Michelle Huneven

photo by Christine HaberstockTHE VALLEY HAS ALWAYS MOVED AT ITS own pace. For years, while the Los Angeles restaurant world exploded with innovation -- celebrity chefs, hybrid menus, a new focus on fresh, high-quality ingredients -- the high-end restaurants in the San Fernando Valley remained staunchly "Continental." The sole was......

My childhood experience with the near-eternal Twohey’s in Alhambra was mostly visual. We had family friends in Montebello, and on the way home, Twohey’s was a landmark we kids didn’t want to miss. For decades, Twohey’s sported a large neon sign of a weeping man with a clothespin on his......

For my first five years, we went out to eat practically every Friday night to a café called Hupfield’s on Lincoln Avenue in Altadena. My father had grown up in the neighborhood, and Hupfield’s was his childhood restaurant too. For me, Hupfield’s great fascination came from a wall-size green-toned mural......

On special occasions, my family went to Miyako, a sukiyaki house in the basement of an elegant older brick residential hotel right across from where the Pasadena Hilton now sits. Of course, when I started eating at Miyako around 40 years ago, there was no Hilton, just beautiful old buildings......

Art by Christine HaberstockVERMONT IS THE NEW RESTAURANT where Sarno's once was on Vermont Avenue near Hollywood Boulevard. Vermont, I think, is a terrific name for a restaurant. I love it. It's been a long time since I actually loved a restaurant's name. I was crazy for Lavande when I......

Illustration by Darcy Muenchrath It’s hard to believe, but Beverly Hills used to be a pretty little town where everybody knew everyone’s name and you could always find a parking spot. This was before the tour buses and the world marketing of Rodeo Drive. Oh, the streets were stage-set perfect......

Don’t even think about getting a dinner reservation at Lucques for this weekend, or the next, or the weekend after that: They’re booked up a month in advance, at least at any reasonable hour. "We can offer you 10:30," the hostess will say wistfully. Weekday reservations are possible, although prime-time......

Aristotle said that men are hotter than women. Men are so hot, he said, that sometimes they burn off their hair. Want proof? Just look at the dearth of bald women. (Not surprisingly, in the likenesses of Aristotle I've seen he's bald as an egg.) I prefer to think that......

L’Arancino, Celestino Drago’s fourth restaurant, is now open for business in the space formerly occupied by Jackson’s on Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood. The walls gleam with fresh white paint; chairs look smart in new linen slipcovers. And on the walls hang Wayne Thiebaud–like paintings of oranges (l’arancino means orange......

I love bread. I'm drawn to it the way a love-starved child is drawn to anyone remotely kind. I love its soft, fragrant interior, the random structure of crumbs, the color and shalelike texture of a good crust. If there is no bread in the house, to my mind there......