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 They're in season, and we need recipes! It's a request we get in the test kitchen every now and again, as some wonderful fruit or vegetable comes into season and we want to make the most of its abundance.
And so it was with figs. The kitchen was requested -- last summer actually -- to either create or test various recipes for the amazing figs everyone was finding. We came up with four. One recipe ran just towards the end of the season last year, an adaptation of Rose Levy Berenbaum's amazing fig and mascarpone tart. The remaining were held in reserve until the season rolled around again.
Here we are, finally! This week Russ has a Farmer's Market column on figs, and we've included recipes for a grilled fig salad and warm fig salsa. But we've got one more for you: "Roasted figs with blue cheese, toasted hazelnuts and wild honey" from Literati 2. The recipe is adapted from Chris Kidder, former chef of the restaurant (he's since left to pursue other ventures), and was something we just had to share.
 Roasted figs stuffed with blue cheese, toasted hazelnuts and wild honey
1 basket fresh figs, preferably Turkey or Mission, 15 to 20 pieces
6 to 8 ounces good-quality blue cheese
2 tablespoons good-quality balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon good-quality olive oil
2 tablespoons toasted and roughly-chopped hazelnuts
1 tablespoon wild honey
1teaspoon sea salt
1 dozen arugula leaves, preferably wild*
4 to 6 fresh fig leaves, optional*
1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Keeping the stem intact, make a cut from the stem toward the base, halving the figs, but stop two-thirds of the way down, being careful not to cut all the way through. Turn the figs 90 degrees, and slice again two-thirds of the way down to the base. Open the fig by gently pulling the "petals" back a bit.
2. Place a small piece of cheese, about a teaspoon, in the center of each fig. The amount will vary depending on the size of the fig.
3. Select a shallow baking dish just large enough to hold all the figs side by side and line it with the optional fig leaves. Place the stuffed figs in the dish, stem-side up. Drizzle the vinegar and olive oil evenly over the figs, and sprinkle with the sea salt.
4. Place the dish in the oven and roast until the cheese is warmed and a bit runny, and the figs are cooked and just browning on the tops, about 5to 8 minutes.
5. Sprinkle the hazelnuts over the roasted figs and drizzle over the honey. Scatter the arugula over the top and serve immediately.
* Wild arugula and fresh fig leaves are available at selected farmer's markets.
- Noelle Carter
Photos by Bob Chamberlin and Noelle Carter
 Pastry chef Danielle Keene has left BLT Steak, Laurent Tourondel's Sunset Boulevard steakhouse, for the joint kitchens of the Little Door and Little Next Door, on Beverly. Keene, who changed toques a month ago, was previously at Wilshire, in Santa Monica, where she started Ice Cream Shoppe Night. The Culver City-born, Sherman Oaks-bred chef says she wanted more menu flexibility — but that what she really wants is, unsurprisingly, an ice cream shop of her own. All in good time. Meanwhile, Keene, whose resume includes Water Grill, Campanile, AOC and Blair's, is busy making exquisite macarons (yesterday's included blueberry, raspberry, lavender and coconut-caramel), fig and hazelnut poundcake, strawberry-hazelnut Linzer cookies — and pistachio-lemon semifreddo, since the restaurant doesn't have an ice cream machine. Yet. When Nicolas Peter, chef at both the Little Door and Little Next Door, got back in town after a week on the East Coast, Keene said she greeted him warmly: "How was your vacation? When are we getting the ice cream maker?"
The Little Door, 8164 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles. (323) 951-1210; Little Next Door, 8142 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles. (323) 951-1010.
— Amy Scattergood
Photo by Amy Scattergood
As one of the writers responsible for reviewing neighborhood restaurants for the Find column, I'd like to take a moment to thank Times readers for their scouting tips. We get e-mails every day with your recommendations and we follow up on most of them — often with excellent results. We can't write about every restaurant that does a pretty good job, but even if we don't do a full review, we often take notes on a particular aspect of a place and highlight it in an article (such as last Wednesday's "Delicious Deals") that makes brief reference to dozens of restaurants. Or a place might show up in an article that offers a list of the best of a certain category of restaurants — such as British pubs or Hong Kong-style coffee shops.
Lately, readers have tipped us off to a Peruvian place in Downey (no name, but it's at 9484 Firestone Blvd., (562) 401-1017) and a spot called Goody's, (626) 286-3515, that's been in San Gabriel at 865 E. Las Tunas Drive for 50 years(!). Someone referred us to Pita Fresh Grill in Fountain Valley, and someone else wants us to try the white cake with strawberry filling at Palace Bakery, 2708 N. Broadway, Los Angeles (Lincoln Heights), (323) 225-2569. There's also a place called Utopia for coffee and sandwiches at 2311 Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica, (310) 315-4375, on the list — and a Thai place called Nakkara at 7669 Beverly Blvd. near the Grove, (323) 937-3100. If you get to any of them before we do, let us know what you think.
And I'm looking for recommendations for great date-night vegetarian spots, places that have a bit of ambience, a little style. Any suggestions?
— Susan LaTempa
Guess who’s coming for dinner? Chef Thomas Keller.
The city of Beverly Hills gave final approval Tuesday night on a deal that will bring a local restaurant from the only American chef with two Michelin three-star establishments. (His Napa Valley restaurant the French Laundry is a mecca for all self-respecting foodies.) Keller will be opening a Bouchon bistro in Beverly Hills by fall 2009 if all goes according to schedule. And that means Southern California food lovers wanting a taste of the chef's food will no longer have to travel to Las Vegas, New York or Northern California. Times food writer Russ Parsons has the story.
 If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, Muhammad will go to the mountain. Oh wait, no, if the mountain won't come to Joachim, Joachim will go to the mountain.
It seems that Joachim Splichal's Patina Restaurant Group has no bounds. Splichal has restaurants or kiosks all over New York (including at the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center!); New Jersey; Tanglewood, Mass.; Orlando, Fla.; Los Angeles; Orange County; and Las Vegas. Now Patina Group has its sights set on Mammoth Mountain.
According to a news release, Mammoth Mountain resort and Patina Group have announced a partnership to introduce "on-mountain food operations" and "off-the-slopes fine dining establishments." "On-mountain food operations"? Does that mean snacks at Chair 25?
— Betty Hallock
Photo by Mammoth Mountain
 Hollywood neighborhood spot Ammo has a new chef, Julia Wolfson, who previously worked at Le Bernardin and Blue Hill in Manhattan and Applewood in Brooklyn. Ammo started out as a takeout counter and caterer to the local film production crowd, underwent a remodel in 2004 and now owner Amy Sweeney is living in Ojai. On Wolfson's new menu: grilled baby octopus with summer bean salad; ricotta and mint ravioli with braised lamb ragout; and pan-seared Tasmanian sea trout with roasted cipollinis, sautéed pea shoots and bacon vinaigrette. There are still those thin, crisp-edged pizzas that are baked in the restaurant's wood-burning oven. And they're holding fast to the turkey meat loaf too.
1155 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 871-2666.
— Betty Hallock
Photo by Richard Hartog
 So I'm having dinner with some friends at Shillelagh's, a new restaurant at East 4th Street and Temple Avenue in Long Beach. It's in an up-and-coming part of the downtown area right next door to a pool hall, which makes it sound grungy but actually lends a little something to the casual atmosphere. (This is, after all, the LBC.) The menu has a little bit of everything — burgers, salads, pastas, some seafood dishes, etc. I went with the BBQ burger because it came with something called "broccoli slaw." Never heard of that before. When the burger arrived — with thick slab onion rings on top!!! — I peered down at the plate. Um.
"Where's the broccoli slaw?" I asked the waitress. She pointed to my side dish. (Clearly, she'd had this question before.)
Turns out Shillelagh's makes its slaw by turning broccoli stalks into a julienne, then tossing them in a light, tangy dressing. No "treetops" in sight. I tried to detect where the sweetness was coming from — this is definitely a dish I'd like to try to duplicate at home. "Uh-oh," my husband said, rolling his eyes. "She's trying to reverse-engineer it."
At one point, I thought I'd narrowed it down to maple syrup. But who puts maple syrup on broccoli — am I right?
Turns out owner Donnie Larson does. He was kind enough to confirm that when he stopped by the table to see how our meal had been. He also told us that the chard on my friend's plate had been handpicked that afternoon from a garden just up the street. I was thrilled at finding a new neighborhood restaurant, and figuring out a secret ingredient. It was like winning the Quick Fire challenge on "Top Chef." Only there was no Padma. (Too bad for my husband.)
Now I just need some help figuring out the rest of that dish. Anyone out there have a recipe that comes close to this description?
— Rene Lynch
Photo by Ron Joseph
 From The Guide: "Pamela Anderson is known worldwide for her fight to end animal cruelty via her work with groups like PETA. Naturally, she is vegan. Anderson is also an avowed lover of Los Angeles, so we find out where the actress is eating out these days (or at least sending out her assistant to grab something for her)."
Read more here. Any vegan restaurants out there that Pam needs to know about?
— Rene Lynch
Photo: Reuters
 There's fresh paint on the walls in the dining room at Cafe Stella in Silver Lake, because the dining room just got a little bigger.
The bistro's courtyard is always charmingly alluring — it's outdoors but covered (and lined with potted olive trees), tucked away from traffic along Sunset Boulevard. In the evening, the candlelit patio seems to warmly glow as locals and various expats sip aperitifs. As long as you're not sitting directly under a speaker blasting out Edith Piaf, it's quite lovely.
The tables on the patio are highly coveted, but there's spillover room in the two small rooms that house the quaint bar and a separate dining room, which now fits a few more tables.
— Betty Hallock
Photo by Betty Hallock
 Leave it to the Silver Lake coffee "boutique" to elevate the freebie. Until 10 p.m. tonight, LA Mill is giving out free cups of coffee from Rwanda's Bufcafe mill. This isn't just a paper cup of average joe either, but heady stuff, tasting of dark chocolate and black cherry, with great, full body and a marvelous grapey finish. (OK, so I read the accompanying tasting notes, but it really does taste like that.) And, if you ask nicely, your tattooed barista will hand over your coffee in the form of a nicely pulled shot of espresso (see left) -- or run some freshly ground beans through one of the two crimson Clovers. Contents of a nearby donation jar go to Bikes to Rwanda, which helps create jobs for villagers in that country.
And after you've been properly caffeinated, you can always spring for one of Adrian Vasquez's pastries or chocolates — or a pork belly panino — before you go.
LA Mill Coffee Boutique, 1636 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 663-4441.
— Amy Scattergood
Photo by Amy Scattergood
A couple of months ago, I wrote a story on the latest round of restaurant openings in Vegas. The best bargain I found as part of that story was the elegant buffet breakfast at Payard Pâtisserie in Caesars Palace — $16 for coffee, fresh-squeezed juice, as many of the exquisite morning pastries as you could eat, plus cereals, yogurt parfaits and house-smoked salmon with all the fixings.
However, it seems as if the management at Payard felt that petit déjeuner was too much of a bargain. A reader alerted me soon after that the price was now $22. OK, it was underpriced at $16, but isn’t that the definition of a bargain? Still, a $6 hike seems a bit steep.
In another change, the bistro is no longer serving its dessert tasting at night, which is a real shame. I guess they never developed enough of an audience.
Payard Pâtisserie & Bistro, Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas; (702) 731-7110. Open daily 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for breakfast; 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch.
— S. Irene Virbila
 Gordon Ramsay bestowed his presence at the opening party for his restaurant Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood last night. Also in attendance: David Beckham. As well as Sona chef David Myers, Campanile's Mark Peel and chef de cuisine Matt Accarrino, pastry chef Catherine Schimenti and general manager Adam Rosenbaum from Craft. Jared Heber, formerly Mozza's wine director, is now pouring (last night it was champagne) at Gordon Ramsay. But after rubbing shoulders (literally) with Beckham and receiving a kiss-kiss from Ramsay, I was left hungry. Sure, there were canapés -- lobster consommé gelée and a tray or two of sushi -- and macarons, panna cotta and tartlets. But too little of it all. (Even when one stood shamelessly by the kitchen door waiting for servers to come out with the trays.) I stopped at Echo Park taco truck Taco Zone on Alvarado and had six tacos: two carne asada, two carnitas, a chorizo and pastor.
Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood, 1020 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 358-7788. Taco Zone, on Alvarado between Sunset and Glendale boulevards, near Vons, Los Angeles.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
 At 7:30 this morning, Alain Giraud's new brasserie Anisette officially opened its doors. The former Bastide chef was right there, looking dapper in his chef's whites; in fact, he opened the doors himself ("Now is showtime," he said). The brasserie, in Santa Monica's Clocktower building, is drop-dead gorgeous: two stories, open staircase, tiled floors, wooden tables, mirrors and slowly spinning ceiling fans and a long bar of French hand-poured pewter. 
Upstairs there are more tables and an open kitchen, where you can see rows of hanging copper pots and the marble counters of the patisserie station. The breakfast menu (lunch and dinner begin next week) is classic French fare: Viennoiserie by pastry chef Mehdi Boudiab (formerly of Breadbar); crepes (pictured at right); omelets; a smoked salmon plate with Michel Blanchet salmon and brioche; eggs Benedict; Belgian waffles with dulce de leche and Nutella; and so on.
"You know, exactly four years ago I left Bastide," said Giraud, who noted that yesterday was his birthday. Well, happy birthday, chef. Welcome back.
Anisette Brasserie, 225 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica. (310) 395-3200. Breakfast, 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Monday to Friday; brunch this weekend and lunch and dinner to follow next week.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photos by Amy Scattergood
Last Friday, she was the guest of honor at a secret supper celebrating the book to be released by Sasquatch Books in October. (Jenn is the pretty redhead in the green sweater. I'm the lady on the left.) Garbee arrived at The Times two years ago as a kitchen intern. A smashing writer as well as a cook, we put her to work on the editorial side as well. Garbee has moved on to be the editor of a new lifestyle magazine -- Santa Monica Style -- to launch this fall, but to our delight, she continues to write for The Times.
In her book, Garbee takes the reader to 10 underground restaurants across the country, with recipes at the end of each chapter. "They are all completely different. Some are grungy, some are professional chefs, some are home cooks, some are who knows what. That's what I like best about them. Go to one, find another, go again," Garbee says. You never have the same experience twice.
Friday's dinner was an al fresco event in the backyard gardens of floral designer Tara Kolla hosted by Carrie Norton, founder of Silver Lake Supper Club. Norton is a home cook who loves to entertain and, so far, she's hosted four underground dinners. "She does it for fun -- to meet people, gather people, share food," Garbee says. Make money? Forget about it. Secret suppers are less profitable than joyful. Rich Mead, exec chef-owner of Sage on the Coast in Newport Beach (Chapter 9), created Friday night's meal. There were two appetizers offered to guests when they arrived: grilled garlic bruschetta with tomato jam, arugula and fresh mozzarella and Vietnamese-style butter lettuce cups filled with green papaya salad, barbecue beef and spicy Thai sauce. Dinner was served family style starting with a green salad tossed with strawberries, goat cheese and pistachios. There were two main dishes: a slow-cooked Schaner Farms whole pig with tomatillos and steamed sesame teriyaki Loch Duarte Scottish salmon on soba noddles with grilled baby bok choy. Dessert was a sensational collection of pastries by Zoe Nathan, pastry chef at Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen (Chapter 10). I'm still dreaming about the fresh blueberry corn cake with vanilla ice cream. Amazing! -- Corie Brown
Photo by Chris Fager
 After dinner at Farmer and Cook in Ojai, the dessert options were: vegan cookies or "dulce de leche" cake with fresh Pakistani mulberries from the chef's backyard. Umm, guess which option I took. And it turns out I got the last of the mulberries that night; other orders of cake that came out after mine were sans mulberries. Whew! But I'm still waiting for Persian mulberries (rounder, sweeter, more perfumed) to come my way, hopefully in the very near future.
Farmer and Cook, 339 W. El Roblar, Ojai, (805) 646-0960. Farm cafe hours: Friday to Sunday, 5 to 8:30 p.m.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo by Betty Hallock
 I loved those '80s Fruit of the Loom commercials that featured the Fruit of the Loom Guys -- you remember -- Apple, Purple Grapes, Green Grapes, Leaf. And I'm even a fan of their more recent work -- such as the music video "Blue" that I ran across on YouTube ("I had a dream / That my whole world was blue / A royal Xanadu / The world was so brand-new / And everywhere, the underwear was blue / In shades of cobalt too"). So I was excited to see Purple Grapes and Green Grapes at the new restaurant Palate in Glendale, even though they spent the whole night hiding (from the paparazzi?) in the giant urns.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo by Betty Hallock
 Sliders -- tiny burgers on tiny buns -- what's not to adore? There are your Krystals and your White Castles -- but a black cod slider on a mini brioche Breadbar bun dotted with sesame seeds and served with house-made ketchup and cornichons (mini pickles!) -- this one really called to me. (Others might not have been so enamored. Can a slider be indifferent?) It's from Breadbar guest chef Noriyuki Sugie, formerly of Tetsuya in Sydney and Asiate in New York. It has great proportions; it's diminutive, but it has stature -- tall with fried black cod, held together with a long, fringe-topped toothpick. That house-made ketchup is nicely tangy, great with the sweet black cod. Sugie's menu is available until May 15, after which he and his slider (and truffle-salted scallops, and crab guacamole with Meyer lemon puree, and medallions of foie gras and ankimo ... ) are gone.
Breadbar, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Century City, (310) 277-3770.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo by Ling Hung
 Culver City's restaurant row, which is expanding as fast as a SimCity game, gained yet another hip eatery when the new M Cafe de Chaya lifted its plywood and opened its doors on Sunday. Look, no long lines like those at its Melrose Avenue sister restaurant (the Chaya operation also includes Chaya Brasseries in both Los Angeles and San Francisco and Chaya Venice.)
The Culver City macrobiotic cafe and deli is twice the size of the Melrose cafe too, which is why, according to the server who handed me my soy milk cappuccino and vegan raspberry-chocolate chip muffin this morning, they've moved the pastry ops for both restaurants to the new spot -- which also sports plenty of tables and some sunny indoor seating (outdoor coming soon). If you go outside and squint, you can expand your people-watching to the patio at Fraiche just down Culver Boulevard. Or bring your binoculars and see what the folks outdoors at (in east-west geographic order) Tender Greens, Ford's Filling Station and Akasha are eating: Look, all the pretty new restaurants lined up in a row. And, to judge by the spreading plywood (you can almost hear the city engineers clicking on their keyboards) across the street -- signs for Rush Street, Gyenari -- there's no end in sight. Well, at least until you run into Sony. Virtual restaurant, anyone?
M Cafe de Chaya, 9343 Culver Blvd., Culver City. (310) 838-4300. Daily, 8 am to 9 pm.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo by Amy Scattergood
If your immediate reaction to seeing lron Man (or maybe, given Robert Downey, Jr., they should have called it Ironic Man) was anything like mine was this past weekend, you've been desperately craving cheeseburgers -- along with those misplaced Black Sabbath CD's and your own personal ICBM -- ever since walking out the theatre doors.
The marketing plug of the movie has Downey's character, newly escaped from months of desert-cave imprisonment, celebrating his liberation by gobbling good old American fast food cheeseburgers. I don't know about you, but if I'd just forged (literally) my own super hero suit, blasted myself out of the terrorist-occupied desert and finally made it back to my gazillions, I'd go for something a little more upscale.
Sang Yoon's blissful burger (pictured above) at Father's Office, say, with its caramelized onions, gooey mix of Gruyere and Maytag Blue and thatch of arugula (which is what I got for my post-movie fix, the new FO being right up my street). Or the Hungry Cat's Pug Burger, loaded with bacon and bleu and so massive that it should have nascent action heroes as its target audience. Downey's character should have sent out for the burger from 25 Degrees, or Chris Kidder's burger at Literati II. Or, better yet, considering Tony Stark's tax bracket, Michael Mina's truffled-cheese-Kobe-burger from the Stonehill Tavern at Dana Point. Come on, he's a billionaire arms dealer with his own quadrant of Malibu, wouldn't he skip the drive-thru -- Thomas Keller's obsession with In-N-Out notwithstanding -- and get LA's best? Did I miss some burgers? Comment below. A girl can't live on popcorn alone.
Father's Office, 3229 Helms Avenue, Culver City. (310) 736-2224.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo by Michael Segal/Los Angeles Times
 Ladies and gentlemen, find your cellphones: The reservation line for Gordon Ramsay's new L.A. restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood, is open -- even if the doors aren't. Ramsay's first West Coast restaurant, which is in the former Bel Age location, officially opens for dinner on May 27 (lunch to start the following day). This follows the opening, in 2006, of the Gordon Ramsay at the London New York, Ramsay's American debut.
A menu just faxed over lists dishes such as California spiny lobster with white port sauce, rack of Sonoma lamb with olive-crusted fingerling potatoes and West Coast halibut with Kumamoto oysters and Champagne velouté. (Notice all the nice regional tags.) What we can also expect is some stunt staffing, as the winner of this year's "Hell's Kitchen" (Ramsay's American reality show, the finale of which is set to air July 8) will be installed as "senior sous chef," according to Ramsay's publicist. Ramsay may like publicity, but he's unlikely to want a surprise "Kitchen Nightmares" (Ramsay's other American reality show) episode either. Therefore, said senior sous chef will be under the watchful eyes of executive chef Josh Emmett (who will oversee from Ramsay's New York restaurant) and chef de cuisine Andy Cook. And, one hopes, Ramsay himself, in all his high-volume, obscenity-laced glory. Maybe, if we're lucky, he'll cook too.
Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood, 1020 N. San Vicente Blvd, West Hollywood. Reservation line: (310) 358-7788.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo courtesy of Susan Magrino Agency
 This morning at the Santa Monica farmers market, I bumped into newly appointed Rustic Canyon chef Evan Funke (pictured) at Windrose Farm's stall -- along with the restaurant's entire crew (owner Josh Loeb, pastry chef Zoe Nathan, departing chef Samir Mohajer), who seemed to be having an ad hoc meeting next to the tomato plants and baskets of lettuces. Funke, a local boy from Pacific Palisades, rolls out his new menu tomorrow night. He says he'll be emphasizing pasta (zucchini agnolotti with basil sauce, black olive pappardelle with rabbit ragu) since he just got back from Italy, where he spent three months cooking pasta with pasta maker Alessandra Spisni in Bologna. Prior to that, Funke spent 6 1/2 years with the Wolfgang Puck organization, starting out in catering and moving up to sous chef at Spago, followed by a stint as chef de cuisine at the Avalon Hotel.
As Funke moved off to talk to Windrose Farm's Barbara Spenser about lamb, Mohajer confirmed that he and Paul Shoemaker (formerly chef de cuisine at Providence) have a restaurant in the works: "That's the plan." It turns out that Mojaher and Shoemaker went to culinary school together -- Pasadena's CSCA -- from which Funke also graduated. Maybe it was a secret alumni meeting....
Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen, 1119 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. (310) 393-7050. Lunch, 11:30-2:30 p.m. Tues.- Fri.; dinner, 5:30-10:00 p.m. daily (closing hours may vary).
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo by Amy Scattergood
 When it's as hot as it's been for the last few days, cooking over a hot stove -- or cooking at all -- isn't so appealing. Which makes crudo, the Italian take on sashimi that's so popular these days, that much more appetizing. It's surprisingly easy to make yourself (thinly slice sashimi-quality raw fish on a diagonal, add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkle of sea salt), and with a salad of interesting greens, you have dinner. Or head over to Il Grano on any given Tuesday evening and sample chef-owner Salvatore Marino's full menu of the stuff. (This is his wild bluefin tuna crudo, with arugula and a fine dice of artichokes, tomatoes, carrots and onions.)
Marino, who likes to point out that he's been serving crudo since 1997 (the menu for last week's Crudo Tuesday, the first, marked each of the 12 raw dishes with their inaugural year, as if they were wine vintages; above is 1997) takes his fish very seriously. He says he decided on Tuesdays because that's when the freshest fish are flown into the downtown Los Angeles fish markets from Tokyo's Tskiji fish market, the most famous of them all.
 Last year, while working on a crudo story, I had the sleep-deprived pleasure of meeting Marino early one morning (by early, he meant 4 a.m.) at International Marine, the downtown Los Angeles fish wholesaler where many of the city's most fish-centric chefs can often be found trolling for amberjack and toro, wild snapper and cuttlefish. (As I slid across the wet concrete, FDA-approved hairnet in place, I could see the boxes marked in felt pen: Matsuhisa, Providence ... ) Here's the handsome yellowtail I brought back that day to the Test Kitchen; it later became crudo, accompanied simply with a little lemon vinaigrette and a few heirloom cherry tomatoes. OK, not as crazy inventive as Marino's mackerel with mint, fava puree and whole-grain mustard (that one's a 2008), but pretty tasty. No stove required.
Il Grano, 11359 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 477-7886. Though crudo is also served at lunch, the full crudo menu is served at dinner. Lunch 11:45 a.m. - 2:15 p.m.; dinner 5:30 - 10:30 p.m.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photos by Amy Scattergood
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I've jumped into the Momofuku Ko reservation fray. I'm going to New York this weekend and have been logging on to the online reservation system every morning at 6:59 a.m. for the past several days. Jeesh, if New Yorkers think they have it tough trying to get a reservation at David Chang's 12-seat restaurant, try doing it from the West Coast.
The reservation system opens at 10 a.m. East Coast time, showing seats available for seven days out. But there are so many people clicking for seats that it's near impossible to get one. It really does drive people nuts -- I was pre-coffee delirious on Saturday morning (Saturday! I should have still been in bed) when I clicked on the link at the bottom of the page that said "help is here" and sent an e-mail to the reservation powers that be, saying all kinds of stupid things about how I'd been up since the crack of dawn and complaining about how my Internet connection wasn't fast enough. I didn't expect a reply, but I got one:
"this morning there were several hundred people actively logged onto the system and all the reservations went in the first four seconds. with everyone trying to get what amounts to 14 reservations the odds of getting a seat are certainly slim but your internet connection speed is basically irrelevant; it's just plain old busy. ...
The menu at Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica relies heavily on local farmers market produce, so it was doubly fun to see the restaurant open this past Saturday for a market-inspired breakfast. Not only do the new hours coincide with the Saturday morning Santa Monica farmers market, but pastry chef Zoe Nathan's morning menu reads like a paean to what's just arrived in her kitchen -- or what you'll find or have just found at the market stalls. The restaurant's wooden bar was loaded with lemon-currant scones, strawberry-rhubarb galettes, a huge asparagus-tomato frittata, pistachio teacakes and kouign amann (amazing little Breton pastries made with laminated dough). The kitchen also offers Pudwill Farms' berries and Strauss yogurt, and yummy dishes featuring eggs from Lily's Farm -- bought from the farmer that morning.
It's a tight-knit group at Rustic Canyon. Owner Josh Loeb hired Nathan after their mothers -- both families are from Santa Monica -- set the couple up (that's them on the left). Nathan's father makes the frittatas; Loeb's brother pulls the shots of Groundwork espresso behind the bar. Loeb's not quite ready to announce chef Samir Mohajer's successor (Mohajer's leaving at the end of the month), but he says it'll be someone who shares the group's communal ethos. Maybe his mother knows somebody...
Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen, 1119 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 393-7050. Open for breakfast on Saturdays, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photos by Amy Scattergood
 Here's the news: Sang Yoon's long-awaited Father's Office Version 2.0 in Culver City (actually, just a few feet north of the city limits) is not yet open and the opening date has not been announced. At least we now know something about what it's like, because there have been a couple of preview parties, including a big one last night.
So we know that the new place has very pleasing proportions. With wood paneling hanging just a bit low over the bar and tables, it's slick and cozy at the same time. (And about as loud as the original Father's Office, in case you were wondering.) The weird arrow-shaped sign out front is identical to the one at the original Santa Monica F.O., whose baroque, no-substitutions Office Burger made such a splash in our town seven years ago.
Last night the press was there, old customers were there, foodies were there and certainly beer people were too. At one point, restaurateurs Evan Kleiman and Nancy Silverton were chatting with Mark Jilg of Pasadena's Craftsman Brewing, one of Sang Yoon's favorite craft brewers.
"I've been here a lot before," Jilg said. "I was in charge of putting in the taps." That must have been quite a job -- the back bar is studded with 72 taps, dispensing 36 beers, including a couple of Jilg's brews.
F.O. 2 serves beer and wine, like the original, and also cocktails -- a new direction for Yoon, which he is pursuing in his usual perfectionist, take-it-or-leave-it way. There's a limited list of cocktails, all stirred and none shaken, and none made with vodka. Yoon refuses to allow vodka on the premises.
Still, there was no question where the center of gravity lay. My strolling-around research suggested that 10% of the guests were drinking cocktails, 20% wine and 70% beer. When your place has four entrances from the sidewalk dining deck and at each the floor is inset with the giant word BEER, that's what we think of as a tip-off.
-- Charles Perry
Photo by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times
 Last month a restaurant calling itself Rosscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles opened in Chicago. That's "Rosscoe's," you understand, with a double S. Immediately, Los Angeles' famous Roscoe's House of Chicken n Waffles sued for copyright infringement, and a Chicago court has ordered Rosscoe's to remove every trace of that name from the place by the end of business next Wednesday. The owner will change the name to Chicago's House of Chicken and Waffles.
The problem wasn't just the name. Rosscoe's had the same logo as Roscoe's (a chicken standing in front of a waffle) and served drinks named Sun Rise and Sunset, just as Roscoe's does.
Oddly, the owner of Rosscoe's ran a Rosscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in New York for eight years without stirring up a lawsuit. Roscoe's owner Herb Hudson explains that he let it slide because he had no plans to expand into the New York market. Chicago is another matter -- he'll open a Roscoe's there next year.
The original Roscoe's isn't finished with Rosscoe's, either. It intends to sue for damages. "We're suing them to the hilt," Hudson says.
Owner Darnell Johnson said of the damage lawsuit, “He’s got to do what he’s got to do.” He plans to contest that suit.
-- Charles Perry
Photo by Con Keyes/Los Angeles Times
 Sure, I was prepared for a big steak -- that's what I was at BLT Steak for. And when the housemade popovers arrived at the table, I was impressed -- they were also big, as in softball-size. (Wait 'til you see the onion rings.) But then the waiter set down a huge Italian-made tin salt shaker that was the size of a beer stein. I was sort of shocked for a second, but then immediately tore into one of the warm, eggy Gruyère-topped popovers, slathered on some butter, grabbed that salt shaker and sprinkled on the sea salt. Using a salt shaker that big is mildly embarrassing, but everyone else was in the sa me boat (even Orlando Bloom two tables over). The popovers also were accompanied by a little card on which was printed the recipe. We're going to try the popover recipe in the Test Kitchen. Results to come....
-- Betty Hallock
BLT Steak, 8720 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 360-1950.
Photos by Betty Hallock
 Please excuse the quality of these photos, taken with a friend's iPhone. Lesson learned: Don't be caught at Nobu without one's camera. And not because Judd Nelson and Casey Affleck just walked by (hey, was that George Clooney?).
I had stopped in just for a cocktail and wound up eating five appetizers and then dessert. We were coerced into dessert -- hey, it happens. There are worse things to be coerced into. The waiter suggested the "fro yo," promising it was light. Fro yo? I l ove that Nobu Matsuhisa really knows how to hang on to a trend (especially if it's one of his own -- after all, he's still serving black cod with miso and yellowtail with jalapeno). But mostly, I loved that there were the words "FRO YO" on top of the dessert, in meringue. I don't know if it's the best use of meringue I've seen in a dessert lately -- that might be the mushroom vacherin at Citrus at Social (a meringue mushroom stuffed with chocolate ice cream and whipped cream) -- but it's at least a close second. (And, as promised, it was light, and pretty tasty. And I wasn't sorry we were forced -- twist my arm! -- into dessert.)
Nobu, 129 N. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 659-9639.
-- Betty Hallock
Photos by (sadly) Betty Hallock
 Anyone who thinks that vegan pastry is a contradiction in terms should try breakfast at Akasha, the new Culver City restaurant that opened last Tuesday. Dinner is up and running, lunch is coming in two weeks; in the meantime, Akasha's bakery opens at 7 a.m. every day except Sunday. Chef-owner Akasha Richmond creates the Asian-style shortribs and wild pepper scallops with black rice risotto on the dinner menu, but the bakery is pastry chef Verite Mazzola's domaine.
Culver City is familiar territory for Mazzola -- before a stint at the Huntley, she did the desserts at Ford's Filling Station, which is only a scone's throw (sorry) down the street. Akasha is in the historic Hull Building; after a lengthy redesign, the space now sports high ceilings, exposed brick-and-iron walls and enormous arched windows that provide the generous lighting for Mazzola's trays of goodies: vegan rustic apple tarts made with spelt, goji-mango-granola cookies, lavender shortbread cookies, vegan Meyer lemon scones, house-made poppyseed bagels, individual pumpkin-seed tea cakes. Everything is organic; many pastries are vegan and some are even gluten-free. And if you're not a morning person, you can always order Mazzola's crème brûlée with confit kumquats for dessert.
Akasha Restaurant Bar and Bakery, 9543 Culver Blvd., Culver City; (310) 845-1700.
-- Amy Scattergood
Photo by Amy Scattergood
Andrew Kirschner, a veteran of such well-known Southern California restaurants as Joe’s, Chadwick, Table 8 and De Mori, will be taking over the kitchen at Wilshire Restaurant in Santa Monica, according to owner Steven Levine. Kirschner, who has worked at Wilshire as chef for the last eight months, steps into the position vacated by the restaurant’s executive chef, Chris Blobaum, when he resigned Friday.
Blobaum, who was a leader in sustainable cooking in the region, quit over a dispute with Levine about the direction the restaurant was going, saying, “He really wants a bar …five kinds of burgers, meatloaf … that would make him happy.”
In an e-mailed statement from the restaurant’s publicist, Levine praised Blobaum’s efforts and promised Wilshire’s menu would continue to feature “the same farmers market, organic and locally sourced dishes Wilshire has been known for, but presented in a less composed and more accessible style."
“It will also include some lower-priced items and have a more rustic sensibility.... The new menu will feature more familiar items such as seasonally inspired pot pies and meatloaf, as well as dishes such as rigatoni with house-made chorizo and a selection of prime, dry-aged steaks and classic sides.”
-- Russ Parsons
 Christopher Blobaum, the talented Santa Monica chef who was one of Southern California's leaders in sustainable dining, has left Wilshire Restaurant. "I guess it’s just one of those things they call 'creative differences,' " says Blobaum, who had made a point of using farmers market produce, grass-fed beef and sustainable seafood, and even kept a compost tumbler on site and used a solar-powered dishwasher.
Blobaum's cooking was praised by Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila in a two-star review: "In a restaurant landscape where menus all start to read the same, Blobaum has developed some unique dishes," she wrote. However, she also observed that at the trendy restaurant, "the scene makers far outnumber the foodies" and that "trying to accommodate both must be positively crazy making."
In fact, the chef says, that is exactly what ended up being the root of the dispute between him and owner Steven Levine, a prominent Santa Monica cardiologist. "He really wants a bar," Blobaum says. "I'm more about finding great purveyors and keeping quality products coming in.
"I'm not bitter about what happened. It's just that I have my passion and what I want to do and he wanted something different. When it gets to that point, sometimes it’s better to just say, 'You know what, let’s not butt heads.' "
Representatives at Wilshire could not be reached for comment.
Blobaum says he has no immediate plans. "I have not decided what to do yet and [am] just now reaching out, hoping for a little down time," he wrote in an e-mail. "I have a 2 1/2-year-old daughter that would love to see more of me."
"I didn't take any vacation last year and only a week at the holidays this year to move," he elaborated over the phone. "I'm taking a little time off and just kind of putting out feelers now."
-- Russ Parsons
Photo by Lawrence K. Ho
 It's hard to find a good veggie sandwich. But I love this one. It's a vegan Soyrizo sandwich from Mendocino Farms downtown -- it's one of those office-worker lunch spots tucked away in a building on Grand Avenue. The housemade soy chorizo and roasted yam patty is warm and a little spicy and really delicious. You can get the sandwich as a panino, pressed between sliced ciabatta. And there's a "mushroom risotto stack" that's great too -- risotto with sautéed wild winter mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, smoked Gouda and arugula on toasted ciabatta. They're both on the seasonal sandwich menu, which also includes a pressed sandwich with prosciutto, roasted chicken, Gioia mozzarella and crushed honey-roasted almonds, and a shrimp "not so" po' boy with sautéed shrimp marinated in Meyer lemon zest with Meyer lemon relish aioli, cucumber tomato and shredded romaine. The sandwiches were created by new chef Judy Han, formerly of Literati II in West L.A. They go great with the housemade pickles too.
Mendocino Farms, 300 S. Grand Ave. (next to Skew's & Tesoro), (213) 620-1114.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo by Betty Hallock
 When life hands you pancetta, make spaghetti alla carbonara? A package of pancetta arrived in the mail from Jason Tuley, chef of Square One in Santa Barbara. That's organic Santa Barbara hog belly that he cured and dry-aged for more than a month.
"We've been making a lot of it," says Tuley, who has turned 10 Los Olivos-raised American boar (fed with apples, beer mash and acorns) into prosciutto, guanciale, pancetta, red-wine-cured tenderloin, fresh sausage and a few kinds of salame. "We've made everything so far. The first prosciutto will be done this time next year." So what's a chef to do with all that charcuterie? Sell some (he's not marketing it yet) ... and make sandwiches. Tuley's looking for a Santa Barbara location for Square One Sandwiches.
But he also has some of it on his menu at Square One -- such as cardoons with grilled pancetta and raw artichoke salad with Meyer lemons, or a salad of mache with sliced red-wine-cured loin, Sicilian pistachios and goat cheese.
As for me, I made spaghetti alla carbonara, one of my favorite pasta dishes because it's so easy and delicious. The "sauce" is ready by the time the spaghetti has boiled. Sauté cubed pancetta with a little olive oil and minced garlic, then add a little white wine. When the spaghetti's done, drain it, then toss it with a few egg yolks. I use just the yolks instead of whole eggs because it's richer and creamier that way. Add the pancetta mixture, a handful of Pecorino and-or Parmigiano-Reggiano and a little cracked black pepper and some parsley too. That's it. Almost as easy as lemonade.
Square One, 14 E. Cota St., Santa Barbara, (805) 965-4565.
-- Betty Hallock
Photo by Betty Hallock
Anothe r giant has fallen. The Sirloin Burger, long a jewel in North Hollywood's burger diadem, is locked and its phone is disconnected. It had been in business at 6733 Lankershim Blvd. since the early 1950s.
I first learned about the Sirloin Burger in the late '70s when I was living nearby, about two blocks from the Palomino country-western club. It was right up the street from the Pal, and I soon started taking my lunches there.
It was one of a kind. Its sign showed a cross-eyed-looking chef; inside, the counter clerk kept track of orders by moving tiny tiles around on a sort of checkerboard. The neighborhood had long been grimy and neglected, but people kept on making pilgrimages there for the distinctive burger.
The patty was meaty and charcoaly and (unusual for a California burger) it came without tomato or lettuce. There was nothing else on the bun but a lick of Thousand Island and a lot of caramelized onions. The approved way to eat one involved cutting the sweetness with a dash of hot sauce. In the '70s, the sauce tasted like Tabasco. By the '90s, it tasted like a Mexican sauce such as Tapatio.
The Sirloin Burger also made decent deep-fried chicken, and some people liked its spaghetti (a sign boasted how many times all the spaghetti it had sold would go around the world). I always found the sauce excessively tomatoey, in the Boy-Ar-Dee mode, and the pastrami was dry for my taste. It's the burgers I'll miss.
-- Charles Perry
 Joe Miller's Spanish tapas bar, Bar Pintxo, opened yesterday at noon, providing respite from the light rain for the holiday shoppers at the nearby Santa Monica farmers market. With high ceilings, high wooden tables and bar stools, walls lined with wines, chalkboard menus and a sushi-style case displaying the tapas, it's a very welcoming little (30-seat capacity) spot. And if Miller has his way, it'll be a respite not only for shoppers but for the farmers too -- at least on market days, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Miller was just in from shopping himself, grabbing a few tapas on his way back to the market, and said he wanted to encourage the farmers to stop by after they're done packing up. "I'd love to have them all come down for a glass of sangria," said Miller. (It makes sense: Miller's 16-year-old Venice restaurant, Joe's, has always had a menu largely reliant on local produce.)
 If not sangria, maybe slices of baguette topped with foie gras mousse, caramelized onions and pomegranate seeds; or cherry tomatoes stuffed with marinated tuna, garlic and parsley; or endive with Roquefort cream, anchovies and walnuts. There were 15 tapas on the printed menu this afternoon, but Miller says that's just the beginning.
Bar Pintxo, 109 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 458-2012. Open noon to midnight, every day. (Website still under construction.)
-- Amy Scattergood
Photos by Amy Scattergood
 Last summer the Northridge Thai Temple had to stop hosting food stalls on weekends because neighbors complained about parking problems. But there's another place around here that sponsors Southeast Asian food stands, in Duarte.
It's a much smaller operation, only five or six stands, but the quality of the food is very high -- for example, very tender sates with a sort of spiced sugar crust, topped with a dab of peanut sauce, and empanadas (called pastels) that come with their own little cup of spicy coconut sauce. (Yes, one place does make that concentrated meat dish rendang, but it seems to sell out early.)
There are even things you might not have seen at an Indonesian restaurant, such as Dutch sausage rolls or little quail-egg-sized buns with a bit of pineapple in the middle. Sometimes there's a Balinese stand where you can get, say, spicy beef, a sweet hard-boiled egg (cooked with jackfruit), a chewy corn pancake and yellow coconut rice for $6.
If you don't know what to order, just stand around looking puzzled and somebody will probably come up and offer to explain everything. It's a very friendly, relaxed crowd. However, since this is a small operation, tables can fill up and you might want to order your food to go.
Unlike the Thai Temple, this operation is in a business area, so it hasn't had to face parking complaints from any neighbors. It's held in the parking lot of the Duarte Inn, down at the end of a driveway that's also the parking lot of a mini-mall. (You pass an Indonesian import shop and an Indonesian restaurant on the way.)
Indonesian hawker stands, Duarte Inn, 1200 Huntington Drive, Duarte; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
-- Charles Perry
Photo by Charles Perry
 Campanile restaurant has always served as a kind of meeting room and hangout for a lot of screenwriters. With writers on strike, chef Mark Peel decided he wanted to give something back. So he’s started what he’s calling a “writer’s soup kitchen.”
Here’s how it works: Every Wednesday, there will be a fixed-price lunch menu that starts with a choice of two soups, followed by a choice of four entrees and capped by a couple of scoops of ice cream. The whole thing costs $18. Entrees will include things like braised beef with sauerkraut, grilled albacore, grilled chicken and a vegetarian choice of sauteed polenta with sheep's milk cheese and glazed cauliflower.
Peel says the deal is offered only to card-carrying screenwriters, but then he had to ask around the office to find out whether screenwriters actually carried cards. The answer was unclear, but he allows that “we’re not going to be like the public library. We’re probably not going to get all that assiduous about checking cards. I’ve got a feeling nobody's going to lie that much.”
Peel says the writers strike is hurting the entire community that depends on writers’ business —everybody from dry cleaners to restaurants. “We’re all hurting,” he says. “We’re not going to make any money on this. But I hope we’ll contribute to a sense of community, and that’s the whole point.”
Campanile, 624 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 938-1447
Photo by Ken Hively
 The Royal/T cafe in the Royal/T gallery-retail space isn't open yet, but the website describes it as "L.A.'s first Japanese-style maid cafe" (as in all the servers are dressed as maids ... those crazy Japanese!).
The maids (and a couple of man-aides) were making the rounds in the high-ceilinged, lofty-industrial Culver City space, scheduled to open next month. The preview exhibition by New York collector Susan Hancock included pieces from art stars such as Cecily Brown, Tracey Emin, Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami. Tray-passed goodies included fruit salad on a stick spritzed with yuzu spray à la minute, tricolor tomato soup and little paper cups of Japanese curry. A grassy knoll set up in the cafe space was covered with sweets from Jin Patisserie; every time someone picked up a fruit tart or green tea petit four, a maid was on hand to immediately replace it. Overlooking the cafe area was a giant Murakami stuffed animal. Tiny treats, big art.
Royal/T, set to open December, 8910 Washington Blvd., Culver City.
-- Betty Hallock
Photos by Betty Hallock
Tia Juana, which has been in business since 1976, closes the doors of its Olympic Boulevard location this weekend. The last of 31 years of handmade tortillas will be patted out there Sunday.
When the restaurant opened (under its original name, La Choza), Olympic between Barrington Avenue and Bundy Drive was an obscure industrial neighborhood. Owner Enrique Haro remembers there was so little traffic at night that if they saw headlights, they could assume the driver was a customer. La Choza's first Times review recommended it as a good place to stop on your way back from a drive up the coast -- that's how remote West Olympic seemed in those far-off days.
The neighborhood grew rapidly, and Haro upgraded La Choza, replacing the name (which means "the shack") with the grander-sounding Tia Juana and adding calamari and other dishes to a menu known for carne asada, pork mole and nopalito salad. Today the Olympic Boulevard property is about to be developed for larger businesses, hence the closure.
Members of the Haro family own a number of restaurants around town, including Casablanca and La Cabana in Venice. Enrique Haro -- and his mother, who has been the cook throughout the history of La Choza/Tia Juana -- are relocating to Huntington Beach, where they have revived the La Choza name, complete with the Tia Juana menu and handmade tortillas.
Tia Juana, until Sunday, 11785 W. Olympic Blvd., (310) 473-9293. New location: 7402 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach, (714) 842-7888.
-- Charles Perry
Foodies tend to keep records of the number of times they’ve eaten at a three-star Michelin restaurant or the most truffles they’ve ever consumed. Some will e-mail friends and strangers their constantly updated guide to favorite restaurants in the great capitals of the world -- whether or not the recipient is interested. It’s a form of bragging, yes. But what about the worst restaurant experiences? Those often go unmentioned when they can make for an entertaining story.
I’ll go first. Here’s one from my archives.
Years ago, traveling in Spain on a train from Andalucia to Madrid, I met a young woman who claimed her aunt was one of the best chefs in Spain and I just had to eat at her restaurant in Madrid. She was so persuasive, and I was such an easy mark for the idea of a woman chef in Spain, that I agreed. It was in a tony section of the city -- I don’t remember where now, or even her name. The place had an ultramodern décor. First, we were invited for an aperitif and subjected to a guitar player singing “Feelings” for what seemed like two hours directly in front of us so there was no escaping. Can I say that I loathe the song? And that this was sheer misery? Not only that, but having to keep a straight face in front of this hapless musician.
Nothing on the menu was very Spanish. It was international luxe cuisine all the way -- filet mignon, foie gras, lobster. A complete and utter snore. And it was excruciating sitting there knowing we’d just used up our splurge money on a meal I could have gotten at any pretentious restaurant anywhere in the world. I couldn’t relax, either, always on the lookout in case the guitar player was going to launch into “Feelings” again. We could not wait to leave. And as soon as we paid our incredibly expensive bill and got out the door, we started running through the streets, giddy at finally escaping.
Let’s hear from you re any regrettably painful restaurant experiences, especially the expensive ones.
-- S. Irene Virbila
This afternoon's the time for a noir novel reading at L.A.'s only surviving 1930s cafeteria. It will be from Nathanael West's black-humor (or noir-humor) view of Hollywood in the '30s, "Day of the Locust." It's put on by a group called L.A. Reads (formerly known as Nobody Reads in L.A.), which describes itself as "a loose-knit group of individuals striving to create a stronger cultural, literary and historical sense of downtown Los Angeles."
In this case, it can also give people a historical sense of downtown dining -- in Nathanael West's day, cafeterias were L.A.'s most characteristic eateries. And Clifton's Brookdale still serves a great panorama of the sort of Midwestern food Angelenos loved in those days. Don't pass up the pies and cakes.
Clifton's Brookdale, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles; (213) 627-1673. Reading takes place from 4 to 7 p.m. on the mezzanine floor -- look for the people with copies of the novel.
-- Charles Perry
 If you were wondering what Joachim Splichal's Patina Restaurant Group had in store for the former Maple Drive space in Beverly Hills, they've just announced plans to open seafood-themed Paperfish next month. And taking the helm is executive chef Yianni Koufodontis (pictured), who was executive chef of Greek restaurant Petros in Manhattan Beach.
Paperfish is the name of a small rare tropical fish; it seems unlikely that it will be on the menu -- but there will be fish baked en papillote (in paper) and served tableside. The menu features starters separated into "raw," "warm" and "chilled" and entrees separated into "shell fish," "round fish," "flat fish" (and then there's "weird fish," "funny fish" ... just kidding) and "from the farm" (farmed fish?). Starters include oysters on the half shell with pomegranate-ginger granita, and entrees include steamed turbot with dried fruit couscous and eggplant-oxtail tagine and sautéed skatewing with sunchoke purée, white wine, golden raisins, pine nuts and preserved lemon.
The restaurant will be open for lunch and private parties only until early January, when dinner service is scheduled to begin.
Paperfish, 345 N. Maple | |
They're in season, and we need recipes! It's a request we get in the test kitchen every now and again, as some wonderful fruit or vegetable comes into season and we want to make the most of its abundance.
Roasted figs stuffed with blue cheese, toasted hazelnuts and wild honey
This morning at the Santa Monica farmers market, I bumped into newly appointed 
