Patrick Comiskey

When the Tar Pit, Mark Peel's swank watering hole on La Brea Avenue, closed in early March (the victim of a rent dispute), the restaurant's booths, banquettes, bar and barstools, as well as kitchen contents and a trove of glamorous props, all went into storage, awaiting a relaunch. No word......

The drink is called the Chin-Up, which seems inadequate as solace, halfhearted as a name. It blends Beefeater's gin and Cynar, a peculiar digestif containing cynarine, the active ester that gives the artichoke its odd aftertaste. It is finished with muddled cucumber, a splash of vermouth, a pinch of salt......

A "soft open," in restaurant parlance, is a kind of dress-rehearsal period, wherein the establishment throws open its doors and hopes for a manageable trickle of customers to walk in, allowing the kitchen and waitstaff to work out kinks in the menu and service. In the Twitter age, however, a......