Times Festival of Books, April 22 and 23 at USC. Don’t forget to save next weekend for the L.A. Phan recruited Eleanor Hurtt, former sous chef of Cassia, to head the kitchen at the spot where, as Breijo writes, “everything costs less than $20.” Plus, notes on the just-opened Mexican spot Bombo in West Hollywood, a new La Morra pizza location in the Valley, a Tacos 1986 in Santa Monica and word that Dear John, the steakhouse project from Hans and Patti Rockenwagner and Josiah Citrin, might be losing its lease. In this week’s Quick Bites column, Stephanie Breijo writes about the long-awaited return of Minh Phan’s Porridge + Puffs. With no plans to travel there soon, she’s soothing her FOMO by focusing her recent eating on meals at some of L.A.’s excellent Japanese restaurants, including ramen at Japonica, onigiri at Rice & Nori and tongue two ways and saba kobujime at Kinjiro, the izakaya I wrote about in last week’s newsletter. Japan was one of the last countries to reopen to tourism after COVID and now Jenn Harris says she keeps hearing about friends and colleagues heading there for vacation. But we still belong in the world.” Armendariz hopes to bring back Chiles Secos in another form, perhaps through digital sales, sometime in the future. I just kind of felt like I would rather bow out gracefully and accept that maybe we don’t belong there anymore. Still, she told Breijo, “Walking around the market now, it’s just not the same place. “It was just time having to run the business and be there every day takes a toll.” “She was ready to retire and nobody could or wanted to keep it going,” Armendariz said. Armendariz told Breijo that despite Lopez’s struggles when the market started bringing in new vendors and restaurants several years back, as Steve Lopez documented in a 2018 column, it was her aunt’s desire to spend time with her family more than gentrification issues that led to the closure. Stephanie Breijo talked with Claudia Armendariz, granddaughter of founder Celestino Lopez and niece to his daughter Rocio Lopez, who took over after her father’s death. But this month, after some 50 years in business in various guises (the moles weren’t added until the 1990s), Chiles Secos left the market. The food was more hit and miss, though he says if you stick with the restaurant’s classics - spicy corn chowder, crab cakes and a smoked salmon pizza that rivals Wolfgang Puck‘s - you’ll be happy.Ĭhiles Secos, marked by its red-and-yellow sign in the middle of downtown L.A.’s Grand Central Market, has been a familiar and comforting presence with its painterly display of dried chiles arranged in bins by color and type, cellophane bags of dried fruits, rows of colorful chewing gum and round cakes of the peanut candy De la Rosa Marzapán, plus, of course, its beloved earth-toned mole pastes imported from Mexico. The restaurant, he says, “remains a rite of passage for a certain set of Angelenos, and an essential part of the evolution of dining in the city.” Kwan Peterson ate several meals at the prime people-watching spot for his review of the celebrity-attracting, flower-festooned “grande dame of scene-y dining.” He was not disappointed, at least with the scene. Of course, if you’re going for an iconic L.A. It may be too early to call it a comeback, but they put together a guide to 14 great lunch spots in the city, from Alta Adams and Destroyer to food hall Citizen Public Market and food editor Daniel Hernandez‘s favorite power lunch spot, the “parking lot-turned-patio” Johnny’s West Adams where the call is pastrami with crinkle fries. But Danielle Dorsey, Jenn Harris, Lucas Kwan Peterson and Betty Hallock make the case that we’re starting to see a shift back to lunch. It’s gotten harder and harder to find a place to meet for lunch in Los Angeles, leading many to wonder if the Hollywood power lunch is on its last legs.
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