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Daily Dish

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

By Betty HallockDeputy Food Editor 
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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.

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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

Daily Dish
Betty Hallock

Betty Hallock is deputy Food editor at the Los Angeles Times. She has co-written four cookbooks, including “Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles,” “Amá: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen” and “Baking at République.” She started her journalism career at the Wall Street Journal and Scientific American in New York, worked on the L.A. Times’ Business desk, and was interim food editor at Los Angeles Magazine. Hallock also helped launch a food and nutrition vertical for wellness app RoundGlass. She’s a graduate of UCLA and New York University.

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