Because every Angeleno loves to eat, even if he has to valet, we bring you Table Stakes: a series that answers man’s eternally recurring question (“Uh, what’s new?”), and recurs once every lunar cycle or so. Bon appétit.
miro
Downtown
Miro is a new Mediterranean spot in the Financial District that’s doing house-cured bresaola (a beef salami) and wood-oven pizzas. Definitely try the bacalao, a salted fish dish that comes with crispy potato croquettes. Pre-game on the ground floor at the Whiskey Room, where the cocktail list is medical dictionary-thick.
888 Wilshire Blvd (map)
Firestone Walker
Venice
Our go-to micro-brews for summer now has a brewpub in Venice with about 15 of their labels on tap, including a smooth nitro milk stout that will have us working out extra hard this summer. On the eating menu: classic pub fare to blot out the buzz.
3228 Washington Blvd (map)
Bull and Barrel
Pasadena
Alexander’s Steakhouse just opened a little burger bistro with a patio called Bull and Barrel. They’re doing Wagyu burgers and pastrami alongside whiskey drinks and beers. Worth the trip, no matter where you’re coming from.
111 N. Robles Ave (map)
LUKE Bar and Restaurant
Woodland Hills
Good Creole food is hard to come by in Los Angeles, but that’s what’s on tap at LUKE Bar and Restaurant in Woodland Hills. They have BBQ shrimp done the Louisiana way — with a lot of butter and flour in the sauce. Order it with the Laid Back beer cocktail, which happily weds Lagunitas and gin.
22616 Ventura Blvd. (map)
Lucques
West Hollywood
Lucques is not a new restaurant. However, Chef Susanne Goin just won the James Beard Award for her other concept, AOC (it’s on our outdoor hitlist for summer), so we decided to revisit Lucques to see how it’s faring. Um, go. They shave the asparagus till it’s wafer thin and then dress it so subtly with oil and anchovies. The grilled fish (ours was sabel) has a great kick from the harrisa balanced the by the sweetness of kumqauts and smoothed by labneh.
8474 Melrose (map)
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