Rebooting restaurants, cuisines and recipes

June 10, 2017 7 AM PT

There’s been lots of drama this past week, at least if you watch professional basketball, so it’s maybe a good time to hit whichever pause button you have handy and contemplate some good food. Serene food, food that you might find in a gorgeous patio garden, ideally near some stellar art.

This is what Jonathan Gold has been doing lately, as he reviews Michael’s in Santa Monica, where the latest chef (in a long line of exemplary chefs) has lit, or relit, the creative fires in the kitchen. There’s a certain serenity in the kitchen of one of our favorite Ethiopian restaurants too. This week we also have a pretty fun grilling story (one word: mayonnaise), as well as our weekly market report (okra!), and some recipes for your (almost) summer weekend. Warm-weather cocktails. Salmon. Avocados, toast or otherwise. Oh, and if your idea of fun is watching “Saved by the Bell” reruns (no judging, really), then we have some Restaurant News for you too.

— Amy Scattergood

At Michael’s, the art is on the plates

Hamachi collar with barley miso, white chocolate and cucumber at Michael's.

This week, Jonathan considers Michael’s — or more accurately, reconsiders Michael McCarty’s Santa Monica restaurant, a place that has defined both California cuisine and farm-to-table dining since it opened in 1979. Over the years, many very noteworthy chefs cooked at the restaurant: the latest is Miles Thompson, and he’s been changing the landscape on the plates pretty radically. So, although the garden patio and the world-class art are the same as they’ve been for decades, the food is most definitely not.

Mayo mojo

It’s grilling season, by all accounts, and the stuff you should really be throwing on your Weber may not be what you think. Test Kitchen Director Noelle Carter experiments with her new favorite thing: a jar of mayonnaise. Because the contents of that jar of mayo turn out to be precisely what you should be brushing on all the fish, chicken, steak, even avocados and potatoes that you’re likely grilling these days. Who knew.

Meals, and life, by Genet

Many of the Ethiopian dishes at Meals by Genet have been turned vegetarian or vegan.

If you only know the L.A. Ethiopian restaurant Meals by Genet through Jonathan’s lists, or the magnificent doro wot (or “City of Gold”), you’d be forgiven for not knowing much about its namesake, owner — and only chef. So this week I talk to Genet Agonafer, who hasn’t eaten half the dishes on her menu in years. Why? She’s a vegan.

Food Truckin’

Victor and Sybil Roquin at their Tumaca food truck,

In her latest food truck column, Deputy Food Editor Jenn Harris catches up with the Tumaca truck, and the married couple who started it, a former business consultant from Spain and her husband, a Frenchman who also left his previous day job. What do they serve from their fire-engine-red truck? Catalan food, and a homey sandwich of bread, ham and tomatoes.

Another reason to head to the Promenade

Chef Dave Beran at his home in downtown L.A.

Food writer Gillian Ferguson talks to chef Dave Beran, lately of Alinea and Next, who recently moved to Los Angeles to open his own restaurant. Excellent news for folks near the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica: Beran’s upcoming restaurant, Dialogue, will likely open in August, in a 800-square-foot space on the second story of the Gallery, a newly renovated food hall.

Pizza scouting report

Love pizza? Love deep-dish pizza? Then, as food writer Tien Nguyen tells us, you might want to head to El Sereno. That’s where Dough Box Pizza and Bread recently opened, in the former home of a Mexican bakery. The name, as those of us who spend way too much time watching the “Great British Bake Off” know, references proofing drawers.

Goldbot: You can now talk to Jonathan Gold any time you want — or at least the robot version of him that now lives on Facebook Messenger. You can ask Goldbot for a personal restaurant recommendation based on location, type of food or price. The bot will also deliver Jonathan Gold’s latest reviews straight to your device.

The Daily Meal, the food and drink website under the editorial direction of Colman Andrews, is now one of our partners. Check out their 101 best pizzas in America and other stories, recipes and videos.

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.

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