West L.A. spot Sobuneh for good measure. 'What makes a great breakfast burrito great,' she writes, 'is the insides, the way the melted cheese fuses with the crispy potatoes on a cushion of fluffy eggs. And the construction accounts for half of the burrito's appeal.' I knew Carl Doumani only from afar, through one of his daughters, Lissa Doumani, who ran one of Napa Valley's great now-gone restaurants, Terra, with her husband, Hiro Sone. (The two fell in love when they were young chefs in the kitchen at the original Spago in West Hollywood.) At Terra, Sone was known for his exquisite fish dishes, though I was most drawn to his earthier tripe stew, which at one point he made with Rancho Gordo beans and topped with Hokkaido scallops. I also once had the chance to stay in a guest house on Doumani's Stags' Leap Winery estate (now owned by Treasury Wine Estates) when Jonathan Gold and I were asked to speak at a food writers' conference with a few other journalists, including Ruth Reichl and the Atlantic magazine's Corby Kummer at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena. I remember a brigade of Weber grills set up on the grounds near the main house as the sun set over the vineyards for a wine-and-barbecue dinner that we attended as workshop participants. When I heard that Doumani had died last week at 92, I thought about the beauty of the land he once owned and understood one of the reasons the Los Angeles-born developer uprooted his family and moved to the Napa Valley. Food contributor Patrick Comiskey met Doumani when he was researching the Petite Sirah chapter of his book 'American Rhône.' In his obit and appreciation of Doumani, he writes about the confusion between Stags' Leap Winery and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, which was founded by the late Warren Winiarski and won the famed Judgment of Paris. Winiarski sued Doumani when the dormant Stags' Leap Winery was revived, leading to what became as the 'Apostrophe War' when Doumani didn't back down. (Both names were allowed to stand.) Doumani's 'general obstreperousness,' as Comiskey put it, attracted other 'like-minded winery owners' who 'came to be known as the GONADS, or, the Gastronomical Order for Nonsensical and Dissipatory [sic] Society.' The wine icon 'lived the life of a bon vivant and raconteur that amounts to a fading breed in the Valley.' We loved talking with so many readers this past weekend at our Food x Now Serving booth at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. We'll have more on the authors who appeared next week. Meanwhile, Stephanie Breijo wrote about the new initiative launched this week by cookbook store Now Serving to help those who lost their homes in the Eaton and Palisades fires rebuild their cookbook collections. You can help by either buying requested cookbooks or participating in a series of raffles to raise money to replace the books that burned. Last week's Cooking newsletter, which is sent out on Sundays — here's a link if you don't subscribe to the free newsletter — came from Food contributor Carolynn Carreño, who wrote about 'the simple and decadent combination of bread and chocolate' and included four recipes from the Times archives: Nancy Silverton's Bittersweet Chocolate Tartufo With Olive Oil-Fried Croutons, Ray Garcia's Chocolate and Banana Bread Pudding and Pinot Bistro's Chocolate Croissant Pudding and Emily Alben's Chocolate Gelt Babka With Hazelnut Amaretti Filling and Chocolate Espresso Glaze. Thanks to the sorely missed Carolina Miranda, who used to write this paper's Essential Arts newsletter (plus many more essential stories), for sending me this essay from ArtReview by Chris Fite-Wassilak, which looks at 'the art world's strange relationship with food.' 'Food is art, great,' Fite-Wassilak writes. 'So why does it need to be constantly reframed as something transgressive or new to art?'
Los Angeles Times
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
20 stellar lunch spots from the 2024 101 Best Restaurants guide
Open for lunch daily in Culver City, Sobar specializes in buckwheat soba noodles served with a variety of dipping sauces. March 17, 2025 3 AM PT Lunch in Los Angeles can be as simple as tacos eaten on the hood of your car, or as elaborate as a 14-course omakase at a celebrated sushi bar. 'Let's do lunch' is an invitation to explore the city's diverse culinary landscape, regardless of the length of your lunch break. These 20 recommendations were drawn from the most recent guide to the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles, written by me and restaurant critic Bill Addison. Whether you're ducking in for a quick bite or looking for somewhere to linger over a meeting, there's something to fit nearly every occasion. You'll find a French restaurant in Hollywood with first-rate pastries alongside one of the city's most decadent burgers, a full spread of vegetarian dishes in Koreatown, Laos crispy rice salads in Orange County and fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and collard greens from one of the country's premier soul food destinations. — Jenn Harris No matching places! Try changing or resetting your filters Showing Places Long Beach Middle Eastern $$ By Bill Addison The calming, sun-drenched corner restaurant in downtown Long Beach, run by chef Dima Habibeh and her family, continues to grow in dimensions and ambitions. In her cooking, Habibeh — born to a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother and raised in Jordan — poignantly evinces her origins. Solo diners will be happy at the plant-draped bar, rapt by garlicky chicken shawarma at lunch or sea bass over spiced rice with caramelized onions and nuts, with perhaps a glass of white wine from Lebanon's Bekka Valley, at dinner. Even better is gathering a crowd for a spread that begins with too much mezze: hummus with pine nuts, yielding grape leaves, labneh dyed fuchsia from pureed beets, fried kibbeh stuffed with ground beef or spinach, fattoush sharpened with sumac, a mix of the savory hand pies called fatayer. Kebabs and rotisserie chicken on a bed of subtly smoky freekeh might arrive next, followed by crunchy-cheesy knafeh scented with orange blossom syrup and date cake for dessert. To that end, the Habibehs recently debuted a third room, all white walls and curving ceramics, designed for group dining. I don't know of a more gracious setting for consummate Levantine cooking in Southern California. Route Details Inglewood Mexican $ Earlier this year, I described the carne deshebrada with refried beans from the East Los Angeles Asadero Chikali stand for our guide to the 101 Best Tacos in the city. It was the taco I was handed when I asked the taquero to surprise me with his go-to order. It's still the taco that comes to mind when someone asks for my favorite in all of Los Angeles. The meat is tangled with stewed tomato, onion and peppers. It's my preferred filling for the exemplary flour tortillas, rolled by hand and cooked on a flat-top until mottled with toasty brown bubbles. They're buttery, slender and surprisingly sturdy; I could eat a stack on their own. Asadero Chikali (Chikali is the locals-only nickname for the border city of Mexicali) recently opened its first bricks-and-mortar restaurant in a small strip mall in Inglewood, not far from SoFi Stadium. There, the tacos come with a tray of salsas and pickled onions. Though I can't seem to quit the deshebrada, I always get at least one carne asada 'Chikali style,' with the bits of smoky meat served under a dollop of guacamole and beans. And I never leave without a dozen tortillas to go. Route Details Silver Lake Persian $ By Bill Addison The cooking of Iran has historically been a cuisine with distinct expressions inside and outside the home. Family settings often involve dishes that can be exceptionally labor-intensive or stews so nuanced and subtle they defy professional kitchen standardization. Most restaurant menus are purposefully designed around crowd-pleasing, fire-kissed kebabs, creamy dips and snowdrifts of seasoned rice heaped on platters. Cody Ma and Misha Sesar have poignantly narrowed the divide at the Silver Lake cafe they opened in March. The star among their concise mix of mazeh (cold small plates), sandwiches and mains is the kofteh Tabrizi, a giant beef-and-rice meatball riddled with herbs and steeped in a tomato-based sauce electric with Persian dried lime. Your spoon soon finds its sweet, secret heart: a filling of dried apricots, prunes, barberries and walnuts. Look to turmeric-marinated chicken over rice for sheer comfort. In the several years that Azizam previously ran as a pop-up, Ma and Sesar mined an exploratory streak in their cooking, finding the similarities and differences in their individual families' regional recipes. I'm betting as they settle into the restaurant's early success, we'll see more intricate khoresht (seasonal stew) specials like a brothy June stunner of lamb neck with apricots. Route Details Koreatown Korean Barbecue $$ By Bill Addison 'Set menu with barley rice,' reads the modest description for the centerpiece meal at this two-year-old Koreatown breakout hit. For $30 per person, the staff delivers a near-overwhelming deluge of dishes to the table. Soups, mild pumpkin porridge, salad with bouncy cubes of acorn jelly and a few crunchy mung bean pancakes precede a spread of banchan-style seasoned vegetables (among them tea leaf, spinach, various mushrooms and an evolving selection of kimchi) arrayed on a woven basket. Bowls of barley rice also arrive, in which you assemble your lunch or dinner from the many elements, similarly to bibimbap, finishing with sesame oil and gochujang to taste. This is one of the most nourishing dining experiences in Los Angeles, and for gilding you can order extra meat options such as deeply savory grilled short rib patties. 'Borit gogae' translates as 'barley hump' and refers to a time of food scarcity in mid-20th century Korea. Owners Bu Gweon Ju and Sung Hee Jung, who are siblings, have reclaimed the phrase as a celebration of abundance, and the local community keeps the dining room full throughout the day. Route 3464 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, California 90005 Route Details East Hollywood Caribbean $ By Bill Addison Free the shrimp roti from its wrapper paper and you notice the bundle has already been cut in half. Its colors and patterns mesmerize for a few seconds: The flaky folds of paratha seem to barely contain spice-crusted shrimp, a saucy aloo (potato) sofrito, streaks of bright green herb-chile sauce and purple veins of turmeric-tinged cabbage slaw. The flavors are as blinding as the colors; crunchy textures bump against smooth ones. Fans of Rashida Holmes' Caribbean American cooking have waited nearly three years for moments like this — when her breakthrough pop-up finally transitioned to a permanent location. Bridgetown Roti debuted in July in a cheering East Hollywood storefront, with Joy Clarke-Holmes (Rashida's mother) and Malique Smith as partners. Holmes channels the richness of Bajan and Trinidadian cultures in not only rotis but also delicate cod fish cakes dabbed with garlic aioli, callaloo simmered to melting surrender in coconut broth with peppers and her inimitable savory patties (curried oxtail for the win). Oh, and hands down the creamiest, crustiest, most superlative baked macaroni and cheese in Los Angeles. Route Details Alhambra Uyghur By Bill Addison Among the constellation of cuisines that light up the San Gabriel Valley, Bugra Arkin's restaurants in Alhambra and Rowland Heights (with a third location in Irvine) illuminate a culture specific to the autonomous Xinjiang territory in northwest China. The cooking of the Uyghurs, the region's Turkic-speaking Muslims, culls centuries of spice trade influences, including from modern-day India, Tibet, Afghanistan and Iran. Most tables hold orders of the 'big plate chicken' heaped with potatoes, chopped red and green peppers, slivers of garlic and dried chiles. Wide, looping noodles hide underneath. Currents of Sichuan peppercorns and star anise flow through the broth. It's superb, as are stir-fried lamb freckled with cumin seeds; manta (plump pleated dumplings) filled with earthy diced pumpkin and minced onion; and laghman, long noodles nearly as thick as taffy, buried under stir-fried vegetables and tender beef strips. For fun, throw in quyash qatlima, a pinwheel-shaped savory pie full of spiced meat and oozing mozzarella. With murals of Uyghur life and details like globe-shaped glass lamps patterned in starbursts and other geometries, Arkin evokes his culture as much in the dining room's aesthetics as in the food he serves. Route Details Hyde Park American $$ By Jenn Harris Greg Dulan remembers his father, Adolf, teaching him to make fried chicken with a brown paper bag and a cast-iron skillet. The method creates a golden, rugged landscape of well-seasoned crunch and meat that drips when you take a bite. The Dulans have been serving that same fried chicken, and an array of soul food dishes, since Adolf and his wife, Mary, opened Aunt Kizzy's Back Porch in Marina del Rey in 1985. The family expanded its soul food empire with restaurants in Inglewood, Gramercy Park and Crenshaw. Greg, who runs the Dulan's on Crenshaw, reopened the restaurant earlier this year after a substantial remodel. A large kitchen absorbed the old hot bar, where patrons used to line up at the counter to watch their plates being assembled. The macaroni and cheese is some of the best in the city, the noodles completely engulfed in cheese. Once the collard greens are long gone, you'll want to gulp, not sip the pot likker. I appreciate the new space, especially the blown-up picture of Greg's grandparents Zady and Silas, who watch over you while you eat your fried chicken. Route Details North Hollywood Dominican $ By Bill Addison Siblings Deany Santana and Jonathan Santana worked together years ago in their family-run Dominican restaurant in Anchorage; in summer 2023 they reunited to serve their mother's and grandmother's recipes from a 16-seat storefront in a North Hollywood strip mall. They unlock their doors at noon but plate a quintessential Dominican breakfast that greatly comforts at any time of day: mangú (mashed plantains) with los tres golpes, or 'the three hits' — two fried eggs, slices of griddled salami and thin rectangles of queso frito. A staffer will ask if you prefer the plantains green or ripe, and my answer is the one the Santanas recommend: a smooth yet textured mixture of the two. Deany often can be viewed through the kitchen window tending pots of various meats infused with lime juice, onions, garlic, oregano and other spices. I'm especially partial to Santana's chicken, Jonathan's renaming of the classic Dominican pollo guisado. The bird is richly browned and simmered with thinly sliced peppers in a bit of liquid that forms a brothy, potent gravy. Start with an empanada, its half-moon shape shattering into flakes to unleash a lava flow of yellow cheese and diced salami. Route Details Atwater Village Thai $ Since 2020, food obsessives have been converging at the window in downtown's Santee Passage food hall from which Wedchayan 'Deau' Arpapornnopparat serves visceral, full-throttle interpretations of Bangkok street food. His pad see ew huffs with smokiness from the wok. The fluffy-crackly skin of moo krob pops and gives way to satiny pork belly underneath. Now comes the blockbuster sequel, which Arpapornnopparat opened with his wife, Tongkamal 'Joy' Yuon, early this year. The space might be small, with much of the seating against a wall between two buildings, but the cooking is tremendous: Arpapornnopparat leaps ahead, rendering a short, revolving menu of noodles, curries, chicken wings, fried rice and vegetable dishes that is more experimental, weaving in elements of his father's Chinese heritage, his time growing up in India and the Mexican and Japanese flavors he loves in Los Angeles. One creation I've thought about all year: fried soft-shell crab and shrimp set in a thrilling, confounding sauce centered around salted egg yolk, browned butter, shrimp paste and scallion oil. In its sharp left turns of salt and acid and sultry funk, the brain longs to consult a GPS. But there is no map. These are flavors from an interior land. Route Details Historic South-Central Mexican $ By Jenn Harris The tortillas at Fátima Júarez's new restaurant and molino in the Mercado La Paloma are a revelation. Delicate but supple, they taste of the sun and soil, earthy and bursting with the sweetness of summer corn. Júarez sources, nixtamalizes and grinds different heirloom Mexican corn varieties to make fresh masa for a short menu of antojitos. Chalqueño corn from the state of Mexico and Oaxacan blue bolita are featured in tlacoyos, griddled corn cakes stuffed with ayocote beans and generously garnished with nopales and salty crumbles of queso fresco. The best way to appreciate Júarez's fresh masa (besides a stack of tortillas you can order by the dozen) may be the flor de calabaza quesadilla. The folded tortilla is brimming with Oaxacan cheese and a corn sofrito. Júarez's mole, the culmination of a childhood spent in Oaxaca, is dusky and intricately spiced, noticeably sweet and redolent with toasted chiles. After I finished my molotes de platano, I took a warm tortilla, rolled it into a loose cigar and dipped it into the leftover mole for dessert. There's already talk of a weekly tasting menu. But for now, sampling all the antojitos is a great way to spend a lunch break. Route 3655 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, California 90007 Route Details Hollywood Filipino $$ By Bill Addison Behold the behemoth 'Kuya Tray,' the fastest and most comprehensive introduction to the cooking at Lord Maynard Llera's 28-seat Melrose Hill restaurant. Sized for two, each platter contains canary-yellow spiced rice, sauteed vegetables, achara (pickled green papaya) and a choice of six meats or seafood. I'll point you to a hypnotically spiral slice of 'lucenachon,' Llera's nickname for his version of Filipino-style pork belly stuffed with lemongrass stalks and fennel fronds, or to blue prawns simmered in garlicky crab paste. In the afterglow of last decade, which witnessed the brightest-ever spotlight turned on modern Filipino cuisine, Llera, who won the James Beard Foundation award this year for Best Chef: California, stepped into the arena as a gripping new expressionist. He keeps the menu restaurant concise, but it still harbors two relative sleepers: mami, a sustaining egg noodle soup with pork belly and garlic-chile oil; and laing, a delicious mulch of taro leaves braised in coconut milk and shrimp paste for nine hours. Llera, true to his individualism, adds smoky katsuobushi with pickled chile as an umami bump at the end. Route 5003 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, California 90038 Route Details Little Ethiopia Ethiopian $$ By Bill Addison Tenagne Belachew's quiet haven is one of the places I most consistently bring out-of-towners for lunch. We build our meal around the 11-dish 'veggie utopia,' uplifting in its chromatics of salads, simmered vegetables and thick lentil purees spiced to profound, molecular levels. Sometimes I veer to bozena shiro, a bubbling chickpea stew laced with a bit of minced meat, or yebeg alicha wot, a mild and creamy lamb sauté. Always, though, I return to the 'special kitfo,' beef tartare glossed in butter infused with mitmita (a rounded, cardamom-forward spice blend) and matched with fluffy curds of fresh cheese and pureed collards. Little Ethiopia, in general, is a treasure. Meals by Genet, reopened in early 2024 for weekend dinner hours, has ascended to the 101 Hall of Fame. I sometimes can't decide between the dulet (raw minced beef liver, tripe and other cuts in spiced butter) at Messob; a vegetarian platter followed by a cup of fortifying, freshly roasted coffee at Rahel Ethiopian Vegan Cuisine; or turmeric-stained alicha tibs at Awash just technically outside the neighborhood. Most often, I return to Lalibela. Route Details Hollywood Restaurant and lounge By Jenn Harris Angelenos are fickle creatures. Restaurants from around the world have attempted moves here, only to find that we're unfazed by their popularity elsewhere. Mr. T, the two-year-old location of the Paris bistro with the same name, has carved a niche for itself in the middle of the buzzy Sycamore District. At the bottom of the glass tower that houses Jay-Z's Roc Nation, smartly dressed patrons flood the patio during breakfast and lunch. An impressive case boasts François Daubinet's pastries. You can taste the butter in his croissants, and they shatter on contact. A few of the Paris restaurant's dishes make appearances for dinner, like the mac and cheese with mimolette flambé set aflame at the table, but chef Alisa Vannah, who previously cooked at République, has made the restaurant her own. Vannah's cooking is a quiet luxury, demure but powerful in its intention and flavors. Mackerel and yellowtail are dressed in a tomato water seasoned like dashi, with bonito, white soy and a shiver of yuzu. Lumpia are plump with chicken and shrimp. Treat Daubinet's desserts as mandatory caps to the evening. His custard is nearly deliquescent, flooded with the sharp tang of passion fruit. Chocolate mousse is rich and fleeting, impossibly smooth before it vanishes on the tongue. Route Details Westminster Laotian $$ By Jenn Harris Nokmaniphone Sayavong's Laotian-style grilled sausages are brute links of pork with a pronounced texture, intense spice and sour zing. Each bite is its own adventure. One piece may surprise with a quarter clove of garlic while another might be embedded with a whole piece of diced scallion. The bitter, floral sharpness of lemongrass is ever-present. The former restaurant server started selling sausages during the pandemic and opened her small restaurant in a Westminster strip mall in 2022. She coarsely grinds pork butt and aromatics for the sausages, building on recipes her mother taught her when she was a child in Laos. Dishes spark with acid and heat, whether it be the fish sauce and Thai chiles in the larb rib-eye or the lime-and-chile-intensive dipping sauce that accompanies the skewers or bits of fried pork belly marinated in coconut milk and ginger. She makes a version of the crispy rice salad you can find at many Thai restaurants, served with nuggets of cured sour pork and peanuts. Only Sayavong's rice is arranged in crunchy clumps that are soft in the middle and with a faint coconut flavor. It encourages an even more zealous appreciation for carbohydrate-intensive salads. Route Details Chinatown Korean $ By Bill Addison If you could eat lunch from only one Los Angeles restaurant for the rest of your life, where would it be? My answer comes easily: Perilla LA. Jihee Kim's banchan, so full of geometries and colors and so urgent in flavor, brings this class of Korean dishes center-stage. Eaten collectively, they land in the Venn diagram linking light, nourishing and compelling. Expect straight-from-the-farmers-market produce prepared in intuitive variations of freshness and fermentation — garlicky eggplant, sesame-speckled green beans, complex kimchi made from collard greens or daikon — and perennials like her stunning seaweed-rolled omelet cut into circles with hypnotic, spiraling centers. Small portions of the day's banchan selection also come over rice as part of a compartmented dosirak tray, served with warm doenjang-marinated chicken or cod. My dream hack: Swing by on a Monday, enjoy a dosirak at one of the shaded tables outside Perilla's tiny gabled home in a converted garage, then take home four or five banchan to eat midday for the remainder of the week. Route Details Downtown L.A. Taiwanese $$ By Bill Addison Vivian Ku's three Taiwanese restaurants — the original Pine & Crane in Silver Lake, its second location in downtown L.A. and her slightly more casual spinoff Joy in Highland Park — can be, and usually are, mobbed at any given time of day. Each has a slightly different fast-casual menu that quells cravings for shrimp wontons with satisfying snap, dan dan noodles plunged in peanut-sesame sauce and comforts like minced pork over rice gently revved with soy-braised egg and daikon pickles. Her connection to the Taiwanese dining culture in the San Gabriel Valley, where she gathered with relatives growing up, animates the spirit of her cooking. She credits her penchant for light, clean flavors to her grandmother, who immigrated to Taiwan from China in 1949 before the family moved to America. The DTLA outpost holds special appeal because it also serves riffs on Taipei-style breakfast dishes every morning, including crunchy-soft fan tuan wrapped tightly with soy egg and pork floss, savory 'thousand-layer' pancake wraps that make great on-the-go meals and dan bing (rolled egg crepe crunching with corn kernels and shaved cabbage). An extensive beverage program centered around but not limited to Taiwanese whiskies draws me back downtown in the evenings. Route Details East Hollywood Middle Eastern $$$ By Bill Addison Labels settle easily onto restaurants, and it would be understandable to think of Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis' East Hollywood blockbuster as 'the fancy kebab place.' It's true there is nowhere else where meat on sticks is imagined quite like Saffy's ground veal and Ibérico pork seasoned with floral-sweet baharat, lime and poppy seeds, or its lamb shashlik marinated in labneh and sparked with paprika and cumin. But the dozen-plus appetizers are equal portraits of technique and outside-the-box combinations. Roasted celery root set on a fluffy ring of allium cream, for example, is forested with curry leaves, strands of sauerkraut, spicy-sweet apple harissa and dried rose petals. The flavors and fragrances leap between India, Africa and Eastern Europe. Saffy's also has quietly become a daytime restaurant: Breakfasts of shakshuka or smoked salmon tartine jump-start the day and, returning to the kebab theme, chicken shashlik zinged with herb chutney and tahini in a pita makes for fortifying lunch-meeting fuel. Route Details Culver City Japanese $$ By Jenn Harris At Sobar, Masato Midorikawa's Culver City restaurant, your bamboo sieve of noodles comes with a set of instructions. First, taste the noodles bare. Next, sprinkle some yuzu salt onto one bite. Then try matcha salt on another. Only then should you dip your noodles in the provided bowl of cold or hot broth. This is the way to fully appreciate ju-wari, a style of soba made from only buckwheat flour and water. Each morning, Midorikawa mixes the flour and water, then uses a machine he developed with a partner in Japan to make every tray of noodles to order. The earthy flavors are deeper and more intense than soba made with the addition of wheat flour, and the speckled gray noodles are denser and more brittle. The yuzu salt heightens the nuttiness of the buckwheat, while the matcha salt is more subtle and grassy. There's a small menu of appetizers and sashimi to help round out the meal. The kakiage, served as a tangled cylinder of fried onions and shrimp, is the preferred soba sidekick, but there's karaage, agedashi tofu and assorted Japanese pickles too. Route Details Mid-Wilshire Mexican $ By Bill Addison Jennifer Feltham and Teodoro Díaz-Rodriguez Jr. shifted their phenomenal Sonoran-style taquerias into expansion mode over the last year. Crowds never let up at the tiny eight-year-old original in downtown. This summer, they debuted a michelada bar at their Mid-City outpost, where you can also snack on loaded nachos alongside your tacos and quesadillas. They opened a third location in Long Beach in September. What hasn't changed is their attention to quality and consistency. Julia Guerrero ensures the excellence of Sonoratown's flour tortillas: thin, flaky, durable yet delicate, almost buttery with lard. My order usually involves the famous Burrito 2.0 and at least one chivichanga, a mini-bundle swaddling shredded chicken or beef cooked down with tomatoes, Anaheim chiles and cheese into a dense, gooey guisado. Another prize on the concise menu: the caramelo, elsewhere sometimes fashioned from two tortillas bound by cheese. In this case, a large-format taco engulfs Monterey Jack, pintos and cabbage for crunch, plus avocado and spicy red salsas. Meat options make for the toughest decision: Classics include costilla (short rib and chuck robed in mesquite smoke), grilled chicken, tripe and chorizo. Cabeza, a new entrant, simmers to such tenderness that the clove-scented molecules transform into beefy custard. Route Details Arcadia Japanese $$ By Jenn Harris Kisen, tucked into the corner of a crowded Arcadia strip mall, feels like two restaurants in one. The main dining area is a raucous room where you can order grilled chicken and plates of vegetable tempura for the kids who can't seem to stay in their seats and cucumber rolls for your sister who doesn't eat raw fish. The sushi bar is a serene omakase experience where the chef will design a personalized procession of nigiri and small bites based on your appetite and penchant for stronger or milder fish. It's on par with some of the most compelling sushi bars in the city, without the sticker shock at the end. I like sitting at the bar during lunch, where I can marvel at how the chefs manage overflowing bowls of chirashi for the dining room while simultaneously creating a semblance of calm, focused attention for patrons at the bar. My chef nods approvingly when I tell him I favor kohada, sardines and all kinds of mackerel. He rewards me with a Japanese sardine scored with a million knife cuts, which melts on my tongue, and a slab of silver-skinned kohada tucked into a sleeve of crisp seaweed. I appreciate the excellence without a smidge of stuffiness. Route Details
Los Angeles Times
13-02-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
14 Black-owned spots in L.A. from the 101 Best Restaurants guide
In Jefferson Park, Harold & Belle's has been a destination for Creole and Cajun cuisine since 1969. Feb. 13, 2025 3 AM PT The contributions made by Black-owned restaurants and bars in Los Angeles are immeasurable. Institutions like Harold and Belle's in Jefferson Park, Dulan's on Crenshaw in Hyde Park and Lalibela in Carthay have a long-standing presence in neighborhoods across the city. These are places that hold deep meaning for their communities, creating neighborhood hubs for locals and sought-after destinations for everyone else. These 14 restaurants and bars were featured in the most recent edition of The Times' 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. written by critic Bill Addison and me. They were also pulled from our Hall of Fame, a collection of businesses whose importance exceeds any year's list, as well as from the list of our favorite places to drink. In writing about Post & Beam for the most recent 101 list, I described John and Roni Cleveland's Baldwin Hill's restaurant as one of the beating hearts of our city. The same could be said for many of the businesses featured here. A colleague, assistant food editor Danielle Dorsey, recently reported on the planned closure of Post & Beam. It's a reminder of the fragility of our favorite restaurants, how vital their presence is in the city and how important it is to continue to support them. This list is a great place to start. — Jenn Harris No matching places! Try changing or resetting your filters Showing Places Watts Soul Food $ By Jenn Harris What is the purpose of a restaurant? Is it purely sustenance? Does it exist to serve the people of its neighborhood? These are questions I find myself pondering while digging into a piece of fried chicken at Keith Corbin and Daniel Patterson's Watts restaurant. Patterson, who founded the Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant Coi, and Roy Choi originally opened Locol in 2016 with a menu full of reimagined fast-food favorites and a mission to create employment opportunities for the surrounding community. It closed in 2018 but recently was reopened by Patterson and Corbin, a former Locol kitchen manager who is now the executive chef and co-owner with Patterson of Alta Adams. Locol operates under their nonprofit, Alta Community, and aims to employ Watts residents and trainees from a nearby youth center. This means that service is always youthful and friendly, and you'll likely spy a patient manager training team members during your visit. The two chefs have said that economic empowerment, not food, is the highest purpose of the business. But the new menu, which may not always reflect the day's offerings (they may be out of a few things), still satisfies with smoked brisket and ribs, oxtails and fried chicken sandwiches. Corbin is making dishes inspired by the food he's now known for at his California soul destination Alta Adams, but at a lower price point. The sentiment behind Locol can best be described in a quote featured above the front doorway: 'We are here!' And that is a very good thing, since the foldies, the stuffed tortillas the original Locol was known for, are still griddled to toasty, cheesy perfection. Route 1950 E. 103rd St., Los Angeles, California 90002 Route Details Little Ethiopia Ethiopian $$ By Bill Addison Tenagne Belachew's quiet haven is one of the places I most consistently bring out-of-towners for lunch. We build our meal around the 11-dish 'veggie utopia,' uplifting in its chromatics of salads, simmered vegetables and thick lentil purees spiced to profound, molecular levels. Sometimes I veer to bozena shiro, a bubbling chickpea stew laced with a bit of minced meat, or yebeg alicha wot, a mild and creamy lamb sauté. Always, though, I return to the 'special kitfo,' beef tartare glossed in butter infused with mitmita (a rounded, cardamom-forward spice blend) and matched with fluffy curds of fresh cheese and pureed collards. Little Ethiopia, in general, is a treasure. Meals by Genet, reopened in early 2024 for weekend dinner hours, has ascended to the 101 Hall of Fame. I sometimes can't decide between the dulet (raw minced beef liver, tripe and other cuts in spiced butter) at Messob; a vegetarian platter followed by a cup of fortifying, freshly roasted coffee at Rahel Ethiopian Vegan Cuisine; or turmeric-stained alicha tibs at Awash, just technically outside the neighborhood. Most often, I return to Lalibela. Route Details Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw Californian Southern $$ By Jenn Harris I think of Post & Beam as one of the beating hearts of the city, a sort of central hub where the biscuits and the shrimp and grits possess a gravitational pull that directs people straight to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw mall. It's been this way since Brad Johnson opened the restaurant in 2011, then handed the keys over to John and Roni Cleveland in 2019. The food celebrates the flavors and spirit of Southern cooking, where black-eyed peas share real estate on the table with catfish rubbed with jerk spice over a mound of dirty rice. The shrimp and grits, a dish most emblematic of Lowcountry cuisine, is long-cooked into something luxurious. The coarsely ground corn transforms into a smooth, creamy porridge studded with tiny squares of sweet red peppers. The way I feel about the braised oxtail grilled cheese borders on obsession. Brunch here is cheery. Parties merge and mingle over bottomless mimosas and plates of pecan pie French toast. It's worth noting that the best seats in the house are at the bar, opposite the pizza oven, where you can watch trays of biscuits rise and turn a pale golden. These are the biscuits against which I judge all others, with flaky layers you can peel away and a tender crumb. With two to an order, you can eat one for brunch and one on the drive home. Post & Beam announced that it will close at the end of February. Route Details Mid-Wilshire Soul Food Californian $$ By Jenn Harris When I think of the dishes integral to this city's taco identity, Alisa Reynolds' oxtail tacos at her California soul restaurant are some of the first that come to mind. The velvety strands of oxtail are braised for six hours until the meat is slack, succulent and nearly spreadable. Reynolds places a heap in a warm corn tortilla with roasted tomatoes and showers the taco with wisps of curly kale and slivers of raw red onion. The meat juices run wild and mix with a drizzle of whiskey reduction, the two creating a heady dressing for the taco and anything else on your table. Regardless of how you feel about meat pressed into a loaf (lifelong stan here), the turkey meatloaf burger here is ingenious. Reynolds coats the slab in panko, then fries it until a crisp crust forms. Nestled between two slices of Texas toast with fresh shaved apple, it's one of Los Angeles' great sandwiches. Reynolds' sister Theresa Fountain, with whom she opened the restaurant in 2013, is responsible for all the desserts. I typically find myself with little room for something sweet after lunch, but I never leave without a slice of her vegan sweet potato pound cake. Reynolds has called My 2 Cents a gift to the city. I couldn't agree more. Route Details Hermosa Beach Middle Eastern cuisine $$ By Jenn Harris I had my first brik a decade ago, at a long-shuttered restaurant in downtown L.A. appropriately named the Briks, a melting pot of Middle Eastern and Spanish influences with a focus on the phyllo-wrapped pastry ubiquitous across Tunisia. The savory fillings vary, but the exterior should be fried and golden, and you'll typically find an egg in the center. At Barsha, chef Lenora Marouani's brik is closer to a triangular egg roll, with a bubbly wonton wrapper shell that encases soft potato, chopped tuna and capers. The filling is bunched into the center, with long, crisp shards of pastry at all three corners. To dip, there's a smoky harissa aioli smeared on half the plate. It's the preferred way to begin a meal at Marouani and husband Adnen's Hermosa Beach restaurant. Inspired by Adnen's Tunisian roots, the menu encompasses chickpea stew, shakshuka and turmeric-stained chicken mosli. The couscous that accompanies the lamb meatballs is about triple the size of the Moroccan variety, submerged in a savory tomato stew and served with a spoonful of cool labneh. A true neighborhood staple as well as a citywide destination, it's just the sort of place where I'd be lucky to be a regular. Route Details Hyde Park Southern $$ By Jenn Harris Greg Dulan remembers his father, Adolf, teaching him to make fried chicken with a brown paper bag and a cast-iron skillet. The method creates a golden, rugged landscape of well-seasoned crunch and meat that drips when you take a bite. The Dulans have been serving that same fried chicken, and an array of soul food dishes, since Adolf and his wife, Mary, opened Aunt Kizzy's Back Porch in Marina del Rey in 1985. The family expanded its soul food empire with restaurants in Inglewood, Gramercy Park and Crenshaw. Greg, who runs the Dulan's on Crenshaw, reopened the restaurant earlier this year after a substantial remodel. A large kitchen absorbed the old hot bar, where patrons used to line up at the counter to watch their plates being assembled. The macaroni and cheese is some of the best in the city, the noodles completely engulfed in cheese. Once the collard greens are long gone, you'll want to gulp, not sip, the pot likker. I appreciate the new space, especially the blown-up picture of Greg's grandparents, Zady and Silas, who watch over you while you eat your fried chicken. Route Details East Hollywood Caribbean $ By Bill Addison Free the shrimp roti from its wrapper paper and you notice the bundle has already been cut in half. Its colors and patterns mesmerize for a few seconds: The flaky folds of paratha seem to barely contain spice-crusted shrimp, a saucy aloo (potato) sofrito, streaks of bright green herb-chile sauce and purple veins of turmeric-tinged cabbage slaw. The flavors are as blinding as the colors; crunchy textures bump against smooth ones. Fans of Rashida Holmes' Caribbean American cooking have waited nearly three years for moments like this — when her breakthrough pop-up finally transitioned to a permanent location. Bridgetown Roti debuted in July in a cheering East Hollywood storefront, with Joy Clarke-Holmes (Rashida's mother) and Malique Smith as partners. Holmes channels the richness of Bajan and Trinidadian cultures in not only rotis but also delicate cod fish cakes dabbed with garlic aioli, callaloo simmered to melting surrender in coconut broth with peppers and her inimitable savory patties (curried oxtail for the win). Oh, and hands down the creamiest, crustiest, most superlative baked macaroni and cheese in Los Angeles. Route Details Inglewood West African Southern $$ By Jenn Harris It's difficult to put a finger on the cuisine at Two Hommés, Abdoulaye Balde and Marcus Yaw Johnson's Inglewood restaurant. Though the two describe it as 'an Afro-centric eatery,' the menu actually circles the globe. Honey berbere chicken bites are all juice and crunch, glowing with the Ethiopian spice blend. The crudo, regardless of the day's fish, is fresh and tart, vibrant with pickled onion and the flavor of passion fruit alongside nicely fried tostadas. Lamb dibi, a mustardy grilled lamb found throughout Senegal, is used as a filling for quesadillas. The shredded, smoked lamb shoulder mimics strands of birria between the toasted tortillas with bits of sweet fried plantain and Oaxacan cheese. Mountains of garlic noodles are springy, garlicky and a tad sweet. You can order the noodles or jollof rice as the base for a platter with a number of proteins, including short ribs braised in root beer until the glaze resembles caramel and hulking filets of fried catfish. The jollof platter, served with appropriately named 'bomb azz black beans,' arugula salad and plantains, is quite the feast. Route Details West Adams Californian Soul Food $$ By Jenn Harris What makes a pancake a really good pancake? I found myself mulling that very important question during a recent brunch at Keith Corbin and Daniel Patterson's West Adams restaurant. Before then, I'd thought that Corbin's biggest flex was his oxtails, a supremely satisfying dish with an undercurrent of umami that comes from braising the meat in a liquid fortified with miso and soy. Or was it his fried chicken, magnificently crisp, juicy and well seasoned? My cornmeal pancakes arrived as big and wide as my car's spare tire, impossibly fluffy and with lacy edges that resembled the crunchy parts of a really good cookie. The accompanying brown butter maple caramel sauce gleefully transformed breakfast into dessert. Brunch has quickly become my favorite meal here, mostly due to that short stack of pancakes. But also because you can order the fried chicken as three or six pieces, with a buttermilk waffle or in a biscuit sandwich dripping with honey. And those oxtails come heaped over a bowl of creamy grits. Route Details Jefferson Park Creole Cajun Soul Food $$ By Jenn Harris 2024 Hall of Fame The gumbo at Harold & Belle's is an ambush of heat and smoke, the spice of the andouille sausage leaching into the umber stew. Crowded with shrimp and blue crab legs and woodsy with sassafras, it's a hearty bowl that evokes the Creole roots of the restaurant. For 55 years, Angelenos have frequented this corner in Jefferson Park for a taste of New Orleans. Harold Legaux Sr. and wife Mary Belle, the real Harold and Belle, opened the restaurant in the fall of 1969 as a place for fellow New Orleans transplants to gather over familiar po'boy sandwiches and gumbo. Now, third-generation owners Ryan and Jessica Legaux run the restaurant, expanding the family's footprint in the community with catering, a takeout operation called To-Geaux and a vegan menu. Fried chicken is encased in a craggy coating like armor. Po'boys overflow with golden fried shrimp and oysters. Each grain of rice in the jambalaya seethes with a hot mixture of paprika and cayenne. There's a warmth to the staff not easily duplicated elsewhere, and meals tend to feel like visits to a friend's house. Route Details Leimert Park American $ By Bill Addison 2023 Hall of Fame With nearly 20 options for hot dog toppings, it might take several trips to Earle's to nail down your go-to order. Make mine a classic chili-cheese dog with raw onions. Generations of Angelenos know brothers Cary and Duane Earle, who began selling hot dogs in 1984 and opened their first stand-alone restaurant in 1992. Several locations later, settled on a well-trafficked stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard in Leimert Park, their storefront is a citywide favorite — including for vegans, with plant-based versions of Earle's signature hot dogs, burgers and cheese fries. Who is that ray of sunshine radiating from behind the counter? The brothers' mom, Hildred Earle-Brown, who as community grandmother seems to never forget a face. Route Details Little Ethiopia Ethiopian $$ By Bill Addison 2023 Hall of Fame In her semi-retirement, Genet Agonafer prepares meals for takeout from her Little Ethiopia stalwart from Thursday through Sunday and opens her once-bustling dining room for private events. The care in her food is as palpable as ever. Let's never imagine a day without the restaurant's doro wat, an indivisible sum of chicken, onions and profound berbere spices. Agonafer, who is vegan, creates a beautifully ordered landscape with her vegetarian platter: forest-green collards border earth tones of spiced lentils and split peas and marigold shades of turmeric-stained cabbage. Follow a similar path by adding an order of long-simmered foul warmed with green chile, or diverge with yebegsisga alitcha, a buttery and gently garlicky lamb stew. Route Details Willowbrook | 2020 By Bill Addison 2022 Hall of Fame Hawkins' burgers are thick brutes with charred edges. The toppings that complete them recall park barbecues on holiday weekends. Some lofty creations at this Watts stalwart — run by Cynthia Hawkins, whose father began the business as a stand in 1939 — have become signatures over the years, including the Leaning Tower of Watts: 1½ pounds of burger impaled on a skewer with hot links, pastrami and bacon, dressed with egg and chili. No ornate trimmings needed, though: A single-patty model more than holds its own. Route Details Inglewood Wine Bars $ By Jenn Harris Wedding planner Leslie Jones and attorney Le Jones turned an auto body garage into the first and only wine bar in Inglewood. The siblings live in the area and were tired of driving elsewhere for a night out. Now, every day at 1010 Wine Bar feels like the entire room is one big party. There are meet-and-greet nights with a winemaker. Or Black-Out Game Night, when a group that aims to amplify Black game designers brings dozens of board and card games to play at your table. The bar boasts the largest selection of wines from Black-owned wineries in California. And you can be as nerdy as you'd like, with wine flight tasting sheets you can fill out as you sip. On a recent visit, my bartender introduced me to a Kumusha Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa, bright with melon and passion fruit, and Aslina Umsasane, a Bordeaux-style red blend that was the perfect match for my suya-spice-rubbed beef skewers. I appreciate the extensive knowledge of the bartenders, but what keeps me at the bar for another round is their real eagerness to share their favorites. Route Details Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
