Jessica Koslow

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.

Laura Francisco’s father was a welder. Her mother was a seamstress and stay-at-home mom of four. Once they arrived in California from New Jersey, the couple became quite successful restaurateurs. Their influence, from vibe to veal cannelloni, is felt everywhere at Radici Ristorante and Wine Room, Francisco’s very own establishment in Hermosa Beach.

Francisco’s mother, Lucia Gasbarri, is Radici’s executive chef, and she has her hands in everything. Gasbarri grew up in Pacentro, a tiny village in the Abruzzo region of Italy, watching her mom prepare homemade Italian dishes from family recipes.

The cuisine in Pacentro is fresh, made from high-quality ingredients and simple, which is hard to do, according to Francisco, “because there aren’t enough ingredients to hide any flaws. We don’t layer. Our food is very authentic. It’s a lifestyle, and that’s how we grew up.” . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.