Posts by Richard Foss

French Transition & Crustacean Central: Greenspot had good food but an identity problem. The name made people expect a vegan restaurant, and there was nothing on the menu that fit that category. The place is now the Bonaparte Bistro, serving some favorites from the old menu and a mix of classic Parisian items. The atmosphere…

Sometimes I hear from someone who mentions a place that just opened and asks why I haven’t reviewed it yet. Do I want to let some other publication beat me to the story? They’re often surprised when I respond that I’m not concerned about this possibility. Any restaurant is likely to have problems when they…

I used to be an avid historical reenactor, demonstrating skills like woodfire cooking, baking, and traditional brewing. My closet contains costumes from various eras, some with stains and scorch marks from feasts of decades ago, and my kitchen cabinet has cookware that I crafted on a potter’s wheel and pewter forge. It can be thrilling…

A well-established brand is a cherished thing in any industry, something usually tinkered with only when someone else files a claim that they had it first, or when bad publicity makes it no longer an asset. There are exceptions, and they’re usually when a company changes some aspect of their business so that the old…

Thai cuisine was once regarded as unlikely to succeed in America because it was too spicy, too sour, too strange to American tastes. The breakthrough came because a rock band promoter named Tommy Tang opened a restaurant that not only softened the more assertive flavors, but had a menu that carefully described the unfamiliar items.…

History books say that the idea of putting meat between slices of bread was invented by an inveterate gambler sometime in the 1770s. John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich (and yes, there is a town in England called Sandwich) was a talented civil servant, patron of music and sports, and also a member of the notoriously…

The Market Report: Hermosa Beach acquired its first stand-alone butcher shop in living memory this week, and you can read more about that elsewhere in this edition. In Manhattan, Nick & Sons Market & Deli is open in the former Moon’s Market on Highland, and there could hardly be a greater contrast with the previous…

I was in a restaurant where the menu lists signature dishes, and it caused me to think about what my actual signature looks like. This is a distinctive scrawl that inspired my wife to remark that it always looks like I happened to have a pen in my hand during an earthquake. On the bright…

It has been 40 years since the movie Blade Runner and the cyberpunk movement in literature depicted a future world in which Asian, particularly Japanese, culture blended with a future high-tech California. It was a chaotic, visually fascinating place where billboards writhed and morphed, strange electronic music pulsated, and food was elegantly presented but almost…

Renaissance On Aviation: The former Giuliano’s on Aviation has been closed for almost three years, but a tenant is on the way, and it’s a familiar one to those who have been visiting the Hermosa Farmers Market. Tommy and Atticus Bread, Coffee, & Pastry isn’t named after the owner, baker Garrett McPerry, but after the…

As far back as the 1930s, dining in California was noted for a casual blending of indoor and outdoor spaces. The emphasis is on the casual – movie stars showed up in fancy dress at restaurants on the Sunset Strip, but their home entertaining was more likely to be a barbecue on a covered patio,…

A Eureka Moment: The Mexican stew called birria has become more widely available in the South Bay recently, and now a new restaurant in Rolling Hills Estates is serving a modern riff on it: birria ramen. This dish was apparently invented almost a decade ago in Mexico City, but Fuego Cravings is the first place…

One of the more enjoyable food fads of the previous decade was putting cross-cultural things in tacos, such as pastrami with sauerkraut, fried chicken with mashed potatoes, and of course Korean bulgogi with kimchi. Hermosa Beach was host to an establishment that received lasting but unfavorable publicity for foie gras tacos, among other concoctions, and…

I have sympathy for the people who write menus for creative restaurants, I really do. I used to consult on menu design, and have experienced the struggle to put the essence of a unique dish into a few words. It’s made immeasurably more difficult by the fact that there are so many regional and stylistic…