Joshua Lurie

Micheladas — the savory, often spicy beer cocktails that originated in Mexico — have become increasingly over-the-top in L.A., where you now can find them garnished with shellfish or sticks of candy. Yet given that craft beer is booming in L.A., it's surprising that so few places actually use craft......

When Jonathan Grahm opened his second outpost of Compartés Chocolatier on Melrose Place two years ago, one of the first things he did was install a neon sign that proclaims, “Chocolate Is Art!” The glowing sign, which he says describes his business in a nutshell and is modeled after his own......

Backroom experiments can have big results. Take Frankenstein’s monster, for instance (or Sir Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane from Game of Thrones). Recently, and in reality, we can look to pastry chef Lindsay Kirk, the mad scientist who created the potentially legendary "Piescream sandwich" at Playa Provisions in Playa del Rey......

Snails, the slow-moving garden dwellers that view simple table salt as Kryptonite, now play an increasingly prominent role on dinner tables, and not just at French restaurants. Snails are frequently imported from Burgundy, though they’ll occasionally have different terroir or hail from the sea. Chefs love to lavish their tender......

David Irvin’s gray felt bucket hat sports a black band, a pheasant feather and double “bullet holes” on the rim. The hat, from London “punk tailors” Art Comes First, complements Irvin’s Fu Manchu goatee. Of course, it’s not surprising that the branding expert has perfected his personal style; he’s been......

A flaming sugar cube greets diners at Sugar Sungkamee’s restaurant, Spicy Sugar, which debuted at the end of January in Long Beach. You may recognize Sugar from Jitlada, the incendiary east Hollywood restaurant that her father, Chef Tui Sungkameee, runs with her aunt, celeb magnet Jazz Singsanong. Spicy Sugar’s opening is......

Childhood friends Woogene Lee and Jeff Faust already had a good thing going with Fundamental L.A., the sandwich shop by day and sit-down restaurant by night that they opened near Westwood Village in 2011. Four years later, after Philip Pretty left to take the executive chef job at Restauration in Long......

Until recently, the stretch of Washington Boulevard that spills into Venice Pier was best known for beer, burgers and scantily clad tourists. Thanks to the arrival of chef-driven restaurants like Leona and Charcoal, the Venice-Marina del Rey border has become far more interesting, at least when it comes to food......

Cheesecake can be crafted from base ingredients like ricotta, goat cheese or cream cheese, bolstered with fruit or nuts, anchored by a graham cracker crust and built to the sky. Of course, it can have none of those things, too. And while the dessert's mellow sweetness and creamy richness is......

Chef Jenee Kim clearly doesn’t enjoy standing pat. The Park’s BBQ doyenne has had a hit on her hands since 2003, and she’s expanded her Korean vision several times since then. Pork-focused Don Dae Gam and adjacent LaOn Dining had brief runs. Fast casual Oleego by Park’s BBQ now has......