Michelin just added 10 new restaurants to its California guide — and 6 are in L.A.
Southeast Asian restaurant Cobi’s in Santa Monica will appear in this year’s Michelin California guide.
Michelin additions
In advance of the Michelin Guide’s annual update to its best restaurants in California, the international restaurant-scoring publication added 10 new names to the regional list, but what exactly those designations mean is yet to be seen. The company, best known in the culinary industry for employing anonymous inspectors to award restaurants from one to three stars, also provides accolades known as Bib Gourmands for businesses deemed to offer value and affordability; the guidebook also spotlights noteworthy openings. This month’s 10 additions to the California list are all denoted as “new” but could garner stars or other recognition next month when this year’s guide is released.
Six L.A.-area restaurants will be newly included in the guidebook, with an additional four spread across San Diego and Orange County. Marina del Rey’s throwback-inspired seafood spot Dear Jane’s — sibling restaurant to Dear John’s — is new to the guide, as is Cobi’s in Santa Monica, which specializes in Southeast Asian curries, grilled meats and snacks such as larb and curry puffs.
Cobi’s co-owner Cobi Marsh was at a restaurant in New York when her phone started pinging with notifications. “I was like, ‘Maybe it’s wrong,’” she said. “Then I started reading more articles and getting into it, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ I actually did start crying; it was almost like a sigh-of-relief cry after all of the hard work that you put in. [Awards are] not the only way you should feel recognized or satisfied, but it kind of made it all feel very real.”
Glassell Park’s Dunsmoor, where regional and centuries-old American cooking techniques and recipes take center stage, is another new addition, as is Villa’s Tacos in nearby Highland Park. The street stand serving colorful, maximalist tacos from Victor Villa recently opened a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, and is also an L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants of 2022 honoree. Cento, which also began as a pop-up, now serves its pastas, small plates and grilled meats in a full restaurant in West Adams and is also new to the guide, as is Juliet, a new Parisian-inspired restaurant in Culver City.
Orange County is represented by Anaheim’s Poppy & Seed, a Southern-leaning modern-American spot from the team behind L.A.’s Poppy & Rose; Fullerton’s Kaori Sushi, which offers omakase in addition to bento, specials such as uni pasta, and a range of sake; and Garden Grove’s Taira Sushi & Sake, with its handwritten menu of items such as omakase, stewed fish cheeks, squid with miso vinaigrette, and grilled pork jowls. Artifact at Mingei, the global restaurant located within Balboa Park’s Mingei International Museum, is one of San Diego’s new showings in the guidebook.
Michelin’s 2023 California guide is set to include more than 200 restaurants and chefs, and will be released July 18 at a ceremony in Oakland.
guide.michelin.com/us/en/california/restaurants
Animal and Nic’s on Beverly to close
Two influential Los Angeles restaurants will close at the end of the week: Animal, the first bricks-and-mortar for Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo — which paved the way for the chefs’ Jon & Vinny’s empire — and Nic’s on Beverly, one of L.A.’s best vegetarian and vegan restaurants.
Animal will close Saturday night, as first reported by Eater, after 15 years of meaty, rustic cooking with haute touches. The evolution of the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic played a large role in the decision, according to Shook; a number of ingredients and food companies the chefs relied on are hard to find or out of business, he said, adding that both he and Dotolo felt it was time to close in order to focus on Jon & Vinny’s, Son of a Gun, Cookbook and Helen’s Wines, as well as their families. “Vinny and me looked at each other and were like, ‘This has been amazing,’” Shook told The Times. “I don’t think we ever thought it would go this far. We’ve had so many great talented people that have come in and work there.” Shook and Dotolo plan to retain the space.
Nearby Nic’s on Beverly announced its end on Instagram, citing its intermittent pandemic-spurred closures that led to difficulty making rent. In the announcement, co-founder Nic Adler (Eat Drink Vegan, Monty’s Good Burger) noted that ownership of the Beverly Grove restaurant was unable to come to an understanding with the landlord. The entirely plant-based modern-American restaurant and bar praised for its burgers, Detroit-style pizzas and salads will close after brunch service Sunday. “Four years ago today, we welcomed a small group of friends and family to the opening week at Nic’s,” Adler wrote. “It was a dream come true. As I did four years ago, I welcome you all back one last time. One thing I ask you all is to be kind and generous to the hard-working team that are our heart and soul. We are sad, all of us. We need your smiling faces to walk through the door so we can say ‘Welcome back’ for one last time.”
Animal: 435 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 782-9225, animalrestaurant.com; Nic’s on Beverly: 8265 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 746-5130, nicsonbeverly.com
Stir Crazy
A longtime Melrose coffee shop is now a wine bar under the same name, with new ownership, menu and atmosphere. Co-owner Harley Wertheimer, “obsessed with cafe culture,” hoped to open a warm and comfortable gathering space and teamed with partners Macklin Casnoff (sustainable-food company Lovely Bunch) and Mackenzie Hoffman (formerly of Domaine L.A. and New York’s the Four Horsemen), who primarily head the food and wine programs at the new Stir Crazy. The trio took over the space after frequenting the original Stir Crazy and opted to keep the name in an ode to the cafe that was there for nearly three decades. In lieu of coffee, home-style baked goods, smoothies and bagel sandwiches, the space now offers “very California” dishes inspired by local produce, shareable plates that can include anchovies and hazelnuts laid atop herbs and olive oil; finger sandwiches stuffed with goat cheese and pickled fennel; and a small mountain of celery salad with golden raisins, walnuts and cheese. “We serve a lot of vegetables,” Hoffman said. “We love texture. We love acid. We love freshness.”
The wine list, which she describes as full of “gastronomic, tasty wine,” is primarily natural and sourced from Austria, France, Italy, Serbia and beyond, with options by the glass and bottle. “I love when our by-the-glass program doesn’t have a lot of recognizable grapes,” Hoffman said. “It’s always exciting to us when food and wine is kind of this teaching moment for guests.” Stir Crazy is open from 4 to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday.
6903 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, instagram.com/stircrazy.la
The Royal Hawaiian, reborn
One of Orange County’s most iconic tiki bars reopened over the weekend under new ownership from a prolific L.A. hospitality group. The Royal Hawaiian, a Laguna Beach landmark from founders Francis Cabang and Harold “Hal” Hanna, first opened its doors in 1947, and for decades was beloved for its potent cocktails, tropical drinks served in ceramic mugs, flaming sundaes, blowfish lamps and thatched roofing. The restaurant and bar changed hands in 2006 before closing in 2012. Multiple owners sought to reopen the Royal Hawaiian, and they did eventually relaunch the space as less of a tiki bar and more a tropical-inspired restaurant, but it closed again and sold to the Boulevard Hospitality Group (Yamashiro, Kodo, Adults Only, Durango Cantina, TCL Chinese Theatre), which spent months painstakingly re-creating the original 1940s aesthetics of the bar. Now, the Royal Hawaiian is back in name and ambience with custom-carved Bumatay sculptures, original pieces from the first Royal Hawaiian and recovered jade tiles, with a restoration process overseen by designer Ignacio “Notch” Gonzalez.
Bar director Dushan Zarić (Employees Only) serves classics and riffs therein, with tiki icons such as Three Dots and a Dash, a Hurricane, a Zombie, a Singapore Sling and a Mai Tai, with a number of ingredients — such as the dragon’s milk pandan-leaf syrup — made in-house. Chef Jaehee Lee (Yamashiro) is heading the food program with iconic Polynesian dishes as well as items drawing on his Korean American heritage, among other cultures, for a menu that includes spam musubi; mochiko popcorn chicken with Korean pepper sauce; crab Rangoon; tuna poke; loco moco; Chamorro chicken-and-rice empanadas; and hamachi ceviche with calamansi and wonton chips. The Royal Hawaiian is open from 4 to 11 p.m. Wednesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday.
331 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, (949) 549-4354, royalhawaiianoc.com
Cheese Store of Beverly Hills
The famed Cheese Store of Beverly Hills is set to expand to a new location next month, offering more than double the space and product of the original cheese and gourmet-foods shop. Now under the ownership of longtime employee Dominick DiBartolomeo, who purchased the business from mentor Norbert Wabnig in 2022, the Cheese Store also will serve as a production facility for DiBartolomeo’s Italian imports company, Domenico’s Foods, with windows for guests to see fresh pastas and other items being made. Currently, the shop offers more than 600 varieties of cheese along with hundreds of bottles of wine, pantry items and select prepared foods. DiBartolomeo is envisioning more of it all in the new location, which is less than half a mile from the original shop and will take over two spaces: the former Il Forno Caldo and a former tailoring space.
“We really are bursting at the seams, and for us to stay in the same location just didn’t make sense,” DiBartolomeo said. “You’re bound by these four walls. It only makes sense for us to do something bigger and better and to keep being more of what we already are.” The new location will sell spirits in addition to wine and beer and offer an extensive menu of sandwiches, pastas, salads and other ready-to-eat items.
9705 Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, cheesestorebh.com
Capri goes permanent
Eataly’s coastal Italian pop-up took a space on the specialty grocer and food hall’s main floor last spring. Now, it’s permanent. Much as it has in its last year as a pop-up, as a full restaurant, Capri — meant to bridge the ingredients and culinary sentiments of California and southern Italy — will serve Amalfi pasta with mussels and clams, baked branzino with olives and tomatoes, house-made burrata, and spaghetti with lobster, but with a new layout, new dishes and a new crudo focus. To mark the restaurant’s permanence, Eataly added a wine bar that spotlights coastal Italian wines in a nearby corner, convenient to those awaiting seats at Capri, as well as a limoncello program that includes Eataly’s house-made variety served with others from a roving cart. The crudo menu offers dishes such as tuna tartare with cayenne dressing; salmon, tuna and yellowtail carpaccio with fresh mint and lemon; and oysters. A limited guest-chef series is helping to kick off the restaurant’s new run, with special crudos and wine pairings from Brian Borneman (Crudo e Nudo) June 14, David LeFevre and Alice Mai (Fishing With Dynamite) June 21 and Jason Gonzales (Juliet) June 28. Capri is open from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, eataly.com/us_en/stores/los-angeles/restaurants/capri
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