A 50-YEAR LOVE AFFAIR WITH SACRAMENTO / it’s the restaurants and so much more
By Larry Levine – An electric ballet of lightning bolts leaped across the Northern California sky as I motored north through Stockton on Highway 99. The heat of an August afternoon had given way to a warm evening before I put the top down on my 1964 Pontiac... Read More
MOSCOW MULES & PERFECT MANHATTANS / everything old is new again
By Larry Levine – The Greater Los Angeles basin stretched endlessly out from the foot of the hillside mansion, where some 200 celebrants were gathered on a bright spring day for a Saturday afternoon wedding, reception, and dinner. Waiters marched in a non-stop parade... Read More
SCANDIA, A PALACE OF MEMORIES / gone but never to be forgotten
By Larry Levine – It’s gone. Flattened. Scandia – the palace of memories for generations of Los Angeles diners – has been leveled and hauled away to make way for a large mixed use hotel project. I had no idea how I would feel when they finally tore down the... Read More
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE JEWISH TO LIKE BRISKET / and it doesn’t have to be Passover
By Larry Levine – You don’t have to be Jewish to like brisket and it doesn’t have to be Passover for you to eat brisket. But it wouldn’t hurt. It goes by many names: brisket, brisket of beef, baked brisket, and in barbecue joints everywhere it’s called Q. If... Read More
SUMMERS WITH DAD / off to work we go and other delicious tales
By Larry Levine – 1. Take the salami down from the hook over the kitchen counter where it hangs to dry 2. Peel back the shell and slice enough for two generous sandwiches 3. Get out four slices of corned rye bread and put a coating of yellow mustard on two of... Read More
HOLLYWOOD PARK RACE TRACK / gone but the Short Ribs will live on
By Larry Levine – What will be my most enduring memory of Hollywood Park now that the legendary race track has closed forever? Hint: it has to do with food. When I was in college in the 1950s, we never took afternoon classes. Afternoons were reserved for... Read More
Super Storm Sandy Can’t KO the Spirit of New York at Coney Island Restaurants
By Larry Levine – They are my old haunts, the neighborhoods that form the memories of my youth and draw me back whenever we visit New York. Then they were parks and playgrounds and restaurants. Now they are scenes of devastation that have come to me as TV images... Read More
MY MOST MEMORABLE MEAL / Upside Down and Alone
By Carol Celeste – Two-story high glass walls opened the restaurant to the Circular Quay. Lights from nearby moored boats reflected on the water. More lights from surrounding high-rises decked the sky. A vase of fresh flowers graced the formal table service.... Read More
MEMORY LANE / where old favorite restaurants go to retire
By Larry Levine – Jonathan Gold’s excellent ode to Campanile in the L.A. Times food pages (Saturday, September 29, 2012) was enough to launch a trip down memory lane. Gold’s piece is warm, touching and human. Campanile, which will close later this year, clearly played... Read More
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