Where Colin Ate: Los Angeles Edition
Spago, Holbox, Soot Bull Jip, Beethoven Market, In-N-Out & more
Colin Camac (aka @resyguynyc) is officially Blackbird’s “Strategic Sales Lead,” and unofficially is our resident insider’s insider. He is out, on the town seven nights a week, sniffing out the city’s best joints, skateboard in one hand, martini in the other.
Last week was a whirlwind that sent me to LA for work. Between meetings, I made time to visit as many great places as I could. It included some really fun new spots, as well as a few older classics I had never had the chance to visit. I also added a really hot take about everybody’s favorite West Coast burger chain, as well as Angelino’s bold claims about sushi that I’m sure not everyone will appreciate. Thanks again for following along. It’s a big one.
Colin
Beethoven Market
📍 Mar Vista
🍽️ Italian
My first stop in LA was my friend Jeremy’s brand new restaurant and new LA hotspot, Beethoven Market. Beethoven is a beautiful new restaurant tucked away on a residential street in Mar Vista, on the west side of LA. From the moment it opened its doors, the place has been slammed, and after my meal last night, I fully understand why. The room feels great and really nice in an unpretentious way. The service is super friendly and knowledgeable, which is always hard at a new place. The food is Italian-leaning and filled with the hits that make it the perfect neighborhood spot. We started off really strong with two of the specials that were absolute hits. First, the baby plums, fresh from the market, served over burrata, pistachio crumble and olive oil. Such a delicious dish with the slightly sour plums pairing really well with the creamy cheese. Second was the lightly fried Delicata squash rings topped with chili honey that could not have been more addictive. Tuna carpaccio served drizzled in olive oil with capers and shallots, pounded paper-thin and topped with a lemon quarter for a little hit of acid, was another really nice bite. We followed that with a walnut pesto paccheri that was exactly as it should be and rounded it all out with an absolutely delicious pizza topped with sausage and Jimmy Nardello peppers. The Nardellos added a smoky sweetness that really made it a memorable bite. For a restaurant not specializing in pizza, this was truly a great pie. Desserts are all delicious, and we ordered a few gelatos as well as a chocolate lava cake and a big scoop of tiramisu, served tableside from a large serving dish in a nice service touch. Besides this being a great neighborhood spot that feels like it’s hit the right place at the right time, this is the first restaurant I have been to in forever where I left feeling like the menu was a lot cheaper than I expected based on the quality of the meal.
RVR
📍 Venice
🍽️ Japanese
RVR is the new restaurant from Chef Travis Lett that opened late last year in Venice. The restaurant marks a return to Abbot Kinney for the chef, previously the opening chef/partner of Gjelina just up the block. I had heard some really great things about the restaurant, and with good reason, as this meal may have been my favorite overall experience of the trip. RVR serves izakaya-style food but with a California feel, and they really seem to hit the nail on the head. The vibe is airy and cool, with a DJ spinning vinyl throughout the night. Dark wood with sunlight coming in through the windows really gives the whole place a special feel. For the food, I really thought the menu—which is massive—touched on Japanese classics without feeling like the restaurant was trying too hard to be anything other than itself. We started out with a little gift from the kitchen of tempura yellow beans with dashi aioli, which I am glad I got to try. Light tempura, leaving the beans intact, perfectly executed, and a great way to start. Next up was a pork and cabbage gyoza, arriving with a crisp skirt on the bottom, giving it a nice crunch before the chewy outer layer and meaty filling. Chef again sent us out an insane bluefin tuna dish, simply prepared with the akami (lean) and chutoro (fatty) arranged around the plate with tamari shoyu and wasabi. We followed the sashimi with a duo of handrolls starting with the wild tai, avocado, yuzu kosho, and shiso. The nori was crisp, and the delicate fish was really well accented with the yuzu and shiso. Bonus points for the side of house yuzu kosho they left on the table, and we refused to let them take it throughout the rest of the meal. The other handroll was a tempura kanpachi with tartar sauce that was a great counterpoint to the previous roll and also really hit the spot. You can never go wrong with chicken thigh karaage, and we didn’t. Lightly fried chunks of chicken, still juicy in the middle, and chili honey. One of my favorite bites of the night, coming from the veggie section, was baby bok choy topped with a sesame tonnato that was tastier than it had any right to be. Both charcoal-grilled dishes were really well executed: a chicken thigh with myoga (a fragrant Japanese ginger) and a duck tsukune (meatball) with spicy mustard. We rounded the whole meal out with a delicious and bright tai paitan raman that was a really nice way to finish out the savory side of the menu. Definitely don’t skip desserts, though, as the peach cake was one of the best desserts I have had in a long time. Drinks are top-notch, sporting one of the best restaurant bar programs I found on the trip.
Dunsmoor
📍 Glassell Park
🍽️ Southern
Dunsmoor has been on my list of places to go for what feels like years at this point, and as inconvenient as it may have been to get to from where I was staying, I made it a priority to go on this trip. The restaurant comes from Chef Brian Dunsmoor and is known for its wood fire cooking and the fact that no machines are used at all to prep or cook anything on the menu. For anyone who has worked in a restaurant, this is a wild thing to do, and they pull it off wonderfully, with honest, delicious food. Dining in a wood-fired restaurant in a heat wave isn’t always the wisest choice, but the meal was very much worth the trek across town, and I would highly recommend checking it out. We started out with oysters topped with ramp vinegar, which was a really nice, light, briny bite to get the ball rolling. Following the oysters, we went with the famous sourdough cornbread with cheddar, hatch chili, butter, and honey served piping hot in a skillet. The cornbread itself was really flavorful with a nice savory-sweet balance. Next up, a truly delicious shrimp and grits-like Carolina gold rice with shrimp butter, parm, and chives. The dish was bursting with umami and full of comfort food appeal. My favorite dish of the night and quite possibly the trip, though, was the famous pork and green chile stew, served with flour tortillas. The amount of flavor in this dish is hard to describe, and even in the heat of the fire, I could not get enough of it. An absolute must order and a dish that makes this a must-visit restaurant. We finished up with the mushroom-crusted pork chop with smoked lard and thyme. The pork was really nicely cooked and juicy with bits of char on the edges. Rounded out with really nice mashed potatoes and a small salad of dressed lettuces, we were absolutely stuffed. Of course, there is always room for dessert, so we went with the sticky date pudding, and I’d definitely order it again.
Horses
📍 Hollywood
🍽️ American
Horses is another one of my absolute favorite restaurants in LA. As I tend to do, I have now made it a tradition to stop there for my last meal in town with my bags in tow. Something I’ve noticed in LA that is very different from NYC is that restaurants don’t necessarily always have a full bar. Many restaurants out there only offer beer and wine, and it seems like the norm, where in NYC, you rarely see a full restaurant without a full bar. When I look for a real restaurant experience, cocktails are just part of it for me, and it’s something that still feels missing from the overall LA scene. Fortunately, Horses is just a great restaurant. It has all the things you need: a classic space, great drinks, dining rooms with very different moods, and some really delicious food. For my last meal of this trip, I met up with my good friends Emily (The Angel) and David to have one more great bite before I left town. To start, the Vesper is really fantastic here, served in a nice, rounded martini glass with fig leaf-infused gin, vodka, Lillet blanc, and a lemon twist. The Caesar salad is a must-order, with endive in a creamy dressing, adding a slight bitterness to the classic. We followed that with a classic tuna tartare, plated over thin slices of avocado and served with crispy lavash. As a special that evening we also ordered a really delicious and perfectly in-season tomato and peach panzanella, served with very large and crispy croutons. The fruit was really bright and juicy, which kept me coming back for more. For the main dishes, we ordered the famously off-menu pasta Herman, which is baked in a skillet and tastes like a much more intense vodka sauce, punched up with some spicy nduja. It was my first time trying the pasta, and it was really good. For me, though, I always come for the burger. The Horses cheeseburger is served pretty classic with a slice of cheese and onion done two ways: melted and raw. The melted onions serve almost as a special sauce to the burger, using their sweetness to help round out the meaty flavor, while the raw onions provide some texture and a sharper bite. The fries are also top-notch. Finish the meal off with the sheep's milk cheesecake, and you, my friend, are ready to board the redeye back to NYC.
In-N-Out
📍 Westwood
🍽️ Fast food
People love to debate about In-N-Out. For those who live under a rock, In-N-Out is the famous West Coast burger chain that consistently has cheery staff, historically pays them very well, offers affordable burgers that taste fresh, serves abysmally fried fries, and boasts a “secret menu” that is very public and fun. To me, In-N-Out is the platonic ideal of a West Coast burger, where it’s not about the meat as much as it’s about the construction and accoutrements. They do a really great job at both, and I make it my business to come to a location whenever I am close to one. For me, the real debate isn’t about In-N-Out vs X, but In-N-Out vs itself. Hear me out…every person going for their first time has always been told about an amazing burger mod you can get here called “animal style.” It sounds cool, feral, fun and makes you want to be part of the secret club. In actuality, animal style is just cooking the burger in mustard, adding grilled onions, pickles, and extra sauce. My personal hot take: Animal style is BS, people just like to say it. I think it just makes people feel cool to order off-menu. If you actually taste the burgers side by side, a double double (with onion) smokes it every time. It holds its integrity, is more well-constructed, and actually just tastes better. Don’t @ me here, do yourself a favor and try them side by side, and I guarantee you’ll be switching your order the next time you visit.
Quick hits, Pop-ups & New openings
Bluey’s
📍 Santa Monica
🍽️ Mexican
My good friend Tyler (Los Tacos #1) happened to be in town the same time I was, so we got together for an early catch-up on my first morning in. He took me over to his personal favorite breakfast burrito spot called Bluey’s in Santa Monica, right by my hotel. We got the breakfast burrito with chorizo and extra cheese. The eggs were nice and fluffy, wrapped in a solid tortilla and served with a mild salsa on the side. It was exactly what I wanted it to be. I also really enjoyed adding their habanero hot sauce served on the tables outside for a bit of a brighter heat. Definitely worth checking out as a fun local spot.
Tito’s Tacos
📍 Culver City
🍽️ Mexican
Tito’s Tacos is a spot in Culver City that I found on Instagram a while back. Tito’s specializes in hard-shell beef tacos. This style of taco is exactly what I used to have as a kid and is always really nostalgic for me. I don’t know if this style is traditional or not, but Tito’s has been doing it this way since 1959, and it was a fun place to check out. The meat is tender and flavorful, hidden in a freshly fried hard taco shell and topped with lettuce and a small mountain of cheddar cheese, as well as a very bright and mild fresh tomato salsa on the side with tortilla chips. It was a really fun place to check out for a different type of taco you don’t really see too many places specializing in.
Holbox
📍 South Central
🍽️ Mexican
Holbox has been at the top of my list for what seems like forever. I finally found the right moment on my way to the east side of town to break up the trip a little bit and catch them during the week when it’s a bit less of a hassle to get in. Holbox is a small seafood counter and some tables inside of a food market called Mercado La Paloma in South LA, and has received a ton of hype. I had a meal later, so I went pretty light but wanted to try a few things. Everything I had was delicious, but my two favorite bites were the tostada with Kanpachi and uni. This seems to be the dish you see all over the place, and it’s for good reason. Creamy and briny uni over a crispy tostada, with the slight chew of mild kanpachi and a bit of tomato salsa and avocado sauce. It is a really great bite. The more surprising dish to me, though, was the smoked kanpachi taco, served folded over, sporting deliciously smoky fish mixed with cheese and topped with avocado slices and a salsa macha. It’s the bite I’m still thinking about, almost a week later.
Spago
📍 Beverly Hills
🍽️ Californian
Spago is THE fine dining LA restaurant. Wolfgang Puck’s most famous restaurant is a place you still see him working the room regularly (so I’m told). I had never been, but on the way to a light meal, we decided to pop by for a drink and snack. The room looks classic and is really light and airy, with a courtyard for dining just behind the bar. The bar itself feels really elegant and has really incredible soft barstools with backs (I’m definitely getting old). I ordered a Del Maguey Santo Domingo Albarradas mezcal neat, which was followed shortly by a delicious house martini. We also decided to go for the smoked salmon pizza, which is one of the most classic dishes in LA. Smoked salmon atop a cracker-like pizza dough, covering crème fraîche mixed with some red onions, and topped with salmon roe. Honestly, there is nothing not to like about it, and it felt great to try a classic. I would definitely recommend it and would love to go back again to hang out at the bar.
Petitgrain Boulangerie
📍 Santa Monica
🍽️ Bakery
Petitgrain Boulangerie is a new bakery that recently opened in Santa Monica and was recommended by several friends during our trip. In between meetings, one day a friend and I had a late cancellation up the block and decided to pop in to try the goods. All I can say is WOW. The plain croissants were some of the best I have had, with the option to add a little dipper cup of delicious jelly and butter. An amazing chocolate chip cookie that was soft and chewy with an almost oaty flavor was another hit. My favorite was the almond croissant, though, bursting with almonds and powdered sugar. The inside was chewy and delicious. My friend did not get his fair share of this one, and for that, I am still not sorry.
Soot Bull Jip
📍 Koreatown
🍽️ Korean
For a weekend lunch, I met up with a few of my friends who live in town, and they suggested we go to their favorite Korean BBQ. Soot Bull Jip is one of the old-school BBQ spots in LA, but what sets them apart is that all the BBQ is cooked over charcoal. The charcoal imparted a smoky flavor to all the meat, a flavor that can only be achieved through this cooking method. Standouts for the meal were the chicken (surprisingly), and the galbi from the grill. They also served a really great kimchi stew and japchae noodles with beef bulgogi. My friends say they usually always go at night, but I thought it had a really nice and relaxed vibe for lunch, and was a really great choice.
Echigo
📍 West L.A.
🍽️ Sushi
Sushi in LA is always a funny thing for me. Everyone has their favorites, and every Angelino will tell you how much better the sushi is on the West Coast. Honestly, I think it's all bullshit, as the high-end stuff in NYC is some of the best in the world, and I have yet to find anywhere in the States that comes close. That being said, I do actually believe that the small local spots in LA have a much higher standard than the places in NYC, and you can find a much better meal for cheap over here. Basically, the floor is quite a bit higher in LA, and I think that’s a good thing for your basic sushi shop. That brings me to Echigo, my good friend's family's favorite for years, and I totally understand why. Echigo is a no-frills spot on the second floor of a strip mall where your order is taken by marking down what you’d like on a pre-printed menu card. The fish is cut well, and there are some real standout bites. The ikura in particular was really great here, and the handrolls were exactly what I needed. I wish there were more places like this in NYC and fewer of the budget omakases that have popped up everywhere and really don’t serve anything close to this level.
Gjelina
📍 Venice
🍽️ New American
When you go to Abbot Kinney, you have to pay your respects to the place that put it on the map. Gjelina has expanded from its humble beginnings with several offshoots, a hotel, and a location in NYC, but is still a great place to grab a bite when you’re in town. I had a quick lunch in between meetings and had a great time sitting in the dark wood-covered front room, watching the city move by and eating some great veggies and pizza. It was a perfect start to the day before heading across town to Los Feliz for the “vacation” portion of the trip. I started with the Japanese sweet potato topped with yogurt, jalapeños, and scallions, as well as braised sweet corn cooked down in a skillet with mascarpone, pecorino, chile, and lime. Both are delicious in their own right. I finished lunch off with an anchovy pizza with burrata topped with more Jimmy Nardello peppers. After my pizza at Beethoven, I couldn’t pass up another one topped with the smoky and sweet Nardello, and it was a great choice.
Parking Lot Chicken @ Super A Foods
📍 Highland Park
🍽️ Mexican
My good friend Emily (again, The Angel) had heard about this parking lot chicken for a while, so we decided to give it a try before she moves back east to NYC. Chicken is cooked over charcoal outside Super A Foods, right on the side of the building. I didn’t really get much of a backstory on it, but apparently, they do it only on the weekends. The deal is you go inside the market, buy a few prepared salsas from the back as well as some fresh tortillas, and order your chicken from the register in the market. Once you pay, they give you a ticket to pass to the chicken team outside. Pro tip: If they’re not too busy and you ask very nicely, the chef will warm the tortillas on the hot grill. We then proceeded to animalistically rip the chicken apart with our bare hands out of her trunk, dipping each bite into both the salsa roja and the avocado salsa before wrapping it up in the freshly warmed tortillas. It was honestly some really delicious chicken, bright red and crispy on the outside and incredibly tender on the inside — a really fun experience.
Wake and Late
📍 Downtown L.A.
🍽️ Breakfast/Mexican
My friend Sarah has recently been traveling a ton for work in LA and put me on to Wake and Late, a small chain serving breakfast burritos. After a quick workout, I was excited to discover that a location was just 300 feet from the gym, so I decided to stop by for a post-workout snack. I decided to try both styles of burrito. The first was their classic breakfast burrito that I ordered with bacon and came with eggs, cheese, avocado, and super crispy tater tots all wrapped up in a great flour tortilla. It was definitely everything you wanted in a breakfast burrito, and I think it was one of the best I have had. The other burrito was called Juarez style and is quite a bit smaller, served with just refried beans, pickled onions, and garlic crema. Because of my bean and cheese burrito obsession recently, I also added some cheese, and it was a really great little burrito. I appreciate the more compact size of the Juarez style and wish there were more places in NYC where you could get stuff like this. Burritos don’t always need to be so big; sometimes you just want a little snack.
Taqueria Frontera
📍 Cypress Park
🍽️ Mexican
After our parking lot chicken adventure, we were craving something to drink and happened to pass by a location of Taqueria Frontera, which has a few options for agua fresca. Taqueria Frontera has gotten a bit of buzz, so I figured I may as well try their delicious-looking al pastor as well, since I was already there. For drinks, we both went with the strawberry watermelon agua fresca, and I followed that up with an al pastor quesadilla. The quesadilla came folded over in a warm flour tortilla and was much more dressed up than the more bare bones taco spots around, coming with two creamy salsas that made it stand out from others I have tried. It was a really great bite, and I look forward to checking it out again when I have the room to try a bit more.