Amy Scattergood

5 LGBT Movers and Shakers in L.A.

From the national battle for marriage equality to the ever-increasing pool of public figures blasting down their closet doors, it's a good time to be LGBT. Check out all of our People 2013 profiles This year's People issue celebrates the 56 Angelenos we find most intriguing, including some LGBT i ... More >>

Petty Cash Taqueria Opens Tonight

There was a lot of speculation about what would become of the space formerly known as Playa on Beverly Boulevard when the restaurant closed earlier in March. About a week and a half ago, restaurant partners Bill Chait and chef Walter Manzke -- with assists from food blogger Bill Esparza and chef Gui ... More >>

4 Great Bars & Restaurants For Moms Who Don't Do Afternoon Tea

For all that our mothers do for us, we've designated just one day each year for them, which often amounts to a three-hour tea or brunch set that probably appeals more to the stereotype of mothers than anything else. It's easy to overlook the new normal of mother figures in a post-women's lib era tha ... More >>

10 Best Restaurants for Brunch in Los Angeles

Brunch is one thing that's done well in Los Angeles, a town that's very well-versed in mashups -- Carmeggedons I and II, for starters -- that grab more attention than should be necessary. And while it may not be the favorite meal service of chefs, this internal struggle is not transparent when you'r ... More >>

L.A. Weekly's 99 Essential Restaurants 2013

99 Essential L.A. Restaurants 2013: A Google Map

We've come up on the annual tradition of culling together the restaurants significant to Los Angeles, and this year's 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants brings forward a couple of new members to the list amidst the club of familiar favorites. Held down by food editor Amy Scattergood and resident restaura ... More >>

Seeing Stars: A Five-Star Rating System for L.A. Restaurants

The L.A. Weekly will assign star ratings to restaurant reviews in 2013

10 Best Sweet Treats in Los Angeles

As you may have noticed, this year's Best Of issue dropped on your doorstep, metaphorically if not actually, last week. There are hundreds (yes, hundreds) of listings, of spas and hikes and cocktails and grottos (yes, grottos), so many that you might get lost -- so many that we thought we'd pull out ... More >>

Comments: American Pie

Deliverance: On the Road With a Domino's Delivery Guy

From our 2012 Restaurant Issue, celebrating everything pizza in L.A. Sixteen-year Domino's veteran Mark Porter drives like my old driver's ed instructor. In fact, Porter's maneuvering of his red Hyundai on a recent Wednesday afternoon reminds me, viscerally, of that long-ago driver's ed class. Mayb ... More >>

In Which We Consider Banned Food Writing Words

One of the great friendships of my life began at a food writing conference. For the entertainment following a luncheon, the organizers had brought in a gospel choir, and the mainly middle-aged, mainly pasty lot of us were up on our feet, clapping and dancing to the music. The guy beside me, John Kes ... More >>

Comments: Bikram Battle

LA Weekly Nominated for Over 20 National, Regional Journalism Awards: Read the Stories That Got Us Here

It's award season again for America's journalists, and LA Weekly is racking up the noms like a fat chick on Pinterest. On a national scale, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia just released its list of finalists for the annual AltWeeklies Awards, the most coveted alt-plaques around. At that Ju ... More >>

L.A. Weekly Food: New Hires and Big (Exciting!) Changes

Let's start by stating the obvious: There have been big changes to the L.A. Weekly's food section recently. And there are even more on the way. After our longtime critic Jonathan Gold departed for the L.A. Times, we've been nibbling on this and that: a reflection on cookbooks from Roy Choi, a piece ... More >>

5 Best Martinis In Los Angeles

The handful of establishments that made our 5 Best Martinis in L.A. list are not notable for their martini happy hours, Kim Kardashian-friendly accommodations or cute cocktail names. They simply make a fine martini. Vodka or gin, dealer's choice or your choice, depending on how you like to roll on a ... More >>

10 Best Beer Bars In Los Angeles

With craft beer L.A.'s current unyielding obsession, it seems crazier than a 55% ABV beer that four short years ago that we were celebrating, along with dozens of tube sock-clad homebrew club sorts, the first local bars to land coveted cask-conditioned ales on tap. My how that fedora-topped draft be ... More >>

Top Books We Read in 2011, by L.A. Weekly Writers

Yes, bookstores are closing all around us, from the giant Borders to the tiny Village Books. But Angelenos still read, and to prove it, we asked LA Weekly's staff writers, editors and freelance contributors to tell us their favorite book they read this year, and why. Answers after the jump. What's ... More >>

Upon The Closing of Angeli Caffe: A Love Story

Back in 2009, I was assigned by the LA Weekly to cover a wedding that was being held at Angeli Caffe. I can't remember how the story came to me but I've known Evan Kleiman for longer than either of us would like to see in print. Yet I don't see her very often. Over the years, she's become the friend ... More >>

Top 10 Food-Related Lawsuits of 2011

Taco BellTaco Bell gives thanks for being sued over the contents of its meat​A look at this year through the lens of the food-related lawsuits is like watching the first season of The Killing: an exercise in frustration, bewilderment, and, occasionally, excitement. From the mother who sued N ... More >>

Dutch Ovens: 5 Other Kitchen Tools You Won't Need to Buy If You Own One

​I got into an elevator empty-handed one recent morning and by the end of a short two-story ride, was the proud owner of a bright orange Le Creuset Dutch oven. A recently married co-worker who'd likely been inundated with new cookware from the registry was trying to get rid of it, for free. "M ... More >>

50 Reasons Los Angeles Is the Best Effing City in America

Timothy Norris​John Lennon once said of Los Angeles, "That's just a big parking lot where you buy a hamburger for the trip to San Francisco." Pretty rough stuff from a supposedly nice guy. Clearly, the Eggman (or was he the Walrus?) missed the endless taco stands, the pupusas, the pho, the don ... More >>

Venn Food Diagrams: L.A.'s Idea of Midwestern Food vs. What Midwesterners Really Eat

After exploring L.A.'s perceptions of Indian, Armenian, and Vietnamese cuisine in our oh-so-scientific Venn Food Diagrams series, it's time to circle back to some American regional cooking, and do like we did for Southern food--this time with the Midwest. D. Berson​

Patrick Range McDonald Named Best Print Journalist of the Year by L.A. Press Club; LA Weekly Takes Home 5 More Awards

Patrick Range McDonald: awesome, officially.​In case you're wondering why the L.A. blogroll looks kind of groggy this morning: A couple hundred Los Angeles journalists took last night off, putting on their Sunday best for the Press Club Awards, a schmancy round of self-congratulations and free ... More >>

LA Press Club Awards Finalists Announced: LA Weekly Receives Several Nods

Journalist of the Year nominee Patrick Range McDonald.​LA Weekly dominated the design category of the Los Angeles Press Club's 53rd SoCal Journalism Awards Finalists, announced today. Staff writer Patrick Range McDonald was named as a Journalist of the Year finalist and saw his piece on parent ... More >>

2011 James Beard Media Award Winners

​It's a case of local boy makes good -- make that two local boys -- at this year's James Beard Awards. Our own Jonathan Gold won the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award while Patrick Kuh of Los Angeles magazine won the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award. In the first ever ... More >>

L.A.'s Top 10 Sunday Suppers Tender Greens Kicks Off Sunday Beer Garden

Photos by Anne FishbeinMeals from Lucques (left), Church & State (middle) and Palate (right).​This weekend, Tender Greens in Hollywood will kick off its first Sunday beer garden, a monthly event with all-you-can-eat roasted meat and all-you-can-drink craft beer for a flat fee of $35. (We had a ... More >>

Not Closing: La Bottega Marino in Beverly Hills

​We were as confused as some of our readers when we read, last week on Eater LA, that La Bottega Marino in Beverly Hills would soon be closing. So we called owner Sal Marino. He says, unequivocally, the rumor is untrue. "It's completely false. I have no idea where it came from," Marino says. ... More >>

Squid Ink Food Writers' Guilty Pleasures: Or, What We Eat Over the Sink

Dommy GonzalezRamen.​ Every food writer loves to share "guilty" pleasures -- gritty eats with which he or she slums it when sublime tacos from phantom trucks or, on the higher end, things dusted with Parmesan and bathed in truffle oil are not available. While we abhor the notion that food sho ... More >>

Loving the David Lynch Interview

Skinny Shirataki: Are Zero-Calorie Noodles Too Good to be True?

Nichole O'Connor​At first we were repulsed by the bizarre feed bags that arrived in LA Weekly's mail bin, addressed to no one in particular, looking like they were ready to board a spaceship in some astronaut's lunchbox. We weren't really in the market for zero calorie, low-carb, low sodium, ... More >>

No Nick & Stef's, La Serenata For LAX Food Choices: Boring, High School Cafeteria-Like Restaurants Win For Now

In a Whopper of a deal, Burger King stays at LAX for now.​A world class city deserves world-class food at its international airport, right? After all, LAX saw nearly 7.8 million international passenger arrivals through June of this year. What kind of cuisine to they see, smell and taste? Burge ... More >>

Grim and Grimmer

LA Weekly Journalists Recognized At Southern California Journalism Awards In Downtown Los Angeles

Anderson Cooper.​LA Weekly took home several awards, including Best Website for a News Organization, at the Los Angeles Press Club's 52nd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards gala, held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel downtown Sunday night. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a speech a ... More >>

Chefs With Tattoos

A colorful rebellion against kitchen rules

Two LA Weekly Reporters Up For 'Journalists Of The Year' At L.A. Press Club Awards

Patrick Range McDonald.​Finalists for the Los Angeles Press Club's 52nd SoCal Journalism Awards were announced Friday, and they included LA Weekly staff writers Patrick Range McDonald and Christine Pelisek for "journalists of the year" in the over-50,000-circulation category. R. Scott Moxley o ... More >>

Truck vs. Church and State: Kogi Bites Back

For The Record: Setting Things Straight Regarding Neon Tommy Report On LA Weekly

​Neon Tommy, the publication of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, this week takes a look at the Weekly and some of the changes that have taken place at the paper in recent months, including the hiring of Editor-in-Chief Drex Heikes, a well-respected journalist who has ed ... More >>

Construction Report: Mark Peel and Jay Perrin's La Cienega Bar Nearing Completion

Campanile chef-owner Mark Peel and GM Jay Perrin have had a cocktail-bar-and-eatery project in the works for 2 years now, and--finally--the project is nearing completion. In about 2 months the pair will open the doors to the former Oasis location, right next door to Cube and conveniently located up ... More >>

The Point in Culver City: Reopening Under New Ownership

Because of the construction on National Blvd. in Culver City, you might not have noticed that The Point, the casual restaurant in the Hayden Tract that Beacon's Kazuto Matsusaka and Vicki Fan opened only two years ago next month, closed a few weeks ago. Because of the Light Rail transit project, it' ... More >>

A Great Walnut Season: La Nogalera's New Batch of Walnut Oil A Recipe

Photo credit: Amy ScattergoodLa Nogalera walnut stand​Between Buellton and Lompoc in Santa Barbara County, about 11 miles from the ocean on the inland side of the Santa Ynez Mountains, you'll find Rancho La Viña--and some of the best walnuts in this part of the country. This pleasant fact is ... More >>

Stone Ground Bakery in Agoura Hills: Handmade Challah for Rosh Hashana

Drive up the 101 past the city, into the hills nearing Ventura, to a little strip mall right off the freeway in Agoura Hills, and you'll find a bakery that feels unquestionably like Europe and has some of the best challah you'll find in town or out of it. Stone Ground Bakery, which celebrated its fi ... More >>

Nom Nom Truck Hits Los Angeles Streets: With and Without Baguettes

Nom Nom Truck hit the streets of LA this past week, with a soft opening (yes, you can have a soft opening with a food truck as well as a brick-and-mortar restaurant) on the Westside and downtown near USC. It's been a frenetic few days for the UCLA grads who started the business, and co-owner David S ... More >>

Market Report: Pears A Recipe for Rustic Canyon's Pear-Fennel Salad

It's finally September, which fact you can tell by the school bus fleets, the onset of Trojan football season, and the resurgence of pears at farmers markets. This morning at the Santa Monica farmers market, the Flora Bella Farm stand was heavy with crates of them: Asian pears, red Bartlett pears an ... More >>

What's in Your Kitchen Drawer? Useless Gadget or Valuable Cooking Tool

CBS.comAndy Rooney​At the end of a 60 Minutes show, Andy Rooney takes his time to complain about stuff. I guess you get to do that when you've been around as long as he has. Once, though, he did something rather fascinating: he emptied out his kitchen drawers and complained about all the usele ... More >>

Mozza 2 Go Delivery: Are You in the Zone?

If you live in Nancy Silverton's neighborhood or, to be more specific, the vicinity of her new Mozza 2 Go restaurant, you doubtless know that you can now get her near-legendary pizzas delivered. Many years ago, one's hipness in this town was measured by whether one lived in the 90210 area code, or m ... More >>

Guidi Marcello, Ltd.: Santa Monica's Hidden Source for Italian Imports

Photo credit: Amy ScattergoodCases of Farchioni olive oil at Guidi Marcello​To the side of a dead-end street, off the one-way section of Olympic as it nears the beach, sits an industrial quadrant of concrete and delivery trucks and, though you may easily miss it if you're not among the initiat ... More >>

All Your Eggs In One Basket: Peter Schaner's Pheasant Eggs, Quail Eggs, Duck Eggs, Emu Eggs

If you're used to the boxes of blindingly white eggs that you get grocery stores--a dozen at a time in production-line rows, sometimes stamped, often tasteless--fresh eggs can be revelatory. Farmer Peter Schaner's eggs, which he sells at farmers markets, are definitely so, in taste and size and colo ... More >>

Get Your Marshmallow Fix At Little Flower Candy Co. A Recipe for Homemade Marshmallows

For those us who grew up eating marshmallows out of a plastic bag, those oddly white confections that seemed to taste of nothing but chemicals and stale air, the hand-crafted version is a revelation. Thus marshmallow lovers in this town beat a track to the Little Flower Candy Company in Pasadena, wh ... More >>

Craig Strong's New Beachfront Kitchen, Wherein the Chef Demonstrates How to Stuff a Squid A Recipe

Chef Craig Strong left the kitchen of Pasadena's The Langham, Huntington Hotel & Spa at the end of May--after eight years and one Michelin star--and decamped for Laguna Beach, where he became executive chef of Studio at Montage in June. (Studio's previous chef, James Boyce, left for Alabama; Strong ... More >>

Soul Kitchen: How to Keep Your Aubergines from Exploding Claudia Roden's Eggplant Dips

You gotta love a recipe that begins with a tip on preventing detonation. Which is how Claudia Roden, cookbook author extraordinaire, proceeds with many of her eggplant recipes.