Posts by Richard Foss
South Bay dining news: Chef Dominique’s cassoulet, Hostaria Piave’s late nights, Steve Matthews leaves H.T. Grill
Event Alert – A while ago I asked chef Dominique Theval if he ever makes cassoulet, the slow-cooked casserole of white beans, sausage, goose, duck, and other hearty ingredients that is a traditional winter dish in the South of France. He usually doesn’t because few Americans know what it is, but on January 7 Dominique’s…
Read MoreEast meets South: W’s China Bistro in Redondo Beach [RESTAURANT REVIEW]
Context can be hugely important when it comes to ethnic dining. I like knowing as much as possible about what I’m eating and why it was made that way, partly just because I enjoy learning about food. It has its practical side too – if there’s something particularly tasty and I know that it’s traditional,…
Read MoreRestaurant review: El Gaucho, Redondo Beach
There is a style of Argentine food that has become popular in Los Angeles. Swanky restaurants play sensuous tango music and serve vast portions of meat, pastas that reflect the huge Italian immigration to that country in the 1800s, and empanadas, the meat or vegetable turnovers that are the most popular snack. It’s a delightful…
Read MorePho Show, for sure: quick, tasty Pan-Asian cuisine comes to Redondo Beach
Most Americans would pronounce Pho Show as if those two words rhymed, but depending on where you are in Vietnam, the first word is pronounced Fah or Fou. It’s probably appropriate that most who come to this restaurant mispronounce the name, because nothing here is aimed at purists. Though there is a substantial menu of…
Read MoreMore than just slices at Village Pizza in Redondo Beach
What I like about RivieraVillage is that it actually resembles a village. Walk down Catalina and the adjacent streets and you see the kind of family-owned businesses and eccentric shops that make it feel like a small town where locals actually shop and dine. True, some of the real village essentials are missing, such as…
Read MoreYo ho ho (and a bottle of rum) Reflections on food, culture, the history of rum, and a meal of bananas and beef at 30,000 feet
Writing about restaurants in the South Bay for almost thirty years has given me a sense of food history at ground level, how changes in the local economy and society were mirrored in our dining options. We don’t see this on an everyday basis – nobody does, because only in hindsight can we point and…
Read MoreSouth Bay restaurant news: new eateries in Redondo, holiday cooking classes, all-you-can-eat sushi in Manhattan Beach
News from Redondo…Manhattan Beach has been the focus of several recent columns, not because I have anything against the other beach cities but because that’s where the news has been. This time it’s Redondo’s turn, with openings, classes, and other interesting items. New Kids in Town… I remember being surprised when I was driving in…
Read MoreRestaurant Review – Mun’s the word at Corner Pub
Sometimes a business opens and I wonder what the owner could possibly be thinking. When I see two pizzerias a short distance from another and notice that a third place serving pizza is opening between them, I’m bemused. What does the new place think they have to offer that the existing places don’t? It is…
Read MoreRestaurant review: Banzai Beach – Eating Well on the Italian/Polynesian Border
Los Angeles has many restaurants offering eccentric combinations of cuisines – Ethiopian/Italian is actually natural thanks to the colonial era occupation of the country, but Korean/Italian and Portuguese/Greek are rather more unusual. A new Scandinavian/Turkish concept is scheduled to open soon in Culver City, which probably takes the prize. The South Bay’s current champion for…
Read MoreChef David LeFevre’s seafood passion project, Fishing With Dynamite
“LeFevre and his team are cooking seafood like they’re excited by its possibilities. At the same time they also invite diners to just savor it raw and natural.” An unusual trend has started in the SouthBay. Clebrated chefs who reign over big restaurants are opening small ones where they serve a cuisine that is…
Read MoreFishin’ for more: Jessica Jordan’s growing empire
Most people starting restaurants start with a concepts. Jessica Jordan and Harold Rothman created Fishbar as they went along The person who hired the eager teenager to work at Becker’s Bakery could not have known that he started a career trajectory that would include haute cuisine. They might have caught on to two aspects of…
Read MoreSouth Bay dining news: all-you-can-eat sushi, Uncorked and Dominique’s celebrate, Brickworks Roasthouse, Pol Roger champagne dinner at Historia Piave, and more
Managing And Announcing Change… Some restaurants have had signs in the window announcing a change in ownership for months without anything actually changing, causing puzzlement among their customers. These notices are sometimes significant, sometimes not – they could signal a complete change in ownership, or that that one partner is being replaced by someone else.…
Read MoreView/Escape lounge at the Manhattan Marriott [RESTAURANT REVIEW]
When I suggested to my wife that we have dinner at the Marriott in Manhattan Beach, I had to remind her where it is. You would think a six-story hotel would be a hard thing to lose, but the location behind other buildings a block off Rosecrans doesn’t exactly stand out. Until recently, the food…
Read MorePanela’s Brazilian Cuisine: a hidden gem in Redondo Beach [RESTAURANT REVIEW]
Despite using his GPS, my brother was still having trouble finding Panela’s Brazil Cuisine. “I think you gave me the wrong address – that’s the middle of a residential district,” he said uncertainly. It is indeed, and when he got out of the car his first question was, ‘How does anybody find this place?” It…
Read MoreThe Purple Orchid blossoms in El Segundo
It’s another Friday night at the Purple Orchid, and an Australian instrumental trio fusses for a while with their instruments before deciding they are ready to start playing. When they do, it’s worth the wait – the flamboyant guitar is electrifying, and the audience is riveted. Among the crowd is a middle-aged couple wearing bright…
Read MoreSouth Bay restaurant news: Barsha’s anniversary, Tin Roof’s Bangers and Casks, Sunday by the Sea, Jonathan Benno at Strand House, Stone at Jackson’s….& more….
Summer has ended, and restaurateurs can turn their attention from the tourist onslaught and focus on their local clientele. They’re doing it like never before – I can’t remember a week when there have been one or more food and wine events every night, but there’s one coming up. This coming weekend offers a pair…
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