Downtown L.A. restaurants dominate Restaurant Design Awards’ list of finalists

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This year marks the first nationwide Restaurant Design Awards. The awards will be bestowed upon the lucky winners by the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles on Friday. Hopefully, a number of you fine people have already voted for your favorite contender. And I trust you used your discerning taste to vote for a local. The local finalists are listed below, with commentary by me. (Because you care what I think. Yes, you do!)

Restaurants:

• AK Restaurant + Bar (Too bad Conny Andersson is out of that space now! It’s so pretty and smooth and green-hued.)
• Bottega Louie (This downtown pleasure palace is a place of bright-white wonder.)
• Chaya Downtown (Wow, downtown L.A., way to represent.)
• Drago Centro (What? More downtown. Trend story?)
• Luau (Never has a Tiki bar been so un-kitchsy.)
• Rivera (I think the judges must live in a loft on 7th Street.)

Cafes/Bars:

• Huckleberry (A fresh look as good as the pastries?)
• The Lab Gastropub (It’s like watching ‘2001’ through beer goggles.)

Lounges/Nightclubs:

• The Conga Room (L.A. Live gets a cuddly RDA hug.)

The fact that downtown L.A. accounts for more than half of the local finalists is a bit of a coup. It is true that a whole bunch of restaurants have opened in the area lately. Can we dub downtown a design mecca? I love dubbing things. Look for the list of winners to post here at The Dish at 7 p.m. Friday.

-- Jessica Gelt