STORIES

How Padma Lakshmi’s stepdad became the curry leaf king of California

On a private road in the Avocado Heights neighborhood of La Puente, Anand Prasad’s farm appears mirage-like in the dust — a surprising swath of tropical green.

Bagel pop-up Maury’s finally opens a bricks-and-mortar shop

After more than two years of an itinerant existence between pop-ups at Dinosaur Coffee in Silver Lake and a swarmed stall at the Hollywood farmers market, Jason Maury Kaplan will finally have a bricks-and-mortar bagel shop to call home on Sunday, when Maury’s opens its doors.

At Yuca’s tacos in Los Feliz, a neighborhood origin story

For some, the origin story of Los Feliz begins on Hillhurst Avenue, under the canopy of “Mama” Socorro Herrera’s Yuca’s Hut. The tiny taco stand is a place of happiness — educational for some (no hard shell tacos or salsa bar) and a safe space for others, where Christmas ornaments hang from the ceiling year-round, Modelos from the adjacent liquor store are welcomed, and the menu, like the seasons in Los Angeles, won’t change.

The Legacy of Gourmet Magazine: As They Were

At first glance, Zocalo's “A Celebration of Gourmet” at the Skirball Museum looked something like a foodie's paradise. Two middle-aged women waited in the reception room — one in a wheelchair, one on the floor — surrounded by their impressive picnic of gherkins, cheese, crackers, olives and fruit.

70 years of the Apple Pan on Pico

The day the Apple Pan opened, on April 11, 1947, a neighbor brought flowers to crown the U-shape counter of the Pico Boulevard burger joint.

Tim Hawkinson’s Inverted Clocktower Plays with Time at Grand Central Market

If Grand Central Market is a barometer of time for downtown Los Angeles, Tim Hawkinson's Inverted Clocktower, an unassuming artwork wedged into the northwest edge of the building, is committed to the moment at hand.

Students opt for real-world experience in restaurant kitchens

During chef Ludo Lefebvre’s one-night gig at Akasha in Culver City this year, the top of a white chef’s hat could be seen barely peeking above the counter back in the kitchen.

Ototo, the new sake bar from the Tsubaki team, opens in Echo Park

The menu at Ototo, the new Echo Park bar from Courtney Kaplan and Charles Namba of the izakaya Tsubaki, aims to capture your sake aura. Are you into “fruit and flowers” or “earth and umami”? Do you tend toward “rice and minerals,” or, be honest, “delicious weirdos”?

Los Angeles Celebrates Gary Leonard’s 60th Birthday

When asked to identify himself at photographer Gary Leonard's 60th-birthday-party photo sale two weeks ago, a tall man with a large camera hanging from his neck refers to himself as “the other Gary Leonard.”

Best Cafe with Nature Hike Attached

If Julia Child and John Muir were to meet for lunch, and Julia wanted good, simple, butter-confident food made from scratch, and John asked only that they eat outside, in the shade of a few sequoia with dirt beneath their feet and the company of birds, they would agree on Trails Café in Griffith Park.

World Bicycle Relief

When Frederick “FK” Day is asked how he arrived at the bicycle as an international development tool, the founder and president of the nonprofit organization World Bicycle Relief (WBR) says it was a natural choice: “It seemed so obvious that a bicycle was an agent of change that I can hardly remember the genesis of the idea.”