Jessica Koslow

Level 8 is like the board game Candy Land but for adults. Instead of Lollipop Woods and Peanut Acres, guests can visit Japanese eatery Lucky Mizu and Mr. Wanderlust piano bar and jazz lounge. This first-of-its-kind dining, drinking and entertainment experience, which spans 30,000 square feet indoors and outdoors, occupies the entire eighth floor of the Moxy and AC Hotel Downtown Los Angeles. It includes eight establishments, ranging from The Brown Sheep food truck serving street food favorites to Sinners y Santos, a cathedral-inspired nightlife playground. 

Inspired by their travels around the world, twin brothers Mark and Jonnie Houston of Houston Hospitality partnered with Lightstone to debut Level 8 in 2023. 

Celebrated L.A. chef Ray Garcia helms both The Brown Sheep and Qué Bárbaro, a steak and seafood live fire grill restaurant. He was drawn to the opportunity to create a concept that could bring live-fire cooking and a strong point of view into a larger hospitality experience. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

Mastro’s opened its first location in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1999. Today, it has 20 locations across 15 major markets. Yet, there are a few things that have remained the same: The seafood tower arrives over a cloud of dry ice. The butter cake arrives warm. The steaks are cooked 28 days, wet-aged in a 1,500-degree broiler.

“We feel that 28-day wet aging is the optimal time for flavor and for the beef to tenderize,” said Patrick Barrett, the Divisional VP of Mastro’s. “We use a house steak dry rub that’s proprietary and then put them on a broiler at 1,500 degrees, and those broilers get a nice sear on the steak, a nice crust, and lock in all the flavor.”

Mastro’s is a place to celebrate special occasions, indulge before or after a game at Crypto.com Arena or Dodgers Stadium or dine after a long day at the Los Angeles Convention Center. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

Last week, Camélia celebrated its second birthday with a week of by-the-glass pours featuring some of the wine world’s most coveted producers.

“We opened a bunch of bottles of wine that are meaningful to us and that are sort of rare and in some cases fancy,” said Camélia’s beverage director and co-owner Courtney Kaplan. “Things that normally we would not be pouring by the glass, but we decided to open them up and share with our guests coming in as sort of a celebratory gesture.”

This week, from July 13-15, Camélia is offering Bastille Day (which is actually on July 14) specials, including plateau de fruits de mer, steak frites au poivre and bubbly (both wine and sake) available by the glass. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

Frozen sweet fans are in for a treat. It is almost too good to be true: Ice Cream Alley. Through Labor Day Weekend, Smorgasburg LA fans can turn left instead of right when entering and walk down a row of L.A.’s independent ice cream makers serving frozen treats. 

This summer marks the 10th anniversary of Ice Cream Alley, which made its first appearance at Smorgasburg LA on National Ice Cream Day in July 2016. In honor of the special occasion, on July 19 (this year’s National Ice Cream Day), Smorgasburg will host The Great Ice Cream Fair featuring exclusive treats, activities and DJs.

The evolution of Ice Cream Alley was very organic, according to Zach Brooks, Smorgasburg LA’s General Manager. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

Eating outdoors has always been in style. The pandemic made patios mandatory. Nowadays, it seems like every eatery has an outdoor seating area, and some are more magnificent than others. Some offer views of the sand and sea, while others are perched atop tall buildings overlooking the city and expansive sky.

There’s just something special about eating outdoors. Sometimes the food even tastes fresher. Here are some spots to grab patio snacks while you’re out on the town or chillin’ at the beach.

Located in the Maguire Gardens right next to the Los Angeles Public Library, where Café Pinot operated for 25 years until 2019, Settecento DTLA is an Italian restaurant that honors every part of Italy and offers a big outdoor patio. Its pizzas and pastas are made from scratch in-house with flour imported from Italy. The handful of salad options include insalata de farro, Caprese, insalata de Settecento (lettuce, raddichio, frisee, cucumber, radish, tomato, carrot, hardboiled egg and balsamic dressing) and prosciutto crudo e melone with 24-month aged parma prosciutto. Happy hour is every day from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. featuring menu items like bruschetta trio and Napoletano sliders with wagyu beef. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.