Vitello's in Studio City has been a Valley classic for years, serving up simple but extremely tasty Italian food. Despite some of its popular culture references (notably the Robert Blake murder case and when the image of Jesus was found in some Manicotti), the restaurant is a neighborhood icon and consistently a community partner. Today, they opened their second space at the corner Woodman and Ventura. Vitello's Express has some of the Studio City menu......

Today, Assemblymember Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank) officially unveiled signs marking the Valley Glen neighborhood along the 170 Freeway. Most signs posted on freeways in the East Valley generalize the area and say North Hollywood, whether you're actually in Studio City or some other community. “I hope these new signs will encourage people traveling along the Hollywood Freeway to explore Valley Glen and enjoy its businesses, restaurants and ambience,” Assemblymember Krekorian said in a press release. Our......

Map of New Pizza & Italian Places in Sherman Oaks | View Larger Map More and more, Sherman Oaks' eastside along Ventura Blvd. is being referred as one of Los Angeles' premiere restaurant rows. News came out Monday on Eater LA that two Italian restaurants will be opening. In the old Orange Delight space (they moved a couple storefronts down to expand), Vitello's (of Tujunga and, well, yes, that Robert Blake thing too) is......

If you consider having three storefronts in Los Angeles a chain, then PitFire Pizza Company is just that. However, for a chain, their food is excellent. And a few LAist Featured Photos contributors prove that with their photography at each of their locations: NoHo Arts District, Downtown and Westwood. Submit your Eye Nosh food 'porn' photos and mini-reviews to LAist via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr.......

Il Chanti is a hidden gem, I tell ya, because although I had heard that there's a nice Japanese Italian place in Lomita, I could not have guessed that it was THIS good. This is definitely one of the best meals I've had so far this year. There's tons of pictures today, so let's get right to it.......

Al Gelato sits on Robertson in the southern part of Bevely Hills. It came recommended from a couple of friends, but I initially had doubts because it was billed more as a dessert place, but hey, if they have cake and pizza and gelato all in one place, who am I to complain? The pre-meal bread is huge! It's got a thin crust and very soft and fluffy insides. They plop down a plate of......

Some of the most fun you can have downtown is at the Downtown Art Walk on the second Thursday of every month (also in the mix is the Downtown Comedy Walk). LAist Featured Photos contributor savemejebus submitted this photo from last Thursday at the new Museum of Neon Art space on 4th Street next to Rocket Pizza. MONA's official opening reception is next month on the 12th, but be sure to swing by on......

Barbarella plays at the Arclight tonight. / Photo by atomicshakespeares via LAist's flickr pool. SPOKEN WORD The NYC-based nonprofit organization The Moth brings its StorySLAM to LA every first Tuesday of the month. If you’re good a spinning yarns, then StorySLAM is for you. They provide the theme and the mic – you put your name in the hat and if you’re picked, you have 5-minutes to tell your story – no papers allowed.......

There's some great news for pizza fans coming from Pizza Fusion, an all-organic, environmentally friendly pizza franchise: they're setting out to expand throughout California this year, starting with an LEED-certified location in San Diego and moving up through Santa Monica and Thousand Oaks. Why is this cool? Well, the company is setting trends and blazing trails in the sustainability business: Pizza Fusion, whose motto is 'Saving the Earth, One Pizza at a Time,' practices......

Last Friday night at Bordello, Elite Yelpers gathered for drinks and music to wish Stephy S, Community Manager of Yelp.com for Los Angeles (she's like Tom of MySpace, but goddess style), a farewell adieu as she takes on a larger responsibility for the website up at its San Francisco HQ (sister site SFist should feel so lucky). Since May 2006, Stephy has been leading the way for Yelp.com, bringing in the energy for a site......

Tomorrow is the ribbon cutting of the third and newest downtown Famima!! at the California Plaza on Grand Avenue near MOCA. It's about time this part of downtown receive some new food options, even if this is quasi Japanese 7-11 style. However, a made-to-order sushi bar will be the centerpiece of this location. In addition to the few food options at the California Plaza, Performance Row (as we once dubbed it) has a Koo Koo......

Ed LaDou, the father of modern California-style pizza, has died of cancer at age 52 in Santa Monica. LaDou is best known for his work at Wolfgang Puck's legendary Spago; LaDou was the first to experiment with unusual and innovative pizza toppings like duck and smoked salmon, and he also helped develop the menu for the casual dining chain California Pizza Kitchen. From The LA Times: "Ed really set the tone for the pizza,"......

Picture it: North Hollywood, 2007. Two old pals get together to work on an installment of LAist's Neighborhood Project but are easily distracted by watching episodes of The Golden Girls on dvd. Deeply entrenched in a bout of hunger, the two turn to the internets to find a local pizzeria that isn't a great big multinational chain (one of them used to be the LAist Food Editor, after all, and has these lofty ideals about......

Even though I've eaten at Studio City's Caioti Pizza Cafe a bunch of times in the past, I never knew there was a bizarre urban legend associated with the casual eatery. Apparently, one salad on their menu is purported to induce labor in expectant women. Today's "Only in LA" column in the Times checks in with the restaurant to see if the myth still holds. Steve Harvey explains, "The trend supposedly began after some very......

Driving down Sunset tonight we saw smoke billowing from what we feared was Safari Sam's. As we got closer we saw that it was not the rock club ablaze nor the 99 Cents store (thank God) but a car in the parking lot. All by itself. As if it had just spontaneously combusted. Because we knew you'd like nothing better than to see a car fire in such an eerie situation we reached into......

I've been pretty excited about Joe's Pizza opening in Santa Monica, so today, we forded crowded, traffic heavy Santa Monica to get a slice. Their new LA outpost is a small storefront next door to a place that sells t-shirts to tourist. The space is spare, functional, white, with a marble counter set in front of the small kitchen. By the time we got there, it was fairly crowded, and we had to wait......

I leaned back in the leather booth and contemplated the great pile of thick mozzarella cheese and meaty red sauce before me. Is this good drunk food? I asked myself. Would the readers of LAist find late-night sustenance in this giant bowl of classic spaghetti-and-marinara? Is this a meal worthy of sopping up the various bitter brews that wreak such havoc on our sobriety and on our mornings after? I looked at the rapidly......

Your pets want the house to themselves today. Some of yesterday's festivals like Detour, NoHo Scene and the Eagle Rock Music Festival are over with. Yet Sunday, here in Los Angeles, is still a busy day. Events continuing from yesterday's Weekend Festival Guide: Brewery Art Walk and TarFest Jazz at Drew 10:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.: In it's 17th year, the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science's popular music and charity event......

Attention space cadets, men in black and intergalactic babes, your resistance to snack attacks of insomnia are not to be heeded. Point your ship towards Fairfax Village and prepare to wine and dine in the alien kitsched, mellowed out, droid welcoming version of the Mos Eisley Cantina at Nova Express Cafe. Open six nights a week (no Mondays) starting at 7 p.m., Nova stays open until 2 a.m. Sundays through Wednesdays, 3.am. on Thursdays......

Alright, fine. Maybe I am just another drunk girl stumbling down the street every time that I want to go to Greco’s New York Pizzeria. Maybe the urge for the cheesy goodness, the massive slices, and the dripping grease does only strike when my blood alcohol level rivals that of a bottle of tequila. Maybe that’s true, but that didn’t stop me from giving Greco’s the benefit of the doubt as I walked in,......

Another festival alert, this one concerning cheese! Hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla will be celebrating the Italian-American immigrant experience this weekend in Hollywood at the 6th Annual Cheese Feast of San Gennaro. Eat some excellent Italian food, play some bocce ball (courts will be set up all day), research your heritage, and watch a parade of the saint through the streets of Hollywood. (San Gennaro was one of those indestructable superhero saints who......

Seattlest watches as a S.L.U.T. is born and Seattle Flickr users go nuts over a local art installation. A restaurant critic demands a Diner's Bill of Rights over a gnat next to her drink, and, in lieu of a Portlandist, Seattlest debates with itself over the identity of the Northwest's crown jewel. Seattlest also joins the guys from Fantagraphics for an ill-fated gun party in the woods. LAist saw national headlines soar this week with......

Dear CPK, What the fuck? Wait…let’s try that again. Okay. Let me start by saying I’ve been a big fan over the years, and have visited your flagship Beverly Hills location too many times to count. You guys used to have this killer menu with great, creative, original dishes that could be described as nouveau comfort food. Take for example, your Potato Leek Soup, Garlic Shrimp Pizza or my all time fav—the Tandoori Chicken......

Last week we celebrated the 30th anniversary of KCRW's flagship show, Morning Becomes Eclectic with interviews with Jason Bentley, Chris Douridas, Nic Harcourt, Anne Litt, Liza Richardson, and we conclude our special with Gary Calamar, the host of KCRW's Sunday night staple, The Open Road. For those of you who might be watching tee vee at night instead of listening to the radio, you might not know it but you were probably listening to......

When I started this article, I was happy. Pizza happy. I had misread an entry on EaterLA and thought John's Pizzeria was opening a Santa Monica location. (I wasn't the only one.) To qualify this, let me explain my connection with John's. My husband (a pizza connoisseur ) and I go to NYC about once a year, and usually, the night we fly in, we check into our hotel and go straight to John's.......

Vegan and vegetarian restaurants are starting to become one of the regulars among sushi and Thai joints across Los Angeles neighborhoods. And on Thursday, Silver Lake got theirs with Flore Vegan Cuisine (additionally, Intelligentsia Coffee opened yesterday one block north). Veggies are rejoicing to once again eat owner and Chef Miranda's cuisine after selling Tierra Cafe last year in Downtown (which is still open under new management). She has now brought forth a vegan restaurant......

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line. When I was a UCLA student many moons ago, one of my favorite places to eat was Buck-Fitty (also known as Roll Inn Sandwich). I am somewhat dating myself in that I remember when the good-but-not-really-that-good sammiches actually cost $1.50, instead of the $3......

Last March, one of my favorite Los Feliz restaurants, il Capriccio, opened up a pizzeria. It’s located at the Sunset Junction, on Hollywood Boulevard next to the U-Haul, or a block up from the strip joint, depending on your frame of reference. When people talk about California pizza, they usually mean gourmet toppings, a la Wolfgang Puck, with a sweet, bready crust like California Pizza Kitchen's. While I am a fan of adventurous toppings,......

Throw-The-Kitchen-Sink-In-It Pizza: with Vodka Sauce, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Garlic, Mozzarella, Pepperoni, Basil, Parmesan, Caramelized Onions, and Olives We've gotta admit, Mozza was great, but Lord knows we can't eat like red-headed Italian kings every day. In fact, even ordering pizza every night tends to add up: $20 per pizza per day for two people over one week? That's over $140, even if you eat the leftovers for breakfast! It's enough to make us want to...I......

A Word or 77 (or so): ABC has a lineup of new episodes and shows tonight - bucking the other networks, with the exception of Fox and the CW, who were always trend-buckers [hey, I said "buckers" ok, you dirty-minded individuals]. You might have also seen on the AP that the kids are trying to keep Jericho on the air - if CBS doesn't want to run it, they should sell it. I always......