The Optimism of Restaurateurs…The building on the northeast corner of Artesia and Inglewood has changed ownership again, and now has been three different Mexican restaurants in three years. The newcomer is La Paz Jr., offshoot of a successful operation in El Segundo, and they hope they have the magic that the previous tenants lacked. One might wonder whether Artesia Boulevard is a bit over-represented when it comes to Sonora-style Mexican food – from this corner to Aviation there are no less than eight places serving tacos and burritos, and I might have missed one or two in the blur of fast food joints. It’s a lot of competition for the same market, and so far none of the restaurants have broadened their appeal by serving food from other regions of Mexico – no Oaxacan clayudas, Yucatecan ceviches, or Michoacan birrias are served along this strip. I wish the newcomer well, but am mystified by their strategy…
Sundays Get Interesting… Sundays are a slow night for fine restaurants, and a few around the South Bay have started offering special meals to tempt diners. Several now feature chef’s choice family-style meals – not a completely new idea in the area since Mama Terano has been doing it for years, but the heavy hitters are now in the game. Circa, which wasn’t open on Sunday until this week, has introduced a three-course meal for $32. Apparently the focus will be on American classics – the first night featured a cobb salad, roasted chicken with three vegetables, and peach cobbler. It wasn’t the coffee shop meal that it sounds like – all three were made with extraordinary skill and top quality ingredients, and the people who dined there seemed very happy with the experience. Other restaurants are joining in the trend – Chez Soi is offering a Sunday meal at $39 per person for a minimum of four people, and other rollouts are on the way. I hope this works as intended – anything that gets families around a table at least once a week is fine in my book.
Event Alert!… The Celebrate Wellness event at the South Coast Botanic Garden is scheduled for June 23 from 3 to 7 p.m. – a chance to help community support for cancer patients while dining in a fantastic garden setting. There will be a silent auction, pours from wineries and breweries, and gourmet food – get more information at cancersupportredondobeach.org…
And Celebrating With Beer… The Waves of Grain beer fest at Shade Hotel pairs beer with something both primal and American – a whole lot of barbecue, including a whole roasted pig. The event is from 3 to 6 p.m. on June 30 – it’s not the time of day that I usually sample my choice from over thirty beers and eat a lot of ‘que, but I’m willing to make an exception…
And Everyone But The Lobsters Celebrates This One… No date has been set for Redondo Beach’s Lobster Festival, which is usually held in September, but the T Grill is having their own lobsterfest on Saturday, July 6. Forty dollars gets you a two pound former resident of Maine, with roasted potatoes, corn, coleslaw, and key lime pie. A good time will be had by all except the lobsters…
Redondo Gains a Kosher Cafe… I’m not Jewish, but was delighted to hear that a Kosher restaurant will be opening in South Redondo this summer. It make things easier when some observant friends visit – we have kept a separate barbecue in my back yard for their use for years, and now they can eat something in my neighborhood that doesn’t taste like smoke. Chayo Eatery will bake their own bread and serve dairy and vegetarian dishes prepared according to Kosher laws. If they do it well, they may develop a following outside the religious community – I have been dining at the West LA restaurant called Got Kosher just because their pretzel bread is so fantastic…
Service So Attentive, It Drives You Crazy… There are plenty of complaints about inattentive service in restaurants, but I recently experienced the opposite – service so frequent that it was annoying. A relatively new restaurant on PCH had a server whose only duty was to refill waters, a reasonable thing when the establishment is busy. However there were only three tables occupied when we visited, and the server may have felt under some pressure to be seen to do his job. He came to our table and offered to refill our water over twenty times during the course of our meal, and most of the time nobody had taken even a sip since his last visit. His intrusive visits interrupted conversations and eventually became a source of comedy at our table. We hope someone at the restaurant has taken him aside and explained that extremely frequent service is not the same as good service…
