Just a pinch
Just a pinch
Mori Nozomi, Momofuku, L.A. Grocery & Café, AMRIKAN, Antico Nuovo, Awan, Cheviot Hills, best Malibu restaurants, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
A woman’s touch
About 10 minutes and one chawanmushi course in, sushi chef Nozomi Mori brought out a century-old ceramic plate with a live hairy crab perched on top. The eight of us dining at Mori Nozomi, her small studio-like space in Sawtelle that opened in March, oohed and ahhed with delight, as the chef laughed and explained that, yes, it came from Hokkaido.
The crab disappeared, and then came several kaiseki dishes: soft baby squid paired with unadorned fava beans, binchotan-grilled belt fish kissing a tiny branch of purple shiso flowers, and the first procession of nigiri. As Mori served piece after piece, she and her staff of three — all women, a striking rarity in high-end sushi restaurants — kept the conversation flowing, and our sake glasses full. The service was (as expected of an omakase of this caliber) polished, yet the atmosphere was astoundingly relaxed.
An hour after its debut, that crab returned — now, steamed — and Mori got to work breaking it down. She pulled off its legs, mixed up its roe, and delicately chopped off pieces of shell. Then, she composed my favorite nigiri of the night: just-cooked crab leg topped with fresh crab roe.
It would have made for a stunning finale, and yet... Our meal was far from over. Next, a cup of soup, rich, with a deep flavor befitting the two types of miso that went in it, followed by a perfect palette of Hokkaido uni, butter-tender Spanish mackerel. More crab, concentrated into stew and topped with shiso flower, uni, and caviar. Then, a steaming piece of utterly creamy eel, and finally, tamago, served hot. For dessert, two types of green tea — toasted and matcha — served alongside three ripe cherries from the farmers market and handmade wagashi filled with black sesame.
As we left, a fittingly warm touch: Mori handed us each a packet of Japanese black tea, each inscribed with a personalized thank you note, and all four women waved goodbye as we stepped out the front door. What a night. –Emily Wilson
→ Mori Nozomi (Sawtelle) • 11500 West Pico Blvd • Wed-Sat, single 7p service ($250 per) • Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • Intel
MO MOMO: This week’s news that Momofuku plans to open a new restaurant called Super Peach next spring at Westfield Century City wasn’t long on details — the restaurant will be more casual than Majordōmo, perhaps similar in style to New York City’s Momofuku Noodle Bars. But more importantly, the announcement is the first concrete sign (since pre-pandemic) that David Chang & Co. want to open and operate new restaurants here in Los Angeles — or new restaurants anywhere, full stop. (NYC also received news this week of a forthcoming new Momofuku restaurant.) Glad tidings for all.
MELROSE HILL RISING: The latest development in this year’s neighborhood-to-watch is the grand opening of L.A. Grocery & Café, 6,000 square feet of — you guessed it — grocery and café. Owners Caitlin Sullivan and Theresa Ruzumna, formerly of Honey Hi, are stocking farmers market produce, a high-low mix of pantry items and home goods items like Rancho Gordo beans and Dr. Bronner’s soap, plus pre-packed meat and cheese. Prepared food highlights include smoothies, Out of Thin Air croissants, kimbap by Perilla, and rotisserie chicken. As if that weren’t enough: There’s a dedicated parking lot, too.
LA RESTAURANT LINKS: Cocktail bar Tiki Mirage moving to Chinatown • Nancy Silverton’s Sunday routine • What’s going to be on the menu at Clippers’ new Intuit Dome • Is sotol the next mezcal?
WORK • Thursday Routine
Fully booked
KHUSHBU SHAH • writer; contributing editor, Food & Wine; cookbook author, AMRIKAN
Neighborhood you live in: Koreatown
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
My workplace is my desk, which I placed in my living room because I love how open and airy the room is and how much light it gets. My desk is covered in post-it notes with ideas and to-do lists, and there’s usually an empty can of some sort, whether it’s a half-consumed can of seltzer or (my latest obsession) orange Poppi. If I’m feeling like I need a little caffeine, there’s a mug of instant coffee. And before you roll your eyes at that choice, instant coffee, when made in a particular manner, is glorious.
I try to pop out for a coffee or a coffee meeting a couple times a week. For that you can usually find me at Cafe Telegrama or the Dayglow on Sunset. Though this week I did have a meeting at Canyon Coffee (where I got an iced mocha) and I recently went to Motoring Coffee (espresso tonic) for the first time and would like to get back there asap. I also really love the coffee shops/coffee shop culture of K-town.
What’s on the agenda for today?
A quick meditation using the Open app (for my sanity), and a speedy little walk around my block to get some fresh air before I dive into hardcore screen time. My Indian-food-in-America cookbook AMRIKAN came out last week, and wow, did I underestimate what it takes to market and promote a book. I thought writing the cookbook would be the hardest part. But I’m also hammering out a pretty ambitious book tour. So there's a glut of emails and phone calls figuring out last minute details for several of the Indian Pizza Parties I’m doing on tour around the country.
I’m also spending time scribbling out handwritten notes for ~influencers~ and friends who’re getting a copy of my book. I wish I had cuter handwriting, but I always love sending and receiving handwritten notes, especially in this intensely digital era. I also plan to knock out an outline for an upcoming issue of my email newsletter Tap Is Fine before my friend Rie — a fellow cookbook author — comes over to film a reel. This is what you have to do to promote a book these days!
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Ever since I left my job as the restaurant editor at Food & Wine, I've taken real pleasure in being able to move way more intentionally when it comes to eating out. It’s honestly quite novel for me to be able to regularly return to the restaurants that I love, like Antico Nuovo, where I’m having dinner tonight with friends. It's spring, so the menu is loaded with all the great, eager, snappy, verdant vegetables like the good tender peas, fiddlehead ferns, ramps, morels, and asparagus.
We’ll order basically all of the pastas between the three of us, plus a round of the broccolini caesar (one of the best salads in LA, in my humble opinion) and a round of focaccia. It's impossible to end a meal at Antico Nuovo without getting at least one of the ice creams, no matter how full you are, so perhaps the strawberry this evening? The texture is just so silky and it somehow always tastes fruitier than the fruit itself.
This weekend, I’ll hit up the freshly opened Awan location on Melrose and Larchmont with a friend. I’ve been an Awan fan ever since I moved to LA. The ice cream is coconut-based and dairy free, but again, the texture is just so rich and velvety and the flavors remain some of the most interesting in the city. (If you can't tell yet, I am a bit of an ice cream head.) I also really love the almost Dune-like aesthetics of the new location.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I’m gearing up to leave LA for my book tour, so I’m in a bit of a nesting mode, wanting to spend as much time in my apartment as I can, but I have a few really lovely plans this weekend. First, a baby shower, taking place in another dear friend's stunning backyard. Someone’ll be making tacos, and I’ll show up with donuts from Sidecar (a huge hit) and cupcakes from Sweet Lady Jane. Someone else will bring a beautiful fruit platter from Graze LA. A really great playlist. It's just the best chilled out vibes with several people (and kiddos!) that I really love in Los Angeles and that makes this city feel like home.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
I just purchased a shirt for my book tour from this really great Indian brand called Nor Black Nor White (they have a shop on Fairfax now). It's more than I tend to spend on clothes, generally, but I really connected to the story behind the shirt.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Sat Night
Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, Hollywood Bowl (Hollywood), Sat/Sun @ 330p, garden, $220 per
Luke Combs, SoFi Stadium (Inglewood), section V112, Sat @ 545p, $308 per
Charli XCX, Shrine Auditorium (University Park), Sat @ 8p, GA, $354 per
REAL ESTATE • Open Houses
Father knows best
Positioned between Century City and Culver City, Cheviot Hills is a true neighborhood, replete with tree-lined streets and single-family homes — really, the perfect neighborhood to be a dad in Los Angeles. Per Redfin, the median sale price for homes is $2.605M, with 12 trading in April at an average of 37 days on the market.
This Father’s Day weekend, consider three properties currently for sale in Cheviot Hills, one which hit the market just two days ago, and all featuring open houses this weekend. C’mon, do it for dad.
→ 9820 Kincardine Ave (Cheviot Hills, Sun 2-5p) • 6BR/7.1BA, 5341 SF house • Ask: $6.49M (reduced this week from $6.79M) • new construction with pool and waterfall • Days on market: 57 • Agents: Tracy Tutor & Jamie Rudner, Douglas Elliman.
→ 10301 Walavista Rd (Cheviot Hills, Sat 2-5p) • 4BR/5BA, 3233 SF house • Ask: $3.295M (reduced last week from $3.495M) • Built 1950, recently renovated • Days on market: 63 • Agent: Scott Moore, Christie’s AKG.
→ 3221 Provon Ln (Cheviot Hills, Sun 2-5p, above) • 4BR/3.1BA, 2830 SF house • Ask: $3.195M • ‘modern farmhouse’ on cul de sac • Days on market: 2 • Agent: Ben Lee, Coldwell Banker.
LA WORK AND PLAY LINKS: Former Ace Hotel reopens as Stile DTLA • Meet the crew that took down the tee time black market at LA’s public golf courses • Glendale to be blessed with new Erewhon, the store’s 11th outpost • McCall’s Meat & Fish Co. moving to Atwater Village • Working late? Don’t bother.
WORK • Media
Church and state
A subscriber to FOUND NY recently told a colleague that her favorite part of the newsletter is the weekly work item (oh, wow, blushing).
Results may vary! But the compliment landed. In the early days of a start-up, especially one building quietly, the ratio of affirmation to uncertainty and doubt is very low. Add in the factor that FOUND is a fully remote operation, and the result is a feedback loop mostly running tortured laps in our heads.
As it happens, the admiring subscriber is a former co-worker. We only overlapped for a minute, and don’t know each other well, but I distinctly remember the first time I met her. It was in the mid-teens in the offices of the digital media company. I was “on the business side,” and she was a new editorial hire. At first sight, she expressed her point of view that the purpose of the business side was to make money and never talk to her.
It stung! Since my days pasting up pizza shop ads while editing the college newspaper, I always prided myself on being able to see all sides of the media business. Church and state, yes, of course, but we’re all on the same team here, making media and mixing metaphors together.
Ten years later, even the most successful media organizations remain beset by internal conflict. Often the wounds are self-inflicted, but usually, there’s that age-old business-editorial division at the core.
Fortunately, FOUND is too new for that sort of thing. And hopefully, we’ll build something lasting that heralds a new generation of enlightened media, one that truly understands how to have it all — to build a business and maintain standards, to make money and all talk to each other. Probably, though, we’re only months away from hiring the next rising editorial star who tells the business side to go fuck itself. –Josh Albertson
ASK FOUND
Four FOUND subscriber PROMPTS for which we’re seeking intel:
What's the best flight school to take a flying lesson in LA?
I’m looking for something special. What are the best jewelry stores in LA?
Where should I be drinking al fresco this summer?
What’s your favorite restaurant in LA (if you haven’t told us already)?
Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or email found@itsfoundla.com.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Alinea alum opening Coastal California restaurant Selvin’s at Palm Garden Hotel in Thousand Oaks next week • A drive north of Sea Ranch to a pizzeria at the edge of the earth • Seattle’s Pan Pacific Hotel to transform into 1 Hotel Seattle • On Baja, Four Seasons opens second resort in Los Cabos, 30 minutes from SJD • Online U.S. passport renewal is back • Boarding last, not first, is the true airline luxury.
GETAWAYS • The Nines
Restaurants, Malibu
Malibu Seafood, no breakfast because they’re out catching lunch; come early to avoid line