Horses chefs return with new pop-up residency tonight

Weeks after Horses abruptly closed, some of its staff are finding a new temporary outlet in Chinatown.

The Hollywood restaurant, mired in acclaim and scandal, closed in late December, announcing guests with scheduled reservations that their visits would be canceled due to repairs to the building. According to state documents, multiple tax liens had recently been filed against the restaurant's parent company.

In 2023, the Horses founding chefs' divorce revealed court documents alleging animal abuse and cruelty; Eventually, Liz Johnson and Will Aghajanian left the restaurant and the rest of the staff continued. Brittany Ha, one of the restaurant's first “cochefs,” ran the kitchen during the upheaval, until the December closure. This week he's back in a new location with some of his colleagues, appearing at Chinatown wine bar Café Triste through a new residence named after his young son, Bruce.

Ha couldn't provide an update on the future of Horses, but said she and chefs Hannah Grubba and Alex Riley, also from the restaurant, have been cooking together for so long that their new pop-up came about naturally. They will serve a weekly rotating food menu Wednesday through Friday through February, with pairing wines from Café Triste.

“Working with them has been fantastic,” Ha said of the wine bar team. “Their kitchen setup is minimal, so it really forces creativity. I think it will be a nice change of pace from the volume of Horses. It's literally just the three of us cooking for everyone, so every dish is personal.”

Opening dishes will include options such as agro dolce radicchio with goat cheese; sausages and oysters; half a hen with bread with tomato; and Carnaroli rice pudding with kumquat jam. Bruce can be found at Café Triste in February on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5-11pm, and Fridays from 5pm-midnight.

980-A N. Broadway, Los Angeles, 213-278-0820, instagram.com/bruce__la and cafetristela.com

Raw Hokkaido Scallop with Meyer Lemon and Tokyo Turnips at Electric Bleu in Mar Vista.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

electric blue

Craig Hopson founded Electric Bleu years ago as a pop-up bistro, appearing in wine shops and other businesses whenever possible. After a break and a complete relaunch, it's now one of the Westside's busiest new restaurants.

The Le Cirque New York alum always wanted to own his own restaurant, but he put dreams of Electric Bleu (and his pop-up appearances) aside when he took on the role of executive chef at Shirley Brasserie at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 2023. While there, he served capless bone marrow for a modern bistro menu alongside reliable hotel staples, and caught the attention of local publications like the LA Times, which named Hopson's oxtail. Bourguignon one of the best dishes of the year.

A view of the open kitchen of Electric Bleu, a French-Californian bistro in Mar Vista.

But I still dreamed of Electric Bleu. In the second half of 2025, he left Shirley Brasserie and opted for a corner space in Mar Vista surrounded by a residential area. Together with his wife, Mai Sakai, he launched Electric Bleu as a full-fledged restaurant: a California French bistro where his own Australian roots still surface.

The menu changes daily and could include crispy-edged stingray wing with calamansi and meunière; Hokkaido scallops with Meyer lemon and Tokyo turnips; rabbit sausage and bacon with rabbit ragù; or roasted local cabbage with guanciale and béarnaise. What's always on the menu? Hopson's ode to salt fried chicken, an Australian dish that mixes freshly fried potatoes with chicken powder and other spices. If you can't decide what to order, let Hopson cook you a four-course chef's tasting menu every night and complement it with wine and sake. Electric Bleu is open from Wednesday to Saturday from 5pm to 10pm and on Sundays from 4pm to 9pm.

3523 S. Centinela Ave., (424) 316-9416, electricbleu.com

A breakfast sandwich with pineapple bread on a plate next to a latte in a yellow mug on a green patterned table

Rice & Fun x Chifa

The tight-knit family behind globe-trotting cafe Arroz & Fun closed their Lincoln Heights restaurant at the end of 2025, but this month they returned in a new format, installed in Eagle Rock family restaurant Chifa.

Arroz & Fun, which translates to “rice and noodles,” debuted in 2023 as a daytime-only cafe that combined its owners' Chinese, Peruvian, Taiwanese, and Salvadoran heritages for items like chorizo breakfast sandwiches on pineapple buns, soboro don, grilled chicken salad, and rice soup. It was operated by Humberto and Rica León, the former of whom co-founded the design house Opening Ceremony; Rica León's husband, chef John Liu; his son, Jarod Wang; and his partner, Gardenia Rosales.

Two men stand while a man and a woman sit in a dining room against a black and green patterned wall.

To drink, Rosales led a menu of equally internationally inspired caffeinated beverages, made with their own Cipota coffee beans sourced from El Salvador.

The team gave up the Lincoln Heights lease at the end of the year and then added Arroz & Fun to Chifa: Eagle Rock's ultra-chic, heart-accented, aquamarine-hued Peruvian, Chinese and Taiwanese restaurant. It now operates as Chifa's new daytime service and a combination of the two concepts.

The menu features the return of Arroz & Fun signature dishes, like the pineapple bun breakfast sandwich, along with new items like black pepper shrimp bowls, curry noodles, and chicha morada latte, which uses a homemade syrup from the Peruvian purple corn drink. Chifa's daytime collaborative service now also offers Wi-Fi in Chifa, for those looking to work remotely. An opening party is planned for February 7. Chifa is open Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 7am to 2pm, then from 5:30 to 9pm, and Thursday to Saturday from 7am to 2pm, then from 5:30pm to midnight.

4374 Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 561-3084, chifa-la.com

An exterior of the black and yellow Frontera Taqueria in Silver Lake.

Silver Lake Frontera Taqueria

One of the city's best taquerias recently expanded to Silver Lake with a larger location and planned beer and wine service.

An al pastor taco on black and white checkered paper at Taqueria Frontera in Silver Lake.

Taquería Frontera brought its Tijuana-style tacos to Cypress Park in the summer of 2024, and quickly gained local and national recognition for its handmade tortillas, its ties to the Tijuanazo Taquerías chain, and its ever-revolving top of herbed crema al pastor tacos. Owner Juan Carlos “JC” Guerra, whose father owns the Tijuanazo chain, started his own business as a pop-up shop on the street, then established the shop for burritos, quesadilla tacos, sandwiches and loaded beans.

Now he's brought his same Cypress Park menu of birria, carne asada, lengua, al pastor and more to a small shopping center in Silver Lake, where the second location features several indoor dining tables, counter stools facing the kitchen, a side patio and a parking lot. On the side of its new building the restaurant's motto reads: “MORE TACOS LESS BORDERS.” Taqueria Frontera is open in Silver Lake Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 10 p.m.

2590 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, instagram.com/taqueriafrontera

The in-house band, the Somerville Quartet, plays music on a stage.

CenaL.A.

DineL.A., the countywide celebration of local restaurants, is now underway. Twice a year, the sprawling event may offer limited-time menus, special offers and reduced prices at participating businesses. The winter 2026 iteration will run through Friday and involves nearly 400 restaurants spread across 70 neighborhoods. Fixed-price lunch menus start at $15, while dinner can reach more than $200 for a tasting menu at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Newcomers include the Arts District's Bianca Sicilian Trattoria, Temple City's Bistro Na's, Inglewood's Somerville, Koreatown's Gebang Sikdang and more. Find the full list of participants online.

Various places, discoverlosangeles.com/dinela