Jessica Koslow

This summer has been spectacular for Chef Jon Yao and Kato, the Downtown LA Taiwanese American restaurant co-owned by its wine director, Ryan Bailey. Kato has been named the winner of the 2026 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program, marking its second consecutive James Beard Foundation Award after Yao received the Best Chef: California award in 2025.

Kato also received its second Michelin star, becoming one of only four two-star restaurants in Los Angeles. It received its first in 2019, three years after opening in its original location in West LA.

“I think it’s always been a personal goal of ours to take a fine-dining restaurant to that level of accolade,” said Yao. “But at the end of the day, we stay open and are open because of our diners and the people that support us. It’s a great validation for our staff and the hard work and the intensity they put into their day-to-day and their passion, but it’s also for our diners who have stuck with us for so long. I’ve met so many incredible people and friends throughout the decade we’ve been operating.” . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

What a difference a year (or a little more) makes. Since March 2025, Westchester’s beloved Californian farm-to-table restaurant Tomat was added to the California Michelin Guide, received a 2026 Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence and was named one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America and added to the LA Times 101 Best Restaurants list.

It is almost too good to be true — but not when the chef is Harry Posner, who is of Persian heritage and has worked at The Clove Club in London and INUA in Tokyo, and your general manager is Miley Aryucharoen, who was named one of Punch’s Best New Bartenders of 2026. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Summer at Artelice Patisserie is special. Its three locations — West LA, Burbank and Studio City — are now serving mini fruit pastries and fruit Pavlovas made with produce sourced from farmers markets. Think peach, mango and strawberry — or peanut and pistachio.

Although the summer brings seasonal sweets, the pastry case at Artelice Patisserie is a sight to behold all year. 

“In our culture, whenever anything happens — you have a child, you go to anybody’s house, you buy a car, you marry someone — it’s a cultural thing that you buy pastries,” said Artelice co-owner Farid Azarang. “It has to visually look great, and it also has to taste great.” . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

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.