Industriel Urban Farm Cuisine (Downtown LA)

This new restaurant in downtown LA has a rather confusing tagline: "urban farm cuisine"? It doesn't prevent them from being completely packed during Dine LA Restaurant Week though. The tagline is supposed to embody the fact that they're in downtown but uses local farm-fresh ingredients (though many other downtown restaurants do these days, without the tagline).

The decor is for the most part stark and minimalistic, but they have this cute installation of this "chandelier" made of honey bear jars over a bathtub!

The menu was divided into different price levels: $11, $14, and $19 (and a couple of "market price" options). The restaurant's website says they serve Provencal French cuisine, but there were only a few Provencal specialties on the menu (like bouillabaise and barigoule) and many other influences from Italian to Russian.
We started with a Crispy soft poached egg, speck, asparagus, mustard truffle dressing ($14)

The crispy poached egg was nice, though I wished the dish had an earthier, bolder flavor component. I also thought this should've been in the $11 section.

Quinoa, roasted mushrooms, pecan, kale, caramelized shallot vinaigrette ($11)

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New Cocktails at Next Door Lounge (Hollywood)

I liked both the beautiful space and the great drinks when I first visited Next Door Lounge and had been curious how they were doing after head bartender Joe Brooke had left, so I recently accepted an invitation to come in for the summer cocktail menu. At Next Door Lounge, there's a doorman asking for a password before you enter. Even though you need a "password" to get in, you can get the password by signing up for their newsletter or making a reservation!

We didn't know that we were supposed to preview a new summer menu when we first sat down so we had gone ahead and ordered two drinks from the then-current menu. The menu was divided into classic and modern cocktails, some of them had been there since my first visit (especially the classics).

The Scot's Pear was made with scotch, Tawny port, ginger syrup, lemon and pear juice ($14)

The Eastside with Tanqueray gin, cucumber water, mint, lime juice ($12). Both of them are a nice start to whet our palates.

After these two drinks, we started trying out the new summer menu. It seems like there's always a spicy tequila drink everywhere these days (and they always sell well!), and Next Door Lounge is no exception. The Pistolero is jmade with Silver Tequila, lemon juice, simple syrup, grand marnier, Angostura and orange bitters and cracked jalapeno.


Even if you are skeptical of vodka drinks, the Light Cavalry (Vodka, simple, green Chartreuse, fresh white grape juice) deserves a chance. Using fresh grape juice, it's not overly sweet and has a nice complexity thanks to the green chartreuse (which I always love). The Lovely Afternoon is another nice aromatic drink that isn't too strong with Genever, Chamomile syrup, pineapple juice, lemon juice, and Lillet. I loved the subtle aroma of the chamomile.

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Omakase at Sushi Kimagure (Pasadena)

I used to complain that there was no stellar sushi in Pasadena, but that was before Sushi Kimagure moved in. The man behind Kimagure is Ike-san from the beloved Sushi Ike that was in Hollywood. The day he decided to shutter his Hollywood spot and open up in Pasadena was a good day for us.

Dining at the sushi bar at Kimagure is by reservation only, and considering our 7pm party did not leave until near closing time, there's probably only one seating per night.

It was my long awaited first visit so of course we had omakase. We didn't get Ike-san as our itamae that night but our meal was still excellent.

It was impressive to watch how fast these sushi chefs were working, especially considering their age!

To start, a vegetable potato salad

Most places may save toro towards the end of a meal, but here they dive directly into bluefin tuna (maguro) and toro as your first pieces.

The toro was superb

Sushi is not just about the fresh fish, but the rice as well, and here at Kimagure they are both excellent. It's not the warm rice of Nozawa (which I sometimes think is too warm and detracts from the fish) but it still melts in your mouth.

Next was another one of my favorite cuts, hamachi belly

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