Andy Gavin's Blog, page 59

The Royce

Restaurant: The Royce Wood Fired Steakhouse

Location: 1401 S Oak Knoll Ave, Pasadena, CA 91106. (626) 585-6410

Date: December 10, 2019

Cuisine: Steakhouse

Rating: One of LA’s best

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For years some of the guys have been talking about how good the Pasadena steakhouse, The Royce is…

So I figured I’d give it a try — particularly given that we were doing (mostly) Grange night.

It’s located inside the Langham hotel in Pasadena — which is right by the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical...

Lunch Quest — Xiang La Hui

Restaurant: 香辣汇Xiang La Hui

Location: 621 W Main St, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 703-4165

Date: December 21, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Some great dishes

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Continuing the Lunch Quest series in which Yarom and I explore more casual Asian lunch spots.

Some friend reviews and an eater article brought us to this new Szechuan entry on Main St.

Food photos as decor — something I can get behind.

But the inside is of that newer style appealing to the under 30 set with a touch of decor...

888 Seafood – Banquet

Restaurant: 海珍大酒樓 888 seafood restaurant [1, 2]

Location: 8450 Valley Blvd, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 573-1888

Date: December 8, 2019

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Amazing whole pig

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Sunday night is always the night for full on SGV adventures and December was a banner month. Tonight’s dinner starts off a run of four back to back Sunday Asian dinners.

First up is at 888 Seafood which is one of those “grand dames” of the SGV, being an old Cantonese Banquet hall serving dimsum during the...

Close Eats – Cinque Terre

Restaurant: Cinque Terre West Osteria

Location: 970 Monument St #110, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. (310) 454-0709

Date: December 7, 2019

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Solid neighborhood Italian

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There are so few places to eat in Pacific Palisades and almost all of them are part of the Caruso mall with it’s terrible least common denominator food style.

This isn’t, and is off to the side in a mini-mall with my “favorite” local place, Sasebune express.

The interior is tiny but cute enough. A...

Earl Grey – Nanjing Duck House

Restaurant: Nanjing Duck House

Location: 9961 East Valley Blvd

Date: December 5, 2019

Cuisine: Nanjing Chinese

Rating: Looks funny — tastes great

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Lately, Yarom and I have been doing more lunch excursions — particularly to Chinese places that aren’t really going to cut it for wine dinners. I’ve named this series Lunch Quest.

Anyway, today it carried us to Najing Duck House which specializes in Nanjing style cured duck.

And we met up with Tony Lau, Kirk, and some others.

This is one of...

Astrea Caviar + Heroic Wine Bar

Restaurant: Heroic Deli and Wine Bar [1, 2, 3]

Location: 516 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401.(310) 490-0202

Date: December 3, 2019

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Pretty awesome, actually

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Our friends Eve and Riesa, who own Astrea Caviar wanted to do a dinner with Erick and I so we enlisted Jeffrey Merrihue and his chef Barbara Pollastrini to make a custom caviar menu at Heroic Wine Bar.

They took over the old Real Food Daily / Erven space on Santa Monica Blvd.

This is an unusual space,...

Salty Saturday 2019

Salty Saturday is the traditional family bagel and lox brunch we do on the Saturday after ThanksGavin.

For the last couple of years it’s been hosted at my cousin Matt’s house. This year (2019), it’s a touch more subdued than usual due to cooking fatigue.

Prep work in the kitchen.

In his sunny dining room.

Across the way is the kids table.

And a look at the spread.

As usual matt whips up a couple frittatas.

Olives to start.

Gratuitous zoom.

Several kinds of cream-cheese.

Whitefish...

Eastern Heat – DJ Kitchen

Restaurant: DJ Kitchen

Location: 4040 City Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19131. (215) 586-8888

Date: November 29, 2019

Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese

Rating: Surprisingly good

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For “Fat Friday” — the official Friday dinner after Thanksgiving, we broke with the tradition of another house meal and headed partially into center Philadelphia to:

DJ Kitchen — a surprisingly authentic Szechuan place.

Typical modern interior of the newer more casual Chinese joints.

Part of our giant 20 person table.

The kid...

ThanksGavin 2019

This year, after a brief California hiatus in 2016, ThanksGavin returned to Philadelphia in 2017 — and continues through 2019 at my cousin Matt and his wife Andrea’s place.

Matt is in the back starting his kitchen prep. Then outside lighting up the big green egg! Buster supervises. But the OG crew, shown here, consisting of my mom and aunt are still on turkey duty! Frommy cellar: 2007 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut. AG 96. Taittinger’s 2007 Comtes de...

ThanksGavin 2019 – Keep

Restaurant: Keep

Location: 417 York Rd, Jenkintown, PA 19046. (215) 277-7947

Date: November 27, 2019

Cuisine: New American

Rating: solid New American

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The first official event of ThanksGavin 2019 is Wed night, and this year my cousin (the reigning TG Poobah) chose:

Keep, a casual bistro-style New American in Jenkintown PA.

Cute little interior.

And our gang table of 20 or so.

Our special menu for the night.

From my cellar: NV Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée...