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Plants

Grown so locally you can see it from your table

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How does your garden grow? That’s a question that can be posed to a number of restaurants around town. And I’m not just talking old olive oil cans sprouting Genovese basil or flat-leaf Italian parsley. Restaurants are adding giant pots or raised beds wherever they have space. Some are putting in edible landscaping more as poetic ambience than working garden. But others are more ambitious, growing a good portion of the produce and herbs used in their kitchens. And why not? We’ve got sun. We’ve got space. And we’ve also, it turns out, got rooftops.

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S. Irene Virbila

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Playa

John Sedlar, the chef-philosopher behind Rivera and Playa, seemingly never runs out of ideas. His latest? Playa’s cielo verde (green sky), a rooftop garden where he can grow hard-to-find Latin produce for his coastal Latin menu. With the help of chef de cuisine Kevin Luzande and his kitchen team, plants grow in futuristic-looking 6-foot towers punched out with 28 pockets. (Think giant strawberry pots.) What does Sedlar’s garden grow? Heirloom tomatoes and tomatillos, of course, black garbanzos, all sorts of chiles, edible flowers and micro greens, epazote, hoja santa, Mexican tarragon, Aztec spinach and more.

7360 Beverly Blvd. (near Stanley Avenue), Los Angeles, (323) 933-5300, www.playarivera.com. Dishes, $9 to $17.

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The Royce at the Langham

How can a chef look out on the extensive grounds of the Langham hotel in Pasadena every day and not dream of growing vegetables and herbs for the kitchen? David Feau, who presides over the Royce restaurant at the Langham, finally got his wish for a garden this year. This first season, he’s growing every herb he could wish for, plus lemon verbena, lemongrass, lemon thyme and more for the restaurant’s tisanes served at the end of a meal. Next year he plans to plant even more vegetables and herbs, also more citrus trees and at some point get into beekeeping. The hotel is planting more lavender too. I can almost taste that honey.

1401 S. Oak Knoll Ave., Pasadena, (626) 585-6410, www.roycela.com. Six-course tasting menu, $125.

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Heirloom LA

Matt Poley and Tara Maxey have not only one of the best farm-to-table catering companies around, they also have one of the top food trucks in L.A. They’re parked outside Silverlake Wine most Mondays during the store’s weekly wine tastings. And at Heirloom LA’s new headquarters in Eagle Rock, Poley and Maxey put in a series of raised beds, where they’re currently growing lemon cucumbers, cardamom, finger limes, yuzu, purple runner beans, black zucchini and all types of heirloom tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and chiles. It’s a work in progress and will change as the two discover what works and what doesn’t.

4126 Verdugo Road , Los Angeles, (855) 456-6652, www.HeirloomLA.com. Food truck prices, $4 to $15.

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