Los Angeles Archive

A SUSHI LOVERS’ GUIDE TO SURVIVAL IN TOUGH TIMES

By Larry Levine -It’s been a tough 13 months or so for sushi lovers. First, the Fukushima nuclear power plant poured radioactive iodine and cesium into the ocean off the coast of Japan. Anything that lived or swam in those waters – things like Japanese uni, saba (Japanese mackerel), and Pacific albacore tuna – became [...]
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CHEFS, NOT BABES / how we sell cars in the 21st century

By Larry Levine – While in college, Joyce earned spending money as a model at car shows. Manufacturers and dealers hired her to stand beside their cars in a swim suit and heels. Her job was to look lovely, smile and hand literature about the cars to men who stopped by. We dated a few [...]
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MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THESE / 12 memorable meals from the year gone by

By Larry Levine – “You’re lucky, eating so many great meals in great restaurants.” I hear statements like that frequently from people who assume I created a restaurant web site (atLarrys.com) and this online food magazine as an excuse to eat great meals in great restaurants. They have it backwards; the great meals in great [...]
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37 QUINTESSENTIAL RESTAURANTS FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA

By Larry Levine - What is the quintessential restaurant in San Francisco? How about Los Angeles? Sacramento? San Diego? New York? Chicago? Boston? We put those questions to the co-hosts of our sister web site – www.atLarrys.com, where we do restaurant recommendations – and quickly learned the answers get more complicated the more you think [...]
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IT STARTED WITH TAPAS / how small plates swept the nation

By Larry Levine – It started with tapas. About 10 or 11 years ago the Spanish appetizers hit the shores of the U.S. in a big way and quickly spread across the nation. First it was a spate of tapas restaurants. They did so well that other restaurants felt pressure to include tapas sections on [...]
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atLARRYS.COM CELEBRATES 2nd ANNIVERSARY / visitors in 52 countries have looked the restaurant recommendations

By Larry Levine - Our sister web site, atLarrys.com, where you turn for restaurant recommendations, celebrates its second anniversary today (October 6, 2011) and what a two years it has been. Since it was launched, atLarrys.com has drawn visitors from 1,245 cities in 52 countries around the world. Nineteen atLarrys.com co-hosts have posted 219 recommendations [...]
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A FOOD LOVER’S JOURNEY / BOB’S BIG BOY DOUBLE-DECKER HAMBURGER – We found a Southern California institution by a highway in Michigan

By Larry Levine – (Number 4 in a series of articles – A Food Lover’s Journey) It was a 1950s ritual: lines of teen agers in cars waiting to park and eat in the car hop service area of a Bob’s Big Boy restaurant. The lines were longest on Friday nights during football or basketball [...]
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FOOD BOOK REVIEW – “Save the Deli”

By Larry Levine - “Save the Deli” by David Sax tracks the history of Ashkenazi Jews – the plight they faced as they were chased around the globe, scapegoated, killed and survived for hundreds of years. And it is the story of the food they took with them and the delis they established to become [...]
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MUSSO AND FRANK GRILL – Where history meets the future in Hollwyood

By Larry Levine - It began innocently enough: Jennifer and I had dinner at Musso and Frank Grill in Hollywood a few months ago. When we got home, I informed my facebook friends of the latest wonderful meal we just had at this legendary restaurant. It quickly transition into pure panic: My friend Ric Torres [...]
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PHILIPPE vs. COLE’S – A Down Town French Dip Showdown

By Larry Levine - Los Angeles gets a bad rap when it comes to preservation of historical icons. The locals bring it on themselves with their crusades for landmark status for the original golden arches or the oldest remaining Bob’s Big Boy restaurant. On the other hand there are the Bradbury Building built in 1893, [...]
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