Slay’s Hermosa foray
One of the defining moments in California cuisine was when Alice Waters of Chez Panisse surprised her customers with an unorthodox dessert: a plate with nothing on it but a peach. No sauce, no garnish, just a piece of fruit. In the1980s, when wild creativity was fetishized, it was daring to insist that something natural […]
The restaurant without a gimmick
Manhattan Beach has several restaurants that are architectural showpieces, among them the otherworldly Esperanza, sleek Zinc at Shade, the retro grandeur of The Arthur J, and hyper-modern Love & Salt. Places that can’t afford the architects and decorators festoon their places with surf memorabilia, photos they purchased from the Historical Society, or kitsch to convey […]
Obituary for a goat, battling chickens, wine dinners, and other dining news
The Goat Is Dead: The Goat Hill mall on PCH had a long and storied career, beginning when it was actually a goat farm owned by an irascible Scottish lady named Mrs. Auchmoody. She won LA County Fair awards in the 1920’s but was notoriously bad-tempered and prone to suing her neighbors. The Goat Hill […]
Why things become classics at the Bottle Inn[restaurant review]
If you grew up in this area, you may not remember your first visit to the Bottle Inn. You were probably too young to drive, or to legally sample anything from the wine list, a kid dressed in nice clothes going out to dinner on mom, and dad’s anniversary, or a significant birthday. In the […]
What America tastes like
I have expat friends who live in New Zealand and stay with me when they visit family here. Their first actions on arrival follow a pattern. On the way from the airport, even before dropping their luggage, we stop for Mexican food, and within the next two days we go out for barbecue. These are […]
Intermittently brilliant in a Torrance mini-mall
The most expensive steaks in the world come from Japan, which is ironic for those who know history. For over a thousand years the Japanese ate no beef at all. In that Buddhist country, anyone who consumed as much as a mouthful was required to do penance for 150 days. When the modernizing Emperor Meiji […]
Silvio’s goes upscale, new BBQ in old Ruby’s, micro food hall on PCH, and other dining news
Meat Central: There’s a lot of activity involving barbecue of various sorts in the South Bay, with one opening this week, one a few months down the line, and another relaunch of a local favorite. The established place is the former Silvio’s Brazilian Beach BBQ on the Hermosa Pier Plaza, which is now Silvio’s South […]
Ragin Cajun, Simplified and simply fine
“It’s time for me to review the Ragin Cajun again,” I mused to my wife as we drove by on the way to someplace else. “You just want an excuse to order their fried chicken,” she shot back. “How much have they changed since you last reviewed them?” She wasn’t entirely wrong about me wanting […]
Hermosa hibernation ends with Colombian, Slay, and Cultured Slice openings, Good Stuff reopening, plus wine dinners and other events
Hermosa Happenings… After a period when most new restaurant action was in El Segundo and Redondo, Hermosa is hopping. We’ll start with doings there and then get to other cities and an event roundup… Living In A Musical?… A new Colombian restaurant called Encanto is coming to the long-empty ground floor space beneath Radici restaurant. […]
Fogo de Chão in El Segundo – Two restaurants in one
At fine tables in the 1800s, there were two competing models of how to make a meal special: Service Francais, where a table is set with all the ornamentally prepared dishes of a meal arranged so diners could admire them, and Service Russe, where servers bring each dish from the kitchen individually portioned for one […]
Health Nut – A pastel palate on a Manhattan Beach menu
There is a joke about Mexican food that it’s a cuisine of hundreds of dishes made from 10 ingredients. Mexicans have indeed found ways to bring an arsenal of techniques to a somewhat limited number of food staples, and create diversity of flavors, and textures that make it one of the world’s great cuisines. That’s […]
Comfort food, comfortable place
When I consider some dining establishments, I am reminded of Shakespeare’s observation, “There is a tide in the affairs of restaurants, which taken at flood leads on to fortune.” It shows that…excuse me, I just looked at that again and apparently the bard was talking about something else Where was I? Oh yes, tides of […]
Cozy Café – Redondo’s tiny landmark is an OK cafe
The little building just south of Torrance Boulevard on PCH isn’t beautiful when it comes to proportions or decoration. From the outside it has all the charm of a shoebox, a yellow stucco square with olive green trim, unembellished but for a sign proclaiming it the Cozy Café. The building has probably been there for […]
Sushi out, ramen in MB, GF desserts in Redondo, gas price pain hits South Bay food delivery
Sweet and Virtuous: Enjoy cookies but don’t eat wheat? The recently opened Confections by Kirari West offers rice flour-based cookies with a Japanese twist, including matcha white chocolate chip and butterscotch with white miso. They also make more traditional chocolate chip and oatmeal rum raisin cookies. They offer the cookies by themselves or on sundaes, […]
Three for the money at Yellow Vase in Rolling Hills
Putting two businesses under the same roof can make a lot of sense under some circumstances. A bakery and café is an obvious example, because if you’re going to be baking breads and pastries, making sandwiches out of some of the bread and serving coffee along with the pastries will appeal to a wider range […]
Country club dining in 21st century El Segundo
I was the child of an avid golfer, and grew up liking everything about the game except playing it. The players were eye-catching in either spotless whites or garish plaids, and their shoes made a curious crunching noise when the cleats hit anything but grass. The long walk in a manicured landscape allowed glimpses of […]