The Brief

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

If you’re part of the food allergy club — the group of people who can go from fine to anaphylactic after one wrong bite — eating at restaurants isn’t casual. It’s high stakes.

A miscommunication on the line, incomplete information from a server or a shared griddle can mean an EpiPen injection and a trip to the hospital.

Unlike intolerances, food allergies can be life-threatening. The immune system treats even trace amounts of an allergen as a threat.

And allergens are on the rise, with an estimated 7% of the U.S. population experiencing food allergies according to a 2024 CDC study.

That’s why The LA Local spoke with more than 20 restaurants and cafes about their allergen protocols and narrowed the list to seven local spots that take nut allergies seriously — and still deliver on flavor.

Please note that while we recommend these spots, this reporting is not a substitute for your own diligence. Be sure to disclose your allergy when dining and ask any questions specific to your situation.

At these spots, instead of feeling like your allergies are an inconvenience, we hope you’ll feel the warm hug of a safe and accommodating meal.

Noble Rotisserie

A typical allergen-free dish at Noble Rotisserie.

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Isabella Kulkarni

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The LA Local

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Owner Sidney Price started Noble Rotisserie to serve families like hers.

She and her husband Steve raised two sons with a range of food allergies — including nuts, dairy, sesame and eggs — a list that was long and ever-evolving.

Sidney didn’t feel safe eating out in part because restaurants couldn’t even answer her basic question, “What is in this dish? So I can look it over and make sure my son can eat it.”

Years later, Steve and Sidney opened Noble Rotisserie, a place that prioritizes transparency by making everything from scratch and clearly communicating ingredients.

Noble Rotisserie was built for people with allergens.

The protocol goes something like this: if you come in and say you have an allergy, a manager will be called over to take your order. They will pull out a detailed allergy binder — also available online — listing ingredients down to spices and alliums like onions and shallots.

They source from vendors they know, like Pasturebird, which supplies the restaurant with hormone and antibiotic-free chicken. Inside the restaurant’s kitchen, they have a separate station where they prepare allergy orders to prevent cross contamination.

The food is also really good.

The chicken was perfectly seasoned, the potatoes crisped to perfection, and the dairy-free coconut soft serve was creamy, indulgent and full of toasty flavor. The accommodation was simply the cherry on top. It’s no wonder that most diners here, according to Sidney, have no idea the restaurant is allergen friendly.

The restaurant also partners with the Food Allergy Institute in Long Beach’s TIP program, which helps children and young people with allergies. Sidney said her two sons completed the program and are now both food allergy free thanks to treatment.

Cafe Tropical

A typical allergen-free dish at Cafe Tropical.

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Isabella Kulkarni

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The LA Local

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Silverlake’s big purple landmark, Cafe Tropical — located where Sunset Boulevard and Silver Lake Boulevard meet — functions as a community hub. The cafe has been around since the 70’s according to owner Danny Khorunzhiy, who used to frequent it as a patron.

The space is bustling with goodwill reminiscent of a bygone era. During my time eating at the spot, there was a steady stream of regulars coming in to chat with the staff. The space also has a literal community center attached, which Khorunzhiy maintains to this day.

Most exceptional, however, is the food.

My plate was full of color — a strip of thick cut bacon, buttery lettuce from Roots Farms, slices of heirloom tomatoes and a bright purple slaw served alongside rich, creamy eggs.

As for the allergen protocol, they have labels on the menu, and nearly everything is made in house, which according to Khorunzhiy, is part of the reason the restaurant started to attract people with allergies.

Khorunzhiy has dealt with his own severe walnut allergy since he was a teen, so he understands the importance of taking precautions.

San & Wolves

A big part of the ethos behind San & Wolves is serving the greater Filipino community. Its founders, Kym Estrada and Arvin Torres, are both Filipino and vegan, and started the bakery to recreate the treats they grew up with — like ube halaya and pandan pudding — while maintaining their diet.

Believe me when I tell you: I am full dairy all day, and I live very far from Long Beach, but I would make the trip any day. Every treat I tried was exceptional.

Chef Estrada didn’t start her vegan bakery with any plan to be soy or nut free. Two of the heaviest hitters in traditional vegan baking are soy and nuts, but Estrada said she was “tired of draining tofu.” She also started experimenting with fewer nuts because of the cost.

After they opened San & Wolves, Estrada and Torres started to notice a steady stream of kids with allergies who frequented the shop. This sealed their decision to stay nut free.

“We have to be committed to them,” Estrada told The LA Local. “If we include nuts and soy, they can’t eat here.”

San & Wolves puts an emphasis on whole foods instead of hyper processed ingredients which are common in vegan cooking. They make their “egg salad” with whole veggies and chickpeas rather than the vegan product Just Egg, for example. Even their sweetened condensed milk is made in house with coconut milk. “I’m not sure if it’s cost effective,” Estrada admitted with a laugh.

Woon

When Keegan Fong expanded his original Filipinotown spot, Woon, to Pasadena, he decided to make the new kitchen entirely nut-free. Why? “Why not?” he said. “Nowadays there are a lot of eating restrictions.”

So he and his team built out the kitchen in a way that avoided what Fong deemed the most common and sensitive allergen. Unlike traditional Chinese cooking, where shared woks and recycled cooking oil are the norm, Fong restructured his line to separate allergens as much as possible — cooking in dedicated woks and discarding used oils to prevent cross-contamination.

At Woon, staff are trained on allergens and have access to a binder listing cross-contamination risks and sauce recipes. Employees are also encouraged to check with a manager whenever a guest with allergies comes in, so the kitchen can confirm nothing was different that day.

Despite being a nut-free kitchen, the Pasadena location does post signage reading “made in a facility that contains peanuts,” but that refers only to a packaged Peanuts + Sea Moss snack produced at the original Filipinotown location.

Fong is also candid about the limits of any such guarantee: he can’t control whether a staff member brings trail mix to work.

The menu is largely vegan — Fong notes that much of traditional Chinese cooking lends itself naturally to plant-based preparation — and includes a small selection of gluten-free items. But beyond its dietary accommodations, the Pasadena location carries personal weight for Fong.

He grew up in Pasadena, and opened Woon there just 10 days before the wildfires swept through the region, making the expansion feel like a homecoming of sorts. The restaurant has since added a weekend brunch menu, giving Pasadena and Altadena residents — and anyone else looking for a satisfying weekend meal — more reasons to visit.

Hugo’s

A typical allergen-free dish at Hugo’s.

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Isabella Kulkarni

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The LA Local

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The West Hollywood outpost of Hugo’s is the kind of place you could bring almost anyone and have a good time. The menu spans comfort food — turkey meatloaf, Cuban sandwiches — and healthier fare like pumpkin coconut curry and quinoa beet salad, plus a full wine list, an all-day brunch menu and fresh juices.

When I sat down on the patio to eat a caprese sandwich on house-made gluten-free bread, manager Kimberley walked me through the restaurant’s approach to dietary accommodations. More than 40 years in operation, Hugo’s has refined its allergen protocol considerably. “I don’t know of another restaurant in Los Angeles that takes allergies as seriously as we do,” she said.

The process begins the moment you walk in. If you mention an allergy upon arrival, you’ll receive a red coaster — a signal to your server and food runner that your table requires extra care. A binder listing every ingredient the restaurant carries, down to what’s inside a single chocolate chip, is brought to the table.

From there, the precautions continue into the kitchen. When you order, an allergy alert is placed at the top of the ticket sent to the kitchen, and the server verbally confirms with a runner that a guest with an allergy is seated — ensuring someone on the line is aware before cooking begins. Knives and counters are wiped down, and the dish is prepared in an individual sanitized pan. When the food comes out, the runner double-checks the plate and ensures it’s set in front of the red coaster.

Hugo’s is not entirely nut-free, but it is a peanut-free facility, and its toasters and fryers are completely nut-free. For guests with nut allergies, staff recommend sticking to dishes prepared in individual pans rather than those made on the shared griddle — pancakes, for instance, fall into the latter category. Like many allergy-conscious restaurants, Hugo’s makes most items in-house, including sauces, juices, and its gluten-free and rye breads.

Twice Baked

A typical allergen-free dish at Twice Baked.

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Isabella Kulkarni

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The LA Local

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If you order one thing at Twice Baked, make it the eclair.

Dahlia Villegas had been a home cook before she started experimenting with gluten-free recipes after her husband was diagnosed with celiac disease. That tinkering eventually became Twice Baked, a bakery now dedicated to serving customers with allergies and gluten or dairy intolerances.

Twice Baked is fully peanut-free and offers a wide range of nut-free, grain-free, sugar-free and dairy-free options. It’s a response, Villegas says, to a real gap in the community. The shop also partners with the Food Allergy Institute in Long Beach, which allows them to accommodate hyper-specific allergen requests. Vanilla extract, cinnamon — if it’s a concern, Twice Baked can work around it.

Villegas herself is something of a walking allergen binder. As I stood in front of the display case, transfixed by chocolate bundt cakes and chocolate eclairs, she rattled off the full ingredient list for each without missing a beat.

Though the desserts share display cases, they are prepared separately with separate ingredients, and any item can be pulled from the kitchen if a customer is worried about cross-contamination. The shop relies on a lot of shared equipment, but does maintain a dedicated nut-only food processor. In 11 years of operation, Villegas says, not a single customer has reported getting sick.

Kismet Rotisserie

A typical allergen-free dish at Kismet.

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Isabella Kulkarni

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The LA Local

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With locations in Los Feliz and Pasadena, Kismet Rotisserie is hardly a secret in Los Angeles. What may be less known is that its chicken is remarkably allergen-friendly — marinated in nothing more than a house-made spice blend of turmeric, coriander and Aleppo pepper with salt and sugar, free of nuts, alliums, soy and gluten.

Walking into the bright, yellow-tiled Pasadena location is enough to put anyone in a good mood, helped along by staff who field nitpicky menu questions with patience and genuine curiosity. The restaurant sits right on the Altadena border, and just a block north, the neighborhood still bears the visible scars of last year’s devastating fires. Kismet has responded by hiring locally and participating in multiple relief efforts — donating meals to first responders and directing proceeds from cookie sales to affected residents.

The kitchen does contain nuts and soy, but their reach is limited. The only equipment that comes into contact with nuts is the robot coupe, used exclusively to prep the gluten-free peanut miso cookie and the muhammara sauce — both of which are kept separate from nearly every other ingredient in the restaurant. According to Neal, a sous chef at the Pasadena location, the inclusive approach is by design: one of the restaurant’s owners, Sarah, is gluten-free, and Kismet was built from the start to be accessible — in terms of both its food and its clientele. Both locations also offer a kids menu.

As for the chicken: it’s the most satisfying rotisserie leg you can find in this city, served with crispy potatoes and a garlic sauce that makes the whole thing sing.

Southern California was built on radio.

"I can still hear the jingle KFWB News 98,” wrote  Taline in Los Feliz, during a recent conversation on LAist's daily news show, AirTalk, which airs on 89.3 FM. “I grew up hearing that in my dad's minivan on the way to and from school. It has a special place in my heart.”

Back in April, broadcast company Audacy announced KNX News — one of the last-remaining all-news FM stations — was leaving the FM dial where it had simulcast on 97.1 FM since 2021. The station, which is also one of the oldest in L.A., is not budging from 1070 AM where it has been on the air for more than 100 years. The move away from FM officially happened in May to make way for a new sports talk station, which Audacy officials called an area of growth for advertisers in today’s media landscape.

The move is one in a long line of changes for radio and a reminder that before podcasts, playlists and algorithms, many Southern Californians built their days around radio broadcasts.

Radio, a daily ritual

The construction of KNX

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Herman J. Schultheis

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Michael Jackson, a well-known KNX, personality

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Larry Mantle, now in his 41st year hosting AirTalk, remembers being a kid and dreaming of what it might be like to be behind the mic at one of these radio stations.

“ I grew up with KNX," he said. “My dream job as a kid was to be an anchor on KNX or KFWB, the two local all-news radio stations, 'cause there was nothing like hosting AirTalk that even existed at that point.”

Mantle opened up the phone lines on a recent show to hear from his fellow SoCal radio lovers about the shows they miss and the memories they have. Here's what they had to say:

A love for radio, then and now  

A pilot of KMPC's traffic alert helicopter pictured with his daughter and grandson.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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A 1963 picture of Valley State College (now Los Angeles Valley College) preparing to launch KVCM

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Larry Leach

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Los Angeles Public Library

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“When you'd walk down Hollywood Boulevard where the station was, you could hear it playing as you went down the street,” said  Olivia in Glendale about KLAC 570 with Al Jarvis.

 Larry in Yorba Linda shouted out KBCA Jazz for its 24-hour jazz, saying “When I first moved out here in '68 from Phoenix, which had like an hour a week, it was a real wonder.”

 Mark in Glassell Park emailed that he loves KCRW’s Henry Rollins, writing, “I used to bristle at his unique DJ persona, but over time, I came to love him and his crazy eclectic playlists. I find his knowledge in history and punk rock fascinating. He's a gem and a legend."

"I'd like to give a shout-out to all the DJs working at KXLU, the college station at Loyola Marymount University, said  Jeremy in Culver City in an email. “That station's been on the air for nearly 60 years. I believe it's one of the best examples of what's possible with radio."

"KFWB and KRLA back in the day when they were rock music stations —  Dr. Demento, one of my favorite on-air personalities, also had eclectic music taste," said  Carrie in Desert Edge.

“ Dr. Demento was must listening when I was a kid in junior high school at Le Conte Junior High in Hollywood,” Mantle added. “Every Sunday night on KMET, we would make sure we were listening to Dr. Demento and his funny records.”

The question remains…

An 11-year-old winning a car in a KMPC contest in 1963.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Listener support is vital to any radio station, and it’s clear KNX has many lifelong fans. AirTalk listeners highlighted their support for household KNX names over the decades like Bill Keene, Melinda Lee, Mike Roy and Jackie Olden.

As KNX makes changes, many are watching closely and thinking about the future of radio.

Listeners like Tommy in La Quinta are left wondering if the radio dial will be the same…

“I’m a hardcore listener, but I don't know about casual listeners [and] if they'll tune to AM,” he said.

After months of hand-wringing, Los Angeles and LA28 have come to a tentative agreement on how Olympics organizers will reimburse the city for its expenses for the 2028 Summer Games.

According to the deal, the private Olympic organizing committee will pay upfront for the estimated cost of services that are not eligible for federal reimbursement, like trash pick-up and traffic control. Under another proposal, the city would also be able to tap an LA28 contingency fund if it isn't fully repaid by the federal government for policing costs at Olympic venues.

The agreement is nearly nine months overdue and still needs approval by Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council.

The 2028 Olympics are intended to be privately financed, and an existing city agreement with LA28 states that the Olympics organizers, not L.A., will pay for extra costs for public services in support of the Games. But L.A. is the financial back-stop for the Olympics, meaning if LA28 goes in the red, taxpayers will pick up the bill.

Beyond that, the city services agreement presents another area where L.A. could incur additional unexpected expenses for hosting the Games. L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez warned LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover earlier this year that a bad deal could "bankrupt" the city.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, an LA28 spokesperson, and Paul Krekorian, who leads the city's office of major events, said in statements that the freshly inked agreement would help deliver a fiscally responsible Games.

"Mayor Bass’ priority is that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games be fiscally responsible, protect taxpayers, and benefit Angelenos for decades to come. This agreement helps deliver that commitment," Krekorian said.

But the contract between the two parties doesn't fully resolve one of the biggest areas of financial risk for the city: the enormous cost of security for an event as extensive and high-profile as the summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Organizers are counting on the federal government to pay for public safety at Olympic venues that are considered part of a "national special security event." That includes costs for LAPD staffing. LA28 has not included security costs in its $7.1 billion budget — a fact that City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto criticized earlier this year.

The federal government has so far allocated $1 billion for security costs for the Olympics. Exactly where those federal funds will go has not yet been determined, and there's no guarantee they will cover all of L.A.'s policing costs.

To address this, city officials have also proposed an amendment to a 2021 agreement between the city and LA28. That amendment would establish that if L.A. is not reimbursed by the federal government for all its eligible expenses, it could dip into LA28's contingency fund of $270 million before the private organizing committee could use those funds for any legacy projects.

But that bucket of money will first be used for any costs that Olympics organizers still owe if they run out of revenue — meaning if the Olympics don't turn a profit, the city's access to that money will depend on how much is left for the taking.

Civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who has been tracking the city's negotiations with LA28, told LAist the agreement was a "PR document" not a deal. She pointed out that if the federal government does not pay up for security spending as expected, L.A. could be in trouble.

" It leaves the taxpayers with a GoFundMe strategy," she said.

The city services agreement lays the groundwork for more negotiations between LA28 and the city. Each venue will require its own agreement, to be negotiated by July 1, 2027. Venues in the city of L.A. include Dodger Stadium, the L.A. Convention Center, L.A. Memorial Coliseum and the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

The City Council's ad-hoc committee on the 2028 Games will meet Tuesday afternoon to vote on the agreement.