Jessica Koslow

Photo courtesy of: Al Mare

It was bound to happen – rising from the wooden planks of the Santa Monica Pier, surrounded by Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and carnival food staples (hot dogs! fast-food pizza!), the first-ever Italian restaurant has popped up on the horizon, with an executive chef with serious gastronomical cred, Giacomo Pettinari. Even though Al Mare  a 279-seat ristorante, has been feeding the masses of tourists and locals alike through the holidays, their official ribbon cutting was actually only recently, on March 12.

Co-owners Paolo Simeone and Franco Sorgi, who have already seen success with Trastevere on the Third Street Promenade and La Piazza at the Grove, spent over two years completing the build-out of Al Mare, which is designed by local architect David Hibbert. The 9,000-square-foot Italian eatery now stands three stories tall, with second-floor balcony terraces and a rooftop deck boasting one of the best views on the Westside.

The space where Al Mare stands has an interesting history that doesn’t involve fine dining or Italian anything….

Read full article at LAWeekly.com.

Coffee toffee with chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich at Milk

I have a few entries in LA Weekly’s Best Of LA issue:

Best Ice Cream Shop

Best Portable Breakfast

Best Outdoor Dining

Best Octopus Dish

Pork Belly Bahn Mi

This month is National Sandwich Month. And although exactly how and why that came to be escapes us, it’s as good a reason as any to celebrate a dish truly worth the celebrating. Mendocino Farms — and its six locations around Los Angeles — has carved out a successful sandwich-making niche in Los Angeles. Two more locations are scheduled to open this year and one more in 2014.

It’s a recent Tuesday at lunchtime at the Marina del Rey location. A line winds through the shop and out the door, and it doesn’t get any smaller for a couple of hours; the outdoor tables are packed. In one corner sits Mendocino Farms Founder Mario del Pero, sharing his sandwich philosophy: what makes a great sandwich, why people pass other shops to eat at Mendocino Farms and where he can’t wait to open his ninth location. Turn the page, and check out our ode to 31 local sandwiches. It’s always lunchtime somewhere.

Squid Ink: What do you think makes a great sandwich anyway?

Mario del Pero: The very foundation of a great sandwich is great bread, and crafting the bread to fit the sandwich. We spend as much time working with our baker — which is Celestino Drago’s bakery — as on the sandwich we’re designing. We spent roughly a year developing the wheat bread on the Farm Club.

We either take great classics and ask, Where is this sandwich today? …

Read full article at LA Weekly

Sweet Rose Creamery

Even though July is National Ice Cream Month, nobody needs an excuse to indulge in creamy cones, cups and sandwiches any time of year. Ronald Reagan was the president to drum up this designation in 1984, decreeing that the third Sunday of the month would be National Ice Cream Day. He wanted to recognize the cold treat that 90% of the U.S. population enjoys regularly. Turn the page for the scoop on the best ice cream and gelato shops in town to visit on July 21 — this year’s National Ice Cream Day — or any other day, for that matter.

Milk

10. Milk:
Walking into Milk is like stepping into a condensed version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. There’s a stand-up fridge to the left with goodies such as butterscotch drumsticks, watermelon and red velvet macaroon ice cream sandwiches and frozen strawberry shortcakes. Piled high on the counter to the right are cookies, brownies and cakes. The menu board hanging overhead lists shakes, malts, floats and the classics, which include a warm ooey gooey chocolate sundae and the blondie with vanilla ice cream, butterscotch and pecan praline. Make Your Own Ice Cream Sandwiches are $5 with about 10 cookie types to choose from as well as flavors such as jasmine, nutella, blueberry crumble pie and their most popular pick, banana dulce de leche. 7290 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; 323-939-6455.


Read full article at LA Weekly

Organic beef slider at Packing House Wines

One week before our own dineLA launches on July 15, Claremont kicks off its first-ever Restaurant Week from now today through July 16th. Home to the seven Claremont Colleges, a botanic garden covering 86 acres, a bustling Sunday farmers market and Ben Harper’s Folk Music Center, Claremont is looking to expand its reputation beyond being labeled the city of trees and PhDs. For the next eight days, 20 restaurants are offering prix fixe menus for $20, $30 and $40. From Portuguese favorites like bacalhau de natas at Euro Café to traditional Afghan dishes like kabuli pilaf at Walter’s, it’s a good time to taste what’s cooking 30 miles east of downtown L.A.

Chocolate crème brûlée at Aruffo’s

5. Aruffo’s Italian Cuisine:
Nearly thirty years ago, two 22-year-old sweethearts decided to start a restaurant. Today, Aruffo’s is still open for business seven days a week on Yale Avenue in Claremont Village, and owner Valerie Aruffo still greets and seats her customers. The three-course lunch and four-course dinner ranges in price depending on the main course, which could be pasta swirled with homemade basil pesto or chicken breast sautéed in fine Marsala drinking wine (rather than the more commonly used cooking Marsala wine). The featured dinner dessert is one of Aruffo’s most requested: a decadent chocolate crème brûlée with fresh berries. 126 N. Yale Ave., Claremont; 909-624-9624.

Read full article at LA Weekly

Nobu Malibu/Aldo Rossi

Summer living — and eating — in Los Angeles is sweet. From sweeping seaside and rooftop views to Spanish-style patios and glamorous Hollywood hangs, Los Angeles offers an amazing selection of restaurants where you can take in the sights on your plate and the natural ones around you at the same time. Turn the page for the city’s 10 best outdoor patios.

10. AOC:
Step inside the new iteration of AOC and out its wide-open side doors for a little taste of California Wine Country or maybe the European countryside. The restaurant spills out into the patio, an adjoining room with three walls and no roof. There are two family-style booths set back into tiled walls on each end and cute country-style windows all around. But the best view is up — at the restaurant’s balcony, its foliage creeping along the edges of the roof or just straight above at the expansive sky. Serving both lunch and dinner, Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne’s wine bar also, unsurprisingly, boasts an extensive wine list of several pages, which arrives on a clipboard. What to order: clams in sherry and garlic with toast. 8700 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, 310-859-9859.

AOC/Jessica Koslow

9. The Roof Garden at The Peninsula Beverly Hills:
The Peninsula in Beverly Hills comes off as a playground for the rich and famous. But, travel through the high tea lounge, up the elevators to the penthouse and past the spa and a relaxing Roof Garden appears with a relaxing vacation vibe. The pool is even further up the steps, so the noise from frolicking families can only be heard on a stroll to the edge of the patio for a bird’s-eye view of L.A. Every weekend evening through September 1, executive chef David Codney fires up the grill and serves barbecued specialties, including baby back ribs, duck tacos and Australian rock lobster tail. What to order: fish tacos. 9882 S. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills; 310-551-2888.

Read full article at LA Weekly

Hot Stone Bibimbap

This summer at all three Los Angeles locations of the Korean restaurant Bibigo, Korean pop megastar Psy, also known as the King of YouTube — or his actual name Park Jae-sang — is everywhere. On the front windows, the servers’ T-shirts and even on the menu. Millions of people dance like him, and now everybody can eat like him too, as Bibigo is offering a special menu of Psy’s choosing. Already a big fan of Bibigo in Seoul, whenever Psy is in L.A., he visits the Bibigo on posh Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills.

Until July 31, customers who order his favorite dishes receive a scratch card with the chance to win prizes like a Bibigo voucher, bag or Psy mask (!!), and can enter to win a trip to Seoul. The winner will be announced August 19, 2013.

Psy’s massive hit “Gangnam Style” has over a billion YouTube views. He released his follow-up single, “Gentleman,” in April, and it quickly earned a Guinness World Record for the most-viewed video online in 24 hours. In the latter video, Psy meets his female match and they head to a restaurant and begin playing with their food. Apparently, these are some of Psy’s favorite dishes from Bibigo, which also has locations in the UK, Japan, China, Indonesia and Singapore.

Being exactly like Psy means eating at the Beverly Hills location, although there are two others in L.A. — in Century City and Westwood — serving a Psy-inspired menu. …

Read full article at LA Weekly

Pulled Pork Sliders and Quinta de Saes

It’s rare that a small wine bar has an onsite sommelier. It’s even rarer that a restaurant has a female sommelier. Vintage Enoteca has both in Danielle Francois who, along with Jennifer Moore, owns the Hollywood wine bar.

Their philosophy is simple: Wines should be accessible, affordable and, most important, people should like what they drink. The two ex-New York City advertising execs gravitate toward boutique productions and family-owned estates, which produce indigenous varietals, in Europe, California and the Pacific Northwest.

“I pick out cool, off the beaten path wines that you don’t find everywhere,” says Francois. One of her specialties is food and wine pairings. Throughout the year, she plans themed pairings, but she’s also available on the spot for customers who are adventurous — or unsure — and looking for suggestions. This weekend, June 14-16, she’s put together an All-American Snack Food Mashup and Wine Tasting with sophisticated twists on classic snack foods like Cracker Jacks, pork rinds and Oreos. Turn the page for five of Francois’ food and wine pairings.

Wine: Kir-Yianni “Petra,” Macedonia, Greece, 2011 (white)
Suggested Foods: light salads, salty cheeses, Mediterranean diet
Says Francois, “I’m a fan of white wines that aren’t that fruity. I find that they’re a little more food versatile when there’re not big, lip-smacky fruit flavors bowling over the rest of the flavors in the wine. This is a Greek wine with indigenous varietals from Macedonia. It’s not too fruity with an undercurrent of citrus and peach and apricot, but it’s got a nice crisp, snappy salinity on the finish. It’s food versatile. In our warm farro salad, it brings out the snappiness of the flavor of the English peas. And feta is indigenous to Greece. I am a fan of what grows together, goes together.”

Read full article at LA Weekly