Posts by Richard Foss

I was puzzled when the new owners of the former Blue Agave restaurant in Hermosa changed the name to Marena, which is Spanish for “from the sea.” It might be an excellent name for a place specializing in Baja or Veracruz cuisine, but that’s not the specialty here. The cooking at Marena is in the…

Holiday cheer, or lack thereof: According to a survey, the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest night of the year at bars. It’s sometimes called Blackout Wednesday, and there are good and bad reasons people might tend to overdo it that evening. Some folks are celebrating a reunion with friends and family the day before…

Fried chicken has been multicultural from its beginnings, a Scottish cooking style married to a West African tradition of battering using a seasoned flour. Those traditions combined in the American South in the 1830s and were an instant hit. Regional styles quickly developed, with cornmeal used in some areas, wheat in others, and seasonings mild,…

Ask most Americans about Australian food and you’ll get a jumble of disconnected impressions that have little to do with reality. Top will be “shrimp on a barbie,” a phrase Australians don’t use, because anything big enough to be skewered and grilled will be referred to as a prawn. The bloomin’ onion isn’t an Aussie…

Goodbye, Hello Again: While writing about the South Bay dining scene for 35 years, I have covered many restaurant openings and closures, but very few instances of a place announcing that they planned to shut down but changed their mind. That’s what happened at Brewco, which announced on September 12 they would close, but reversed…

Musician Brian Eno once wrote a list of what he called “Oblique Strategies” for solving creative problems, which are valuable for many endeavors besides music. One of my favorites is “Make a blank canvas valuable by putting it in a perfect frame.” I find this advice useful when considering the pros and cons of steakhouses.…

The nomenclature of the culinary world has steadily become less precise, to the distress of academics and purists, and yawns from just about everybody else. Yes, tapas used to mean Spanish cuisine, but is now anything served on small plates. Things called martinis contain neither gin nor vermouth, and there is such a thing as…

Lobsters in their native environment don’t look appetizing, unless you get hungry when looking at aliens in 1950s science fiction movies. It’s a beady-eyed horror, with more legs (10) than a spider, and natural armor like a tank. As if that isn’t enough, it has claws that look vicious even in repose. There’s an old…

It’s hard to believe anyone ever looked at the space that is now Siam I Am and thought, “That’s a perfect space for a restaurant”. They may have the smallest dining room in the South Bay, though I’d have to take a tape measure both here and to the nearby Cozy Café to be sure.…

​​​​​Last call at Brewco: When Brewco opened 32 years ago, the brewpub craze was in full swing, nationwide, and local craft beer was prized. They outlasted all of their local competitors, but now are about to serve their last pints. The last day of operation will be October 15, after which the building will be…

When I first saw an article about Goop Kitchen, I thought there was a typo in the name. Could it be that it was supposed to be “Good Kitchen,” but the letter “d” was upside down? They can’t have deliberately given the place a name that means “a viscous or sticky substance,” could they? They…

One way of asserting status among people who love dining out is to reveal a secret spot – somewhere nobody else knows about where you can almost always get a seat and a really good meal. The appeal is obvious, both in being first among your friends to find a cool place, and it being…

Last week we had houseguests, who sounded delighted when I told them we were going to a new Hermosa restaurant that was quite promising. “What’s the cuisine?” asked my friend Lou.” When I told him it was a French bistro, he looked concerned. “I don’t have a jacket or collared shirt,” he said with an…

by Richard Foss To a historian who has been following the ups and downs of the dining industry, the biggest controversy in that field has a familiar ring. There are shortages of people willing to work, say restaurant owners, and those who do take a job are ready to move on as soon as another…

One of the tribulations of being a restaurant reviewer is when I recommend a place I have recently visited, suggest specific items they should try, and then get an email the day after my friends visit that reads, “They didn’t have any of the things you suggested, and the server said something about a change…

I remember when someone explained the idea of the elevator pitch, and how it could force a creative person to refine an idea. The concept is that if you can’t explain what something is in a brief time, you should rethink the idea. It’s not always right because some subtle or unique ideas can’t be…