Andy Gavin's Blog, page 74
February 7, 2019
Quick Eats – Heroic Deli
Restaurant: Heroic Deli
Location: 516 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 490-0202
Date: January 10, 2018
Cuisine: Hoagie+
Rating: Very good, if pricey, sandwich
_Heroic Deli is a new entry into the Santa Monica lunch scene by Adam Fleischman (my ex biz partner) and Jeffrey Merrihue. It’s putting the modern spin on the Italian American “hoagie” concept.
They took over the old Real Food Daily / Erven space on Santa Monica Blvd.
Pretty old building — no parking at all.
Besides...
February 6, 2019
Eating Mammoth – Skadi
Restaurant: Skadi
Location: 94 Berner St a, Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546. (760) 914-0962
Date: January 2, 2019
Cuisine: Nordic
Rating: Excellent kitchen for Mammoth
_Skadi is Mammoth’s one “hate cuisine” (by my definition) restaurant. It’s relatively recent and I’ve been meaning to go for a while.
Named for the Viking goddess of hunting and skiing, Restaurant Skadi opened on the winter solstice of 1995. The restaurant moved to its new location in the summer of 2015. The ten-table restaurant is...
February 4, 2019
Takao Reprise
Restaurant: Takao [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
Location: 11656 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049. (310) 207-8636
Date: December 27, 2018
Rating: 8/10 creative “new style” sushi
_I’ve already covered Takao in some detail HERE and then separately here, here, and here, but we went back (we go often). The full menu and some information on the history of the place can be found through the first link. However, I haven’t written it up in a while so I thought we’d take anoth...
February 1, 2019
8 (Million) Ways to BBQ in LA
Restaurant: 8 BBQ
Location: 863 S Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90005. (213) 365-1750
Date: December 24, 2018
Cuisine: Korean Pork BBQ
Rating: Tasty Stuff
_Christmas Eve (and day) are great excuses to go eat Asian food because — l it’s just tradition — and they’re open.
I was sorta hankering for SGV Chinese but Yarom wanted to keep it “local” and head to KTown.
The debate as to which place to grace with our rambunctiousness eventually settled on 8 BBQ — which was good by me because I’d ne...
January 30, 2019
Sebi Mastro’s 2018
Restaurant: Mastro’s [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Location: 246 North Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, Ca 90210. 310-888-8782
Date: December 23, 2018
Cuisine: Steak House
Rating: My favorite LA Steak joint
_For the third year (sort of) in a row, my friend Sebastian picked Mastros for his birthday dinner — no complaints here — so we all hauled out the wines and headed across town.
We setup in the luxurious Penthouse!
Chevy even printed up a flyer.
Wine service tonight was extra good — way better than on some p...
January 28, 2019
Goodbye Valentino
Restaurant: Valentino Santa Monica [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]
Location: 3115 Pico Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 829-4313
Date: December 14, 2018
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: My last meal here!
_It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of the venerable and classic Valentino in Santa Monica. It’s been around for nearly 40 years and was at one time (in the 90s) the best Italian Restaurant in LA, if not the country, being one of the first American Italian places to o...
January 25, 2019
Molto Miro
Restaurant: Miro
Location: 888 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90017. (213) 988-8880
Date: December 13, 2018
Cuisine: Contemporary American Italian (not fully Italian)
Rating: Not super Italian. Some dishes great, some just good
_After the Dama dinner, most of us in attendance decided to visit Sandi on her home turf (she’s the head sommelier at Miro).
Bracing the traffic, Erick and ventured downtown.
It’s a short building on a taller block…
But inside has a very attractive, if loud and col...
January 23, 2019
Rooftop Umeda
Restaurant: Umeda
Location: 6623 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038. (323) 965-8010
Date: December 12, 2018
Cuisine: Modern Japanese
Rating: Pretty good Matsuhisa style Japanese
_Tonight’s dinner is an interesting mash up gang containing about half people from the old Foodie Club dinners of the 2015-2016 time frame (helmed tonight by Walker) and a whole bunch of Will’s friends (previously unknown to me but very cool).
For me this was the start of a bruising 5 night out holiday run.
It takes...
January 21, 2019
Nothing Boring about Bavel
Restaurant: Bavel
Location: 500 Mateo St, Los Angeles, CA 90013. (213) 232-4966
Date: November 26, 2018
Cuisine: Modern Middle Eastern
Rating: One of the best tasting new places in town
_Bavel is a new Modern Middle Eastern place from the Bestia people — and like that place it’s hip and crowded. It’s own webpage describes it as a Middle Eastern restaurant from Chefs Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis. With family roots in Israel, Morocco, Turkey, and Egypt, Ori and Genevieve have always wanted...
January 18, 2019
Elephant Jumps
Restaurant: Elephant Jumps
Location: 8110 Arlington Blvd, Entrance is on Gallows Rd., Falls Church, VA 22042. (703) 942-6600
Date: November 24, 2018
Cuisine: Thai
Rating: Very nice modern Northern Thai
_On our last night of the ThanksGavin 2018 trip, back in the Washington DC area, we decided to check out a new Thai place my parents have been frequenting.
This is a newer place and has a cute name.
And a newish large mall as its location.
The interior is small but cute.
THAI SPICY SHRIMP...
