Counter: Pizza, pizza; Filipino rice bowls; Larchmont food crawl

June 27, 2015 12:05 AM PT

Jon & Vinny's "L.A. Woman" pizza: local burrata, tomato, basil, olive oil and sea salt.

Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Greetings and salutations:

Do you feel as if you might want a pizza two weeks from next Thursday at either 5:30 or 9:30 p.m.? Then you’re in luck. Jon & Vinny’s, the stunningly popular new pizzeria from Animal’s Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, may be able to accommodate you. The pizzas are pretty good too, with thin crusts and burnt rims and toppings that include crescenza cheese with mustard blossoms or chorizo with asiago and crema. Is the best part the appetizers made with charred farmers market vegetables? Maybe, although we are partial to Helen Johannesen’s wine list too. Fancy a sparkler from Breze with your pepperoni pizza? Why not!

Elsewhere in the small, happy world of food, we report on the soon-to-open Rice Bar, where a former Patina chef will serve modern Filipino food in a space slightly larger than a phone booth, and the estimable S. Irene Virbila finds some swell places to eat in Larchmont Village. Amy Scattergood goes to the San Gabriel Valley and discovers hand-pulled la mien. And Jenn Harris survives cocktail omakase at the Walker Inn, a mysterious hush-hush speakeasy behind the Normandie Club. Shhhh.

And be on the lookout for Wednesday's In the Kitchen newsletter, with cooking tips and news, including new recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.

—Jonathan Gold

The Animal guys do take-out pizza

Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo are the two dudes behind Animal, Son of a Gun, Trois Mec and Petit Trois. And you've probably been stalking the sidewalk on Fairfax across from Animal for months now, waiting for their new Italian place to open. Open it did, a pizza joint, of all things. This week Jonathan Gold checks out the place, Jon & Vinny's, which has been open a few months. There's also handmade pasta and excellent meatballs, as well as a wine shop inside the restaurant.

Corn agnolotti topped with sage brown butter and Parmesan.

Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Your Larchmont food crawl

S. Irene Virbila checks out 11 places in Larchmont Village for those of us who love great food and wine — and macarons and flights of ice cream, thanks to Salt & Straw, the Portland, Ore.-based ice cream shop. Repeat that last one, maybe a few times, considering how hot it is in this town already.

Who knew? Salt & Straw has ice cream flights, any four flavors, for $10. Read more: 11 places for food lovers in Larchmont Village

S. Irene Virbila / Los Angeles Times

Patina chef opens Filipino rice bowl counter

If you love Filipino food, or are yourself a native of that island nation, you'll know that there are few Filipino restaurants in Los Angeles. Chef Charles Olalia and business partner Santos Uy mean to change that by opening up Ricebar, a tiny rice bowl counter, in DTLA next week, as Amy Scattergood reports. Olalia, who is from the Philippines, was previously the exec chef at Patina, so these will not be just any old rice bowls.

Chef Charles Olalia presents his pork longanisa bowl with fried egg, rice and pickled papaya at Ricebar.

Amy Scattergood / Los Angeles Times

Cocktail omakase

Jenn Harris lines them up at the Walker Inn. Or, rather, bartender Katie Emmerson does, making them as a sushi chef would do omakase. "This can involve an old school air pop popcorn machine, a waffle maker, an immersion blender, giant ice cubes and vintage glassware."

Betty Hallock

Hand-pulled noodles in the SGV

If you spend a lot of time eating noodles in the San Gabriel Valley, as most of us do, then you've memorized the restaurants that make their own, mostly shaving them from blocks of pasta. You also know that there are very few places where they pull the noodles, a common practice in China but not so much here. Recently China Tasty in Alhambra changed its menu to focus on these noodles, and you can see the noodles being pulled for your dinner in the open kitchen. Reason enough to go. (Bonus: They also serve pigs ears.)