A La Carte: a batch of new restaurant openings and closings in Hermosa and Redondo Beach

vietnamese food
Number Nine, specializing in Vietnamese noodles, opened in Hermosa Beach this week. Photo
vietnamese food

Number Nine, specializing in Vietnamese noodles, opened in Hermosa Beach this week. Photo

Skulls Are Always In Season… As you drive up Highway 101 through Carpinteria, you pass a somewhat dilapidated red building covered with fake snow. It’s Mrs. Claus’s Kitchen, a restaurant that used to boast to tourists, “It’s Always Christmas Here.” That business went bankrupt because not that many people really enjoyed Christmas kitsch in mid-June. Ortega 120 in Redondo has a rather more interesting strategy – it’s always Dia De Los Muertos in there, complete with primitive art of papier-mâché skeletal mariachis. To entice us to visit the place during the actual Day of the Dead festivities, chef Thomas Ortega will be serving a special menu from November 2 through 6, with high-octane music by a band that mixes rhumba, flamenco, and South American sounds. They’re even adding more art to the already eclectic mix, so it should be a feast for all the senses…

As The Mighty Fall… It has been an amazing month in the Beach Cities, with a heap of new openings and some very surprising closings. We’ve written already about the closing of Rocky Cola Café, and I recently heard a credible rumor about what will go into that space. The scuttlebutt is that it will be a health-oriented restaurant, possibly with a grocery and bakery section. It could be a good move despite the two grocery stores within walking distance. While Hermosa has other world-class health-oriented restaurants downtown, this would be the only one on the highway, and in a high-visibility location. Elsewhere in Hermosa, a great name is about to disappear. Sushi Sei opened on what is now the Pier Plaza almost thirty years ago, started by Junya, a veteran of Hermosa’s first sushi bar, Cher Ton Ton of Tokyo. They moved to Hermosa Avenue over a decade ago and seem to have done well since, but they will soon be closing their doors. The newcomer will be Umami Burger, a branch of a gourmet burger chain. They’re not the only sushi bar to shut down recently; the original Hermosa location of Sushi Duke is vacant, Sanjay and his crew having decamped to the Catalina Avenue location in Redondo that is still going strong. And from Manhattan Beach comes word that Sun and Moon Café has also been sold and will soon reopen as an East Coast-style crab and seafood house. If this is done well, it could become a place of pilgrimage from a wide radius, since there are lots of East Coast expatriates and no place in the area to get an authentic lobster roll or a crabcake that tastes like it came from the Chesapeake…

Event Alert! Seafood Edition… Despite the name, Fishbar does serve things other than just fish. Still, when they hold a wine dinner, you might well expect to learn something about combining the fruits of the vine with those of the sea. And so you shall if you show up on November 9, when southern hemisphere wines will be paired with two courses of seafood, plus pork tenderloin with a cherry balsamic reduction and beignets with strawberry-mint marmalade for dessert. Expect a delicious and insightful evening for the modest price of $50 per person – call them at 310-283-8239 for details…

A host of new restaurants have opened around town recently, and I’ve been impressed by the variety and vision shown by the entrepreneurs. The prize for the oddest name goes to Grillish in Riviera Village; some wags have asked if they’re sure what they do there, since “ish” usually indicates indeterminacy. I have visited and they certainly do know their business — my order of fish, scallops, and chips was nicely cooked and impressively large, and along with a glass of wine and a bowl of good chowdah, I still had change from a $20 bill. Incidentally, this place opened up in the place where a sign had announced the impending arrival of a café with an even weirder name – “Avenue I.taly.” The Grillish name still strikes me as odd – my spell checker insists on correcting it to Girlish – but the food is straightforward and good…

Number Nine opened in Hermosa just last week, serving fairly traditional Vietnamese food in very modern surroundings. The austere looking backless chairs are more comfortable than they look, though they do raise the question of what you’re supposed to do with the coat, purse, or whatever that you usually hang there. The place wasn’t busy, so we colonized the table next to us for our belongings to enjoy a good lemongrass beef banh mi sandwich and a giant bowl of pho, the noodle soup in star anise-flavored broth that tops the hit list at most Vietnamese restaurants. Number Nine walks the line with traditional food in hip surroundings, and may be expected to introduce many Hermosans to one of the most interesting cuisines of Asia…

Oceana Bistro in Manhattan Beach is less ambitious about their cuisine and more ambitious about their hours; they’re serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, offering simple burritos, omelets, and sandwiches early in the day and more high-style Italian items in the evening. They have a niche as the walk-by place in an area with few other choices, and they do offer free parking for those who can find it; four spaces are visible at street level along Highland, but there are more beneath the building that are only accessible from Marine Place, the adjacent alley. I had a good breakfast there and will be returning to see what’s up at dinner…

On the retail side of things, I stopped in at Uncorked, the new wine shop on Pier Avenue, where the owner was pouring tastes and chatting with guests at their small sampling area. The shop doesn’t try to compete on sheer number of bottles, an impossibility when competitors have storerooms bigger than their whole shop. They prefer to offer a curated selection that is strong on old world wines; I stood at the edge of the counter and listened to the owner describe different vintages with passion and expertise. It was an interesting moment, and I’ll consider this place when I need the perfect bottle to pair with a dish…

Event Alert Part Two – The Buffalo Roam Manhattan Beach… Zinc at Shade is hosting a wine dinner featuring Grgich Hills estate wines on November 13, and one of the courses piques my interest – buffalo steak frites. This is not like buffalo wings, so named because they were invented in a bar in Buffalo, New York, but real buffalo. It is a challenging meat, very low in fat and so a test of skill for a chef to serve tender and flavorful. There are other interesting items on the menu too, like monkfish ravioli and smoked pork belly, so this should be an interesting evening. The cost is seventy dollars – call 310-406-6801 for reservations…

And Next!… All eyes are on Hermosa’s pier plaza for the upcoming opening of Palmilla, an upscale Mexican restaurant and tequila bar with an outrageously stylish interior. If they’ve put as much thought into the food as they have the décor, this will be a monster. The grand opening is Nov. 6, and given the advance buzz about the place I’m betting there will be lines to get in.

Know any place that I really should write about, any food festivals, wine dinners, or other events that ought to be mentioned? I’m at Richard@richardfoss.com. ER

Comments:

comments so far. Comments posted to EasyReaderNews.com may be reprinted in the Easy Reader print edition, which is published each Thursday.