Highs and lows as more restaurants close, but one LA chef scores Food & Wine honors
Plus, Eater wedges itself into the immigration debate and David Chang's hellish Netflix show gets a Season 2.
LA FOODSTACK is a curated list of the week’s most essential food news through a Los Angeles lens. Prepared by The LA Countdown and The LA Food Podcast.
1. Another somber week of restaurant closures - but is there a silver lining?
Another week, another laundry list of notable restaurant closures in Los Angeles. Since our last newsletter, Son of A Gun, Isla, Town Pizza, and Poltergeist/Button Mash all announced (or reminded me on social media) that they would be closing their doors for good.
From inflation to the lingering effects of the pandemic and the Hollywood strikes, there are many reasons behind the tough times restaurants are facing right now. The difficult conditions have been covered in depth by many, including The LA Times’ Stephanie Breijo and SF Gate’s Karen Palmer.
This week, The LA Times’ Laurie Ochoa attempted to offer a silver lining, interviewing a series of restaurateurs about reasons they feel optimistic despite the doom and gloom. The basic thesis is this - desperate times call for ingenuity and innovation:
And yet, amid all these losses, chefs and restaurateurs continue to open ambitious, personal and creatively challenging places that even in tough times make Los Angeles one of the most exciting restaurant cities in the world…
My two cents: While Ochoa’s piece is well-written and definitely worth a read, it struck me as a little out of touch with the moment. Once again, it places the onus of survival on the chefs as opposed to the broader conditions making survival unsustainable. I’d love to see solutions-oriented journalism that focuses on structural factors like the rising costs of insurance and what could be done in Sacramento to prevent predatory practices from kicking restaurants while they’re down. I’m available for a brainstorm anytime.
2. LA’s streak of Food & Wine Best New Chefs continues
As the poet laureate of winning DJ Khaled once said, “Another one!”
Holy Basil chef Wedchayan “Deau” Arpapornnopparat woke up to excellent news earlier this week, discovering he’d been named one of Food & Wine’s 2024 Best New Chefs. Okay, in all honesty, he probably had an inkling when they brought in the fancy equipment and asked him to pose for the picture above. Regardless, here’s what F&W had to say about the trailblazing Thai chef:
Wedchayan “Deau” Arpapornnopparat’s goal for his restaurant Holy Basil was simply to be “the best Thai takeout” in downtown Los Angeles, which is no small feat in a city with hundreds of stellar Thai spots. Yet his unabashedly bold take on Thai food — bright, pungent, fiery, and complex — proved to be a hit…
A variety of influences can be felt at Holy Basil. Arpapornnopparat grew up in a Thai Chinese household, and many of the dishes channel his childhood, from a fluffy yet crispy omelet to a smoky wok-fired pad see ew. He spent six years in India, and his scratch-made curries blend Thai, Indian, and Chinese flavors. Tapping into the flavors of Los Angeles, Arpapornnopparat also incorporates Mexican ingredients, so you end up with dishes like the moo krob, a slab of crispy pork belly served with a bold sauce of Thai chiles and roasted tomatillo.
Grateful for the freedom and opportunity of being a chef in L.A., Arpapornnopparat appreciates the hungry, receptive diners who “expect that things are going to be a little bit different.”
Chef Deau’s win continues a long streak of Los Angeles up-and-coming chefs earning spots on Food & Wine’s vaunted annual list. Many of those chefs, from Kato’s Jon Yao to Hayato’s Brandon Go, have only seen their respective stars continue to rise ever since. It feels like validation that, despite the tough conditions, Los Angeles continues to be fertile ground for young, talented chefs to take chances and make names for themselves.
3. Surely no food pub will attempt to write about immigration and eating pets- oh, wait…
I rolled my eyes when I saw that Eater’s Bettina Makalintal had published an article sporting the headline “Why Republican Politicians Keep Claiming Immigrants Eat Cats and Dogs.”
It’s pretty normal for online news sites to wedge themselves into trending topics to generate page views and, to some extent, I’m happy to respect the player while hating the game. But suffice it to say, I had my doubts about how they were going to square this circle.
Alas, Bettina managed quite nicely:
Immigrants have consistently been subject to this racist food rhetoric throughout American history. In 1883, the New York Times posed the question: “Do the Chinese eat rats?” It continued: “A large portion of the community believe implicitly that Chinamen love rats as Western people love poultry.” The piece in question discussed a slander suit in which a New York City doctor claimed “Chinamen” in New York City had “killed and cooked rats and cats in the yard” — a claim that the Chinese grocery owner in question vehemently denied.
Bettina proceeds to give us a long and comprehensive tour of how food has been weaponized to spike xenophobia, before leaving us with this gem:
Food is so mundane and that is exactly its power. What the Republicans are suggesting is: If they don’t eat like us, then how can we trust them? This rhetoric only works to dehumanize immigrants — who are always Black, Brown, or Asian — even further and to ultimately position white Americans as superior, their lifestyles as the ones worth protecting. We’ve heard it all before; the Republicans think we’ll fall for it again.
*Pause for applause.*
4. Why does Netflix hate us?
Look, I’m not a hater. Unless, of course, you repeatedly do things that make you hateable. Then, yeah. Even good-tempered old me can become somewhat of a hater.
That said, my disdain for Dinner Time Live with David Chang has nothing to do with Chang. It has everything to do with the concept, which I’m not alone in thinking makes for quite dull television. In case you’re not familiar, Dinner Time Live sees Chang cooking dinner in real time for two celebrity guests, operating under the artificial drama of having to get DINNER! ON!! THE!!! TABLE!!!!
Alas, Netflix announced this week that Dinner Time Live would be getting a holiday-themed Season 2. While it may seem deranged to give this show another season, there are a few reasons why this actually makes sense:
The show probably costs next to nothing to make.
Netflix trusts Dave, as evidenced by his many shows on the network and the fact that he refers to Ted Sarandos as “Uncle Ted.”
It’s an inexpensive proving ground for Netflix to continue beta testing live shows, which they are no doubt betting on for the future.
For all those reasons, we, the people, will be subjected to another season of this dross. And while I am fully aware that I have the option NOT to watch the show, let’s be honest… I’ll be watching.
5. Best thing I ate this week? One final Thai Cesar Salad at Poltergeist.
While this video would make you think I visited Poltergeist one last time to review their bucatino dish, the real reason I visited was to eat one more Thai Cesar Salad. You see, every time I’ve gone in the past I’ve been forced to share said salad with whichever dinner companions I was unfortunate enough to have by my side. This time, unencumbered by company, I got to have one to myself and it was a glorious experience.
It’s one of those dishes that perfectly marries the familiar with the unexpected, delicious and exciting all at once. I look forward to Chef Diego reviving it down the line at a Poltergeist retrospective, but you should get to Button Mash before September 29 if you want to try it before they close.
Other stories to chow down on…
LA Taco’s Javier Carbral eulogized Jose “Chuy” Tovar, a beloved fixture of the Los Angeles food and beverage scene. Take a beat to read the tributes and consider donating to the GoFundMe started by his family.
“We Hart-ly knew ya” is a phrase I’ve been trying to make work since I read Mona Holmes’ piece on the sudden shuttering of Kevin Hart’s vegan fast-food restaurants.
Bill Addison reviewed the Turkish pop-up inside Santa Monica’s Lokl Haus coffee shop.
Bill Esparza told us why this Tijuana taqueria coming to LA is a big f’in deal.
The Infatuation dropped a list of the best old-school Italian joints listed in order of how old they are. The oldest one opened in 1945, the same year Biden qualified for AARP benefits. God bless ya, Joe.
This week on The LA Food Podcast…
Father Sal and I discuss the closure of Poltergeist and Button Mash, and argue on whether Laurie Ochoa’s piece in The LA Times was appropriate or out of touch. We give Chef Deau Arpapornnopparat flowers for his Food & Wine Best New Chef win, and discuss what we like about Food & Wine’s process for doling out these awards.
Plus, we’re joined by Chef Brandon Boudet of Little Dom’s in Los Feliz who gives us a sneak peek of two exciting concepts he’s opening this Fall in Montecito and Ojai. You’re gonna want to start planning your weekend getaways now.
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