Small Bites: Lakers burgers at BLT Steak, BistroLQ to open

Root, root, root for the home team: You have at least until Sunday to try chef Laurent Tourondel's signature BLT Burger -- longer if the Lakers win their do-or-die seventh game against the Houston Rockets (Sunday, 12:30 p.m., Staples Center). As long as the Lakers stay in the playoffs, BLT Steak will offer its $17 Kobe burger made from (what else?) American Kobe beef and topped with caramelized onions and Gruyere. Or perhaps you'd prefer the slightly less spendy ($14) Jackson burger made with ground prime beef and topped with bacon and cheddar. BLT Steak: 8720 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 360-1950, www.bltsteak.com.

One bistro closes, another opens: Chef Laurent Quenioux, who recently closed Bistro K in Pasadena to look for larger, better-equipped digs, will open his new restaurant, BistroLQ, on Beverly Boulevard near Fairfax sometime in mid-July. The new space will offer a mix of indoor-outdoor dining, and the menu will include an eclectic mix of Quenioux standards like lamb, wild hare and, perhaps, partridge, as well as oddball dishes such as sea urchin tapioca pudding with yuzu kocho, and eel braised in red wine and served with dried plum and chanterelle grits. More details to come.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo credit: BLT Steak