The Neon Sun shines on a San Pedro side street

A celebrated chef has a new restaurant in an unlikely location

by Richard Foss

 As you drive or stroll around our area, you sometimes see something so out of place that it might come from an alternate dimension. Sometimes it’s a dignified old home in an area of strip malls, a last holdout against a tide of business expansions. Sometimes it’s the opposite, a chic retail store or cozy bistro in the midst of a residential community. Either way, it makes you curious about the people who live or work in those anomalous spaces, what moved them to create or preserve their environments.

The oddest restaurant location in recent memory is the recently opened The Neon Sun, which is on a side street in San Pedro. They’re flanked by a tire store, chiropractic clinic, and a dentist’s office, none of which have any detectable curb appeal. If a restaurant were to be located there, you might expect a diner or something else conventional. The Neon Sun is anything but – the décor and menu are something you might expect in Riviera Village or on Melrose Avenue. The room is tastefully decorated with work by local artists, and even the bowls and cups on the tables are made by a local potter. It’s a marvel of interior design, chic and cozy, and remarkable to find in this nondescript location.

Co-owner Satori Aten greets customers and seems to do almost everything else outside the kitchen, which is run by chef Alex Schwartzman. This restaurant is a passion project for Schwartzman, who was opening chef at Baran’s 2239 and created the menu at Redondo’s Salt & Pearl, where he still works. Schwartzman’s culinary signature is beautifully composed plates with a mix of Asian and Western flavors, and an appreciation for vividly spicing.

Deciding what to order can be difficult for two reasons – it can be hard to imagine the flavor combinations in your head, and the menu itself is difficult to read thanks to the colorful background. Satori, who introduces herself as Torri, is a good guide in this regard, and can help you figure out what will suit your palate.

Among the starters I’ve tried include barbecued oysters, a warm cabbage salad, empanadas, and an asparagus salad that included hazelnuts, cheese, and dried apricots. I might not have combined apricots and asparagus if they were the only ingredients in my kitchen, but they work, and there was a cascade of flavors that changed from bite to bite and was always appealing. I liked the warm cabbage salad even better, a mix of sauteed purple cabbage with ginger, garlic, shreds of Chinese sausage, and accents of chili, sesame seeds, mint, and cilantro. The Chinese lop cheong sausage added a slight garlic funkiness to the mix, and was an inspired choice. If this was served over rice, I would have been happy with it as a main dish, because there were so many interesting flavors to explore.

Barbecued oysters are offered in two styles, New Orleans or Peruvian, and I tried both. The New Orleans creole seasoning with a crumb topping and chili crisp was spot on, but the Peruvian had more of that culture’s spicy green chile sauce than I would have wanted. It was a good idea but obscured the flavor of the oyster, and I’d ask for it to be applied more lightly next time.

The picadillo empanadas are listed as a main dish rather than a starter, but categories are fuzzy here – the portion size is pretty similar between items on both sides of the line. It’s small plate dining, and the best strategy is to order as many things as you think you’d like and then one more. There are two empanadas to the order, and they’re three or four bites each, so can be split as an appetizer. Both picadillo and empanadas are Spanish traditional items that diversified in their colonies. The crust can be thick and flaky or thin and crisp, and the filling is always beef and raisins but can also contain chili, tomato, olives, and corn depending on whether they’re made in the Caribbean, Mexico, or South America. These are baked Argentine style rather than fried and are filled with a South American style of picadillo – ground meat with raisins, onions, and mild seasonings  – that seem to include a little cinnamon or nutmeg. They’re served with a habanero salsa and a small cabbage and micro-greens salad, and are worth a try.

One of the entrees is a different variation of picadillo, the Cuban style that started being served on a bun in the 1930s and was christened a sloppy Joe. They were named after a bar in Havana that became famous as one of Ernest Hemmingway’s favorite hangouts. Other American expats who flocked to Cuba for high living and free-flowing booze developed a taste for it, and it was a popular dish through the early 1960s, a cheap and hearty lunch. It’s out of fashion now, but the version served here could help bring it back. It’s not fancy and not trying to be, but the sauce is a bit fresher tasting and more zippy than the ones I remember having as a kid. It comes with cabbage salad as a side, but might be more popular if served with fries or Cuban-style rice and beans. Starches are a weakness on this menu, and some items would have benefited from some rice to capture every bit of the tasty sauce.        

That’s the case with their dry-aged beef plate, an item that isn’t listed on the menu but seems to be nearly always available. Dry-aged beef is a polarizing item – people who are used to conventional supermarket beef may find the funky, slightly cheesy flavor too strong. If you enjoy richer flavors, give it a try, because it’s a bold expression of beefiness incarnate. The plate arrives with five slices of roasted beef with some radish sprouts and caramelized onions, and while those are delicious, it needs something else for balance. A potato or vegetable gratin or rice pilaf would add a complementary texture.

The ceviche at The Neon Sun includes dragonfruit, shrimp, scallops, and sesame seeds.

There is no such problem with the Vietnamese-style spring rolls, which are almost startlingly conventional. They are very well made, featuring the traditional elements of pork and shrimp wrapped in an unfried rice crepe along with carrots, and cucumber, noodles, and a few mint leaves. In a Vietnamese restaurant these would be served with some basil, perilla, and lettuce on the side, but here they are served only with spicy peanut sauce. I like the traditional leaves for their texture and herbal flavors, but most non-Vietnamese leave them on the side of the plate, so it’s a sensible choice here.

The Neon Sun doesn’t have a beer and wine license yet, but diners are welcome to bring beverages with no corkage fee. A variety of herb teas and other non-alcoholic beverages are available for those who don’t imbibe. At this time two desserts are offered, an “elevated” peanut butter and jelly sandwich and fried plantains with housemade ice cream. I don’t believe I’ve seen a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as a dessert before, but then again they don’t usually have cocoa nibs, banana chips, or chopped hazelnuts in them, so I plan to try that next time.  

Meals at The Neon Sun are modestly priced. Though portions are relatively small, so are the prices, and you can enjoy a varied and interesting dinner for less than $40 per person. Some unlikely places around Los Angeles have become culinary destinations before, and it seems reasonable to suspect that people from a wide radius will be coming to this little side street bistro to experience its warm hospitality and creative cuisine.

The Neon Sun is located at 524 West 9th Street in San Pedro. Open Tue-Su 5 p.m. – 10 p.m., street parking, wheelchair access good. Noise level moderate, some vegetarian/vegan items, BYOB. Phone 310-872-3616, menu at theneonsun.com. PEN