Search Results: richard foss
Downtown Will Smell Different… After over a quarter-century in business, the original Mama D’s will soon close. Like many downtown businesses they have been facing substantial rent increases, and it’s hard to make big money selling relatively inexpensive plates of pasta. Founder Chris Davidson spends his time at the Redondo Beach location, so those of…
Read MoreNot Where You’d Look For It, Part One… Though the South Bay has several Peruvian and Brazilian restaurants, we have almost no options for cuisines of the rest of South America. The exception is Macondo, which offers street food from Colombia. Haven’t seen a sign for it? You have two excuses: they’re new, and they’re on…
Read MoreCommon Complaint, Technological Response… Look at any survey of diners and one of the top complaints will be uncomfortably noisy restaurants. Since my email is at the end of each of these columns I hear this a lot, often with admonitions that I should tell people how loud restaurants are. I frequently do mention this,…
Read MoreCommon Complaint, Technological Response… Look at any survey of diners and one of the top complaints will be uncomfortably noisy restaurants. Since my email is at the end of each of these columns I hear this a lot, often with admonitions that I should tell people how loud restaurants are. I frequently do mention this,…
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Cajuns Depart Hermosa… The big surprise of the week was the sudden closure of the Original Ragin’ Cajun in Hermosa after a year and a half in business. The restaurant served the food of Western Louisiana in authentic style, and will be missed by all who love real Southern cuisine. They may have suffered from…
Read MoreA La Carte news August 9, 2018
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An Angel gets its wings… Yes, it’s rather summery for an allusion to a popular Christmas movie, but I have been saving that joke about the Angel City Grill for quite a long time. The little cafe on the Aviation curve in North Redondo has been under construction for almost a year. I mentioned that…
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A Master Departs… The big news this week is the departure of Chef Michael Fiorelli from Love & Salt, the restaurant he cofounded four years ago. It’s an amicable split and he will be there until September, but his exit for a “new project in LA proper” still sent shock waves around the community. Fiorelli…
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Accuracy Versus Tact… Confucius is said to have remarked that the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name. All the same, one can go too far with bluntness. It’s possible that Hey 19’s designation of their gluten-free, keto, and vegan selection as the “High Maintenance Menu” will offend some people, though…
Read MoreBack for an Encore… When restaurants close there is usually no second act – the staff moves on, and the old menus end up as keepsakes for nostalgic diners who remember celebratory meals. Fans of Café Pierre in Manhattan Beach will be able to enjoy a rare exception to this rule on June 5 when…
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Communication Strategies… Back when expensive professional skills were required to update websites it was okay for them to remain static, but in the age of WordPress and similar platforms any high school student can do the job. So why do so many restaurants have outdated menus on their sites, or feature announcements of events long…
Read MoreIn Crossword Puzzles, Reversing Course… The theme for the week is turnarounds, since there have been so many lately in the local restaurant scene. I’ll start with the one that has been most anticipated, the transformation of Zazou into Gabi James. The room has been transformed from rustic cool to dramatic modernity, and the menu…
Read MoreIt’s Alive! Hermosa is Alive!… There are days when the local restaurant scene moves at the speed of continental drift, and then there’s the past few weeks. A heap of properties in the Beach Cities are on the market or headed in that direction, and we’re on track to see the largest number of turnovers…
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A Dining Scene In Fast Forward… Keeping up with the dining scene in the South Bay a decade or two ago used to be easy. It didn’t seem that way then, with restaurants opening at the dizzying pace of one and even two a month, but it sure sounds like Mayberry now. Our richly evolving…
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Popular Until The Day They Closed… The big surprise of the last week was the sudden closure of Les P‘tits Bretons, the elegant little French restaurant at the corner of Marine and Highland in Manhattan Beach. It’s an unfortunate end to an establishment that seemed to be on the rise… In Brighter News, Here Come…
Read MoreBriefly Brilliant… I-Naba opened in Manhattan Beach last April as an upscale take out sushi counter, but in September suddenly blossomed into a full omakase sushi restaurant serving only eight people at a time. It just as suddenly closed last week, with a message on the door cryptically citing an issue with the building and…
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