Subtle, Simple, Serene [restaurant review]

Centuries ago, when the rest of Italy was a chaos of feuding dukes and statelets, Venice was called La Serenissima, the serene republic. The only Venetian-style restaurant in the South Bay is a quiet echo of that city, a place with candlelight, soft music, and a muted color scheme. Sosta means “rest” or “pause” in […]

Mexican slang [restaurant review]

Caló Kitchen takes its inspiration from the 1930s pachucos, with inspired results

Interesting things happen near borders, where cultures merge organically and children who straddle societies come up with ideas that confuse their elders. Sometimes this is deliberate, as a counterculture finds ways to dress, talk, and cook that stakes a claim to being different. In the 1930s hipsters along both sides of the Mexican border were […]