The Brief

The great divide of Orange County dining has long been its north-south schism. Northern neighborhoods like Little Saigon and Little Arabia are rich with fantastic international restaurants, offering some of Southern California's best, most hyper-regional cooking. To the south, Orange County’s tony, beachfront enclaves tend toward high-end dining and upscale chain restaurants.

Irvine has long served as a demarcation, the last place in the county with a wealth of international options and its share of finer dining. Anywhere further south is often lumped in with the sleepy suburbs that merely fly by en route to San Diego.

But there’s one place that’s almost always overlooked: Lake Forest. There, you can find Korean kimbap specialists, South Asian pizza joints, Mexican tortillerias, and more. The small city has a fascinating concentration of unique international offerings, some of which you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in Orange County.

Here are just a few.

Chili Chutney

Chili Chutney has undergone several incarnations, first changing locations and, more recently, changing ownership. But one constant remains: the restaurant’s Afghan cooking. The restaurant was the county’s only purveyor of Afghan recipes for years. While the restaurant has expanded its menu, its most beloved dishes remain.

An order of mantu is a must. The small, spiced beef dumplings are about the size of tortellini, boiled and topped with a yogurt-mint sauce and tomato-lentil sauce. A whole plate will be gone before your table can catch its breath. Banjan borani is easily shared, and it is a caramelized eggplant dip with tomato, bell pepper, onion, sour cream, and dried mint.

Chili Chutney in Lake Forrest .

(

Julie Leopo

/

LAist

)

The Chili Chutney signature dish, Kabuli Pulao, in Lake Forrest on Oct. 8, 2024, is served with rice, lamb, spices and garnished with raisins and carrots.

(

Julie Leopo

/

LAist

)

Kabuli pulao is Afghanistan’s national dish, a massive pilaf of steamed basmati rice studded with caramelized carrots, raisins, and hunks of tender lamb. It’s a mountain of a meal that blurs the line between slightly sweet and decadently savory.

The restaurant has undergone a banquet-focused remodel recently and the dessert options have been updated as well. But there’s still the Afghan favorite firnee, a cardamom- and rose water-scented pudding.

Brio Brio Cafe & Bakery

Every neighborhood needs a restaurant like Brio Brio. The Japanese bakery is the quintessential community destination, a do-it-all restaurant where scratch-made is a foundational principle rather than just a buzzword.

The Milk Cream Bun from Brio Brio Bakery & Cafe in Lake Forrest

(

Julie Leopo

/

LAist

)

On weekends, young families and groups of friends stream in looking for perfectly burnished slices of matcha Basque cheesecake and warm, gooey mochi anpan. Cyclists make pit stops to top up with toasty hojicha-espresso lattes.

There’s an excellent Japanese-style egg salad sandwich on housemade shokupan for lunch. Meanwhile, the mammoth tuna salad sandwich arrives on a stout, rustic roll loaded with tuna, oven-roasted tomatoes, and slices of hardboiled egg.

Naoko Saiode, and her husband own the Japanese bakery Brio Brio Bakery & Cafe. Saiode is the chef behind the dishes.

(

Julie Leopo

/

LAist

)

Brio Brio is even more special because the restaurant also does dinner. On Wednesday through Sunday evenings, Brio Brio dons a nighttime alter ego and turns into izakaya-inspired Bri Baru. Okonomiyaki is here reimagined as a toast, loaded onto a slab of that housemade shokupan. Prime beef curry is a hearty favorite. Most interesting is the roster of fusion-minded tacos on, of course, housemade tortillas. You may never find anything else like the fried aji mackerel taco with a egg salad dollop.

Las Delicias Guatemalan Food

Early risers are rewarded at Las Delicias. The Guatemalan restaurant is a bonafide breakfast destination, serving hearty, traditional plates that will power you through the day.

The desayuno chapín is as typical as it gets: two eggs, beans, caramelized plantains, and a slab of cheese. Chuchitos are small Guatemalan tamales filled with chicken, beef, or pork, tomato salsa, and cheese. Order a few for a hearty morning meal, one that’s made all the better if paired with a cup of steaming atol de plátano, the masa-thickened beverage sweetened with banana.

Guatemalan restaurant, Las Delicias, in Lake Forrest on Oct. 8, 2024.

(

Julie Leopo

/

LAist

)

Desayuno "breakfast" Chapin dish from Guatemalan restaurant, Las Delicias, in Lake Forrest on Oct. 8, 2024.

(

Julie Leopo

/

LAist

)

Las Delicias occupies the same strip mall space that was once home to local favorite Renzo’s A Taste of Peru. The colorful dining room has undergone only modest changes, a design decision that is sure to stir the memories of the neighbors who have found their way to Las Delicias. But a plate of pepián de gallina is all anyone needs to be converted to a regular, tender chicken bathed in a mole-like sauce of sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried chilies, tomato, and spices.

Sana’a Cafe

Gamal Alaqel, waits for the Adenai Chai to come to a boiling point Sana'a Cafe in Lake Forrest.

(

Julie Leopo

/

LAist

)

Yemen lays claim to one of the world’s oldest coffee cultures. Historical records present evidence of coffee cultivation as far back as the 12th century, when coffee began its spread from Yemen to the rest of the Arabian Peninsula. Sana’a Cafe, one of the newest members of Lake Forest’s dining scene, is a coffee shop dedicated to those Yemeni traditions.

The common characteristic of most Yemeni coffee drinks is spice. Ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon are often added to the coffee grounds during brewing, resulting in aromatic drinks that are uniquely complex. Beyond the usual lattes and espressos are drinks like qisher, a traditional Yemeni beverage that steeps the husks of coffee beans as if they were tea. Here, it’s also prepared with cinnamon and ginger–an ideal winter warmer. Adeni chai is popular as well, scented with cardamom and tempered with cream.

The exterior of Sana's Cafe in Lake Forrest.

(

Julie Leopo

/

LAist

)

Naturally, you’ll want something sweet, too. Go with a slice of moist rose milk cake topped with candied rose petals or warm knafeh, the Arabian answer to cheesecake topped with crisp, shredded filo dough and soaked with simple syrup.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.

In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.

The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.

A blow for Tilly Norwood 

Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.

Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.

The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.

Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.

"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."

Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.

International films prioritizes filmmakers over countries

While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.

Largely positive response

The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.

The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.

The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)

But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.

The ruins are still there 

On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.

Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.

A car speeds away from the lodge onto New York Avenue. The stone archway that still stands can be seen in the background.

(

Kadletz Family Archives)

)

“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”

Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.

“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”

We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.

In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.

“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.

Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.

Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.

The exterior of the locker rooms for the old Crystal Pool.

(

Robert Garrova / LAist

)

We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.

And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.

Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.

“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.

Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”

“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.

In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.

The archway that still stands outside of what's now known as Mountain Oaks.

(

Robert Garrova / LAist

)

Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.

“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.

What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.

The future of Mountain Oaks 

After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.

A map showing the Mountain Oaks public property acquired by The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

(

Courtesy MRCA

)

Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.

Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.

“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.

The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.

“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.

Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.

“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.

Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.

That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.

‘I just couldn’t stop’ 

At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.

Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.

Chieh's 3D rendering of Room 237

(

Anthony Chieh

)

“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.

“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”

“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.

Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.

“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”

Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.

“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.

In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”

How spaces scare 

Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.

“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.

“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”

Chieh's 3D rendering of the Torrance's apartment in 'The Shining'

(

Anthony Chieh

)

What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?

Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.

That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.