“If I opened a restaurant, I would just give people what they want. I would do Italian food. It’s the best food for a restaurant, customers accept it, they don’t question it, they’re happy to pay for it, no qualms about it. It’s not the same for Asian food. I don’t want to explain things to people, why it costs so much, I don’t want to hear ‘I don’t get this.’ Italian food doesn’t have any of that.”
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- barcito
- eszette
- Fiona/simbal
- hotville
- taco Maria
Good list of chefs/restaurants. Interesting article. Thanks for the share.
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Case and point: San Vicente in Brentwood. Endless Italian restaurants that all seem to do well, a few sushi spots, and not much of other ethnic cuisine. As much as I love Italian food, he sadly has a salient point.
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Depends on the neighborhood. Fiona was in a tough spot to introduce those flavors. Also LA (county & OC) has ample options for traditional flavors so elevated ethnic food is harder to sell (unlike NYC for example)
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I think restaurant diversity in LA by and large reflects the quality of the world’s cuisines. Obviously it reflects immigration patterns as well. But the main reason there are so many Italian restaurants is that Italian food is great. Why aren’t there many German restaurants? 
Because many people in the US associate German food with what is served in the “typical” German restaurant in the US (which is only very heavy meat focused) even though that is a representation of German food which is very regional specific (Bavarian) and about 50 years old and hardly represents what you would find today in Germany (it’s like American restaurants in Europe would only serve Texas BBQ and nothing else and everybody would think that is the only food eaten in the US.)
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welcome
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Welcome to FTC!!!
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