Newsletter: Counter: Tasting menus, old school burgers
Welcome to the much-needed weekend, which many of us will be spending in front of one screen or another — getting caught up on some Oscar-nominated movies, watching the Patriots play the Falcons on Sunday in the Super Bowl, or maybe scrolling through restaurant menus.
You might try a tasting menu, maybe from one of the 14 restaurants on Jonathan Gold’s list. If you’re in the mood for something more old school and nostalgic, there is the Apple Pan, where they’re still pouring coffee out of an urn and serving wedges of pie seven decades after the place opened. Speaking of nostalgia, it’s a good weekend to visit one of the neighborhood restaurants that are closing doors: Canelé in Atwater Village, or Auntie Em’s in Eagle Rock, which is closing Sunday, after 15 years. A giant piece of red velvet cake sounds pretty good right now — or on Sunday, since you can likely watch Bill Belichick scowl just as easily on your phone as on some giant flat-screen. Just don’t get cream cheese frosting on the screen. Done that.
THE JOY OF TASTING MENUS
This week Jonathan lists some of his favorite restaurants serving tasting menus, that beautiful exercise in small plates. “You can call it omakase. You can call it dégustation, a banquet menu or modern kaiseki.” Because though the conceit is hardly new, there are some excellent iterations of the genre, from a fabulously expensive version of the Chinese banquet menu to a series of small tastes at a 10-seat counter in Koreatown.
70 YEARS OF APPLE PAN
Speaking of counters, food writer Erica Zora Wrightson considers the U-shaped counter — and the food and the folks on either side of it — at the Apple Pan. The family-owned restaurant has been serving comfort food to its neighborhood since the day it opened, on April 11, 1947. Imagine the number of burgers, the cups of coffee, the slices of pie.
WHAT TO DRINK ON SUNDAY
If you’re making food for the big game (here are a few handy recipes), you’ll likely want something to drink with all of it. A case of wine, a keg, a vat of coffee. Beer writer John Verive suggests a crowler or two, the extra-large beer cans that you can buy and fill when you need more than a pint. If you’re reading this at McCoy Station, consider this a serving suggestion.
THAT $24 BOWL OF SPAGHETTI
Chef Scott Conant, the guy behind the famously expensive bowl of spaghetti pomodoro at the late, lamented restaurant Scarpetta, is coming back — with his bowls of spaghetti. Conant will be opening a new restaurant in the former Terrine space, with restaurateur Stephane Bombet, called the Ponte. In other restaurant news, deputy food editor Jenn Harris gets details on the latest project from chefs Karen and Quinn Hatfield, a so-called sushi croissant, and a new blow torch restaurant. Not making this up.
Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers and now features his 2016 Best Restaurants. If you didn’t get a copy of the booklet, you can order one online here.
“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.
