Jessica Koslow

Photo by Courtnay Robbins

Without many words, Jonathan Weiss communicates volumes through his cooking. He’s in the kitchen every day at 2:30 a.m., preparing 1,000 catered meals for the surrounding business community. He greets and often hugs his customers at Big Mango Café, a successful restaurant he co-owns with partner Adam Drucker on Waterfront Drive. He’s worked alongside master chefs including Wolfgang Puck, Julia Child and Border Grill co-founder Susan Feniger.

And if you don’t pay close enough attention when ordering at the counter, you might not realize that Jonathan Weiss is deaf.

Weiss’ culinary education began as a kid in his grandfather’s British pub, The Fox and Hounds.

“He’s been in the kitchen since five minutes after he was born,” jokes Drucker, who often stands by his partner, listening to him and translating. Weiss speaks, but is liable to not be understood, and reads lips.

“His grandfather was a huge influence on him,” Drucker says. “He pushed him to speak, to read lips and to cook like a champion.”

Read the full article at Playa Vista Direct.

Photo Courtesy of Kristian Vallas

“There’s an old joke in the industry,” Chris Carver, Neighbor’s director of operations, says smiling. “When it comes to restaurants, only three things matter: location, location, location.”

Enter Abbot Kinney Boulevard, where there’s a place to get a bite or a drink at almost every step. And Neighbor, in the spot where Willie Jane operated for eight years until November 2016, is one of the newest restaurants to open. It’s just a few doors down from Felix Trattoria, which occupies the space where Joe’s Restaurant stood for 24 years.

“It feels good to launch a concept on a street that is a real destination,” says Neighbor owner Kristian Vallas. “I’ve lived in the neighborhood for about 17 years, so it’s special to create an experience for our friends and neighbors, many who live in walking distance.”

Carver, who helped open downtown L.A.’s Bestia and has worked hands-on with Bill Chait (The Rose, Republique) over the last nine years, says the street’s built-in competition begs the question: “What do we do to separate ourselves from the hoard?” …

Read the full article at The Argonaut.

Drunken Noodles at unity la

Put the words airport, hotel and food together and you aren’t usually talking about an unforgettable meal. But that’s just what Hyatt Regency Los Angeles International Airport’s new three-in-one dining concept — the conspicuously un-capitalized unity la market, bar and restaurant — aims to serve. Their motto, “unquestionably un-airport,” says it all.

The average stay of a visitor at the Hyatt Regency is one day. The hotel’s mission is to expose guests to L.A.’s diverse food scene without them having to leave the building.

“We want to give people a sense of where they were for a short amount of time,” says Charles Fusco, executive chef at unity la.

The unity la menu is currently divided into the fare of six neighborhoods: Thai Town, Little Tokyo, Boyle Heights, East L.A., Santa Monica and Sunset Strip. In East L.A., chicken mole is plated with chorizo potato hash. Boyle Heights showcases charred corn salad and crispy pork belly. Santa Monica offers up fish tacos and California salad, with roasted kabocha squash. The Drunken Noodles from Thai Town is a take on a traditional Thai hangover cure, shares Fusco. …

Read the full article at The Argonaut.

On a cone, in a cup, between two cookies or even inside a waffle taco shell, ice cream in all of its many incarnations remains the official treat of summer. And these days, Baskin-Robbins and Ben & Jerry’s aren’t the only game in town.

Ice cream shops specializing in house-made, artisanal, organic, sustainable and locally sourced frozen confections are popping up throughout the Westside.

Let’s call it The Golden Age of Ice Cream: a whole new crop of boutique shops is attracting lines out the door with adoring fans willing to wait, often late into the night, for some of the richest, most decadent flavors that ice cream lovers have ever tasted.

Beat the heat and treat yourself to one of these 13 standout frozen treats. …

Read the full article at The Argonaut.

Photo by Emily Hart Roth

One look at Margaret Schniderman’s face — her bright green eyes, beaming smile and ginger-colored hair — and it’s easy to see why she picked radiant yellow to dominate Ginger’s Divine Ice Creams, her new ice cream shop on West Washington Boulevard. Three yellow umbrellas, yellow door frames, yellow chairs … the list goes on.

“Yellow is a happy color,” Schniderman, whose nickname is Ginger, explains. “I want it to feel like a little break in here. A treat. A vacation spot.”

While Schniderman is no stranger to retail, this is her first foray into the food business. Born and raised in Santa Monica, she and her husband bought DNA Clothing on Rose Avenue in 1996. Although incredibly popular with locals, the one-of-its-kind-for-some-time boutique on Rose shut its doors in January 2016.

About two years before DNA closed, Schniderman began thinking about ice cream. In 2014, she attended an ice cream making program at University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the top two ice cream programs in the country along with Penn State. She worked in a dairy plant in the dead of winter with temperatures of 20 below, and followed that experience with a one-year gelato program in L.A.

Finally, Ginger’s Divine Ice Creams opened its doors in late January. …

Read full article at The Argonaut.

Playa del Rey feels like a charming little beach town tucked away from the rest of Los Angeles, so perhaps it’s fitting that the chefs behind a brand-new poke shop on Culver Boulevard would hide it in the back of a neighborhood convenience store.

TikiFish started serving traditional Hawaiian-style poke — or, as Chef Lionel Killens calls it, “sushi in a bowl” — just a few weeks ago in Gordon’s Market, where it shares the back wall with ASAP Phorage. While ASAP advertises its Asian sandwiches and pho with a stand-up sign outside Gordon’s, TikiFish is still without one.

For now, they’re focusing on the food.

“We pride ourselves on quality. We get our fish from the Fiji Islands and the Maldives, our salmon from Canada,” Killens says. “We get fresh fish that top-of-the-line sushi places get.”

The story of TikiFish begins with Chef Wonny Lee, who after working at Japanese restaurants for half his culinary career decided to step out on his own. Lee and his partners opened the first TikiFish back in August inside the shopping center at Overland and Rose avenues, where it shares an address with ASAP Phorage parent restaurant Phorage. …

Read the full article at The Argonaut.

Photo by The Drip Group

Westside powerhouse chefs D. Brandon Walker and Jill Davie set out to elevate Mar Vista’s dining scene with The Mar Vista, the elegant and airy farm-to-table eatery that replaced The Good Hurt on Venice Boulevard.

In just five months, the concept has been so successful they’re now splitting their time between that collaboration and a sister restaurant — The MV Grab & Go — directly across the street (between the Venice Grind coffee shop and Soaptopia).

“We’ve been doing a lot of jaywalking,” Chef D., formerly of Bread & Roses Café, says with a smile.

“… Even though there’s a brand-new crosswalk in front of us on Venice Boulevard,” Davie (Venice Beach Wines, Josie) is quick to add with a laugh.

While The Mar Vista has established itself as a hot dinner spot on the block, Grab & Go is more casual and quick. The idea for the concept came to the two when they were building out The Mar Vista. …

Read the full article at The Argonaut.