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Cosetta, The Galley, Maydan Market, Ojai listings, FOUND LDN, best Dodger Stadium dining, sales hiring, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Go west
For too many years, Westsiders have endured a drive to Silver Lake to taste chef Zach Pollack’s cooking. Still, it was worth it for his house-made pastas, pizzas, and dreamy chicken liver mousse at Alimento and Cosa Buona. But both of those restaurants recently shuttered, making way for Pollack — who once helmed Sotto with Steve Samson in Beverly Hills — to return west. Now it’s Eastsiders who will trek to his newly opened Cosetta, in Santa Monica’s Ocean Park neighborhood. It’ll be worth it for them, too.
Housed in what was once a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (note the signature slanted ceiling), Cosetta is already packed. I sat at the bar on Sunday night next to a couple who marveled at the fact that they could walk there (sure beats the 10). Both the garden and cheery dining room, done up in shades of peach and forest green, were full of families and couples crowding in on week one for Pollack’s Cal-Italian food.
Every dish I tried was better than the next: A playful “bloomin’ radicchio” salad is a nod to the Chili’s classic — delicious, and just barely a salad. It features both fresh and fried radicchio, dressed simply, showered in Montasio cheese. Peel-and-eat shrimp scampi came in a chile-flecked broth with a wedge of house-made focaccia for dunking.
Pollack’s puffy-crusted Neapolitan pizzas are finished with a hefty char. A classic margherita was well-sauced, balanced; trust that the crust was also dipped in my scampi’s leftover sauce. Given the perfect fry on the radicchio “salad,” I’m curious to try his section of Milanesi on my next visit, which includes chicken, whole eggplant, and sand dabs.
One thing giving Cosetta an edge over other neighborhood spots is Brian Summers’s inventive cocktail program. His cannoli Negroni made with cocoa nibs and ricotta was surprisingly well-balanced, not at all sweet. And the Sasa, named for his mother, offered a savory ode to her stuffed artichokes.
Cal-Italian certainly seems to be having its Westside moment (see also Beethoven, one of the other most exciting local openings of late). There’s no one better than Pollack to seize it. –Karen Palmer
→ Cosetta (Santa Monica) • 3150 Ocean Park Blvd • Tue-Sun 5-10p • Reserve.
LA RESTAURANT LINKS: The Shutter: beloved Greek spot Papa Cristo’s closing 05/04… Fairfax Chinese American restaurant Genghis Cohen bowing out 05/31, plans relocation… Sawtelle’s Guido’s also dunzo 05/31 • Taco sensation Taqueria Frontera readies Silver Lake outpost for Cinco de Mayo debut • The 15 best salads in LA • How to save a dive bar without ruining it.
WORK • Help Wanted
Sales pitch
Big month here at FOUND HQ: We’re about to pass 25K subscribers in LA and 100K across the FOUND network (more on this situation as it develops). One of the ways we’re marking the occasion is by adding to our sales team. Here’s what we’re looking for:
Creative sellers who know how to connect brands with valuable audiences
A passion for building the next generation of lifestyle media
Category expertise in LA (and/or NYC) real estate a plus
Category expertise in national (& global) luxury, spirits, financial services a plus
Experience selling newsletter sponsorships a plus
Open to full-time and part-time candidates
We have experience building and scaling sales operations and are excited to be doing it again with FOUND, which is now delivering recommendations and intel on dining, real estate, shopping, travel, culture & leisure, and work across six markets — NY, LA, SF, Miami, London & Paris. Interested? Drop us a line at sales@itsfoundla.com.
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
Three properties that have recently come to market in Ojai.
→ 127 Fairway Ln (Ojai) • 3BR/2.1BA, 3042 SF • Ask: $2.895M • ‘Hole 19’ with gated access to Soule Park Golf Course • Days on market: 10 • Agents: Tonya Peralta and Belinda Wynn, Keller Williams.
→ 2259 McNell Rd (Ojai, above) • 4BR/5BA, 5085 SF • Ask: $8.995M • Pink Moment Estate built 2023 with swimming pool and spa • Days on market: 74 • Agent: Patty Waltcher, Berkshire Hathaway.
→ 828 Fordyce Rd (Ojai) • 9BR/6BA, 7902 SF • Ask: $9.9M (reduced from $11.4M) • 38-acre estate with 3 renovated and furnished residences, plus orange and lemon groves • Days on market: 5 (and previous) • Agent: Peyman Rahpeymaei, Beverly & Company.
WORK & PLAY LINKS: UCLA study shows LA’s mansion tax driving down sales • Schools burned in Palisades fire hit early milestone in rebuild… and city wants to speed up permitting in Altadena • Some trails closed by Eaton fire have reopened • Tennis/pickleball turf war roils Hermon Park • Trying on all the ‘compromise pants.’
CULTURE & LEISURE • Vroom Vroom
Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach • Downtown Long Beach • Fri-Sun, various times • three-day pass, $410 per
The Avett Brothers • The Greek Theatre (Griffith Park) • Sat @ 7p • section B, $133 per
The Music of Shondaland • The Grammy Museum (Downtown) • Wed @ 7:30p • GA, $45 per
WORK • Thursday Routine
By any other name
ROSE PREVITE • restaurateur, cookbook author, chef • founder, No White Plates
Neighborhood where you live in: Venice
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
In LA, my workplace is Maydan Market in West Adams, which at the moment is almost finished. We’ve built it from the ground up. The building used to be a factory that manufactured coin collection books, so designing it into a restaurant has been a very fulfilling full-time job. The space is a 10,000-square-foot warehouse with vaulted ceilings, which presents a challenging construction project, and I'm checking to make sure that they painted the ceiling the correct color in the kitchen. I’m also making sure they use the right grout color in the bathrooms, the best tiles for specific counters, and the right type of kitchen equipment.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Right now, it’s all about deadlines and making sure everything is going as smoothly as it can go as we build up to our opening. Today, we’re looking at funding, reservation systems, and figuring out staffing (like beverage director and culinary) while also juggling construction timelines. We’re also meeting with several potential businesses for Maydan Market’s pop-up space, since we’re going to be taking short-term residencies for both food and beverage and retail folks. Our hope for the residency space is that businesses will rotate, lasting between six months to a year.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, or this weekend?
On Thursdays, when my husband David and I don’t feel like cooking, we love going to The Galley in Santa Monica, where I typically get a baked potato and shrimp cocktail — a very balanced meal in my opinion. On other chill nights, we often go to American Beauty and grab a burger. But last week, we went to Hatchet Hall. We loved the country ham, fried chicken, and shrimp and grits, as well as the ribeye with beef-fat herb butter and dijon.
How about a little leisure or culture?
David and I are LAFC and Angel City fans, so we love to go to their games. Like everyone else, we love the Hollywood Bowl. Since we’re based on the West Side, we like exploring the East Side of the city when we can: Silver Lake (for shopping), Glendale (eating), Highland Park (visiting friends). They’re all places we don’t usually go on weeknights because there’s too much traffic. I wish that I could say we hike, but we really don’t; we’re still too East Coast for that. We do, however, love living by the water, and we walk along the beach and meditate by the waves whenever we can.
Any weekend getaways?
We recently drove to the Central Coast wine country to spend time with our winemaker friends Mireia Taribó and Tara Gomez, who own Camins 2 Dreams winery in Lompoc. They’re absolutely wonderful, and in fact, Tara was the first recognized Native American winemaker in the country.
What was your last great vacation?
This past August, we flew to Armenia and visited friends and their family, and then drove to the Republic of Georgia. David and I discovered Georgia while we lived abroad in Russia, and we immediately fell in love with everything there (especially the cuisine and the people). We tripped through wine country, ate some incredible food, and saw amazing things: cathedrals, mountains, historical sites, and beautiful outdoor spaces.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
This past Christmas, I bought an entire Ibérico ham leg for just David and me. I studied abroad in Spain, where I learned that you could just have a jamón on your counter and cut off a piece whenever you want. If you can’t splurge on an Ibérico, you can get a really good, affordable Serrano ham leg at Costco instead.
GETAWAYS • London
Happily married
This post originally appeared in FOUND LDN. Looking for a little more from across the pond? Subscribe to FOUND London, with new issues dropping each Wednesday.
The Skinny: Almost a decade after their first AngloThai pop-up in 2015, John and Desiree Chantarasak finally opened their long-delayed, hotly anticipated restaurant at the end of 2024. As the name suggests, the restaurant melds Thai fine dining with British ingredients, all sustainably and responsibly sourced. It feels like the Thai cousin of Kol, Santiago Lastra’s Mexican-British tasting menu hit (both are backed by MJMK, the genius restaurant group also behind Nuno Mendes’ Lisboeta). If you like those establishments, you’ll likely love AngloThai.
The Vibe: Off bustling Seymour Place, sweetly fragrant smells emit from the open kitchen. Thai details dot the elegant wood interiors, which are reminiscent of Thai favourites Nahm and BoLan: the furniture was built in Chiang Mai from indigenous wood, there’s artwork and textiles from all over Thailand, and the brass cast lighting reflects an ancient Thai craft tradition.
The Food: Expect punchy Thai flavours and plenty of spice in elegant presentations. While it launched with an à la carte offer, AngloThai has now settled into a single tasting menu of 11 courses at dinner or eight at lunch. It showcases John Chantarasak’s Thai-British heritage with highlights like beef cheek with Makrut lime curry and brioche, as well as wok-fired aubergine with holy basil and soy-cured egg yolk.
The Drink: Sommelier Desiree Chantarasak has curated a selection of refreshing cocktails and a wine list emphasizing cooler climates, particularly Austria, to match the bold flavours of the food.
The Verdict: Years in the making but well worth the wait, AngloThai feels like a new classic. –Laura Price
→ AngloThai (Marylebone) • 22-24 Seymour Pl • Wed-Sat 12-230p, 530-10p, Tues 12-230p • Book.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Best deal for Epic Pass 25-26 expires Sunday, Icon Pass next Thurs • Air taxi startup Archer launches at SFO • Like it or not, the A’s are a win for Sacramento • Clear’s hack for the 05/07 Real ID deadline.
ASK FOUND
This week, one urgent FOUND subscriber PROMPT for which we are seeking intel:
What restaurant should we take our picky kids to that’s also somewhere I actually want to eat?
Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or email found@itsfoundla.com.
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Restaurants, near Dodger Stadium
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of LA’s best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundla.com.
Yang Chow (Chinatown), classic Mandarin and Szechuan, home of ‘slippery shrimp,’ convivial atmosphere