I don’t know the difference between Georigan and Armenian khachapuri, but Pomegranate in San Diego and Piala in Sebastopol use the right spices and have dishes that the Russian and Armenian khinkali / khachapuri places don’t, such as pkhali and lobio.
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There is also Tamari and Bevri on the SF Peninsula
Bevri is Russian. No hint of the right spices last time I was there.
quarter sheets
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Belated thanks for the suggestion - I’ll check it out
IIRC anthony bourdain (RIP - it’s really been almost six years now?) was trying to create a food hawker complex similar to what you might find in singapore. i personally would love to see stalls accommodating one trick ponies gathered together in one (conveniently located in relation to the SGV of course) location.
responding to a few thoughts posted previously, LA is a food destination, but the location in terms of proximity to central america and of course being on the pacific rim has resulted in a non-european sensibility to food. “fine” dining as michelin might define it is not why you’d want to visit LA for the food. kogi, for example, would have likely not gained much traction in a region where there is no combination of a strong latin american presence as well as an asian (specifically korean in this instance). and gold would have likely never won a pulitzer (sp?) without the plethora of various ethnicities all producing cuisines so dissimilar to ‘american’ cuisine as white bread america perceives it to be with gold doing his best to make it accessible to white bread america.
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Someone recommended Donna’s. Is it worth eating at? Put a little differently, is the pasta al dente?
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Is it supposed to be at a red sauce joint? Genuine question…
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Depends on the price point.
They ended up opening it in New York just without Bourdain but with KF Seetoh still involved.
Food looks just ok and everything is $20+ so if you dont wanna pay those prices then thats why we dont have one here that is financially sound.
My perception is that since, or because Gold left us, the pendulum of LA has been swinging back into “white bread america” with the endless appetite the city has for chicken sandwiches, pizza and obnoxious mediocre coastal Italian that are spreading so invasively. LA food went from the cultured sophistication of J.Gold to a 10 year old’s food preferences.
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I enjoyed it a lot! I think the cocktails are particularly good but it’s not “al dente pasta” vibes. I feel like at Red Sauce joints it’s never that? The fusilli is nice, the chicken parm was GREAT. the apps I thought were very fun
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Thanks. I am going to pass.
I wouldn’t say you’re massively missing out. I think of it more of a friend/group dinner for fun than a nice date night out.
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While that may be true, I do think the LA Italian food scene has improved with the fairly recent additions of Mother Wolf, Funke, Stella, Antico Nuovo, Gucci, and (lower end) Ceci’s Gastronomia. Add Mozzaplex and Rossoblu, and I have no complaints about LA Italian food.
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I’d like to see “American dim sum” ala State Bird Provisions in SF. It’s a lot of fun to just sit back and choose well executed small plates from carts going by.
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God I love that restaurant
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Not discounting the loss of Gold, imagine more people in my bougie circle would have been to the 6th St. night market if it was Gold big upping.
But I think this is as much Covid and Tik Tok and the full collapse of any vestiges of high vs low culture. Burgers and pizza are not trends limited to LA.
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For mid-tier eateries, I think cheaper to make = potentially lower overhead = making just enough margin to eek out a living in a very tough market…
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