Results tagged “diningout”

If we're talking nosh, there's no item perhaps more quintessential than pastrami on rye. The one pictured above hailed from a plate served up at Langer's, a deli that has been a longtime favorite of locals, but has now been praised for offering up the best of its kind in the whole country. The accolade comes from writer David Sax, whose pursuit of the pastrami--and other deli delights--was profiled recently in the LA Times.

This will likely be one of the hottest reservation scrambles of the coming weeks: As hinted earlier by Gayot.com (scroll down), Chef Ludovic Lefebvre will be popping up in December for a limited engagement of LudoBites (LAist Review) at Culver City's Royal/T.

Thanks to a tip from reader Carter, LAist has learned that the highly anticipated eatery (sans bakery) from Thomas Keller just received its liquor license, as seen on the website for the Alcoholic Beverage Control here. In related news, Alex Weil, the former sommelier at Pizzeria Mozza, is poised to take over the wine program at Bouchon Beverly Hills. The restaurant itself appears to be on track to open in mid-November, and signage is already up.

              

If you overdid it last night, head over to Rush Street in Culver City for their new brunch menu. If you are looking for the hair of the dog, they have you covered with a bottomless mimosa, a make-your-own Bloody Mary bar and anything else you can imagine. The sunny patio is perfect for early risers, and the cool dim interior is perfect for those looking to escape the heat or a hangover. High ceilings and a loft area make the room both spacious and cozy.

       

Chef Neal Fraser of Grace and BLD believes the art of cooking needs daily cultivation. Even if he has 10 restaurants, he will always be exactly where he wants to be - in the kitchen. As an LA native he has “a personal vendetta” to elevate LA into the echelon of the best restaurant cities in the world. With the development of a new Grace like fine dining restaurant downtown that will grow at least a third of the produce on site, and a new BLD slated to open in Pasadena early next year, Chef Fraser shows no signs of leaving the kitchen. LAist caught up with the busy chef at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market (as he bought green beans for his daughter) to provide details about moving Grace to downtown, the struggle of when to pull a dish from the menu and how he is inspired by Wonderbread.

              

On Saturday October 3rd, celebrated chefs and vintners/spirit-makers from all over the nation gathered on the backlot of Universal Studios here in Los Angeles to showcase their best bites and sips as part of the popular 27th annual American Wine and Food Festival (AWFF), hosted by Wolfgang Puck and Barbara Lazaroff. The event is a big draw for food and wine lovers of all calibers, and offers an astonishing quantity of quality eats and drinks for the ticket price; although the pricetag is hefty ($300 advance, $350 at the door), the event is not merely a showcase for food and wine, but rather a wildly successful fundraiser for Meals on Wheels.

         

So, a coupla chicks walk into Ivan Kane's Cafe Wa s to check out their dineLA dinner...

      

It's always a little curious when you arrive at one of the many eateries participating in dineLA's popular restaurant week and they don't hand you the dineLA menu. As a diner there to check out a spot you've maybe never been to before this means things can get off to a rocky start when right out of the gate you have to wonder if you were mistaken, or if the dineLA crowd is really all that welcome where you are. (Baffling, right? After all, restaurants choose to participate, so why not pimp it?) You know that "new kid" feeling? Yeah, that's the one.

       

Consider it the "Little Restaurant that Could" in the heart of Hollywood: It's been well over a year since we first started prematurely salivating about a storefront near Sunset and Vine. With the weekly taunting of the abundant, crowded, and colorful Hollywood Farmers' Market not helping matters, the cheerful yellow eatery whose name evokes the core connection between the farm and the dining table, has been "coming soon" for a long, long time.

dineLA's second 2009 Restaurant Week got underway yesterday, and runs through the 9th, and from the 11th-16th. To see a list of the restaurants, prices, and menus, click here.

       

The lines were long--but moving--this weekend in the mobile food court section of the Abbot Kinney Festival. Posted along one branch of the annual street fair and community gathering were several of the city's trendiest restaurants, all on four wheels, among them The NomNom Truck, Get Shaved, and Coolhaus. In line to get some grub at the Border Grill truck, however, a friend leaned over to me and asked: "So, is it that all these trucks are started up and run by really young people just getting into the business?"

Some big players on the local food scene were on hand this past Friday to take part in a media event to get everyone ready for dineLA's second go-'round of Restaurant Week 2009. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa brought his appetite to the table...will you? dineLA runs October 4-9 and October 11-16, and has a list of many, many (over 200!) wonderful local eateries at which you can treat yourself to specially priced three-course menus.

            

Once upon a time, 11648 San Vicente Blvd in Brentwood was a Hamburger Hamlet. Yawn, right? Yes, the Hamlet had its heyday here in Los Angeles, but it's been a long time since the chain served anything to write (home) about. But if the three most important considerations in real estate are location, location, and yup, you guessed it, location, well, Tavern wound up with a prime piece of it. What you might not ever guess--if you didn't know it--is that this beautiful eatery, with its skylight-lit atrium dining room, plush seating, warm gray tones matched with airy cream colors, and wooden floors was once a Hamlet.

You might live a recessionista foodie lifestyle, hunting for high-quality eats at low-rent prices. And while we do encourage dining at all price-points, sometimes the only way feasting is feasible is when there's a special deal going down. This is where dineLA's Restaurant Week comes in. From October 4-9 and October 11-16, 2009, you can treat yourself to specially priced three-course menus at over 200 restaurants from all corners of LA County.

       

Los Angeles has a long-standing rep for elevating lunching to an art form. School lunching, however, isn't quite so glamorous. Now, when it comes to the food you get at school, well--that's another story. But the concept of cafeteria-style lunching with LA-style panache is what's on tap at Lemonade, a local eatery with outposts in West Hollywood, Venice, Downtown, and a fourth launching soon at MOCA.

It's been a while since we updated our list of Food Trucks that Twitter, so we gave the internets another scour, recalled some of our own recent food-on-wheels excursions, and have added a whole bunch of eateries to the growing ranks. Some are just getting on the road, and some are in the works, so of course the best way to know where to go is to follow them on Twitter, and get ready to chase down the grub. Added to the list include the best damn Hawaiian-style shave ice you'll find in town, a "roadside bistro," a hot pink truck with babes and burgers on board, curious fusions, and...breakfast. As always, let us know in the comments if we've missed a truck! Check out the update here.

It's that time again: Weekend breakfast. Or, if you prefer: Brunch. May we tempt you with this Eye Nosh-able shot of the Ricotta Pancakes with Lemon Creme Fraiche and Blueberry Sauce, Side of Seasonal Fruit and Maple Syrup enjoyed by food blogger and LAist Featured Photos pool contributor LA & OC Foodventures? Need some words to go with your picture? How about this, from his blog report

      

It's summertime (shhh, don't tell the calendar) and the livin' can still be easy when you grub on burgers and beer. The Golden State on Fairfax is one of the newest burgers on the map (and, yes, it also happens to have made it onto this map of some of the city's Essential eats) and after LAist Lifestyle Editor Julie Wolfson got a taste of the place, it wasn't going to be long before the rest of us got on board.

You've seen the list, you've double-counted and confirmed you're not crazy--it is 105, not just 99, and now you're ready to tackle the task: Eat at all of the restaurants selected by the LA Weekly's Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold as LA's essentials. The annual list--err, event for the foodie set--is still fairly hot off the presses, and for many means that no matter how many hot spots they've settled in for a fork, hand, spoon, chopstick, or mouthful, there's still plenty left to try.

In spite of the occasionally cringe-worthy dishes on Top Chef and the bumbling and blubbering of Hell's Kitchen, you know you're insanely jealous of those judges. Well, now you have the opportunity to eat like the judges--yes, even the actual recipes they picked apart like bits of carrion on the small screen.

       

Yes, I said fruit. Let's get that out of the way immediately, shall we? The tomato--versatile, plentiful, flavorful, and local--is a fruit. It's also something that is in season right now (although you can conceivably make a go of growing your own right now and celebrating a little later on). The Patina Group of restaurants is celebrating this stellar ingredient with Tomato Festival menus at nine of their eateries, and to show off the spoils of the season they brought together a crew of food bloggers and Paul and Maryann Carpenter (the couple who operate Coastal Organics, the 17-acre Santa Paula farm from which the Patina Group sources produce) for a caravan tour of three Downtown eateries, with one course per stop, each showing off the tasty tomato.

All good things must come to an end, oui? First of all, don't even think about trying to get into LudoBites tonight at Breadbar--it's not going to happen. With extra chairs being put in the tiny space, and the threat of rain dampening (pun intended) the semi-jokingly proposed idea of serving guests using the newspaper boxes outside on the sidewalk of 3rd Street as tables, unless you're in the reservation book LudoBites will have its last supper without you.

This is the kimchee fried rice at Shin BBQ in Hollywood (corner of Wilcox and Selma) The food at Shin is great. This time I tried the special house dish Kimchee Fried Rice. It arrived with this gorgeous fried egg on it. Then we mixed in the egg. There is some cooked beef mixed through also. And best of all it's $5!!

          

Forget the whole food truck trend, and consider for a moment the idea of roving chefs and semi-rogue restaurants appearing within another food-space. Like a sort of culinary hobo with a spot on the guest list, Chef Ludovic Lefebvre works out of the tiny kitchen at Breadbar on 3rd Street, an invited squatter of sorts with a short tenure as the night-shift guy. Only it's his name that emblazons the temporary signage and the daily menu. It is LudoBites, the pop-up restaurant phenom that has tongues wagging, with a looming end-date on the horizon for their current residency.

Evan Kleiman is well known on the local foodie scene thanks to her tasty weekly KCRW show Good Food, and her involvement in many local food endeavors and events. Of course, Kleiman is also the owner of the fabulous Angeli Caffe, where local foods, including market-fresh veggies, are celebrated with an Italian flair. This is their colorful season antipasto plate, as captured recently by LAist's Lifestyle Editor Julie Wolfson, featuring asparagus with parmesan, crisp carrots, farro with beets, mozzarella and olives. Simple, fresh, and delicious.

The Dining Room is the fine dining restaurant located within the The Langham, Huntington Hotel & Spa. Not only are they a great "special occasion" dinner destination, but they can boast something pretty unique: A one-star rating from the coveted Michelin Guide (it's the only hotel-run restaurant in Los Angeles with one). Now the restaurant is prepping for their new Chef de Cuisine's menu, which will debut on July 31st.

"Close your eyes, give me your hands..." Okay, yes, that's the start of a Bangles' ballad, but it's a lot like how an evening of Dining in the Dark at Opaque starts, too. Stripping away one of your key senses just for one meal, diners who take the plunge into pitch black and pick up their forks experience what it's like to lean on the other four senses.

The Fix Burger in Silver Lake is enjoying their first summer in business, after opening last fall to mostly rave reviews. They've got all sorts of specialty burgers on the menu, and can serve you up a patty made of beef, buffalo, turkey, or even ostrich. Yelpers hoot about their garlic or sweet potato fries, as well as their shakes, and just how well-cooked the burgers are--no matter what the meat.

Ben Ford, head chef and owner of Culver City’s Ford’s Filling Station speaks of the farmer’s market and its farmers with great reverence. Chef Ford grew up with his hands in the soil, gardening from a very young age so his respect for the food grown by the farmers comes naturally.

                     

It's not easy for many of us to get across the pond to enjoy a full-service British-style afternoon tea with all the trimmings, but we don't have to leave Los Angeles County to indulge our inner Londoner, thanks to the Langham Pasadena's elegant high tea. The stately and delightful ritual takes places Thursday through Sunday in the hotel's welcoming and window-side Lobby Lounge, allowing guests and visitors to the hotel the chance to indulge in a spot of tea and the elegant accoutrements of the meal.