Mo-Chica's 10th tasting menu or the next 'Hatchi' dinner?; Locanda del Lago introduces Meatless Mondays; Ford's Filling Station's clam bake

 

Thursday dilemma? Peruvian restaurant Mo-Chica's 10th once-a-month tasting menu dinner takes place Thursday, with six courses for $35. Also on Thursday night is the next dinner in Breadbar's "Hatchi" series,  featuring chef Brian Redzikowski from BondST. Which to choose? Mo-Chica, 3655 S. Grand Ave. (Mercado La Paloma), Los Angeles, (213) 747-2141, www.mo-chica.com. Breadbar, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd. (Westfield Shopping Center), Century City, (310) 277-3770, www.breadbar.net. 

Clam bake! Ford's Filling Station is planning a traditional clam bake to kick off Culver City's monthly summer block party. Little neck clams, Maine lobster, sausage, corn on the cob and white rose potatoes will be roasted in a caja china box. Prices are $45 to $60, for the traditional clam bake with whole or half lobster, steak, or chicken. Lobster bibs included. (Strawberry shortcake or peach cobbler, $10.) Culver City Block Party; Wednesday, June 16; 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. 9531 Culver Blvd., Culver City, (310) 202-1470, www.fordsfillingstation.net.

Italo-meatless: Santa Monica Italian restaurant Locanda del Lago introduces Meatless Mondays with lunch and dinner options prepared without meat and meat-related products such as butter, cheese and milk. Last week's choices included Dungeness crab salad with arugula, baby artichokes and button mushrooms and pumpkin ravioli with extra virgin olive oil and sage

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231 Arizona Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 451-3525, www.lagosantamonica.com. 

Photo: Ceviche at Mo-Chica. Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times.

 

Puck to open WP24 at the Ritz-Carlton downtown; the Lab's new cocktail menu; Urban Noodle replaces Warung Cafe

Emperor Wolfgang: The empire of Wolfgang Puck is expanding so rapidly that the Spago founder seems to have run out of restaurant names. The latest is WP24, an Asian-inspired restaurant set to open in April on the 24th floor of the Ritz-Carlton downtown. Puck and chef-partner Lee Hefter created the menu and have named Spago veteran David McIntyre as executive chef.

Scientific cocktails: The Lab, the gastropub on USC's "restaurant row" that serves its beer in beakers, has a new drinks menu of specialty cocktails ($8) and martinis (starting at $9): The Platinum is a classic martini;  the Hydrogen, a mojito; and the Mad Scientist, a mai tai. The Algae? It's a vodka-based blueberry  lemonade. 3500 Figueroa Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 743-1843, www.thelab.usc.edu.

Downtown noodling: Noodle shop Urban Noodle has opened on 4th Street in the former Warung Cafe spot. Lunchers already have discovered its menu of pan-Asian "soup noodles" (for example, spicy beef stew noodle and curry seafood flat rice noodle) and "soupless noodles" (Singapore rice noodle, pork cucumber noodle, beef chow fun, etc.). Appetizers include tsukemono (pickled cabbage) and pepper-and-salt chicken wings, but what is vegetable cream cheese wonton? 118 W. 4th St., Los Angeles, (213) 626-2893.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: Ritz-Carlton downtown. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

South L.A. gets a new supermarket

With the opening today of a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the area around Central Avenue and Adams Boulevard in South Los Angeles has two new supermarkets. The Fresh & Easy joins a Superior just a couple of blocks away.

Customers lined up for a whole block before the 10 a.m. opening of Fresh & Easy -- accompanied by the Jefferson High marching band. The company now has 145 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada, spokesman Brendan Wonnacott said.

L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she was "overjoyed" at the opening of the store along "an emotional historic corridor," the center of blues and jazz in the first half of the last century. Perry's office worked with the grocery company to develop the corner site, which has apartments above the grocery store.

Wonnacott said the company is committed to opening stores in neighborhoods that have come to be called "food deserts" for their lack of fresh, nutritious food. He said the produce and meat and poultry have been bestsellers in their stores, which are about 10,000 square feet big and boast of selling foods containing no chemicals or preservatives. The shelves are stocked with a combination of private label and national brand foods, with some of the products reminiscent of what's sold at Trader Joe's stores.

-- Mary MacVean

(In the top photo, customers line up before the store opens. In bottom photo, from left, store manager Aaron Davis, City Councilwoman Jan Perry and L.A. Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner at the opening ceremony. Photos courtesy of Fresh & Easy.)

 

Working to get more fruits and vegetables in corner stores

One way health advocates are working to make more nutritious food available in neighborhoods without easy access to supermarkets is by trying to get more fruits and vegetables into corner stores. A new website, Market Makeovers, has launched to guide people who might like to organize such a project.

Market Makeovers features the work of some high school students in South Los Angeles who have been working on three stores in their neighborhood as case studies.

For two years, South L.A. Healthy Eating Active Communities Initiative and Public Matters have worked with the students from the Accelerated School. The initiative, funded by the California Endowment, is an effort to reduce childhood diabetes and obesity. Public Matters is a California-based group of artists, educators and media professionals working on neighborhood-based projects.

-- Mary MacVean

(Photo: Jessica Orellana, left, and Britanni Marie Dighero, are making a video about their makeover project. Photo by Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)

Sampler Platter: GrubHub launches in L.A., Susan Orlean considers the chicken, Superior Grocers opens in South LA, Vegemite renamed as iSnack2.0

A new Japanese restaurant, a new grocery store for South L.A., a new name for Vegemite and more in today's food news roundup.

--Superior Grocers is the first full-scale supermarket to open in the South Central Avenue corridor in at least five years. Los Angeles Times
--Susan Orlean considers the chicken. The New Yorker
--Agura Japanese Dining coming to La Cienega. Blackburn + Sweetzer
--Naming Contest Fail: New Vegemite spread to become the ever so catchy iSnack2.0. News.com.au
--Angry child's "bacon is good for me" rant gets remixed. YouTube
--GrubHub, which lists all the restaurants in your area that deliver food, launches in L.A. Click this link from Thrillist and get a $10 discount if you're a first-time user.
--Californians may soon be paying increased deposits on drink containers because lawmakers have been raiding the state's recycling fund. Los Angeles Times
--Folgers holds a contest (Sep. 30-Nov. 7) where five winners will receive a seven-day, six-night trip for themselves and up to three guests to travel to their hometown. (Restrictions apply.)

--Elina Shatkin

Photos: Top left: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times. Top right: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times. Bottom right: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times. Bottom left: Christina House / For The Times.

Small Bites: Chichen Itza on 6th Street to close; Philippe plans October opening [U

Farewell to Chichen Itza: Yucatecan restaurant Chichen Itza on 6th Street in Westlake has announced that it is closing. In a send-off celebration, the restaurant will be offering free drinks and appetizers tonight from 6 to 8. For fans of the slow-roasted, achiote-and-Seville-orange-marinated cochinita pibil (and arguably the best habanero salsa in L.A.), all is not lost: The restaurant's original location at the Mercado la Paloma will remain open. Chef-owner Gilberto Cetina is extending hours there and now will be serving dinner. The new hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Chichen Itza in Westlake: 2501 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, (213) 380-0051. Chichen Itza in the Mercado La Paloma: 3655 S. Grand Ave. No. C6, Los Angeles, (213) 741-1075. www.chichenitzarestaurant.com.

Philippe sets opening date: Philippe Chow plans to open his latest outpost of Philippe -- a chain of upscale Chinese restaurants -- on Oct. 1 in the former Dolce space on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. Chow recently was hit with a trademark lawsuit by his former employer, Michael Chow (a.k.a. Mr. Chow and no relation). The menu at the 175-seat restaurant will feature dishes such as chicken satay, Peking duck and spicy prawns.  8284 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 951-1100, www.philippechow.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo of Chichen Itza's cochinita pibil by Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Henry "Hank" Silva, longtime owner of Bill's Taco House, 1920-2009

Henry M. Silva, who owned South L.A. institution Bill's Taco House on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, died Friday of natural causes at his home in San Pedro.

He was 88. 

Silva bought the Taco House from its original owner in the '50s, and though friends knew him as Hank, customers assumed his name was Bill.

Silva grew up in the Central Valley, picking fruit and cotton. In 1939, he moved to Los Angeles, served in the Navy in World War II, then returned to L.A., working at various jobs. An insurance check after an injury helped him buy the Taco House, about a mile east of USC.

The Taco House taco is a seasoned hamburger patty, grilled and cut into three pieces, with a slice of "yellow" cheese, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce and a spicy chili gravy in a fried taco shell. Like the tacos, the enchiladas are made with hamburger patties. Noted customers have included Barry White and Wilt Chamberlain.

A 2003 article in the Los Angeles Times revealed the three secrets to Taco House's longevity: "1. Being down with your peeps. 2. Keeping your prices low. 3. Gravy."

Silva sold the Taco House in 1985 but remained an active member of the community. A neighborhood Head Start school on East Martin Luther King Boulevard, the Silva Center, is named in his honor. 

-- Betty Hallock

Photo credit: Kevin P. Casey / Los Angeles Times

Sampler Platter: Sonoran hot dogs, Central American chicken, coffee taste test

Sonoran hot dogs, Central American chicken, bad meat becoming good power, BBQ at Verdugo and more in today's food news roundup:

• Tesco's program to convert spoiled meat into power outrages vegans. Los Angeles Times
• Is is Lars Kuprik Backman the real Swedish Chef? ABC
• Coney Island Nathan's could be saved by landmark status. N.Y. Daily News
• Robot chefs run restaurant in Japan. Fox News
• Wolfgang Puck sued for "overly slick" floors. TMZ
• Sabores Sin Fronteras: The Sonoran hot dog crosses the U.S.-Mexico border. NPR
• Kokomo owners may turn Eat Well space on Sunset into K2. Eater LA
• BBQ and beer at Verdugo next two Sundays. Eating L.A.
• Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's both beat Starbucks in Slate's coffee taste test.
• KCRW's Rob "Martini Shot" Long loves Central American chicken. LAist
• LA Foodie checks out J N J Burger & Bar-B-Q.
• A con man who claimed to be friends with Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay has been jailed for fraud. BBC

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Pollo Campero's three-piece chicken meal. Credit: Pollo Campero