Posts by Richard Foss

As I sat at an outdoor table at The Lighthouse, I suddenly felt old. Fifty years before, I was a high school kid who rode my bicycle to hang around in the rear parking lot and hear the music that poured out of the place. I didn’t understand much of it, but the unpredictable time…

Betting on Hermosa: Unless you spend much time in Torrance or Harbor City, you probably haven’t heard of Tacos El Goloso. That mini-chain just doubled in size with an unusual strategy – they will now have two locations in Hermosa Beach. One is on PCH next to Baran’s 2239, the other the Amigo’s Tacos on…

About 50 years ago, upscale restaurant Chez Panisse shocked diners by serving a peach for dessert. Not a peach cobbler, shortcake, galette, or pudding, just a piece of fruit on a plate, with a knife next to it. It was symbolic of how they wanted diners to focus on the simple and natural. When you…

In 1976, someone asked Paul McCartney whether the Beatles would ever get back together. He responded, “You can’t reheat a souffle.” That quote has been repeated many times as an example of the futility of resurrecting creative enterprises, and the most amusing thing about it is that it’s wrong. Sir Paul is a great entertainer…

You can see the wave coming, a cascade of new eateries on the way as restrictions on customer occupancy loosen. They’re making the bet that however fragile the recovery is, however restricted the seating, it’s time to fire up the stoves and build a clientele. This may not immediately make economic sense, but starting the…

Names matter. They set expectations, telling you with varying degrees of subtlety what clientele a business owner wishes to attract. Changing them is no small matter – it’s more than hoisting a new sign. So what is a business to do when their concept shifts, or they want to appeal to a different demographic? In…

I’m going to start this article by stating a fact: any review of Table Manners that is written for a local audience will include a comparison with the former establishment in the location. This isn’t fair, but is inevitable. It is reflected in the emails that I have received from readers who emailed me either…

There’s a type of place that doesn’t often get attention from reviewers, but that just about everybody visits on at least an occasional basis. They do a solid job without calling attention to themselves. It can be a blind spot, like furniture you don’t notice details of because it’s always there. I noticed an example…

As much as I like variety, sometimes I’m happy to see a restaurant with a short, well defined menu. It signals confidence, essentially saying, “We don’t serve much, but we’ll bet you’ll like what we offer enough to come back for it.” It’s a strategy reminiscent of the days when a culturally conservative population valued…

Dining Out, As In Outdoors… The door to inside dining has opened a crack, and if people behave themselves then interior occupancy may soon go from 25 to 50 percent. Meanwhile, the trend toward making outdoor spaces pleasant continues, and I expect it to accelerate. Even if we could all go back to the days…

Some restaurant concepts are easy to describe because they’re gimmicks. If, for instance, you plan to offer flavors from around the world in tacos and change the whole menu weekly, you have an easily comprehensible though dubious strategy. If brilliantly executed it could develop a following, but it risks being a place people visit once…

“Great boasts deserve great scrutiny,” said someone wise. I’m not sure who that was, because I overheard someone attributing the saying to an obscure Victorian author without saying which one. Pithy wisdom may be valued regardless of the source, and this maxim is equally useful for political assertions and restaurant menus. That maxim was what…