If you can't find Jeff Strauss in his Deli de Highland Park, Jeff's table, or inside his bar-restaurant studio, Oy Bar, he should probably consult the parking lot of the latter.
The former television writer, now chef and restorer, is channeling more of his creative energy to a new weekend bar and a tasting menu called Vey, the new Oy Bar's outdoor space built in the rear parking lot.
“I wanted to do something I had so much delight and surprise without being the same experience,” Strauss said. “We are sitting in a parking lot in Studio City, in the valley in the summer. It was 92 degrees back here today! So I said: 'How did we celebrate that space, the night sky?' … The other idea, since we are effectively asphalt, we are on the street, is to pay tribute to street food both here and around the world. “
Oy bar chef-Downer Jeff Strauss, on the left, with the sous chef Esteban Palacios in Vey, the new and in tandem outdoors and restaurant.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
He founded new walls of his storage unit behind Oy Bar, while the artist Nick “Sick” Fisher painted them as a kind of interior of the surreal fashion house, almost like a cartoon.
Spicy albacore with onigiri on the binchotana grill, a blackish and grilled scallops in Vey.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
In a corner, Strauss and Sous Chef Esteban Palacios Grill Onigiri with crunchy edges, chicken liver in the style of Yakitori with egg and hot honey, and the scallops that drip with gochujang butter on Binchotano coal, while a pizza oven heats the entire head of mususcalts with butter and butter in the melted iron networks. Sometimes they offer small plates, other times, such as this weekend, a six -speed reserve tasting menu for what Strauss compares with “an informal and rolling omakase”.
On Fridays and Saturday nights, guests fill the concept in Tandem while waiting for interior tables, or use Vey as their food and cocktail destination for the night. Experience, such as Vey's culinary inspirations, is destined to be flexible and fluid.
“People have taken that very well,” Strauss said. “He feels fun for me. I hope he feels fun for them.”
Vey is accessed through the back of Oy Bar, and is open on Friday and Saturday from 6:30 pm, with variable hours. Strauss hopes to expand your days of operation in the future.
12446 Moorpark St., Studio City, oybarla.com
Marinated prawns on the top of the Brandy wine tomato sauce in the courtyard of Baby Bistro.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Bistro
They call it Bistro de California, but in reality, said Chef Miles Thompson, is “a Bistro Angeleno.” The new 36 -seat restaurant of Thompson and its commercial partner of Summelier, Andy Schwartz, debuted earlier this year in Victor Heights with a hyperlocal supply and a very wide menu that is based on Japanese, Korean, Italian, Mexican, French and more flavors.
“I think the food is really defined by the cultures of Los Angeles,” said Thompson. “If you already eat in any of the regional or international restaurants of this city, you will find inspiring foods that enter this menu.”
It began as an emerging window, which debuted at the base of the Normandie Hotel in Koreatown in June 2023. Thompson, a former chef from Michael and Konbi, joined Schwartz, previously from Lolo Wine Bar, to serve a tight seasonal menu from seasonal dishes to the candlelight. Now in his permanent home, the duo is leaning in his creativity and finding his balance.
A dining room of Baby Bistro, which is in an old residential bungalow.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Thompson ages the squid captured in nature for five days before cutting it and throwing it into a Pepino and Yuzu Kosho salad. His marinated prawns with ginger come with plates and served on a touch of rottanesca sauce, then adorned with fried fried mushrooms inspired by cheetos. Short eggplant burned on homemade chicken sausage with fish sauce, Hungarian wax peppers and tree chile. Even the exclusive Thompson planning planks of the bread of the house slightly fermented and spongy with local products. The dough is full of sweet caramelized onions; In an iteration, it is covered with liptauer cheese and more marinated onions, and in another, it is Franklin's telemeated cheese and the marinated pumpkin.
The three compact rooms in a converted bungalow, part of the reinvented patio that also houses knob, Bench and Cassell's Bakers, offer the soft brightness of the candlelight overlooking the kitchen open. In the patio, take the small forest of the centenary bananas.
The menu to Baby Bistro's letter is designed to share between two people, and many customers order everything.
“If you are really looking to experiment the heart of the restaurant's beats,” Schwartz said, “is in the menu.”
Daily specials can involve more flexible items for the whims of the farmers market, either in small dishes or on a larger meat dish.
The new intimate configuration also allows Schwartz to frequently turn its wine offerings.
Baby Bistro Chef and Co -Outarium Miles Thompson, Centro, with co -owner Andy Schwartz, left, in his restaurant Victor Heights.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Its list highlights natural wines, often small producers that make flavors or esoteric mixtures. He is enjoying creating matches for Thompson's kitchen, which characterizes as “classically challenging to match”: unique concentrations of flavors, attention paid largely to acidity. The challenge is part of fun.
“That speaks of the connection between the wines that I like and those that we serve in the restaurant, which can have a different taste every day,” said Schwartz. “That is the nature of real cuisine and real wine.”
Baby Bistro is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 5:30 pm, with its last seats at 9:30 pm
1027 Alpine St., Los Angeles, Babybistrola.com
A banana roll in tiger cake with cream in Hi Bake in Beverly Hills.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Hello baked
With laminated egg cakes, capricious cakes, align the door and many cute puppies, a prolific bakery chain in China has landed in Beverly Hills. Hi Bake, founded on Hong Kong, has expanded to more than 60 stores in China in the last 12 years, and thanks to a new association with Chubby Group (Niku X, chubby cattle), it has just landed in the United States
His first American location takes over the old house of Sur Le Vartet and Bouchon, and offers a series of exclusive items found abroad: Tokyo banana rolls, thousand -layer cakes, meat rolls of meat eggs and egg cakes. Loaded toasts, flattened croissants, dubai-chocolate cakes and spongy matcha rolls align in the pastry box, while you can find a separate truck counter for matches in the cream layer, pistachio lattes and other drinks with caffeine. Hi Bake is extremely friendly to pets, organizing adoption events for cats and dogs worldwide; The bakery emblem is a drawing of Dà Mài, the founder's rescue dog itself. In Beverly Hills, wait for candy for homemade pets in the near future. Hi Bake is open from Monday and Wednesday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm, and on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm
235 N. Canon DrIveBeverly Hills, hibakebakery.com
French pumpkin flowers and Morso Di Vita cocktail in Avoja bar, the hidden cocktail room of mother Wolf.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Bar bar
Not every day is that Evan Funke opens a new concept, much less a dedicated cocktail bar, but the famous chef-centered chef recently launched the Avoja bar, a new semi-ocultic cocktail room inside its Hollywood restaurant, Mother Wolf. Like the restaurant, Bar Avoja is an association with the co -owner Giancarlo Pagani, and just walking through the beam living room of Mother Wolf.
Fill the old Mars bar space (which was also owned by Pagani), and presents separate menus of food and cocktail in an environment inspired by a Roman villa: curtains and pillows with jewelry tones destined to rest, while a disco ball is reflected in the walls and mirrors given by gold. On Thursdays, find Vinyl DJ sets, but every service nights find Spuntini informed by Roman street food, including a pizza mass ox ball sandwich; fried carbonara bites; Flat bread stacked with salad, salmon or sugivo; and grilled octopus skewers. Avoja Bar – Slang for “Hell Yeah” – is open from Thursday to Saturday from 6 to 11 pm
1545 Wilcox Ave., Los Angeles, Motherwolfla.com/bar-avoja
BOICHIK BAGELS BRADBURY BUILDING
The second place of the Boichik Bagels can be found in the city center at the base of the Bradbury building.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
This popular Bagel outfit of the Bay's area made its debut in the early this year, and is already expanding. Boichik Bars, from former engineer Emily Winston, serves the New York -style bars that he enjoyed throughout his childhood in the Northeast. Now it serves them at the base of one of the most emblematic buildings in Los Angeles, the Bradbury building in the center.
The new Bagel store offers the same range of Bars that are in the location of the happy ones, including Bagel's sandwiches, more than a dozen flavors of Bagel and Schmear in options such as Hatch Chile, Chive or Lox, with their own unique menu of daily specialties. Look for white fish salad sandwiches, kippers salmon, frozen bagels to take home, coffee and more. Boichik Bagels is open daily from 7:30 am to 2 pm
304 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, boichikbagels.com
A dozen Bagels of Boichik Bagels in the center.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
