Category Archives: Great Finds

Dining Outside at The Girl & The Goat, Los Angeles

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When at a restaurant named Girl & the Goat, the goat mousse is a must-order.
When at a restaurant named Girl & the Goat, the goat mousse is a must-order.

Of all the many victors through all the many seasons of “Top Chef,” arguably the most successful has been Stephanie Izard.

On Season 4, she not only triumphed but became the first woman to do so. Since then, she’s been off to the races, opening a slew of acclaimed restaurants including the Girl & the Goat in Chicago and then in Los Angeles; as well as the Little Goat Diner, the Chinese-American-influenced Duck Duck Goat, the rooftop Peruvian concept, Cabra, and the dessert shop, SugarGoat, all in Chicago.

Along the way, she nabbed the James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Great Lakes” in 2013 and was named a 2011 Food & Wine “Best New Chef.”

So, when my plans to travel to Chicago to dine at Girl & the Goat got foiled in 2020 — you can guess why — I did the next best thing: My husband and I dined at the Los Angeles locale instead on a recent road trip to Southern California.

How cute is this beer glass?
How cute is this beer glass?

The brick building is easily recognizable by the playful goat mascot sign on it. There’s a spacious outdoor seating area right outside, which is where my husband and I dined.

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Dining Outside at Birdie G’s, Santa Monica

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The "World Famous'' Rose Petal Pie at Birdie G's.
The “World Famous” Rose Petal Pie at Birdie G’s.

You can tell the impact a chef has made when even after departing Northern California years ago to decamp to Los Angeles, Bay Area diners still rhapsodize about the unforgettable meals they enjoyed at his hands.

Such is the case with Jeremy Fox, former chef de cuisine at Manresa in Los Gatos, who went on to head the groundbreaking Ubuntu, the Napa restaurant that became the world’s only Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant.

Because the moment I posted a photo of a dish I relished recently at his Birdie G’s restaurant in Santa Monica, the comments started flooding in from folks about how much they miss and respected his cooking in the Bay Area.

Despite the torrent of praise for Ubuntu, diners didn’t consistently flock to this unique combination yoga studio/fine-dining restaurant at at time when the term “plant-based” had hardly become fashionable yet. That never-ending stress took its toll on Fox, who suffered through ADHD and depression. Finally, it became too much, and he left.

The plentiful outdoor seating at Birdie G's.
The plentiful outdoor seating at Birdie G’s.

He eventually made his way to Southern California, to become chef of Rustic Canyon in 2012, leading to acclaim again, plus a fresh start in life. In 2019, he added to that, opening Birdie G’s, also for the Rustic Canyon Family group of restaurants.

Named for his young daughter, Birdie, and for his grandmother Gladys, it couldn’t be a more of a personal project. As Fox describes, the casual, fun restaurant embodies exactly who he is: An Eastern-European Jew who grew up in the Midwest and the Deep South, and then settled in Southern California.”

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Dining Outside at Pizzeria Bianco, Los Angeles

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The "Salame'' New York-style slice at Pizzeria Bianco.
The “Salame” New York-style slice at Pizzeria Bianco.

It says it all that during our two days in Los Angeles recently, we high-tailed it to the new Pizzeria Bianco not once, but twice.

Arguably, Chris Bianco has been deemed the country’s best pizza maker, with devotees waiting as long as three hours at his original Phoenix restaurant just to get their fix.

Since opening in Los Angeles in June, this place has been mobbed. And since Los Angeles is a more convenient destination for yours truly, you know that my husband and I put Pizzeria Bianco on our must-stop list no matter what when we traveled to Southern California earlier this month.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to twiddle our thumbs for hours on end when we got to the Row DTLA, the massive 30-acre urban commercial district that was the former site of the American Apparel manufacturing facility, and that’s now home to not only Pizzeria Bianco, but a host of restaurants, boutiques, and offices.

Get ready to get in line here.
Get ready to get in line here.

Instead at 12:30 p.m. on a Saturday, we did have to wait in line for about 30 minutes before we made our way to the walk-up pizza window to place our orders.

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Coffee That’s Best Enjoyed With “Friends”

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I don't even have to tell you whose saying this is, do I?
I don’t even have to tell you whose saying this is, do I?

For original (yours truly) and newbie fans of the hilarious ensemble sitcom, “Friends,” you’ll be happy to know you can now experience a taste of everyone’s favorite Central Perk, the hangout coffee shop of Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, Joey, and Chandler.

Central Perk Coffee Company has debuted with three different artisanal coffee varieties, available ground or in whole beans or in single-serve pods.

None other than acclaimed chef-restaurateur and “Top Chef” head judge, Tom Colicchio, is one of the industry experts behind this new line.

The coffee varieties take their names from iconic “Friends” sayings that have been ingrained into the lexicon: “Pivot Blend” (medium/dark roast), “We Were On A Coffee Break” (dark roast), and “How You Doin’?” (medium roast).

When asked which of the three I most wanted to sample, you know I had to have the “How You Doin’?,” coined from the immortal Joey Tribbiani pick-up line.

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The Fun of Grilled Sticky Rice Skewers with Peanut Sauce

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For fans of sticky rice, this is the bomb.
For fans of sticky rice, this is the bomb.

If you are a sucker for the crispy, crackly texture of Persian tahdig or the smoky, charred exterior of Japanese grilled onigiri, then you’re sure to go wild for “Grilled Sticky Rice Skewers with Peanut Sauce.”

I know I sure did.

In fact, this recipe, which supposedly feeds four, was roundly devoured in one fell swoop by just my husband and I.

Because I’m sure two regular people can — and will — easily lay waste to this dish, I changed the number of servings to reflect that in the recipe below.

It comes from “Rice Is Life” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy. The cookbook is by Caryl Levine and Ken Lee, the founders of Lotus Foods, the Richmond, CA company that imports rice grown on small family farms in Asia to the United States.

In business since 1995, Lotus Foods definitely knows all things rice after pioneering its black Forbidden Rice in 1995 and introducing the first certified organic jasmine rice in the United States.

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