Newsletter: Counter: Bar food, beer and what to wear to dinner
We’re midway through October already, somehow, and the few weeks of respite before the holidays kick in are a great time to head out to restaurants. Maybe check out the Arts District in downtown L.A., where this week Jonathan Gold considers a bar with a great outdoor patio, and a James Beard Award-winning chef making your bar food.
You might also want to sign up for a swank pop-up dinner where everyone wears white, detour to one of a few new brewery tasting rooms, or go to Highland Park for a cruffin (which would be a mash-up of a croissant and muffin). Or if buffets are more your speed, there’s a company that’s buying up buffet food that would normally go to waste, and offering it at very steep discounts.
What to eat with your bourbon
Jonathan checks out Everson Royce Bar, the Arts District wine bar and patio from Randy Clement, who also runs Silverlake Wine, and his partners. Why are we here? Because the bar food menu is from Matt Molina, formerly the executive chef at Pizzeria and Osteria Mozza. Is he reinventing what you’ll order with your bourbon? No, but what he’s making is awfully good.
Wearing white for dinner
If you like to dress for dinner, you might want to attend this party. As deputy food editor Jenn Harris reports, Diner en Blanc is an elaborate, enormous and secretive dinner party that began 28 years ago in France (this should not surprise you), in which the participants dress only in white. The next pop-up dinner is happening the first week of November in Los Angeles. And no, the food isn’t all-white; only your outfit.
Where to drink beer
Sure, you can drink craft beer at home on the couch, or in your favorite neighborhood bar, but why not try lifting a pint at a brewery’s tasting room? Beer writer John Verive checks out four that have recently opened.
What’s a cruffin?
You’ve likely heard of the cronut, pastry chef Dominique Ansel’s croissant-doughnut hybrid. Mr. Holmes Bakehouse, the San Francisco bakery that makes cruffins (a croissant-muffin hybrid), has opened a location in Highland Park. We also have other news about restaurants in and around L.A., including a new ramen shop from the guy who brought us Umami Burger.
Another way of looking at buffet food
We waste an enormous amount of food in this country, whether at home or in restaurants. One company, BuffetGo, is trying to do something about it, at least when it comes to restaurant buffets. The company buys food that’s unsold at buffet restaurants, and customers can then buy that food online — at a drastically reduced fee. The food is discounted by 75% to 90%, which both helps eliminate waste and cuts customers’ food budget.
Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers. And because you’re probably wondering, Gold’s 2016 Best Restaurants list will be out online Oct. 25, the same evening as our annual Bite Nite celebration. The print copy is out Oct. 30.
“City of Gold,” Laura Gabbert’s documentary of Jonathan Gold’s Los Angeles, is available on Amazon.
Check us out on Instagram @latimesfood
In the Kitchen: Sign up for our weekly cooking newsletter
Check out the thousands of recipes in our Recipe Database.
Feedback? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at food@latimes.com.
Eat your way across L.A.
Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
