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SAN DIEGO :: LONG BEACH :: SOUTH PASADENA :: NEWPORT BEACH :: LAGUNA BEACH :: LOS FELIZ :: DOWNTOWN L.A. :: MANHATTAN BEACH
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SOCAL INSIDER
A guide to what’s happening
now in your neighborhood
Crossings Restaurant, in South Pasadena (page 32F).
Photograph by
LISA CORSON
SOCAL INSIDER
drinks that. He doesn’t even
touch my beer.
Any tips for home brewers?
It doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve
made some really, really bad
beer. The first I made poured out
like a yeast cake. It was disgusting. Seek out homebrew clubs,
where you can get advice, and
share your beer. It makes you
brew more often, and people
give you honest feedback.
MEET /
San Diego
chef-made spirits. We caught up
with Graves to distill some wisdom from his hands-on efforts.
The DIY
chef
Paying attention to where your
wine comes from—that’s standard.
More recently, getting to know
beer and breweries became popular. Today the artisanal attention
is shifting toward spirits, and no
one is taking that more seriously
than chef Christian Graves, of
East Village eatery Jsix. Graves
makes everything from scratch,
from the vinegar he uses to dress
Jsix’s beet, ginger, and carrot
salad to the kombucha he serves
for sipping. Now he’s added bespoke beer and bourbon to the
restaurant’s menu, becoming one
of SoCal’s first spots to serve
32B S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5
You traveled to Kentucky to
blend your own barrel of
bourbon at Woodford Reserve. What did you learn?
It’s a lot of work! They pick eight
barrels for you to try that are at
least eight years old. Then you’re
directed to find two barrels that
complement each other and
blend those. We picked one
batch that was made in the morning and another that was made
at night on the same day, so it’s
basically single-barrel bourbon.
It tastes like orange and vanilla,
and now we serve it at Jsix. An
old-fashioned with that bourbon
is out of this world.
❖ SUNSET
32 North Brewing Company
brews a beer just for Jsix.
What does it taste like?
It’s my recipe. We call it Citra, the
name of the hop. It’s bitter, very
aromatic, and floral. San Diego
is known for hoppy beers. This
kind of bridges the gap. It’s
a little lower in alcohol and very
versatile—it’s not a palate wrecker. You can pair it with anything.
Favorite thing you’ve made
at home?
I have three boys—they’re 11,
10, and 8—and we make root
beer together. We call it Navystrength root beer, like Navystrength gin, because it’s stronger
and heartier. It has vanilla, tangerine, and cloves in it. I have a
buddy who comes over and just
You get tons of social media
for your Chef’s Mercy tasting
menu. What sets it apart?
You can do a wine pairing, a
beer pairing, a cocktail paring—
or mix it all up. I don’t think
we’ve ever done the same thing
twice. We often have special
things lying around like truffles
that we try and incorporate. This
past New Year’s Eve, we sold
more cocktail pairings than we
did wine pairings. I thought that
was very interesting.
What’s a perfect food and
drink pairing at Jsix?
There’s a cocktail called One
Man’s Ceiling Another Man’s
Floor—it’s absinthe-based, with
caraway seeds, and very spiritsforward. I had that once with the
pork chop over white beans and
broccoli rabe. It was earthy and
had all the spice from the smoked
pork. It was just delicious. $$$;
616 J St.; jsixrestaurant.com.
ALESSANDRA MELLO (3)
Clockwise from left: Jsix’s
avocado, grapefruit, and beet
salad; the interior of Jsix;
chef Christian Graves.
SOCAL INSIDER
VISIT, EAT & SHOP /
Long Beach
History
meets style
Named after a community that
kept alcohol legal when adjacent
Long Beach banned booze during Prohibition, the Zaferia South
Design District proudly upholds
its namesake’s outlaw spirit. The
locally owned restaurants and
shops that have taken up residence here in the past five years
stand out in the sea of strip malls
that define the surrounding area.
The newest kid on the block is
Working Class Kitchen, a
butcher, deli, and sandwich shop
that opened in January. Owner
Michael Dene took the inspiration (but not the prices) for the
buzzy lunch spot from his upscale Long Beach steakhouse,
Chianina. Customers nosh on
burgers, meatball subs, and
smoked ham sandwiches made
with meat butchered in-house,
then buy housemade sausages to
take home. But it’s not all about
meat: The menu also includes a
grilled cheese made with fresh
mozzarella, the deli offers farmfresh eggs, and wooden carts
brim with just-picked fruit for
sale. $; 1322 Coronado Ave.;
workingclasskitchen.com.
Across the street at Urban
Americana, a sunny new antiques mall in a renovated warehouse, it’s easy to get lost in the
gorgeous furniture, particularly
the midcentury modern livingroom sets worthy of Mad Men.
Look closer, and you’ll notice
some fun surprises: old-fashioned
roller skates tucked into a wall of
lockers, rare Bauer pottery, a
vintage Missoni sweater, maybe
even an antique gumball machine. “It’s important to me to
keep it diverse,” says owner Chris
Geer, who gutted and restored
the former warehouse. He also
installed a nursery on the side of
the building, where he sells 150
kinds of drought-tolerant plants,
and hosts beer- and wine-tasting
events with Working Class Kitchen. 1345 Coronado Ave.;
urbanamericana.com.
From top: Urban Americana; Working Class Kitchen.
32D S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5
❖ SUNSET
SOCAL INSIDER
Way beyond
basic black
South Pasadena
Dining relaxed
and elegant
Gracefully courtyarded Mike
& Anne’s is much-loved in
family-oriented South Pasadena, and it’s easy to see why. It
successfully occupies a hard-tofill dining niche: a restaurant
relaxed enough that parents
can take their kids, but with
food (mushroom risotto, flatiron steak) so good, they don’t
feel they’re making any sacrifice. Not far away, 11/2-year-old
Crossings Restaurant is more
glamorous, with its exposedbrick-and-Star-Trek-lighting
decor—a reminder that while
South Pasadena looks like an
idealized Anytown, U.S.A., the
woman at the next table just
may have sold her show to HBO.
The pepper steak’s a winner
here (it’s not on the menu so
ask for it), as is the Mary’s Organic Gold Line Chicken dish.
Mike & Anne’s: $$$; 1040 Mission St.; mikeandannes.com.
Crossings: $$$$; 1010 Mission;
crossings-restaurant.com.
EAT /
SOCAL INSIDER
San Diego
Newport Beach
Diamond in
the sand
Discovering Dory Deli on the
Newport Beach boardwalk is
like finding the proverbial nee-
From top: Smoked trout salad at Crossings; coffee from Holsem.
dle in a haystack: It’s a familyfriendly oceanfront restaurant
that’s not 1) insanely expensive
or 2) focused on pizza or hot
dogs. “The owners wanted to
give people a place on the beach
where both kids and parents
would be happy,” spokesperson
Jill Cook says. So far, it’s working: Beachgoers are lining up
at breakfast and lunch for the
Yoga Pants burrito, made with
egg whites, roasted red peppers, arugula, and parmesan,
and the seared ahi salad, tossed
with wasabi peas and candied
ginger. Little ones can opt for
a cheddar-topped burger (pictured at left) or a PB&J waffle,
topped with cashew butter and
strawberry preserves. Find
a table on the patio, decorated
with glass floats and brass
portholes, but don’t miss the
wall of framed photos, near
the back of the restaurant, that
shows the owners’ friends and
family in various spots around
town. It was curated “to inject
a little local and personal history,” Cook says. $; 21083/4 W.
Oceanfront; dorydeli.com.
Given the influx of coffee spots
in San Diego, it’s no surprise
that there’s now a cafe for nearly every caffeine personality,
from garage-chic watering holes
to minimalist single-origin temples. But what the scene had
been lacking was high design.
That is, until Holsem Coffee
opened in the city’s North Park
neighborhood. The five-monthold spot is a nod to the sophisticated coffee parlors of London,
with special touches like original Charles Eames chairs from
New York’s Museum of Modern
Art. Cofounder Salpi Sleiman,
who led the mobile coffee-cart
collective Roast Coach Coffee
Bar, has developed seven roasts
and 17 coffee mocktails. Blended with housemade nut milks,
malts, fruit purées, and syrups,
the libations range from banana
bread cold brew to La Vie en
Rose, a cappuccino infused
with cardamom and rosewater,
then garnished with rose petals. Now that’s a stylish cuppa.
2911 University Ave.; holsem
coffee.com.
STAY /
STAY /
❖ SUNSET
Clockwise from top:
Hotel Covell, where every
guest room comes with
a record player.
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32F S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5
Every room tells part of a bigger story at Hotel Covell,
a quirky boutique hotel that
opened in February in a 1930s
apartment building above the
popular Bar Covell. For the
inn’s theme, owner Dustin Lancaster (who also owns the bar
downstairs) and interior designer Sally Breer created the
fictional character George Covell, then decorated each room
to correspond with a period of
Covell’s “life.” The Chapter One
room, for instance, reflects his
childhood in Oklahoma with
wood paneling, a live-oak bar,
and cool blue overtones;
Laguna Beach
Walk into a room at the newly
renovated Laguna Beach
House, and you might feel like
you’ve stepped into a vintage
beach cottage. Whitewashed
wooden furniture, rattan
chairs, towel racks made from
Gordon & Smith skateboards,
and custom surfboards hung
over the beds give the 36-room
boutique hotel a distinctly
beachy-cool vibe. And that’s the
idea: The $1.5 million overhaul
of the former Laguna Cliffs Inn
Los Feliz
A novel inn
put the spotlight on the hotel’s
location, on the bluffs adjacent
to Heisler Park within easy
walking distance of Main Beach
and the restaurants and art galleries in Laguna Beach’s funky
downtown. Even the refreshed
pool area, with an outdoor hot
tub, gets into the spirit, especially at night, when a canopy
of twinkly lights illuminates
the chaises longues and Adirondack chairs situated around
the new firepit. From $197;
thelagunabeachhouse.com.
FROM TOP: LISA CORSON, GREG MERINO; RIGHT: BETHANY NAUERT (3)
EAT /
SIP /
COMING SOON
VANCOUVER
CHICAGO
LAS VEGAS
WASHINGTON D.C.
WAIKIKI
RIO DE JANEIRO
Valid for stays through December 17, 2015. Some restrictions apply.
PANAMA
BAKU
TORONTO
MIAMI | DORAL
IRELAND | DOONBEG
SOCAL INSIDER
SIP /
Red, white,
and brews
The minute he first saw the
space that became Barrel
Down, president Mike Winn
decided it had to be a beer hall,
given its high ceilings and long,
deep shape. His first instinct
was to give it a Bavarian theme,
but then he had another
thought. “Some of the finest
craft beers in the world are
being made in the U.S. now,”
Winn says. “So why not make it
an American beer hall?” With
Barrel Down’s interior invites sharing drinks and stories.
MARIE BUCK (3)
Chapter Three suggests Covell’s
time in Paris with vintage decor.
Each room also has a record
player with a curated selection
of albums (bluegrass for Chapter One) and letterhead designed especially for the era
the room represents. Kitchenettes with Smeg refrigerators
are in all the rooms, but we suggest ordering in a glass of wine
and a cheese plate from Bar
Covell to enjoy on the hotel’s
spacious sundeck. From $245;
hotelcovell.com.
Downtown L.A.
his co-owners, he did just that,
and now the bustling spot
serves some two dozen U.S.
craft beers on tap, many of
which are hard to find elsewhere, like Left Hand Brewing’s Milk Stout or Almanac
Beer Company’s Dolores
Farmhouse Ale. Pull up a stool
at the long, gleaming bar or
communal table, then order a
pint and a tempting bar snack,
like fresh-baked beer-dough
pretzels with dipping sauces
and crisp cauliflower “popcorn” with ginger aioli. Heartier fare (burgers, salmon,
chicken panzanella) is available too, as is weekend brunch.
$$; 525 W. Seventh St.; barrel
downdtla.com.
EAT /
Manhattan Beach
Community
chest
If Manhattan Beach were the
setting of a Monopoly game,
David LeFevre would be
winning. The James Beard–
nominated chef has been
snatching up and developing
waterfront properties here for
years—all to great success. First
came the acclaimed M.B. Post,
followed by the more casual
Fishing with Dynamite and
now The Arthur J, a stunning
steakhouse named after Arthur
J. Simms, the hospitable patriarch of LeFevre’s business partners. The midcentury modern
space evokes Palm Springs in
The Arthur J’s whole roasted snapper, with charred citrus, fennel pollen,
and salsa verde.
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SOCAL INSIDER
the swinging ’60s, with a bar
on one side and a formal dining
room on the other, complete
with china chargers featuring
the restaurant’s name in calligraphy and knives so sharp, the
servers warn you when you’re
seated. The retro-inspired
menu includes a bone-in rib-eye
for two, blue cheese wedge salad, and creamed spinach, in addition to deliciously salty Parker House rolls, served warm
with deviled ham. If you go for
a steak, there are 13 sauce and
butter choices, from chimichurri to Vietnamese caramel to
black-truffle butter. $$$$; 903
Manhattan Ave.; thearthurj.com.
EAT /
San Diego
Fiesta grande
After more than eight years of
planning and development,
the Cohn Restaurant Group—
which operates 20 restaurants
in San Diego, including Blue
Point Coastal Cuisine in the
Gaslamp Quarter—has finally
unveiled its colossal new venture, Coasterra. The modern
Mexican restaurant spans
28,000 square feet and has an
indoor-outdoor design and an
Scallop carpaccio with cilantro-cashew pesto at Coasterra.
event space. Situated on Harbor Island, it puts diners
directly on the water (more
than half of the seating is outdoors), with Instagram-worthy
panoramas of the skyline and
harbor. Floor-to-ceiling murals by local artist Rafael
Lopez line the dining room
wall, but perhaps the most
stunning feature is the floating event center, which can
host weddings, parties, and
concerts. Lunch and dinner
options, which include madeto-order tableside guacamole,
veer high-end, but for more
casual comida, head to the bar
and lounge. $$; 880 Harbor
Island Dr.; coasterra.com.
Coasterra’s new space has panoramic views of San Diego.
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