 Chef Josef Centeno left Lot 1 in Echo Park in July, with the aim of opening his own place, but meanwhile, he has spent the last month consulting at Bar Celona in Pasadena. The menu, which was more "Old Town" than truly Spanish-inspired, has received an overhaul.
Now there are Catalan-inflected dishes such as charred Padrón peppers with Spanish sea salt and a version of pan con tomate (toasted bread rubbed with garlic and tomato, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt). Here the pan con tomate is served with salbitxada sauce -- this one with hazelnuts, baby pear tomatoes, sherry vinegar, lemon juice and zest, and parsley.
"Spanish cuisine has been a fundmanetal part of my cooking," says Centeno, who still is planning to open his own restaurant. "But these are a modern take on classic dishes with really fresh ingredients."
Other tapas are crispy eggplant with honey and spiced yogurt; whipped salt cod and potatoes (bacalao); tortilla española; pork shoulder conserva; and Spanish flatbreads with basil, mint, Manchego and figs....
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 We heard the rumors and now Eater L.A. has it that Alex Eusebio, the young, down-to-earth Dominican chef from 15 in Echo Park is a contestant on Top Chef New York.
There are two other L.A.-area chefs on the show--former Enoteca Drago chef Stefan Richter and Fabio Viviani of Moorpark's Cafe Firenze--but I'm the most excited about Eusebio, whom I interviewed for a story about 15 back in April. At the time he was 33 and getting ready to marry his long-time sweetheart. He talked a lot about keeping his food accessible and giving back to the neighborhood and he slaved behind the stove six days a week without complaint. I have a hunch that his winning smile, easy manner and dreamy dimples will win over the television audience and I'm willing to predict here and now that he makes it into the top three.
No matter what happens, now I get why 15 put a valet out front not too long ago.
--Jessica Gelt
(An earlier version of this post misspelled Moorpark as Moorepark.)
Photo of Alex Eusebio in the kitchen at 15 by Genaro Molina / The Los Angeles Times
 You’ve got a little time –- until Jan. 1, 2011, to be exact –- to get your fill of those chain restaurant foods that you’d rather not know too much about. That’s when chains with 20 or more restaurants will have to post calorie information on menus and menu boards, under a law signed this week by the governor.
I’m guessing it will be one of those ignorance-was-bliss moments. Just as I never look at the clock when insomnia strikes so I can fool myself into thinking I got enough sleep, I don’t want to know too much about those fries or that buttermilk bar or burrito. For me, the number of calories might be better left unsaid.
On a recent trip to New York I found myself at an airport Starbucks, hungry and in desperate need of caffeine. I left the stand with drink in hand, but passed on the pastries –- thanks to the posted calorie counts. Everything that appealed to me was 400 to 500 calories –- nearly a third of what I can eat in a day and not gain weight.
Which brings me to wonder what will happen in California once those chain restaurants let us in on their nutrition information.
During the summer, three-quarters of the people surveyed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that nutritional information on menus would affect what they ordered. We’ll see. Maybe it will only affect how guilty we all feel.
-- Mary MacVean
Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
 If you thought the lines at Philippe the Original were bad already, wait until Monday, Oct. 6, which marks the historic restaurant's 100-year anniversary. On that day, three generations of the Binder family (who have owned Philippe's with two other families since 1927) will be on hand to help sell the restaurant's heart-stopping roast beef French dip sandwiches for a dime. That was the price the meaty, juicy sandwiches were sold for when they first appeared on the menu in 1918. The price of coffee, which normally sells for a dime, will be slashed in half to a nickel.
If the Dow continues its downward spiral and the House remains deadlocked on what to do about the financial crisis, the monstrous line that will surely snake around the block Monday may resemble a bread line more than a party. But no matter, those are prices to wait for these days. And Philippe's French dip sandwich, with liberal amounts of signature hot mustard, is worthy of dedicated, solemn, slow-line celebration, which is just what you'll find Monday, so make sure to bring some sort of cane chair. And please, be gentle on the restrooms -- which with an estimated 2,200 customers daily and up to 4,000 on weekends are on the edge already.
Philippe the Original, 1001 Alameda St., L.A. (213) 628-3781.
-- Jessica Gelt
Photo of the counter at Philippe the Original by Jay Clendenin for the Los Angeles Times
 New Palihouse Holloway executive chef Brendan Collins (most recently chef de cuisine at Anisette in Santa Monica) has been testing the recipes for his new menu, which will be unveiled this week at The Hall, the hotel's brasserie. Look for radicchio salad with watercress, poached egg, Pecorino and truffle vinaigrette; Arctic char with grilled eggplant and Argan oil; and an apple creme brulee.
Collins is also working on the food for the Hall Bar & Grill at Palihouse Vine, the restaurant at a second Palihouse project, scheduled to open in spring 2009. (Above right is a rendering of the exterior.) Palihouse owner Avi Brosh describes the Palihouse Vine as an "upscale British bohemian gentlemen's club set in an industrial shell" and its food as "British 'gastro-pub' inspired with Italian cuisine influences." OK, then. Collins has his own adjective for the food: Britalian. He says that the food will be "a good middle ground between Anisette and Melisse" (where Collins was chef de cuisine for four years), and that he'll also offer some of the traditional pub food of his childhood (his parents ran a pub in England) like bangers and mash. A third Palihouse, with Collins also as executive chef, is in the works for Venice.
The Hall at Palihouse Holloway, 8465 Holloway Drive, West Hollywood. (323) 656-4020; www.palihouse.com.
-- Amy Scattergood
Image: Rendering of Palihouse Vine. Credit: ByPalisades
 The Bazaar in the SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills is set to open in November, so here's a rendering for an early look. The restaurant, overseen by Spanish chef José Andrés, is another Philippe Starck design.
Back in 2005, SBE Entertainment Group's chief executive, Sam Nazarian, signed a deal with Starck to design nine distinct restaurant and lounge concepts over six years. The first Katsuya sushi restaurant opened in Brentwood in 2006. Now we're on the brink of another Starck vision: XIV, the venue for chef Michael Mina, opens next month. For this one, Starck has conjured a European castle. Starck has said that he speaks to the "Smart Tribe" (his example of a member of the Smart Tribe was someone who could recognize a Picasso).
As far as the Bazaar, to hear Nazarian and Andrés tell it, the concept sounds as if it has been born of one big love fest. Andrés says that he and Nazarian "were meant for each other." And Nazarian says that Andrés and Starck were meant for each other too: "[Andrés] is the perfect match for the design vision of Philippe Starck."
From an article that ran when Nazarian and Starck penned another design deal for the hotels, Starck says: "To make a beautiful baby, the parents must be in love." Or at least have "synergies."
Meanwhile, here's a look at a titillating preliminary Bazaar menu ...
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  Two Boots Pizzeria is about to hit serious pay dirt. The popular funkified New York City pizza parlor chain is moving into the space directly next door to the Echo in Echo Park. The economy may be tanking, but the owners of Two Boots can rest assured that a weak dollar will not keep the skinny-jeaned crustache set from late-night pizza binging.
The store itself is still a work in progress. It features peppy colored-glass windows, Barbie Dream House-pink walls and a very cool L.A.-centric mural depicting winged pigs and guitars soaring above the dark silhouette of the Echo Park and Silver Lake hills.
On the menu you'll find heroes, calzones, salads, po' boys, Stromboli and serious Sicilian-style pizza with fancy toppings. Check back for more info on when it will open.
Also in the works for the two spaces next door to Two Boots, according to the contractor, are an ice cream parlor and a record shop.
Two Boots, 1814 W. Sunset Blvd., Echo Park.
-- Jessica Gelt
Photos: Two Boots in progress. Credit: Jessica Gelt
 For the last several weeks, Omri Aflalo has been helming the stoves at Citrus at Social as acting chef de cuisine, and now chef-owner Michel Richard is making it official. Aflalo takes up the post relinquished by former chef de cuisine Remi Lauvand, who departed abruptly last month.
Aflalo left San Francisco behind to join Citrus. Aflalo, 28, cooked at Gary Danko and Aqua in San Francisco and previously had worked closely with Richard at Citronelle in Washington, D.C. He also worked at l'Essentiel in Chambery, France, and Nero Bianco in Namur, Belgium.
"He worked with me for three years, and I feel good having someone in my kitchen that I can trust," says Richard, who was in town earlier this month from D.C., presumably to help steer the ship after Lauvand's departure -- which raised questions about whether Citrus at Social, open since February, was drawing enough diners.
Expect modest menu changes. "I'm going to start testing recipes and there will be some changes, but I'm trying to implement Michel's style, his sense of the whimsical," Aflalo says.
"Some dishes we can't remove," Richard says, "the carpaccio mosaic, for instance" (thin slices of "surf, turf and earth" served on a platter -- raw beef, tuna, salmon, scallop and roasted pepper, garnished with frisee or pink grapefruit segments and a drizzle of basil and kumquat oils). Or his signature Kit Kat bar dessert (a rectangle of cocoa-dusted chocolate ganache with a layer of fine hazelnut praline). But it's no longer called Kit Kat. "Hershey's sent us a letter that we had to remove the name," Richard says.
Citrus at Social, 6525 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 462-5222.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo of Omri Aflalo by Betty Hallock
 It had been a bad week. A waiter had inadvertently dropped some sauce on the back of my jacket. I’d dropped heirloom tomato soup on my front. And at a Cantonese restaurant, the polyester napkins kept sliding off everyone’s lap. I complain to a friend that my cleaning bills are getting exorbitant.
“You have to use Carbona,” she told me. I’d never heard of it. “Oh, the Stain Devils are the best,” she enthused and backed that up by dropping off a trio of small bottles at my house the next day. I spilled. I tried. And I have to say, this stuff works. I got some longstanding spots out of a favorite old Issey Miyake cotton shirt. So far, the little bottle has taken out olive oil, chocolate, unspecified sauces.
What’s brilliant is that there’s a specific Stain Devil for just about everything. Stain Devils 2 Ketchup & Sauce removes mustard, spices, salsa and chocolate — and that’s the one I’ve been mostly using. No. 3 Ink/Crayon works on ball point pen, crayon, felt tip pen, pencil and roller ball ink.
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 Viet Noodle Bar in Atwater Village has just expanded (into this room, pictured right), and the restaurant's menu has expanded as well, as of last Friday. The owner, Viet Tran, also owns Viet Soy Cafe in Silver Lake, which is about the size of one of these tables. New dishes include bo xao cai-xoong (watercress beef salad), bun thang (organic chicken noodle soup), mi quang chay (vegan noodles with red leaf, mushrooms and tofu) and a lovely list of banh mi -- Vietnamese baguette sandwiches -- on baguettes made for the restaurant from its own recipe by a San Gabriel bakery. If you're in the neighborhood this Sunday, stop by for the expansion party, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m, which will feature sandwiches, spring rolls and wine from the shop down the street.
Viet Noodle Bar, 3133 Glendale Blvd., Atwater Village. (323) 906-1575. (Note: no alcohol or credit cards.)
-- Amy Scattergood
(Photo of Viet Noodle Bar by Amy Scattergood)
 Venice has been on a roll lately, with the opening of Gjelina on Abbot Kinney and now with a new Whole Foods Market on the corner of Rose and Lincoln. And although you might need a GPS locator or a treasure map to spot Gjelina (neither actual sign nor valet parking yet), finding the huge Whole Foods won't be a problem.
The new store is 48,000 square feet of the usual organic and eco-friendly rah-rahs, with a gelato bar, made-to-order sushi and a chocolate fountain (at left). Gjelina is pretty snazzy too. It has an outside patio with comfy couch and fire pit, cool wine bottle chandeliers, and pizzas cooked in a wood-burning oven (see here for restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila's first look).
But if you have only $2.50 in cash, as I did the other night, you're unlikely to find anything much in your price range at either place. What you will find, however, is La Oaxaquena taco truck, which is parked on Lincoln at Rose most nights. For $2.50 you can get two of the best carne asada tacos on the Westside. No valet parking necessary.
Gjelina, 1429 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, (310) 450-1429; Whole Foods Market, 225 Lincoln Blvd., Venice, (310) 566-9480; La Oaxaquena, on Lincoln at Rose, Venice.
-- Amy Scattergood
(Photo of Whole Foods chocolate fountain by Amy Scattergood)
 New in Koreatown is Haus, the all-dessert cafe on 6th Street, conveniently located across the street from Kyochon fried chicken. On a recent Monday night, the place was fully packed. Inside are tables flanked by big, stylish sofas, where dessert fans are diving into chocolate soufflé, passion fruit-mango cake and a serviceable apricot crème brulée tart, to the tunes of Chingy and Lupe Fiasco. Also for sale are various tea and coffee accessories.
There's plenty of patio seating outside, and one of the tables features its own fire pit. Plus there's patio-side valet parking.
The new "dessert boutique" is (highly) reminiscent of "coffee boutique" LA Mill in Silver Lake, right down to the Clover coffee machine, the embossed leather menu holders and the faux-ostrich upholstered chairs.
 But unique to Haus is the service buzzer (those ubiquitous-in-Koreatown buzzers attached to every table) -- which has three buttons: "Call," "Water" and "Bill." You won't get much service unless you use it (flagging down a waiter is much less effective). When you're ready to order, hit "Call" and a waiter comes directly to the table. Want water? Push the button and the next thing you know you have a glass of water in hand. Ready for the bill? Hit "Bill" and you're on your way. If only I had more magic buttons in my life.
Haus Dessert Boutique, 3826 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, (213) 388-5311.
-- Betty Hallock
(Photos of Haus by Betty Hallock)
 After being open for a little more than a year, Murano, a very white-hued Italian restaurant in West Hollywood, had become a bit less white -- so it closed down for a month to re-brighten its smile. Last night it threw open its doors to friends, family and celebrities--including Lucas Haas, Sophia Vergara, Stacy Keibler and Pauly Shore--to show off its pure-white walls and newly extended lounge area.
Guests and small bites by new executive chef Luciano Sautto (who hails from Naples) circulated freely beneath the delicate Murano glass chandeliers. Among the offerings were mini margherita pizzas, Parmesan and mozzarella risotto balls, bruschetta and potato croquettes.
Hoping for a lively nightlife scene in the lounge, which is outfitted with low-rise white leather booths and dark wood floors, owners Sandy Sachs and Robin Gans have installed a state-of-the-art sound system that isolates music in each room. That way the lounge can bump while the dining room remains demure.
Murano reopens to the public tonight. Look for a new piattini menu of small plates as well as $12 Tuesdays when the restaurant will offer a variety of hand-crafted pizzas, pastas and paninis for, yup, $12.
--Jessica Gelt
After Wednesday’s Bob Dylan concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, I’d planned to try out the late-night menu at Anisette a few blocks away. Well, getting out of the parking garage turned out to be something of a challenge with few cars moving for up to a half hour. My friends had more luck getting out and called from Anisette to say they were no longer serving a late-night menu on weeknights. Who knew? And you’d think the owners would have given it more than a few weeks tryout. It’s as bad as the networks pulling a show after the second week.
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 Kristopher Keith and his design firm Spacecraft are currently in various stages of putting together four new restaurants and bars in Hollywood and one in Pasadena.
First there's Adolfo Suaya's Deluxe, which is on Cahuenga near Selma and has been decked out by Keith to resemble something out of an Ayn Rand novel. The classically Art Deco bar and restaurant (Keith says that Eric Greenspan from the Foundry will most likely do the menu; Greenspan confirms that he is currently in negotiations with Suaya) is full of rich mahogany wood and the long bar, broken into two sections by a towering fireplace, is backed by a 10-by-50-foot emerald stained glass mural that features what looks like a large blimp and rows of city smoke stacks.
"I wanted to go for a sort of artistic Gotham City vibe," Keith says. Upstairs the ladies will be pleased to find a plush, red-walled dressing room with vanity mirrors and elegant chandeliers. (You can see more detail shots of Deluxe on Eater L.A.)
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 Cocktails, amici? Melrose Italian resto All' Angelo says it's time for a spriz -- an aperitivo to kick off the evening -- at its new first-come, first-served Spriz Bar.
Spriz -- the traditional northern Italian aperitif -- is made with Prosecco or white wine, soda water and bitters. Owner Stefano Ongaro's signature spriz classico is Foss Marai Prosecco and San Pellegrino Sanbitter (with hints of citrus). On the Spriz Bar menu are more than 10 selections of bubbly (Prosecco and Champagne), available by the glass, bottle or half-bottle -- Louis Roederer, Perrier-Jouët, Taittinger, Carpenè Malvolti, etc. -- and a selection of bellinis made with fresh mango, strawberry, blueberry and peach purées. And appetizers? Affetati misti (a selection of salumi), fritto misto, chicken liver pâté, sea urchin....
If only it were spriz time all the time.
All' Angelo, 7166 Melrose Ave., Los Anglees, (323) 933-9540.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo of Prosecco by Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
 El Bizcocho at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego has installed former Saddle Peak Lodge chef Steven Rojas to helm the stoves, and the restaurant's tasting-menu-only offerings go into full swing next month. (Ex-El Biz chef Gavin Kaysen left last fall for Cafe Boulud in New York.)
Rojas will prepare spontaneous menus of five, seven or as many courses as the guest wants. The restaurant also will debut its "Les Secrets de la Cuisine" menu -- "educational tableside tastings" -- including studies in mushrooms, Port, salts, dessert wines and butter. Two points off if you don't know your Bordier butter from your Plugra.
El Bizcocho, Rancho Bernardo Inn, 17550 Bernardo Oaks Drive, San Diego, (800) 675-8500.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo credit: Geraldine Wilkins/Los Angeles Times
 L.A.'s 5th Street, long considered the bleak heart of skid row, has been known for decades as "the nickel." Now a new diner, also called the Nickel, opened two days ago on Main Street, between 5th and 6th streets. That a trendy eatery perfectly set-dressed to resemble a pre-WWII-era diner, down to the old-school wallpaper, big red booths and scuffed floor tiles, would offer up such a tongue-in-cheek reference to this deeply troubled neighborhood is a bit disquieting.
Worse than that, however, are the glib drug references on the menu, which includes offerings such as "Smac and cheese" and 5- and 10-cent "bags" of food combinations. (Get it? Nickel and dime bags?) Also on offer are a variety of morning and afternoon pastries dubbed a.m. and p.m. "fixes."
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 Will Shamlian and Michael Leko's Library Bar in downtown L.A. is about to open a kitchen. Manager Carlos Perez says that a menu is currently in the works and that the kitchen will most likely be up and running in a couple of weeks.
"We've been saying 'a couple of weeks' for about a month now,' " Perez jokes. "That's got nothing to do with us though, it's all about construction and permits."
According to Perez, there will be about a dozen menu items, including specialty burgers and fries. Beyond that he says the food will not resemble typical bar food. "There won't be buffalo wings or shrimp poppers or anything like that," he says, adding that the chef is a friend of the owner and will be creating similar menus for Shamlian's Sapphire bar in Studio City and for a new bar that the group is planning to open in Manhattan Beach.
-- Jessica Gelt
Photo: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
 Taco trucks are back. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge today overturned an ordinance passed in April by county supervisors that made it a misdemeanor to park a taco truck in one spot for more than an hour. Read more here.
 Rustic Canyon Wine Bar & Seasonal Kitchen plans to open a bakery-cafe and retail space next spring about two blocks down the street from its restaurant, near the soon-to-open Santa Monica Seafood.
Owner Josh Loeb says Rustic pastry chef Zoe Nathan (whose star has been rising these days) "will be running the whole thing as far as food goes." Loeb isn't able to disclose the exact address yet because there's still a tenant in the space, but he says he's already signed the lease.
The new cafe, which is not yet named ("We've been bouncing names back and forth," says Loeb), will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will serve breakfast, lunch and take-out dinner. Expect farmers market salads and sandwiches along with pastries and fresh-baked bread from an on-site bread oven. There will also be gourmet retail items for sale in the cafe's marketplace.
Explaining the expansion, Loeb says, "The kitchen at Rustic is so small, we just can't do everything we'd like to do in it."
— Jessica Gelt
Photo by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
When I was young and poor and hanging out in Tuscany, I fell hard for pinzimonio. It was inexpensive. It was incredibly delicious. And it took a while to eat, perfect if you want to linger over dinner without spending too much.
Forget the dish of olive oil with your bread served at Italian restaurants here: nobody does it in Italy. But pinzimonio is a better way to assess and appreciate the virtues of a special bottle of extra-virgin olive oil. It’s basically a platter of raw vegetables -- baby fennel, celery, red bell peppers, cauliflower, carrots, scallions, et cetera, cut into strips or pieces and served with a small bowl of that deep-green-gold olive oil, the very best you can afford. (Peppery olio nuovo, new oil, is the ultimate.) It’s usually accompanied by sea salt. Some like to add a grinding of black peppercorns, too....
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 Step No. 1 on the menu at the Counter (the build-your-own-burger chain's newest location opened in Marina del Rey this month) is to "choose a burger." And one of the options under "choose a burger" is the "burger in a bowl." Nothing about a burger in a bowl seems right.
It's a bed of greens -- "lettuce blend" or "mixed baby greens" -- with your choice of meat patty and toppings, served in a shallow bowl, like a salad. (At least the "protein style" In-N-Out burger -- also no bun -- is wrapped the same way a regular burger in a bun is wrapped, and eaten the same way a burger with a bun is eaten. There's still some burger experience there.)
At the new BLT Burger in Las Vegas, "The Stripper" is a stack of a 7-ounce beef patty with lettuce, onion, bell pepper and avocado. No buns. (Kids, cover your eyes!)
Early on, there were bun complaints at Govind Armstrong's new 8 oz. burger bar on Melrose -- as in a bun too large for the burger; others thought the bun a good juice-sopping size. But no bunless options on the menu.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo of the Counter's "burger in a bowl" by Betty Hallock
 Whether you like it or not, "Beverly Hills, 90210" is back. The iconic teen drama of the '90s has received a millennial face lift, a truncated name (it's just "90210" now) and a fresh cast imbued with the same weird plastic qualities as Brenda, Brandon, Kelly and Donna.
Also back is the Peach Pit diner, where the hormone-addled teens hang out and gossip. The diner's exterior is actually the Kokomo Cafe on Beverly, which used to be Eat Well but morphed into Kokomo this year when the latter was ousted from the Farmers Market (Farmers Market owner A.F. Gilmore Co. decided not to renew Kokomo's lease).
The cafe has announced some special "90210"-inspired menu items to debut in conjunction with the series (which begins Sept. 2) and run through September.
The thought of eating a "Mr. Wilson Burger" or a "Tabitha breakfast," which is "named in honor of Tabitha Wilson ... an aging former Hollywood starlet who enjoys her liquor a little too much," fills me with dread. But I'm not in the tween demographic that will be screaming for their parents to take them to the Peach Pit.
You might catch a glimpse of these label-conscious Twitter fiends at Kokomo on Sept. 2 when the restaurant celebrates the series premiere by offering complimentary "90210" menu items from 2 to 4 p.m. Just don't try to order the "90210 breakfast" (a bottle of Dom Perignon and fresh strawberries and cream, $250) -- they're not giving that one away.
-- Jessica Gelt
Photo by Jordin Althaus / the CW, copyright 2008, the CW Network
 I just received what I think is an odd press release from Pinot Bistro. It announces the advent of a power-lunch menu called "Cuisine Rapide" that was created by Pinot's new executive chef Hugo Veltman. The menu, which will change on a weekly basis, solves the problem of gourmet lunch-starved executives and film industry types who can't find time to accommodate the intricate meals they regularly crave.
The release promises to feed these people a three-course lunch and have them out of the restaurant in just 45 minutes. How will Pinot accomplish that? Simple: "There is no waiting between courses because they are all served together."
To me this seems a bit grotesque. It conjures up images of diners, Bluetooths grafted to their ears, rapidly shoveling food down their throats.
The menu items promised include hand-chopped organic beef tartare, onion soup gratinee with Comte cheese, steamed mussels with French fries, frisee spinach salad, and tarte tatin. That sounds like really nice food worthy of spending some quality time with.
I say if you can't set aside time to enjoy a fine meal as it was meant to be enjoyed--course by course--then go out for a nice sandwich. Your dinner will taste all the better for it.
--Jessica Gelt
Photo by Ricardo DeAratanha for the Los Angeles Times
 A pair of new restaurants, the Beachcomber Cafe and Malibu Pier Club, fit into a grander scheme — the careful restoration of the historic Malibu Pier. Each had to be built within the footprints and remains of structures that dated back to the pier's early days, when it was a hot spot for film and TV shoots, in addition to celebrity sports fishing. Channel Gidget, hold on to summer, and read more here.
 Over the weekend, I took my visiting father and my two kids to Typhoon, the restaurant at the Santa Monica airport that serves, among other things, insects. This was not to gross out the kids but to illustrate a point of family history. When I was little, my dad went through a phase when he'd bring home tins of exotic stuff like escargots, frogs' legs and chocolate-covered ants — not to make us eat them but for the entertainment value.
So I ordered a plate of scorpions on toast, another of crickets with stir-fried garlic and julienned potatoes (below, right). Just for fun. The girls got noodles and pad Thai and "normal food." But I underestimated the dare factor. Seven-year-old Sophie (left, with scorpion) ate ...
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 After being open for nearly a month the Stork supper club, adjacent to the Hollywood & Highland mega-mall, is ready for its close-up. Wednesday night more than 500 party people surged into the venue for its official grand opening fete.
The skirts were small and the drinks were stiff as the crowd got down to the music of DJ Marshall Barnes. The club looks like a concrete warehouse with modernist lines and a stark lack of decoration. A large outdoor smoking lounge and bar has uber-close views of the Kodak Theatre sign and also of the restaurant patio in a lush courtyard below.
The restaurant's menu was created by prolific restaurateur Steven Arroyo and the kitchen is helmed by former 750 ml chef Greg Bernhardt (who will move on to oversee Church & State, which Arroyo says will open after Labor Day). Arroyo describes the food at the Stork as "modern French American," adding that it's "not fine dining, just fun dining." Think burgers, BLTs, fish and chips and salads. Arroyo says the restaurant, which is open Tuesday through Saturday, is filling up on most nights so reservations are recommended.
-- Jessica Gelt
Photo credit: Jessica Gelt
Scenario: You ordered your steak on the rare side of medium rare, yet when it arrives at the table, it has only the faintest blush of pink and is definitely more medium than medium rare. Do you say anything, or just grin and bear it and vow never to go back to that restaurant?
Consider this before you decide to stay mum: If you don't let the server know your steak is overcooked, you're not giving the restaurant a chance to correct the mistake and win you back. Yet I'm willing to bet most people don't say anything. It's seen as bad behavior, or somehow embarrassing. One diner might be afraid of channeling his clueless uncle who enjoyed routinely humiliating waitresses. Someone else might worry about sounding like her impossible-to-please mother.
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 Unless you're Mia Farrow, it's highly likely that you've caught some Michael Phelps -- I mean, Olympic -- fever. So have some restaurants around town:
West at Hotel Angeleno is offering opening ceremony dishes for $8.88 such as "chicken javelin throws" (chicken skewers). The obsession with the number 8 continues: Boa Steakhouse is offering a four-course "Infinite Deal" menu (steaks and sides such as Caesar salad, garlic whipped potatoes and mac-n-cheese), for $88.08 per couple. The deal is available for 88 days.
Vinoteque is kicking off its Olympic-tied events with a special $8 menu during the opening ceremony, aired on its jumbo flat screen TVs. Other events include Sunday's "Dream Team" brunch in honor of the U.S. men's basketball team.
Darren's in Manhattan Beach is offering an Olympic menu with dishes that represent countries participating in the Games -- Spanish charcuterie and Manchego cheese (Spain); spicy ahi tartare over sweet rice cake (Japan); pan-seared frog legs (China); marinated shrimp and queso fresco (Peru).... During happy hour (5 to 6:30 p.m. weekdays), these dishes are half-price. And unlike at the opening ceremony procession, there are no diplomatic problems about which country follows which.
West at Hotel Angeleno, 170 N. Church Lane, West Los Angeles, (310) 476-6411. Boa Steakhouse, 8462 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 650-8383. Vinoteque, 4437 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, (310) 482-3490. Darren's, 1141 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, (310) 802-1973.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo credit: Roslan Rahman / Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
 This week's Food cover story, "A Cool Way to Finish" by Chez Panisse alum David Leibovitz, features some show-stopping desserts that are easy to make with no baking required.
Keeping the oven off is nice when you're trying to beat the heat in the kitchen during a hot summer, but what do you do when you're trying to shoot those star desserts for their front-page close-ups under super-hot lights?
At the Times Test Kitchen, we not only test every recipe you read, we also shoot most of the food you see in the paper. We prepare it, style it and then work with a photographer and art director to make sure you see each dish at its most delicious best. Certain dishes, such as those desserts, require a bit more forethought and preparation...
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 Anyone wanting a "baco" fix best get themselves over to Echo Park's Lot 1 before closing on Thursday night, which will be chef Josef Centeno's last night behind the stoves. Centeno and the restaurant's owner Eileen Leslie are parting ways.
Centeno, previously at Opus at Wilshire and Western, has drawn favorable attention from Los Angeles restaurant journalists since Lot 1 opened in early May with him in the kitchen. The chef said via cellphone this afternoon that he wants to open his own restaurant, but not anytime soon. "I'm going underground," said Centeno. "I'm not going to cook for a while."
Lot 1, 1533 W. Sunset Blvd., Echo Park, (213) 481-8400.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
 After 11 years in business caterer and restaurateur Jennie Cook is being forced out of her current Culver City location at 9806 Washington Blvd. by skyrocketing rent. August 8 will be the restaurant's last day. She will relocate her catering business, Jennie Cooks, to the Silver Lake area (3048 N. Fletcher, near San Fernando) in late August.
"I'm trying not to call my landlord names in public any more," says Cook who recently sent a strongly worded e-mail blast about her current predicament to the 2,100 customers on her e-mail list.
When Cook first opened Cook's Double Dutch on once sleepy Washington Blvd. her rent was $3,500. She's currently paying $7,000 and she says her landlord is angling to up her rent to $9,000. Last year she says he refused to renew her lease and she has been dealing with swiftly escalating rent ever since.
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 Joachim Splichal's Patina Restaurant Group has been playing musical chefs lately. Patina executive chef Theo Schoenegger is leaving Splichal's Disney Hall flagship to open his own restaurant in Vegas (Patina reps say no word yet on his successor); Cafe Pinot exec chef Kevin Meehan took over at Paperfish in March, replacing that restaurant's exec chef Yanni Koufodontis. Now Cafe Pinot has named a new executive chef: Gypsy Gifford. (Music stops.)
Gifford--born in England, raised in San Diego--is a CIA alum and a 2-year veteran of Rocco DiSpirito's now-closed Manhattan restaurant Union Pacific. She was chef de cuisine at Bao 111 and executive chef at Rain, both in New York, before moving back to California three months ago. Gifford unveiled some of her new dishes on Tuesday night at a cocktail reception held at Cafe Pinot's pretty garden patio (olive trees, library). Among them ("Joachim said, 'By the end of the month, it's your menu.' ") were Banyuls-glazed organic beets with housemade ricotta cheese, spiced Macadamia nuts and citrus vinaigrette; a duo of Wagyu carpaccio and Kona Kampachi tartare; and a "counting sheep sandwich" (below, left).
The latter is a stack of roasted lamb on toasted ciabatta with sheeps' milk cheeses, sheeps' milk yogurt sauce, cucumber and lamb's lettuce salad. "It's a tribute to my insomnia," said Gifford. "Kind of like a Philly cheese sandwich crossed with a schwarma." A woman exec chef AND schwarma. Sounds like somebody won this round of musical chefs. Like maybe we did.
Cafe Pinot, 700 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles. (213) 239-6500.
--Amy Scattergood
photo credit: Patina Restaurant Group
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 Amid the clatter and frenzy Saturday night at Pizzeria Mozza sat our small dish of mussels, guarded by our party of three as if it were water from the fountain of youth. The shells sat empty, scattered around the perimeter of the flat bowl that still had plenty of the garlic-crazed broth they were cooked in.
It was our waiter who told us not to let the busboys take it away. “Dunk your pizza crusts in it,” he said. “It’s what all the locals do.” I can’t be certain, but it seemed as though we tore through the Gorgonzola, rosemary, potato pizza, the prosciutto and arugula pizza and the mushroom and cheese pizza with the sole purpose of getting our crusts into that broth. That night, we were all locals.
— Tenny Tatusian
Photo by Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times
It’s an hour before dinner and I’m just about to go downstairs and do my meditation: ironing napkins. If my mother heard about it, she’d laugh like crazy. As a kid, I used to rail against having to iron my dad’s handkerchiefs and shirts. Why couldn’t he do it? I’d complain, wanting to be outside, anywhere but stuck in a gloomy room maneuvering the point of the iron into collar corners. My mother, I guess, didn’t like the task much, either, and had foisted it off on me.
I still don’t iron much. Just my napkins. But somehow I find the act of smoothing those cloth squares with the hot iron oddly soothing. I’m not a perfectionist about it. Not at all. I pick the napkins up at flea markets or brocantes (junk stores) when I’m in France. One set I bought in Alsace at least 20 years ago and I’m still using them.
At home, we always used paper napkins. We might have had one set of cloth ones my mother trotted out with her silver on special occasions, i.e., Thanksgiving and Christmas. But, inspired by my friend Mary who uses beautiful hand-embroidered napkins for everyday, I now use mine all the time. If you wash them the next day, most of the stains come right out. Mary, though, sticks hers in a bucket of Biz the night before. Simple. And such a daily pleasure.
-- S. Irene Virbila
 Though it's been some years since I've cared how many stars Michelin bestows in France and elsewhere, I must confess that somehow, in the last few days, I got swept up in the buzz about the publication of the first Michelin guide for L.A. There was all the commotion over the results being leaked, and who got how many stars, and I don't know, on Friday, when Food's assistant editor Betty Hallock found her way onto the unpublished list on the Michelin website, it suddenly seemed exciting.
Tonight, much of L.A.'s food press is celebrating the publication at a party at Les Deux, but I took home my copy of the Michelin Guide Los Angeles 2008 and skimmed it over bad pizza and a glass of red.
I was stunned at what I read. Beyond the stars and the fourchettes, there are the descriptions themselves. The Foundry's Eric Greenspan, I find, "learned from El Bulli disciplines in Spain." (What does that mean?) At Chameau, you can "end your Moroccan respite with a Spanish Muscatel." At Water Grill, diners "can drop anchor" and "the chef's busy brigade creates swells of satisfaction." The writing makes the Zagat guide look like "Ulysses."
Who could write such stuff, and where are their editors? Meanwhile, if the "anonymous inspectors" who bestowed the stars had reasons for anointing some chefs and dissing others, it's hard to understand them. Unlike in the European guides, the L.A.-edition entries read like little puff pieces, and one doesn't have the sense that the writers know much at all about food. At Wilshire, "there's no mistaking the components of diver scallops seared in clarified butter and served with creamy roasted fingerling and spicy chorizo." The chef there, we're told, is Warren Schwartz. (Don't tell Chris Blobaum!) Tre Venezie in Pasadena gets a star. Why? "Dishes here are not based on thick tomato sauces, olive oil and basil as they are elsewhere." Yup, we're getting pretty fed up with them thick tomato sauces too.
And Asian cooking? Nope, they don't get it.
Japanese food gets the most respect, but little understanding. Here's an excerpt from the listing for Mori Sushi in West L.A., which gets one star: "This, as chef/owner Morihiro Onodera asserts, is a sushi restaurant, serving only fish and vegetables." At Urasawa, which gets two stars, we're told that "sushi placed atop warm rice mixed with grated wasabi must be eaten within ten seconds." Beyond that, the only dishes mentioned are a carved turnip filled with "a fragrant garlic and ginger shrimp paste" and "cubes of Wagyu beef cooked in smoky-sweet ponzu sauce" that "fall apart on the tongue."
Meanwhile, only four Chinese restaurants -- Empress Pavilion, Mr. Chow, Yang Chow and Yujean Kang's -- are included. I'm sorry, but that's just wrong in the city whose Chinese restaurants arguably rival Hong Kong's. (Triumphal Palace, Elite and Ocean Star apparently aren't serious enough for inclusion.)
As for Thai, Michelin includes Cholada, Saladang Song and Talesai. It's enough to make you cry.
The book is filled with errors (Monte Alban, it tells us, is Spanish for "white mountain"), omissions (if you're going to give Spago two stars, it might be worth mentioning that the chef is Lee Hefter) and weirdnesses (Bar Marmont but not Chateau Marmont).
So, ye chefs who are fretting because you didn't get the stars you feel you deserve, relax. Once L.A.'s food lovers get their hands on the red book in question, it's hard to imagine they'll take it seriously.
Michelin Guide Los Angeles 2008, available in bookstores beginning Wednesday, $14.95.
-- Leslie Brenner
 We're so lucky to live in L.A. Whatever high-end dining rooms Michelin decides to sanctify with stars (which will become clear next week, when the first L.A. and Las Vegas guides will be published), it's hard to understand this town as a food lover unless you live here. There's deliciousness around every corner, from the carnitas on the taco truck to the big bowl of pho in the strip mall.
Take lunch, if you work downtown. Corie Brown and I decided to grab a quick bite of dim sum at Ocean Seafood -- just a quick bite.
 Here's what we got. A big plate of the most beautiful baby-baby bok choy. Delicate scallop dumplings with transparent pink skin. A bowl of soup that was almost completely taken up with a ruffled dumpling filled with seafood and vegetables. Fantastic BBQ duck. I won't even tell you what else because there were just the two of us. (OK, we brought plenty of stuff back to the office.)
So what if Michelin decides nothing here is worthy of three stars. We can eat like royalty here, every day of the week.
Ocean Seafood, 750 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, (213) 687-3088.
-- Leslie Brenner
Photos by Leslie Brenner
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 I'm just back from a sort of pizza tour of the Balkans. In Croatia, right across the Adriatic from Italy, they pride themselves on making classic Italian pizzas. However, at a fashionable Zagreb pizza place called Mezzo & Mezzo, I found a distinctly Croatian pizza -- pepperoni topped with sour cream.
It wasn't exactly pepperoni pizza -- it used a Croatian sausage that's larger and a little less rich than pepperoni, and it included chopped onions and finely sliced bell peppers. Altogether it was a well-considered creation and I thought it was terrific, if you don't mind a pretty rich pizza. The only problem was that the sour cream makes the center of the pie kind of soggy, so you have to eat it with a knife and fork. But it turns out that's how the Zagrebines tend to eat pizza anyway.
In Bulgaria, a couple of places put cucumber pickles on pizzas, usually ones that included smoked chicken (which in Bulgaria is pink and hard to tell from ham). The restaurant behind the archeology museum in Sofia had a neat one, with all the ingredients diced very fine, and there was a rowdier one at a Sofia blues and jazz joint called Toucan -- it was my favorite because the pickles were cut in big chunks that stayed crisp. Toucan also had a pizza made with pickles and frankfurters (see photo). Both included lots of Bulgarian yellow cheese and a dose of marjoram.
All this raises a question: Is pizza really an open-faced sandwich on really, really thin bread, served hot? If so, why shouldn't the customer get some pickles with the old ham and cheese, or the cheese dog? Or sour cream whenever the mood strikes?
-- Charles Perry
Photo by Charles Perry
The newly expanded Joan's on Third has finally opened (looking very sparkly and very Dean &  DeLuca) so I stopped in for breakfast this morning. Breakfast for me turned out to be a latte and gelato in brioche -- a big scoop of dark chocolate gelato (from the new gelato bar) sandwiched between a sliced brioche bun and sprinkled with powdered sugar and wrapped in white paper. "Just like on the streets of Palermo," said manager Chester Hastings.
But the real breakfast menu from the new kitchen includes a soft-boiled organic farm egg with toasted pain de mie, a French omelette with sour cream (owner Joan McNamara used to have an omelette restaurant in New York), buttermilk pancakes and chocolate French toast. An antique communal table is decorated with rosemary topiary. (Joan's planning to hit the flea market when she's in Rome next month for more of her final touches.)
 The cheese counter has expanded, there's more wine (and wines by the glass will soon be offered) and a new olive bar; you'll even find some fresh produce and frozen cookie dough in the back corner.
And they're now open at 8 a.m. (until 8 p.m.), for those early-morning gelato-in-brioche cravings.
Joan's on Third, 8350 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (323) 655-2285.
-- Betty Hallock
Photos by Betty Hallock
 At long last, the moment I had been waiting for since last fall: great peaches. I was running late Wednesday morning but had a feeling I'd be missing something if I didn't stop at the Santa Monica farmers market. I headed straight for Fitz Kelley's stand (Fitzgerald's Premium Ripe Tree Fruit, right on the corner of 2nd and Arizona). There they were -- gorgeous. I leaned down and smelled them -- a good perfume, even this early in the season. I bought.
After dinner I did my very favorite thing with them, learned from my in-laws in southwest France. With some red wine left in my glass, I peeled one and sliced it right into the wine. I ate them with a spoon out of the wine glass. It's the best dessert in the world.
-- Leslie Brenner
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Chef Josef Centeno left Lot 1 in Echo Park in July, with the aim of opening his own place, but meanwhile, he has spent the last month consulting at Bar Celona in Pasadena. The menu, which was more "Old Town" than truly Spanish-inspired, has received an overhaul. 
