I’ve been a terrible blogger. My last post was almost 14 months ago!
As you might expect, many things have happened since last February, chief among them that I’ve moved to Los Angeles!
Yes, for the past 10 months, I’ve been an Angeleno, exploring this enormous city’s incomprehensibly gigantic list of choices for food and drink. Birmingham will always be close to my heart (and I’ll be visiting at least once a year: I’m still running FoodBlogSouth, and it’s not going anywhere), but The Messy Epicure is now officially a Southern Californian.
I promise not to let this site go for another year, so keep an eye out for updates on what I’m cooking, eating and drinking, but in the meantime, here are a few of my favorite spots so far in the City of Angels:
- Starry Kitchen (you have to call ahead to request it, but get the chili crab)
- Jasmine Market (the most unassuming hole-in-the-wall with the greatest Burmese and Indian food)
- Bestia (there’s nothing served here—food or cocktail—that isn’t delicious)
- The Spare Room (the most fun you can have in Hollywood—craft cocktails, bowling and a closet full of board games)
- Rivera (in a town full of awesome cheap Mexican, awesome expensive Mexican; also mezcal)
- Hide (best sushi value in town—try the mackerel)
- Slicetruck (LA’s supposed best Chicago pizza ain’t all that, but this thin-crust is)
- The Flintridge Proper (a bar in a strip mall in the suburbs just happens to have the best gin selection in America)
- Bigfoot West (good whiskey selection, great happy hour, fantastic bar trivia and close to where I live!)
- POT (Korean food like someone’s grandma cooked it [only the grandma is Roy Choi] plus ’90s hip-hop blasting on the speakers, and weird/delicious drinks to boot)
One thing I haven’t yet found in LA: good Deep South barbecue. The kings of SoCal ‘cue, Bludso’s and Baby Blues, are both Texas-style, which means no smoked chicken and sure as hell no Alabama white sauce.
Anyway, watch this space. And be sure to read my stories for LA Weekly—I’ll be writing about food, drink and cooking for the mag’s Squid Ink blog.