Posts by Richard Foss
Today’s Special [Profile of Chef Luis Alvarez]
Imagine this awkward situation: you leave the highest-paying job you’ve ever had in order to work with a colleague whose talents you revere – and then as soon as you get there, he leaves and the business is sold to someone else. Very quickly the inexperienced new owner decides he doesn’t really want to own…
Read MoreUncle Bill’s Bountiful Breakfast [Restaurant review]
This morning I was considering the possibility of writing a review of the sunrise. There are tiny differences in every one, variations on the patterns of clouds and the degree to which a morning haze might add a glow, and some pretty writing could come of it. What couldn’t happen in such a piece is…
Read MoreReturn of the Killer Shrimp [Restaurant review]
Samantha Mallory and Amanda Soler serve up Killer Shrimp’s mango wedge salad. The first time I heard the name Killer Shrimp, I thought it might be the name of a monster movie. I could imagine the low-budget sets, the plucky heroine, the animatronic creature towering over buildings and clicking its evil claws as it destroys…
Read MoreA la Carte: Circa sold, Doma prospers, Banzai changes, El Indio for sale
People often ask me to predict what will be the next hot dining scene in the South Bay, and for most of the time I’ve been writing, I’ve had some kind of answer. I really don’t any more, because it’s like trying to find the hottest spot in an oven. The whole area is fermenting,…
Read MoreRestaurant review – The Local Yolk serves local folk dependably
No matter how much you enjoy the heat of summer, there are some things about fall in the Beach Cities that you have to appreciate. The beach views are as pleasant as ever, but there are no planes towing banners to disturb the serenity. Even better, you can plan a trip down Highland Avenue with…
Read MoreFlavors of an India You Didn’t Know [Restaurant review]
Everyone who seeks out exotic cuisines knows the process of negotiation to find out a restaurant’s true specialties. Though it might seem that these would be easy to spot, that is often not the case. Servers are understandably cautious about recommending highly spiced or unique dishes, and sometimes you have to tell them explicitly that…
Read MoreA La Carte 9/18/14
Someone tried to explain the laws of probability to me years ago, why what may seem like bizarre coincidences are actually inevitable over a long period of time. With all the cards dealt in Vegas someone will get a royal flush on the first hand, and many other people’s sure thing will turn out to…
Read MorePier artistry at Kincaid’s in Redondo Beach
I had heard that a Kincaid’s on the Redondo Beach pier had new chef named Armen Jedhelian and he was adding interesting items to the specials menu. One evening when life was hectic and some chill-out time with seafood and a glass of wine was in order, my wife and I decided to see if the new guy was making a difference.
Read MoreBurger Spot Goes South of the Border – Restaurant Review: Snax, Redondo Beach
They didn’t offer zucchini sixty years ago, but the Super Burger remains the same. Sixty years ago today, Elvis was planning his first concert appearance, the first issue of Sports Illustrated was on the newsstands, and the owner of a new restaurant in Redondo Beach was trying to figure out a way of standing out…
Read MoreA La Carte for 04 September 2014 [Dining News]
One Down, One Renewed… Two local Italian restaurants closed recently, one permanently, the other briefly. Calamari’s in Redondo opened strongly a few years ago but declined after a while. I stopped going there when a server became belligerent when we pointed out that she had delivered a pizza with the wrong ingredients to our table.…
Read MoreRoad Rallye navigator
If you appreciate classic cars, the sight of them on the road makes your pulse beat a little faster. This is the environment they were built for, withthe engines roaring or put-putting and showing their striking silhouettes among modern, cookie-cutter vehicles. Peninsula residents enjoy a hefty dose of that experience one Saturday a year, when…
Read MoreRestaurant review: Habana Vieja
Cuban food isn’t a fancy or complex cuisine, and it never has been – the royal governors who ruled the place lived like the Spaniards they were, and usually disdained local ingredients. It was left to the peasants and the tiny merchant class to develop national dishes, and the result is hearty, flavorful, and unpretentious.…
Read MoreJus’ Poke in Redondo Beach is Pure Hawaiian [restaurant review]
When it’s midsummer and the Big Blowtorch In The Sky is set to welding temperature, the very idea of cooking can be daunting. I, who usually delight in knocking together a multicourse meal, find things to love about take-out food, or failing that, going out for a meal of something cool and fresh with…
Read MoreJujuya brings culinary happiness to the Promenade
I have long been a fan of “They Have A Word For It,” a book about language that illustrates the ways in the ways that complicated ideas can be expressed in a single word. There are words in other cultures that mean, “the person in an office who always seems to be wandering around” and…
Read MoreA La Carte – Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo Beach Dining News
For The Record Books… Something remarkable happened this past week – two restaurants that had announced reopenings after remodeling actually did so on schedule. Darren’s in Manhattan Beach now sports a brighter dining room with an added communal table, a more contemporary space with a menu to match. The remodel at Redondo’s TKP Provisions was…
Read MorePeace, good quiche served at Cafe Bonaparte in Hermosa Beach
By all accounts, Napoleon Bonaparte was not a gourmet. He was notorious for gobbling his food and leaving the table while others were still decorously nibbling appetizers. The restless, impatient general may have been the emperor of the French, but he had a very un-Gallic attitude toward savoring his national cuisine. The Hermosa Beach cafe…
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