Posts by Richard Foss

One of the hit films of the 1960s was La Dolce Vita, a bleak comedy about shallow, thrill-seeking hipsters in Rome. The title, which means “The Sweet Life,” is ironic in that the sophisticates have wealth but not the capacity to enjoy it, nor to appreciate simple pleasures and natural beauty. The essence of the…

Blossoming In Spring: LA County’s movement to the lowest tier of pandemic restrictions occurs just as restaurateurs are gearing up for the summer crowds. This is a happy event for both established places, and new projects that have been able to navigate the maze of permits and find staff in a very tight market. I’ll…

The South Bay is full of older homes that have been added onto so many times that they acquire quirks – a switch somewhere that is on a different circuit than everything around it, pipes that come out of the wall and go right back in, a patch of wall where a door used to…

Among my thousands of vacation pictures, there are probably hundreds of images of bakeries all over the world. I’m notorious among my travel companions for not being able to pass one without at least slowing down, and preferably stopping to admire the breads, pies, pastries, and whatever else came out of that oven. If we’re…

As I sat at an outdoor table at The Lighthouse, I suddenly felt old. Fifty years before, I was a high school kid who rode my bicycle to hang around in the rear parking lot and hear the music that poured out of the place. I didn’t understand much of it, but the unpredictable time…

Betting on Hermosa: Unless you spend much time in Torrance or Harbor City, you probably haven’t heard of Tacos El Goloso. That mini-chain just doubled in size with an unusual strategy – they will now have two locations in Hermosa Beach. One is on PCH next to Baran’s 2239, the other the Amigo’s Tacos on…

About 50 years ago, upscale restaurant Chez Panisse shocked diners by serving a peach for dessert. Not a peach cobbler, shortcake, galette, or pudding, just a piece of fruit on a plate, with a knife next to it. It was symbolic of how they wanted diners to focus on the simple and natural. When you…

You can see the wave coming, a cascade of new eateries on the way as restrictions on customer occupancy loosen. They’re making the bet that however fragile the recovery is, however restricted the seating, it’s time to fire up the stoves and build a clientele. This may not immediately make economic sense, but starting the…

Names matter. They set expectations, telling you with varying degrees of subtlety what clientele a business owner wishes to attract. Changing them is no small matter – it’s more than hoisting a new sign. So what is a business to do when their concept shifts, or they want to appeal to a different demographic? In…

I’m going to start this article by stating a fact: any review of Table Manners that is written for a local audience will include a comparison with the former establishment in the location. This isn’t fair, but is inevitable. It is reflected in the emails that I have received from readers who emailed me either…

There’s a type of place that doesn’t often get attention from reviewers, but that just about everybody visits on at least an occasional basis. They do a solid job without calling attention to themselves. It can be a blind spot, like furniture you don’t notice details of because it’s always there. I noticed an example…

As much as I like variety, sometimes I’m happy to see a restaurant with a short, well defined menu. It signals confidence, essentially saying, “We don’t serve much, but we’ll bet you’ll like what we offer enough to come back for it.” It’s a strategy reminiscent of the days when a culturally conservative population valued…

Dining Out, As In Outdoors… The door to inside dining has opened a crack, and if people behave themselves then interior occupancy may soon go from 25 to 50 percent. Meanwhile, the trend toward making outdoor spaces pleasant continues, and I expect it to accelerate. Even if we could all go back to the days…