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A La Carte Column for June 25, 2026 What entree goes well with kicking a ball? World Cup fever is big now, and numerous local restaurants are creating menus based on who is playing. Given the cultural diversity of the expanded teams and the unlikely success of some teams, some chefs may be trying Cape […]
By Richard Foss It sounds odd to say that one of the most distinctive restaurants in the South Bay has become one of the least distinctive – and it’s an improvement. The Ragin Cajun on PCH was a resurrection of a restaurant that opened in 1994 as the Cajun food fad was winding down. […]
by Richard Foss At the end of the A La Carte columns that I write for this Easy Reader, I ask readers for tips about great, local restaurants. One suggestion keeps recurring, but I have been ignoring it for 15 years because their specialty is well represented in our area, and I usually cover places […]
If it wasn’t for visitors from out of town, I’d never get back to some of my favorite restaurants. That friend or family member arrives with a list of places they fondly recall from their last visit, or from the days when they lived here, and as they rediscover the place, I do too. Sometimes […]
Local Becomes Local: Almost six years after previous tenant Sion’s closed after a kitchen fire, Local Kitchen is serving next to the Seahorse Motel on PCH in Manhattan Beach. It’s an offshoot of an Torrance restaurant with a significant difference indicated by their tagline. The one in Torrance is branded as “The American Tavern”, while […]
by Richard Foss Before 1930, Americans generally shopped for groceries in neighborhood stores that offered canned goods, a few vegetables and dairy products, and not much else. Need some meat? The butcher is down the street, and if you’re out of bread you can go a little further and be at the local bakery. In […]
by Richard Foss I told someone who lives in Hermosa Beach that I was going to Fat Kitty for sushi, and got peppered with questions. “Where is that? Is it new?” When I told them it was on Pier Avenue, there was a look of puzzlement – they’ve lived here all their lives, how could […]
by Richard Foss Non-specific Cuisine: After 23 years of focusing on Cajun and Creole cuisine, the Ragin’ Cajun is no more. It lasted longer than most restaurants that hopped on the Cajun food bandwagon because it had better food and some fervent fans. In its place is the Redondo Beach Grill, which may hold on […]
by Richard Foss On my first visit to the original Coni Seafood in Inglewood, my dining companion scanned the menu, turned it over, and said, “I think I’m missing a page.” That seemed like a reasonable assumption because the only things listed were fish, oysters, and shrimp. Where were the vegetarian and meat options? As […]
by Richard Foss I used to attend meetings at UCLA, after which the participants went out for dinner. There were two favorites: yakitori at a famed Brentwood spot, or Persian somewhere in the district of Westwood called Tehrangeles. All but the most modest Persian places were decorated with understated elegance, and were patronized by Farsi speakers […]
by Richard Foss For those who wrote asking why this column didn’t come out in early February as usual, it’s because not enough had happened to justify writing it. There’s more than enough now, so here goes! We’ll start with openings: New And Loveable: You wouldn’t know it from outside, but Jeeb Thai Restaurant has […]
by Richard Foss When a former bootlegger named Ernest Gantt opened a bar and restaurant called Don the Beachcomber in 1933, he couldn’t have known that he was beginning a craze that would long outlast him. Or perhaps he could – after all, Hawaiian themes had been beguiling America for decades, spawning novels set in […]