Back to Life/Back to Reality

All vaxxed up, and ready to once again eat in public with friends! When our pals Jeff and Jess Goldsmith texted and suggested we meet up for a meal... well, it still feels a bit unusual in these COVID times. They found a new place for us to try -- Summer Canteen, a Thai fusion restaurant in Toluca Lake, and we agreed that a smaller, less busy restaurant with outdoor seating was the way to go for our first outing.

And yes, it was a treat. We pulled off our masks, ate, drank, talked and had a glorious time catching up with friends. The light at the end of the tunnel is approaching. Get your vax!

New Food Sunday: A Running List

Maria and I have instituted "New Food Sundays." Every Sunday, a new restaurant. Inspired by the Los Angeles Times' latest 101 Restaurants special issue, we're on a quest to find new eats. Here's how it's gone so far:

Dec. 13: Bridgetown Roti

Dec. 20: Evil Cooks

Dec. 27: Mini Kabob

Jan. 3: Polka Restaurant

Jan. 10: Holdaak Far East Chicken Shop

Jan. 17: Yess Aquatic

Jan. 25 (special Monday edition): Holi Organic Indian Cuisine

Jan. 31: Mama Musubi

Feb. 7: Goldburger

Feb. 15 (Monday edition): Zhengyalov Hatz

Feb. 21: Tokyo Hot Chicken

Feb. 28: Golden Globes, no New Food Sunday

March 7: Drive-Thru Fair Foodie Fest

March 14: The Donut Hole 

March 21: Cluck & Blaze

April 11: The Bucket

April 18: Tamales Liliana

April 25: G Fat Burgers

May 8: [New Food Saturday] Angel's Tacos

May 15: [New Food Saturday] Daybird

May 22: [New Food Saturday] Me + Crepe

May 29: [New Food Saturday] Rosty 

June 5: [New Food Saturday] Chick Next Door

Why Foodie (and "Everybody Loves Raymond" Creator) Phil Rosenthal Says L.A. is a Better Food Town Than New York

"Everybody Loves Raymond" creator Phil Rosenthal has a confession to make: In the battle between New York and Los Angeles, when it comes to food, L.A. is the winner.

Rosenthal, now the host of PBS’ "I’ll Have What Phil’s Having," is a New York native, so his change of allegiance carries some weight. After 25 years of living in L.A. and investing in the restaurant scene here, Rosenthal says it’s not even a contest.

“I’m declaring Los Angeles the winner,” Rosenthal told me recently for a TV Insider story. “And I’m a snobby New Yorker. Right now L.A. is the best food city in America. I’m proud of it. And I can prove it.”

Rosenthal tackled Los Angeles on a recent episode of "I’ll Have What Phil’s Having," which doubled as the show’s Season 1 finale. In the episode, Rosenthal takes his Raymond star Ray Romano to the Farmers’ Market for breakfast at Loteria; comedian Martin Short to chef Roy Choi’s Commissary; and Mom star Allison Janney to downtown’s historic Grand Central Market.

He also checks out a taco truck with The Nightly Show host Larry Wilmore, and takes legendary producer Norman Lear and actor Paul Reiser to Langer’s deli for the best pastrami sandwich in the country.

My friend Diane and I met up with Rosenthal at the famed Farmers’ Market (at the corner of 3rd and Fairfax), and yes, we had what Phil was having: Fresh seafood from Tusquellas Fish & Oyster Bar. Read our full conversation here.

Finally, Clifton's Cafeteria is Set to Re-Open, With an Elaborate Makeover

Los Angeles magazine

We've been waiting for years... and years.. for the re-opening of downtown's iconic Clifton's Cafeteria. Opened in 1935 as Clifton's Brookdale, we visited the forest-themed eatery several times (read our 2006 account here) before new owner Andrew Meieran (who previously created downtown's famed Edison bar) shut it down for what was supposed to be a brief renovation in 2011.

Cut to nearly five years later, and rebuilding Clifton's has become a labor of love for Meieran, who has kept the fun and the kitsch but added so much more to the place. As downtown's Broadway continues its slow pace of revitalization, it sounds like Clifton's will be a true focal point and place of interest.

Los Angeles magazine's Lesley Bargar Suter has the first look at the completely renovated Clifton's. Highlights:

Former customers who visit the new Clifton’s will pass through the double glass doors to find a place both familiar and entirely different. There’s still a bakery—albeit with high-end coffee and house-baked breads—along with the cascading waterfall, the animatronic raccoon, and the original log pillars. Meieran also uncovered a series of small grottoes for kids that Don Clinton, Clifford’s 88-year-old son, vaguely remembers running through in the ’30s.

The cafeteria is inspired by the trend of European-style food halls. The tray line has been divided into a series of “action stations,” not unlike the café portion at any Whole Foods, with a few fussed-up versions of Clifton’s classics thrown in.

“I promise you’ll like our mac and cheese even more than the stuff they were serving before,” says Meieran. He’s added a retail shop that focuses on California goods—dates, Ghirardelli chocolate, craft beer, and wine—and kept the faux-stone chapel.

As for the missing neon cross, rather than reading it as another sign of divine interest, Meieran insists that a painter broke it. “Everyone is going to think I took it down,” he says, bracing for the backlash.

His signature design move might be the “aha moment.” At the Edison it’s the grand two-story descent into a turn-of-the-century power plant, with its artful rust and plasma globes. At Clifton’s it’s what visitors encounter up the stairs from the restored ground floor: a 40-foot-tall artificial redwood tree that alludes to the redwoods Clifford Clinton put into the original space.

While the founder was inspired by the Santa Cruz Mountains, Meieran was moved by a part of the California wilderness farther north: Muir Woods, just over the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. The faux tree is the centerpiece of an atrium overlooked by four levels of bar, restaurant, and event spaces.

Per the LA Times, Clifton's will soft open starting Sept. 17, with elements phased in over the following two months.

Rate-A-Restaurant #339: Eden Burger Bar (Glendale)

Restaurant: Eden Burger Bar

Location: 333 1/2 N Verdugo Rd. (Glendale)

Type of restaurant: Hamburgers



We stipulated: Maria had been raving about her visits to Eden Burger, but I hadn't had a chance to check it out. (Plus, I gotta be honest, the promise of a great burger doesn't excite me the way it does others. I've had good burgers already, could Eden really be any better?)

They stipulated: Eden Burger's wide-ranging menu also includes gourmet hot dogs, pizzas and sides.



What we ordered: Fig burger (fig, sun-dried tomato, crispy prosciutto flakes, arugula, lemon basil aioli, fig and olive tapenade -- I got it without cheese) $12; Firehouse (jalapeno bacon, giardiniera, field tomato, habanero jack, avocado mayo) $11; bistro fries with spicy ketchup



High point:  Love the jalapeño ketchup for the fries, and the fig and sundried tomato mesh nicely with the burger.



Low point:  No turkey burger option! What's the deal with that?



Overall impression: Juicy burgers, and a true decadent meal. But the decor is terrible, like walking into a 1980s timewarp. Why go with the gourmet burger concept yet decorate the restaurant like it's straight out of a Miami Vice episode?



Will we return: Absolutely.

L.A. Cameo: Max's Glendale as "Fresh Off the Boat's" Cattleman's Ranch

On ABC's new comedy "Fresh of the Boat," young Eddie Huang's family moves to 1994 Orlando in order to open a steak restaurant called "Cattleman's Ranch."



In real life, the establishing shot is actually the Glendale location of fried chicken chain Max's of Manila. Here's our 2006 Rate-A-Restaurant review of Max's, which is a staple for big family gatherings.

Los Angeles Times Stops Pretending We Don't Know What Jonathan Gold Looks Like

I always thought it was kind of charming that the Los Angeles Times kept up the practice of hiding superstar food critic Jonathan Gold's face in the newspaper and in all of its marketing. After all, anyone who cares about food criticism or Jonathan Gold knows exactly what he looks like. As Gold became a well-known name, his face was everywhere.

Now, the LA Times is giving up the practice. I'll miss the Jonathan Gold silhouettes, but he says it's time to give up the ghost:

I regularly decline magazine profiles, corporate speaking gigs and reality show appearances. I once walked backward from a lectern after winning an award because I was afraid of being photographed. I have OpenTable accounts under many different names, a habit of paying bills — even large ones — in cash and a burner phone account, all in an attempt to keep my identity a secret from the chefs and staffs of restaurants I have reviewed.

But my identity is not secret.

I have been charmed into posing for a thousand food-festival selfies. A hundred waiters know my name. I have been called out in taquería lines from Pacoima to Bell Gardens. At chic restaurants, chefs nervously avoid my gaze. When he spotted me eating dinner, a Las Vegas maître d' once physically moved the table at which I was sitting from its cozy niche behind a pillar to a more glamorous spot in the middle of the room. I have become adept at pretending not to notice that a restaurant staff is pretending not to notice me noticing them noticing me.

Any real anonymity I may have once had ended in 2007 when an assistant at a publication I used to work for accidentally posted a photograph to the paper's website. The pretense of anonymity ends today.

I believe he's referring to this photo (below), taken at an LA Weekly toast to celebrate Gold's big Pulitzer Prize win:



Let's face it, Gold has such a distinct look that I don't know how he ever escaped notice when he ate at restaurants. But I don't think it impacted his reviews one bit. Now that he's free of the facade, I wonder if we'll see more JGold on TV and elsewhere.

The timing of the announcement comes as Laura Gabbert's L.A. food documentary, "City of Gold," premieres at Sundance. It also comes, Gold writes, as "the kabuki of the pose is a distraction." I can't wait to see "City of Gold," and congrats to Jonathan Gold for finally being free!

The Cat and Fiddle's Demise Makes Morrissey (and Us) Sad

The Morrissey online zine True to You has the singer's reaction to news that L.A. pub The Cat and Fiddle is closing in December:

The earth dies screaming

A large part of me dies at news that the pillowy bosom of the Cat And Fiddle is to close down on December 15th, making the universe all wrong. A beacon of light will soon be a headstone, and where will we now go to chew each other's fat? Yes, life is fragile and we all end up as worm chow, but the Cat And Fiddle is one of the Great Drinkers of The 20th Century, and is as stable and rooted a part of the Strip as number 77. We are all orphaned.

with funeral pace
Morrissey
Florence, Italy, 22 Ottobre 2014.

When in LA, Morrissey can regularly be found at The Cat and Fiddle. The photo above, of him with Russell Brand and Noah Gallagher, was posted on Brand's Twitter feed last year.

L&L's Cheaper Version of the Ramen Burger Comes to Town

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue founder/president Eddie Flores calls it "bigger, better and cheaper" than the original. I can't speak to it being bigger or better, but L&L's take on the now-trendy ramen burger is indeed cheaper. And it's now showing up in local L&L locations (at least, as far as I know, in Glendale, Eagle Rock and Pasadena).



I tried the L&L ramen burger during our recent trip to Hawaii and.. it wasn't bad. There's an interesting taste when you slap a burger between two tightly-wound patties of cooked ramen.



(I tried both the ramen burger and the ramen BBQ chicken sandwiches. Although I usually prefer chicken, in this case the burger was better.)



Chef Keizo Shimamoto originally came up with the idea for the ramen burger, and famously drew four-hour lines last fall when he brought it to Torrance. According to the LA Weekly, a brick-and-mortar Ramen Burger is coming:

The Ramen Burger brick-and-mortar, which will soft-open on Aug. 1, will be a walk-up window located next to the popular Koreatown bar Lock & Key. Patrons of Lock & Key will be able to order the ramen burger inside the bar, as the two venues will share a kitchen. A hidden cocktail bar PLUS ramen burgers: It doesn't get much better than that.

The Ramen Burger menu will consist of the original ramen burger, which features a handmade ramen bun, scallions, ground beef patty, baby arugula and secret shoyu sauce. The spicy La Sriracha Macha specialty ramen burger, which debuted at last month’s DTLA Night Market, will become a regular menu item available at the brick-and-mortar.

The veggie ramen burger will also be available, as will various iterations of french fries: red miso and cheese; aonori seaweed and sea salt; and Shaka Shaka fries. There will also be the option to add a fried egg and bacon to any of the burgers.

If you can't wait, the L&L ramen burger is on sale now.

Stuffing Our Faces at the LA Street Food Festival

They warned us to wear stetchy pants, and we indeed showed up to Saturday's Los Angeles Street Food Festival ready to eat. More than 100 booths offered up samples of dishes from a wide variety of Latin, Asian, European, American and other dishes, as well as an iced coffee lounge, an ice cream/dessert section, a tequila tasting tent as well as beer, wine and cold drinks. I brought along the Blogger Kids and we arrived at the Rose Bowl around 4:30, hoping to beat the crowd.

The crowd was already huge, and we never made it through the Latin area. But we did manage to try a wide range of items. Some photo highlights:



The Grilled Cheese Truck were among the mobile eateries making an appearance.



Golden Road -- enjoying a bit of Point the Way IPA to counteract the heat.



The early crowds at the LA Street Food Fest.



Of course, the boys steered us over to the ice cream and dessert tents.

At Salt & Straw, I tried a coffee & bourbon ice cream, while Blogger Kid had sea salt/caramel and Blogger Kid 2.0 tried chocolate with gooey brownies.



You have a friend in Donut Friend.



I Heart Spam at the Aloha Plate truck!



Quenelle offers up an apple pie bon bon with bourbon caramel.



Nothing new about Sushi Roku, but still a solid spicy tuna roll and baked crab roll.

Bring Stretchy Pants: The LA Street Food Fest Is This Saturday

It seems like every weekend there's another food festival here in L.A. But there's nothing quite like the Los Angeles Street Food Festival, now in its fifth year and bursting at the seams with some of the best L.A. food imaginable.

This year's event takes place on Saturday, June 28, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Rose Bowl. Here's the good part: Just 5,000 tickets are sold, making the crowd manageable and the food actually attainable. More than 100 vendors from restaurants, food trucks and food carts will be on hand, plus craft beer, cocktails, wine, tequila, ice cream and even an iced coffee lounge.

Here's who's coming:

LA food truck favorites Urban Oven, Luckdish Curry, the Grilled Cheese Truck, Azteca Truck, Foodism, Kraken Mobile and Currywurst plus special guest truck, Aloha Plate, champions of last year's Food Network Great Food Truck Race, bringing us their signature Spam musubi from Hawaii; street eats from foodie favorites Home State, Badmaash, Chef Brian Huskey/Formosa Café, Mexicali Taco, Chef Bruce Kalman/Union, El Condor, Chef Vartan Abgaryan/Cliff's Edge, Short Order, Guelaguetza, El Coralense, Chef Eric Greenspan's Grilled Cheese, Bizarra Capital, Del Rey Deli, Sticky Rice, and pop-ups BEP Vietnamese Kitchen, ARO Latin, The Ceviche Project and Hotato Potato.

Debuts at this year's Fest include The Asian Box, the Carb & Nation truck helmed by Church & State alums, Shao Kao BBQ from underground supper club chef Luther Chen, Short Cake's new lunchtime line of paninis from pastry chef Ivan Marquez, and Glassell Park's 100% grass fed Vaka Burger, voted Best Burger in Southern California. Past event award winners, Starry Kitchen and Dog Haus return along with local lonchero Mariscos Jalisco and Baja, Mexico's Mariscos El Mazateño, Tacos Kokopelli and Aqui es Texcoco. For the veggie minded, Kitchen Mouse Vegan Café returns along with The Grain Café and No Tacos, Please!

For the sweet tooth, the popular Ice Cream Social is back and even bigger, featuring cult favorites Donut Friend, The Churro Borough, Peddler's Creamery and The Beignet Truck alongside Fluff Ice, Ramekin, Quenelle, Choctal, Saffron & Rose, What the Funnel, Ice Cream Lab and Confexxion's "brioughnut", along with the baked stylings of local flour mill, Grist & Toll. Portland's Salt & Straw makes a So Cal debut with special flavors created just for the LA Street Food Fest including "Papi's Salted Nuts": the brainchild of Roy Choi from Kogi and POT, combining salty Beijing-style boiled peanut ice cream with a spicy Southeast Asian style marshmallow fluff and "Stumptown with Compartes Love Nuts": cold brewed Indonesian coffee with chocolate dipped, caramel coated pecans from LA's Compartes Chocolate.

A new feature debuting this year is the Iced Coffee Lounge which will feature cool caffeinated beverages from a dozen of the city's top roasters and new wave coffee shops including Cognoscenti Coffee, Copa Vida, Cafecito Organico, Home Brewed, Zona Rosa and more, plus the debut of Angel's Gate Roasting.

For the 21+ crowd, the original Tequila Tasting Tent returns and beer options have been expanded to include refreshing suds from Angel City Brewery, Golden Road Brewery, Stella Artois, Kronenbourg and Singha. Caroline on Crack also returns having curated some incredible cocktails from Petty Cash, Harlowe, Bar 1886, Church Key and Melrose Umbrella Co.

Tickets are just $55 and are available right now at the LA Street Food Fest website here or at Eventbrite here.

The organizers advise that you "bring stretchy pants."

Defending Why Los Angeles Is The Best Food Town In America

The haters are out in full force today after The Daily Beast explained Why Los Angeles Is the Best Food Town in America. Gawker followed up by asking the question, Is Los Angeles the Best Food Town in America? And here were some of the replies:

You know how every mid-sized American city has that one main drag full of bland strip malls and mediocre restaurants? That's what almost all of LA feels like to me. For the most part, I've had adequate meals there.

Every woman I know who is from or moved to LA is either anorexic or bulimic. So it's kind of a sad joke if LA is the best food town.

THEY DON'T EVEN EAT IN LOS ANGELES.

Are San Francisco and Chicago no longer considered as part of the U.S.? I am sure those two cities would beg to differ. I love L.A., but not for the food.

How can you tell in a town where no one eats?

Yep, the usual idiot comments. (By the way, what has the Bay Area even offered in cuisine as of late?) But commenter Kat B. owned all of those other folks with her fantastic defense of why L.A. might just be the capital of U.S. eats right now:

Los Angeles resident here. All the naysayers here, I'm sure you love your city a whole lot — but anyone who wants to refute this (especially the dude who thinks Boston has "great food" LOL) who hasn't spent more than a touristy vacation in LA needs to shut the fuck up and check their idiocy at the door. I'm willing to wager you all don't know much about LA aside from what the tee vee shows/tells you — "CELEBRITIES AND PRETTY PEOPLE EVERYHWERE!" — and you're in for a rude awakening. (EDIT: And to all your people making "but people in LA don't eat jokes!" are so lazy, I almost feel bad for you.)

I grew up in the Bay Area, and Bay Area food doesn't hold a candle to what you can get in LA. There is literally every single type of food here — and it's done right and it's done well. A lot of this is thanks to LA's huge ethnic populations. We have the most Thai outside of Thailand; the most Filipino outside of the Phillipines; the most Mexicans outside of Mexico; the most Koreans outside of Korea. Need I continue? Large immigrant populations mean multiple locations to eat real, authentic cultural cuisine.

Just take a look at Jonathan Gold's list of the 100 best restaurants in LA. Out of the 100 featured, only a handful (less than 10?) are traditional "American/Californian" fare. The rest? You'll find the most delicious Oaxacan mole ranked alongside the best yakitori outside of Tokyo sitting next to the most exquisite Taiwanese soup dumplings from the world's best dumpling chain. (You'll only find those stateside in Seattle and LA, by the way.)

We have Cuban, Ethiopian, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, El Salvadorian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Peruvian, Caribbean, Guatemalan, French, German, Italian — not to mention a selection of vegan restaurants that would make your head spin. LA is a vast and varied food city, and it's definitely the only city I've found that is truly global and all-encompassing.

But please, continue to think that LA is a superficial no-man's-land of Kardashians and rich people. We won't miss you here. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of social and political problems — but in terms of culture, you'd be hard pressed to find a more unique, captivating place.

Boom.

One More Week to Eat The Oinkster's "Nick Offerman American Ham Burger"

"Parks and Recreation" star Nick Offerman's woodshop is not far from Eagle Rock, where The Oinkster continues to serve some of the best "slow fast food" in all of Los Angeles. I swear by their pulled pork sandwich, but Offerman has another idea: The Oinkster's October burger of the month is Offerman's "American Ham" concoction. A 6-oz burger patty topped with shaved ham, two layers of gruyere cheese, hot sweet mustard, mayo and housemade bread and butter pickles on a sourdough bun. $9.

And no, you may not modify the burger. (Memo to The Oinkster: Perhaps a Ron Swanson breakfast offering next?)

Restaurant News: Atwater Crossing Back Open, Under New Management

Just days after celebrating my birthday at Atwater Village's ATX by Kitchen 12000, the restaurant suddenly closed. And it's not the first kitchen casualty there; when we reviewed the space last year, it was Atwater Crossing.

It's a fantastic space, and perfect for young parents. Mom and dad get a great meal and drink, while the kids can run around and watch trains speed by from the safety of being on the other side of the fence. And yet, restaurants keep failing there.

Hopefully the new owners have cracked the code. The Atwater Crossing restaurant space is back open, and now known as The Crossing. I met the new owner yesterday, and he happened to live across the street from the space and reopened it as a labor of love. He has restaurant experience and says he knows what works for the space: Families, events and simplicity. And yes, the pizza's still there, along with a new Texas BBQ menu. We'll be visiting The Crossing soon and will give a full report.

And Then There Was One: Koo Koo Roo Closes West Hollywood Store

Remember when Koo Koo Roo restaurants could be found all over Los Angeles? The chain's chicken offerings and fresh sides seemed perfectly suited for California palates. But Koo Koo Roo, dogged by some big menu missteps and bad management choices, collapsed. And now the once-growing chain is closing one of its two last locations, as the West Hollywood outpost of Koo Koo Roo closes tonight. That leaves just one final location, in Santa Monica. Koo Koo Roo closed 10 locations in 2010, leaving just three: Santa Monica, Larchmont and West Hollywood. The Larchmont location closed last year. Here's the L.A. Times in 2010, explaining the chain's demise:< br>

Koo Koo Roo suffered from competition from other restaurant chains, confusion over frequent changes to its menu and the high cost of real estate leases in Southern California. The company sought to offer high-quality food, which made the restaurants expensive to run, Chambers said.

Last week, Magic Brands said that it would be sold to private equity firm Tavistock Group in Windermere, Fla., when it emerges from bankruptcy. The firm plans to close 21 Fuddruckers locations as part of the reorganization. The Koo Koo Roo stores to be closed are all in Southern California.

The storied local chain, founded in 1988 by entrepreneur Mike Badalian, appeared poised for national success in the 1990s with stores throughout Southern California and more planned up and down the East and West coasts.

The firm went public with hopes of expansion. A later purchase of struggling Hamburger Hamlet put still more strain on the company.

Koo Koo Roo lost it in my eyes when its previous owner tried to add Fuddrucker's burgers to the menu, confusing the whole chicken concept. Koo Koo Roo outlets started smelling like fried burgers, which was strange and unappealing to folks looking to get chicken bowls. I gave Koo Koo Roo plenty of business over the years at its Miracle Mile location (which is now The Counter).

A Taste (and Sip) of Los Angeles

Thanks to our pals Stu and Priscilla, we tagged along on Sunday as they scored tix to the final evening of the Los Angeles Times' annual Southern California culinary festival "The Taste." The last event, dubbed "Cocktail Confidential," featured a variety of L.A. mixologists, nearby wineries and liquor purveyors along with a selection of top L.A. restaurants.

Eateries included spicy fave Jitlada (a bit too spicy for everyone else in our group, just right for me), Bagatelle, Cliff's Edge, Feed Body & Soul, Takami Sushi and Robbata, The Park Restaurant, Wood & Vine and Coni'Seafood. We also tasted a variety of mix drinks, wine and tequila samples. A few pics:







Eel.



The Cake Mamas -- cupcakes with alcohol (see below)





Ink.'s Michael Voltaggio and Gabriella Miynarczyk demonstrate at a culinary stage.





Thanks to Stu and Priscilla!

How TV's Southland Embraced L.A.'s Local Eats

Not only does TNT's "Southland" showcase parts of Los Angeles rarely seen on TV, but it ventures into some of its legendary and lesser-known eateries for some true-to-life color. Among the joints showcased on "Southland": Philippe's, Langer's, Tony's Steak House, El Siete Mares, El Tepeyac (Manuel's special burrito, of course), Cha Cha Cha, S&W Diner, Johnnie's Pastrami, Pacific Dining Car and so many more.

The L.A. Weekly's Squid Ink blog recently asked "Southland" associate producer and location manager Mike Haro to talk about "Southland's" connection with L.A. eateries:

SI: Name a favorite restaurant that's appeared on Southland.
MH: I have several favorites. For us, budget is always a concern, but we were able to film briefly at Bottega Louie. Earlier this year we had a scene where a car totally crashed into a restaurant and we used this really cool Filipino place called Bahay Kubo.

SI: Explain your process step by step: Do you drive around by yourself?
MH: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The way the show works, I'll get the script and break it down and discuss ideas with the director and production designer. Once they sign off, I will have my scout go out, but oftentimes, because I know the city so well, I'll say, "Go here, and check around these streets." He'll go and come back with whatever he can find in those areas.

SI: When you shoot at a restaurant, is it all visual? How important is it that the Southland cops are shown eating at a place that actually serves delicious food?
MH: We want to have at least some interesting features of the restaurant. But we are also of the belief that whatever is real is real. If we're told to find a certain kind of restaurant, we will. We like to go on locations that are readymade, that we don't have to enhance. The challenge for me and my scouts is to really make sure it fits the character, without having to do anything. A lot of shows dress a location to fit the character. Sometimes that doesn't feel real. It looks art directed as opposed to looking like a real location. I think that's key to our show having that gritty, real look. In the next couple of episodes, you're going to see some locations that we never could have art directed.

CBS' Vegas Gives Langer's A Shoutout

CBS' Vegas just paid Langer's the ultimate compliment, giving the legendary MacArthur Park eatery a rave mention in a recent episode. What's cool, of course, is that Vegas takes place in the early 1960s -- but at that point, Langer's was already an institution. Now, of course, it's known for having the best pastrami in all of America. Watch the clip below.

UPDATE: There's an even sweeter backstory to this mention. Per CBS publicist Diane Ekeblad, Langer's was one of late screenwriter Nora Ephron's favorite spots. Ephron was married to Vegas executive producer Nicholas Pileggi.

Rate-A-Restaurant #294: Dynasty Big Bear

Restaurant: Dynasty

Location: 40989 Big Bear Boulevard (Big Bear City)

Type of restaurant: Chinese



We stipulated: Spending a few days up at Big Bear, where the restaurant pickings are slim, we were looking for a good Thai restaurant. They don't seem to exist there. So we went the Chinese route.



They stipulated: "Authentic Chinese Szechuan Cuisine." Accepts reservations, walk-ins or carry out.



What we ordered: Dumplings ($7.95); Eggplant Szechuan style ($8.95); Spicy Chili Pepper Chicken ($11.95); Steamed Fish Fillet in Thai-Style Lemon Sauce ($13.95)



High point: The spicy pepper chicken was quite tasty.

Low point: The lack of service and the wait. We ordered for pickup. Arrived 20 minutes after ordering. Proceeded to wait ANOTHER HOUR for our food.



Overall impression: The wait was absolutely ridiculous, and came with no apology or attempt to make it up to us. Ruined what might have otherwise been a good experience.

Chance we'll go back: Thankfully we don't like in Big Bear, as we'd probably have to return, just because there are few food options up there. But we don't, so we won't.