Posts by Richard Foss

It’s rare an artist’s rendition of a new restaurant inspires outrage, but that is what happened when this publication displayed an image of Esperanza to accompany one of my dining columns in July 2019. The spectacular, curved concrete façade provoked hate mail that declared that something like this would fit in fine in Beverly Hills,…

When I visit old cities, I find it charming that most residential neighborhoods have their local cafe, bakery, pub, and some little shop that sells the necessities of everyday life. It’s a relic of a world before the automobile, when neighbors met and socialized in the course of their everyday lives. That little eatery or…

Roadside barbecue joints have been having a moment in greater Los Angeles, sprouting up in vacant lots, parking lots next to bars, and anyplace else that has room for a smoker. These operations are helped by the fact that nobody expects fancy surroundings when chowing down on barbecue – a few picnic tables, lots of…

I like it when restaurants display symbols of culinary culture. The images of village markets laden with exotic produce, bakers proudly holding fresh loaves, grandmothers stirring pots over wood fires, and families at the table are more than mere decoration. It’s a reminder that these recipes are the legacy of countless generations of loving experimentation…

My wife had gone to work on a casual Friday wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and her first question when she got home was, “I remember that we’re going out tonight – do I have to change clothes?” From the tone in her voice, I could tell that she hoped the answer was no. She…

Hermosa had a bar and grill called Fat Face Fenner’s Falloon that everybody knew because once you heard the silly name, you remembered it. Other odd names were more problematic – BamBiBu was hilarious to anyone who understood Japanese puns, but forgettable by everyone else, and even the staff at Les Joues Hioux couldn’t agree…

Straight Talk From Taco Land… The management at Tacolicious, which has a location on Manhattan Avenue, sent out a startlingly honest message that reads in part, “…we need to be frank with you: Along with the majority of restaurants in the U.S., we are not ok. Things appear shoddy for a reason. If you’ve noticed…

I was trying to figure out why the patio at Eddie V’s Prime Seafood seemed familiar even though I hadn’t been there before, and it suddenly struck me – the last time I was in a place like this, there was green water around us instead of green lawn. The broad patio with a wall-length…

I don’t often find myself comparing restaurant offerings to geology, but that’s just the metaphor that went through my mind when I had dinner last week at The Strand House. I have been there over the course of a decade, and through the tenure of at least five chefs, each of whom arrived with their…

When I first heard Brews Hall was opening on Pier Plaza, my reaction was an eye roll. A sports-themed place that specializes in burgers and beer, opening across from a sports-themed place that specializes in burgers and beer, with variations on the theme adjacent and around the corner. It showed a certain lack of imagination,…

Over the course of culinary history, there are ideas that are recreated again and again. Every culture has some version of meat roasted over a fire, whether they call it barbecue, kebab, shashlik, yakitori, or something else. Similarly, once people come up with the idea of dough, it’s a natural thing to wrap it around…

Naming a steakhouse “The Rex” may seem presumptuous, because that title asserts kingship. Another steakhouse might assert that they are the queen of such establishments, or perhaps a prince, but that makes all other steakhouses subjects or vassals. It does make sense because good beef was historically the food of the aristocracy in most of…