He has an appetite for the city

Comedian Lewis Black has found religion, or at least found the urge to offer his take on it in a book, “Me of Little Faith” (new in paperback).

“It’s basically for people who are stumbling toward the light,” Black explained. “And it’s telling people who are very satisfied with the religion they have found that they don’t have to tell me about it. They can show me just by being a good person. Telling me about it so they can feel better about themselves just irritates me.”

Black will present and sign copies of the book Monday at Largo at the Coronet and Tuesday at Glendale Americana’s Barnes & Noble.

While he’s in town, the single New Yorker (“Actually I’m divorced, but it was so long ago I don’t think it counts anymore”) won’t go hungry. Check out his favorite dining spots.

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At the Marquis

Whenever I’m in L.A. I stay at the Sunset Marquis. It’s very comfortable and I really like its location. I can walk to Barney’s Beanery, which I’ve known and loved forever. I like the omelets and chili burgers. They also have a good trio salad, made up of egg salad, chicken salad and tuna salad. You feel healthy ordering a salad, but it’s huge.

I can also walk to the Beverly Center. It can’t be much more than a mile away, otherwise I’d pass out. But I don’t drive in L.A. anymore. It would be easier for me to drive in L.A. if every other driver had a bubble over their head explaining why they were on the road.

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Love that ostrich

It was BOA on Sunset that convinced me that ostrich was really dead-on. It’s great, just delicious. I’ve brought friends in to make them eat it. You’d never know it was ostrich, because it doesn’t taste like a bird, it tastes beefy. I’ve had ostrich elsewhere, but BOA does it best

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Eating ethnic

Gardens of Taxco is always a solid place for Mexican. The food is good, the margaritas are great and the people are nice. I’ve ordered everything on the menu about three times.

For Italian, I like Osteria La Buca. Family-run, really relaxed and great pasta. Good wine list. I’ve been on dates there and they’ve caught me staring off into the distance, so they finally ask me, “Who are you looking at?” And I’d say, “I’m looking at the food I’m not getting, to see if I made a mistake.”

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A real knockout

A non-sushi Japanese restaurant that’s really good is Kokkekoko. This is a major find. It’s really a yakitori house, and it’s well worth a trip.

R-23 is good for sushi downtown. It’s off this alley in kind of a warehouse. The place is very clean, nicely set up and good sushi. And they have this green tea and chocolate cake thing for dessert that sounds like nonsense, but it works.

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Marquis postscript

Oh, one more thing about the Sunset Marquis. They’ve added this back area to the property that’s like a tropical paradise, with another pool and flowers everywhere. There’s a great restaurant back there and another bar that now has my picture behind it. I can sit and have a drink and look at a picture of myself popping everybody the bird. How good is that?

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mark.sachs@latimes.com