Meanwhile, Goodell is turning out stylish bistro cooking at the couple’s new South Coast Plaza bistro, Troquet. After remodeling, Liza and Tim Goodell’s 3-year-old Aubergine will reopen later this spring in Newport Beach with a handful of additional tables. Orange County harbors two of the best French restaurants in Southern California. Despite its suburban setting, it’s closer to a smart urban restaurant in a city like Milan. Vincenti doesn’t aspire to Rex’s grandeur. Gino Angelini, who was Rex Il Ristorante’s last chef, and partner Maureen Vincenti offer exciting contemporary Italian cooking-sumptuous pastas, plus assorted meats and whole fish cooked in a wood-burning rotisserie. Or treat them to the new Vincenti in Brentwood. How about a place to wow out-of-town friends?įor people-watching and great food, take them to Spago Beverly Hills (see above). You never know who you’re going to see at this unpretentious 24-hour, seven-days-a-week spot known more for heroic-sized portions than for fine cuisine. Mayor Richard Riordan, the Original Pantry Cafe-call it the original greasy spoon-claims it has closed only once in 74 years. The 6th Street restaurant serves prime steaks and chops at stockbrokers’ prices all night, so if you get a craving for steak and eggs at 4 in the morning, this is the place. Pacific Dining Car, which dates to 1921, is housed in an old railroad car now outfitted in clubby Victorian splendor. A steamy mug of coffee is just nine cents, and the lemonade is puckery good. Check the chalkboard for top-notch wines by the glass. What’s the big attraction? The French-dip sandwiches (beef, lamb, pork and turkey) Philippe has been serving to an eclectic downtown crowd since 1908, when French emigre Philippe Mathieu “invented” the combination of hand-carved, roasted meats and a soft bun dipped in the 1835360628to take home) and a side of creamy potato salad and sweet, vinegary slaw. There’s usually a line at each of the 10 carving stations at Philippe the Original near Chinatown. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary luminaries who made Musso their favorite haunt. Sipping a dry martini at this 79-year-old Hollywood hangout, you can almost imagine the likes of F. I love the open-face prime rib sandwich, served with a bowl of jus, a dab of horseradish and mashed potatoes. Where else can you find jellied consomme or Welsh rarebit, or a waiter who has been fussing over you for the past two or three decades and knows exactly how you like your French-cut lamb chops cooked? And where but Musso & Frank do you find old-fashioned American cooking by a chef, as the menu proudly states, from France? If you stick to classics such as shrimp cocktail or hearts of lettuce with Roquefort dressing, the juicy steaks and chops or the terrific grilled liver with sweet, charred onions, you’ll do fine here. Is there still a place to go for a taste of old L.A.? Add the wonderfully eclectic, fairly priced wine list, and it’s easy to understand why Spago Beverly Hills draws not only the see-and-be-seen crowd but also, now, serious eaters. (The young Puck, remember, came to Ma Maison from celebrated three-star kitchens in France.) What’s astonishing is how the kitchen can produce this pared-down, sensual cooking so consistently for so many people, often several hundred diners a night. Leaving his signature California cuisine behind, he has returned to his roots in fine dining, turning out inspired and casually elegant food for grown-ups. And it’s here that he-with the help of formidably talented chef de cuisine Lee Hefter and his crew-is showing L.A., once again, what he can do in the kitchen. The original Spago in Hollywood is alive and well, and, these days, it just might be easier to get a good table there, but this is where you’ll find Puck most of the time. The restaurant, on the site of the former Bistro Garden, debuted last April. So much so that prime-time reservations are next to impossible. Their Spago Beverly Hills, with its romantic courtyard garden and state-of-the-art kitchen, practically smolders from the heat of Hollywood honchos and celebrities. Wolfgang Puck and his wife and partner, Barbara Lazaroff, know how to put the sizzle in the scene-and the food.
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