Last month, Los Angeles Magazine held it’s annual Best New Restaurants Celebration at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in the Arts District. The event is known for its tight line-up of new restaurants that opened in 2016, plus a few slightly less shiny but no less delicious participants like The Bellwether and Manhattan Beach Post:
Even though nearly all of the restaurants were new, the chefs behind them have all made their name in L.A. Howlin’ Ray’s chef/owner Johnny Zone and wife/partner Amanda Chapman and their crew were on-hand, frying up wings fresh and lacquering them with their spicy cayenne seasoning! Alvin Cailan of Eggslut and Unit 120 used his booth to showcase a new venture by former CUT chef Ken Concepcion called Now Serving.
Speaking of Alvin, he and the Badmaash bros. Arjun and Nakul Mahendro were on hand recording their Super Amazing Restaurant Show podcast, interviewing chefs and attendees, and generally having a great time, as they always do!
For such a small line-up, not even a dozen restaurants, the food was delicious! As mentioned in the caption above, Howlin’ Ray’s line was longest and they served right up to the end. Wolf’s pun-tastic “Let the Beet Drop” had a great little liquid nitrogen gag, while 71 Above kept it classy with an amazing octopus dish.
But my favorite dish of the night was Here’s Looking At You’s soft-shell prawn! You just pop the whole thing in your mouth and crunch it up! So good!
LA Mag’s Best New Restaurant Celebration is a great way to kick off the year and get me back in the swing of food-eventing! Great job everyone involved!
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