Eagle Rock: the new Silver Lake?

IT’S Friday night, and Mia Sushi is jumping. Groovy Brazilian music plays on the sound system while sushi chefs, dressed in sharp red jackets, turn out specialty rolls. Hollywood? Venice? Santa Monica maybe? Nope. Eagle Rock.

Tucked between Glendale and Pasadena, the community had long been known, at least to outsiders, for one restaurant and one restaurant only: Casa Bianca pizzeria. In the last year or so, Blue Hen (a Vietnamese spot) and the expanded Auntie Em’s Kitchen added some options.

But now Eagle Rock is heading into a mini restaurant boom. In addition to Mia, which opened its doors a few weeks ago, look for a casual Middle Eastern cafe, a postmodern fast-food spot and an outpost of a Silver Lake Italian. The common denominator? Backers of these restaurants know the area well.

“I got tired of driving to Pasadena, Glendale and downtown to get sushi,” says Mia’s owner Rudy Martinez, “and I live in the area.” (The restaurant is named after his daughter.)

Spitz, the Middle Eastern spot, is the brainchild of two Occidental College grads. (The college is about a mile away.) Set to open later this month, Spitz will specialize in Turkish style doner kebabs, which are akin to shawarma and have been very popular in Europe the last few years but which have yet to make inroads in the States, says co-owner Bryce Rademan.

The Oinkster is already on the radars of midcentury architecture buffs because it will be housed in an iconic A-frame on Colorado Boulevard that was once a Tastee Freeze (more recently Jim’s Burgers). It’s from restaurateur Andre Guerrero (Max, Senor Fred) who grew up in Eagle Rock and, when he was in high school, “used to hang out” at Jim’s. Expected to open in late April or early May, the Oinkster will serve up what Guerrero is calling “slow fast food” including pastrami made from scratch, rotisserie chicken, Belgian-style fries with homemade dipping sauces, and shakes made with Fosselman’s ice cream. It will also serve beer and wine.

In early summer, Michelangelo, the popular neighborhood Italian spot in Silver Lake, is opening a second, larger location in Eagle Rock. “It’s an up-and-coming area right now,” says co-owner Giuseppe Stifano. “It’s like Silver Lake when we came here in 1998.”

Leslee Komaiko

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Small bites

* Ciudad is getting into a springtime mood with Tuesday night “paella on the patio” dinners beginning April 4.

The menu, which includes a featured paella, an appetizer or soup and salad, is priced at $29 a person and will change regularly. Look for paellas such as a blue crab and snap pea version or one made with rabbit, spinach and artichoke.

Ciudad, 445 S. Figueroa St., downtown L.A., (213) 486-5171.

* Also on Tuesdays, wine tastings at Il Moro, which recently underwent a major face-lift. Priced at $25 per person, the 6 to 8 p.m. tastings usually focus on a single winery and feature about half a dozen wines.

The price includes an appetizer buffet of items such as pizzettas and prosciutto-wrapped melon.

Il Moro, 11400 W. Olympic Blvd., West L.A. (310) 575-3530.

* Nic’s is debuting a Vodbox the first week in April. The climate-controlled glass-walled vodka locker and tasting room, outfitted with “dad’s old butcher block from Nicola Twins Market in Silver Lake,” says chef-owner Larry Nicola, can accommodate eight people for tastings of more than 30 vodkas. Patrons will be loaned faux fur coats and hats to ward off the chill.

Nic’s, 453 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 550-5707.