How The Times’ best restaurants list aims to answer one ‘delicious, impossible question’

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Wednesday, Dec. 7. I’m Ryan Fonseca.

About 99% of the time, my wife is the one who finds us new and interesting restaurants, and I’m the one who says, “Looks good” and drives us there.

But I’m about to shake up that dynamic thanks to The Times’ 10th annual list of the 101 best restaurants in L.A.

An interactive map shows eateries spanning from the San Fernando Valley, clustered through the heart of the L.A. Basin and sprinkled down to Long Beach and southeast into Orange County.

This year’s list was cultivated by Times restaurant critic Bill Addison, who confesses straightaway that he’s trying to answer “a delicious, impossible question”:

In his quest to answer that question, Bill visited or revisited roughly 300 restaurants, ultimately whittling that number down to the 101 places on his list.

Skimming through during a sneak peek revealed a microcosm of Greater Los Angeles, repping food traditions from Japan, Colombia, Palestine, Ethiopia, India, Korea, Lebanon and Italy — just to name several. And no L.A. food list would be complete without a generous helping of Mexican restaurants (my favorite).

“I hope it tells a story,” Bill said. “First and foremost, I hope it expresses the defining pluralism of Los Angeles — the many, many communities that make up its uniqueness and its infinite appeal.”

Bill told me he recognized the “immense privilege” he had in getting paid to eat food and write about it but said compiling his eventual list took “months of anguish.” He explained:

Running a restaurant is a labor of love — emphasis on labor. And one industrywide challenge that still permeates dining is ongoing labor shortages.

“In my 20 years of being a restaurant critic, I’ve never been more forgiving of an overall experience in a restaurant,” Bill shared, adding that restaurant patrons should bring some empathy to the table.

“I hope, if the intention of hospitality is fundamentally there, that everyone in the dining room is going to be understanding of labor shortages,” he said. “They’re ultimately [going] to be fed and enjoy themselves.”

For Bill, there’s a tried-and-true equation that explains the region’s gastronomical greatness.

“It’s California’s exceptional farmlands, crossed with the incredible diversity of our communities, and the innate creativity that is part of Los Angeles culture,” he said. “What’s wonderful about that is that equation is alive.”

So, were there any major food trends he noticed in 2022? Bill said the pandemic largely “derailed” his approach to trend-seeking, but there was one standout.

“We are in an amazing pizza boom,” he told me. “There are three restaurants on this list ... that signify how different and how excellent expressions of pizza can be now in Los Angeles.”

Your move, New York.

Check out Bill Addison’s full list, and plot your next course to a good meal.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Black Californians are among the hundreds of Black families seeking to reclaim land seized by local governments through eminent domain and other tactics. Many are turning to Where Is My Land, which offers advocacy, research and media consulting. The for-profit organization is currently working with seven families that lost property to municipalities in California. Those include Santa Monica, Hayward, Richmond, Palm Springs and Napa. CalMatters

Earlier this week, Los Angeles’ unionized teachers rallied for wage increases and structural changes in the classroom. Educators are worried about staying in the profession amid the rising cost of living and intensifying workloads. Among their demands: a 20% raise over the next two years. Los Angeles Times

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Native Americans whose ancestors settled by California’s largest natural lake centuries ago are imploring the federal government to save a symbol of their heritage: the Clear Lake hitch. The large minnows have been on the state’s threatened species list since 2014. But their numbers continue to dwindle, and the region’s Pomo Indian tribes fear U.S. government help will come too late. Los Angeles Times

They sell sea plots off the seashore (doesn’t quite have the same ring to it). For the first time in U.S. history, ocean areas off the West Coast are being auctioned off to build wind farms. In total, five spots — each about 20 miles offshore — are up for grabs: two off Eureka in Humboldt County and three in the waters west of Morro Bay in San Luis Obispo County. The bidding kicked off Tuesday but will continue today — and you can check where the bids are at on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s website. The highest bid before Tuesday’s recess: $100,300,000. The Mercury News

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Pour one out (figuratively — don’t waste good booze) for the 89th year of Prohibition’s demise. Patt Morrison takes a look back at the temperance movement that sparked our nation’s dry run and explains how California became “a prize for prohibitionists.” Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: Mostly sunny, 61. San Diego: Partly sunny, 61. San Francisco: Mostly sunny, 56. San Jose: Patchy fog then sunny, 58. Fresno: Patchy fog then haze, 56. Sacramento: Patchy frost and fog then mostly sunny, 53.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory is from Kerry Olinger:

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.