Are hard economic times finally hitting the Los Angeles restaurant industry? Signs are pointing to yes: a press release just sent out this morning is announcing that Chef Joachim Splichal is closing his Beverly Hills seafood restaurant Paperfish. From the release: “It is with sadness that I made the decision to close Paperfish...Much time, effort and creativity went into the foundation of the restaurant, but we had an option in our lease to return the......

Many of LAist's contributors have been checking out L.A.'s dineLA Restaurant Week -- and we've discovered that some experiences definitely offered more value than others. I decided to close out my own Restaurant Week experience with a casual lunch and a more upscale dinner: for the former, I took LAist editor Zach out to lunch at eat. on sunset, while I saved the fancy hotel dinner at Circa 55 for my special guy. Both......

As timing would have it, my trip to San Francisco last week came right on the heels of Michael Bauer's controversial article, The Dish on Los Angeles. Unlike many Angelinos, I did not get the impression that his article was maligning our entire restaurant scene. I thought it was a pretty standard assessment of a certain class of restaurant - the good, the bad, and the Patina Group. As I prepared for my trip......

Over the weekend fine diners were invited to a special downtown event: immune globulin shots. That's because at least one employee at Café Pinot, the fancy restaurant nestled in front of the central library downtown, has contracted Hepatitis A. The disease, whose symptoms include fever, nausea and dark urine (good morning!), has a weeks-long incubation period. So only those who dined at Café Pinot post-Thanksgiving, from Nov. 25-Dec. 4 should worry. Luckily for us,......