A Movable Beast: L.A. Weekly's 99 Essential Restaurants

Larkin's
You could probably club a man to death with the big smothered pork chop, but as a rule you are not going to see gigantic portions at Larkin's. Vegans will find more to eat than they may expect to at a soul food restaurant — you can even get the mac 'n' cheese with soy — and there is a bit of mint in the sweet tea. Southern food purists, and there are a lot of them, love to gripe about this modern juke joint, owned by chef Larkin Mackey, a shy, slender man who rarely leaves the kitchen, and the restaurant's constituency is probably less African-American than LGBT. But every dish on the menu is probably somebody's best recipe: The tart, creamy potato salad is credited to Aunt Carolyn; the ground-beef-intensive chile verde to the chef's grandpa; the caramelly-tasting banana pudding to Mama. And one thing is beyond argument: Mackey's fried chicken, tender-crusted and juicy, golden and singing with the taste of clean oil, is really, really good. 1496 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock. (323) 254-0934, larkinsjoint.com. Wed.-Sun., 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; brunch Sat.-Sun., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. No alcohol. Limited lot parking. AE, MC, V. Location map here.

Lazy Ox Canteen
If you are a man who enjoys a little Black Sabbath with his dinner, the Lazy Ox Canteen may be just the place for you, a new downtown restaurant where dinner may start with "Paranoid," end with "Iron Man," and include two dozen stoner classics in between. This is the sound track of a certain kind of male-oriented kitchen, but one that rarely leaks out into the dining room, where you are still probably hearing the greatest hits of Sade. The Lazy Ox has an open kitchen ∏ flames leaping, Le Creuset arranged on shelves, dudes whanging pans — which means that if the chef wants to listen to Sabbath, you're going to listen to it, too.

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Campanile's sauteed trenne

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Leo Bulgarini, gelato impresario

Location Info

Map

Zelo Gourmet Pizzeria

328 E. Foothill Blvd.
Arcadia, CA 91006

Category: Restaurant > Italian

Region: Foothill Cities

Photos

1 user reviews	Write A Review
Save to foursquare

Like the best new restaurants at the moment, Lazy Ox is tinged with aggression, in this case served up by Joseph Centeno, a young Texas-born chef with all the prerequisites for stardom: a sweet smile, a working command of Mediterranean, izakaya Japanese and several Latin American cuisines, and a signature snack, the bäco, which is something like a cross between a flatbread and a taco. Centeno's vigorous, imaginative and not-quite-polished cooking is the sort of thing you want to dive into: flavors from a dozen food cultures ramming into and across and through each other, until a culinary Higgs Particle either comes into being or it doesn't. Is that Foghat blasting from the speakers? Are the tangerine-garnished fried baby pompano really as small as nickels? How many variety meats are there scrawled on the chalkboard, and what is a paleron with kumquats? And did I just miss out on the bäco? If you want bäco, which are available only a couple days a week, your job is to find them on the board, and then hope they haven't yet sold out. And you will hunt for bäco, which may or may not include beef, crunchy pork belly, scallions and something like a Catalan romesco sauce. If you manage to land one, it will be a little like bumping into Ozzy Osbourne in the elevator: an encounter you will talk about for weeks. 241 S. San Pedro Ave., Little Tokyo. (213) 626-5299, lazyoxcanteen.com. Lunch daily, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; dinner, Sun.-Wed., 5-11 p.m., Thurs.-Sat., 5 p.m.-mid. Beer, wine and sake. Street parking, city parking lots. All major CC. Location map here.

Little Dom's
Little Dom's is a young person's idea of an old person's restaurant, all dark wood and dim lights, snappy waitresses and deep booths, a sound track of nonstop Sinatra. The mostly Italian wine list isn't bad, but everybody seems to be drinking highballs; you can get modish goat cheese salads, but the action seems to be with spaghetti and meatballs and the thick steaks. This isn't South Jersey: Chef Brandon Boudet grew up in New Orleans, and Little Dom's seems patterned after the neighborhood joints in that city, grown-up places where short, idiosyncratic menus may lean Italian, French or even Vietnamese, but the local preferences for anise, artichokes and fried seafood poke out where you least expect them. If an appetizer of fried shrimp and artichoke wedges isn't a New Orleans classic, it should be. I admit a grudging admiration for Boudet's unconventional oyster po' boy: fried, freshly shucked mollusks piled onto crunchy toasted focaccia with tomatoes, a crumpled sheet of fried speck and a peppery remoulade. If the little deli next door is open, duck in for a minute. The chocolate sugar sprinkle cookies are not to be believed. 2128 Hillhurst Ave., Los Feliz. (323) 661-0055, littledoms.com. Open daily, 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Sun.-Thurs., 6-11 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 6 p.m.-mid. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, D, DC, MC, V. Dinner appetizers $8-$15; main courses $15-$41; desserts $4-$8. Location map here.

Loteria Grill
What you should know about Jimmy Shaw is that he is 100 percent chilango, a Mexico City kid who grew up as obsessed with chicharrones and bad tamarind candy as anybody else from the Distrito Federal. And his spare, modern Loteria Grill, levered into a nightlife-district storefront, is if anything a blown-up version of a D.F. lonchería, built around taco-size portions of long-simmered guisos, or stews. The restaurant has a huge tequila selection and a first-rate nopales salad, a rotating selection of aguas frescas (try the cucumber), great chilaquiles and huevos rancheros at breakfast, and an array of soups, enchiladas and stewed meats inspired by Shaw's mentor, Diana Kennedy. Shaw's Mexican-style ice creams are extraordinary, and you would be foolish not to try the example studded with the sweet, curdled-milk cheese known as chongos. It's delicious, it's unique and, after your third tequila, the word chongos seems like the funniest thing in the world. 6627 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd. (323) 465-2500, loteriagrill.com. Open Sun.-Wed., 9 a.m.-11 p.m., Thurs.-Sat., 9 a.m.-mid. Full bar. Valet parking. All major credit cards accepted. Also at 12050 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 508-5300; and at Farmers Market, 6333 W 3rd St., Mid-City. (323) 930-2211. Location map here.