I don’t know about you, but my best travel pals are my taste buds. What better way to feel connected to a place and its people than to eat as they eat. It’s a fact of being human, the need to eat to live, and I find it a delectably delightful way to experience a different culture and way of living. Food & hospitality are universal. You don’t need to speak the same language to know that you are welcome in someone’s home if they have a seat at the dinner table for you; you don’t need to speak the same language to understand your own taste buds.
I’m really fascinated by the intersection of food, hospitality, & community, if you couldn’t tell by me waxing poetic and all. Also, hence the title “Crossroads Diner" for what I intend to be a series exploring people and/or places that are working some magic at this metaphysical intersection. Lucky for me, this blog post was due right after a trip to L.A. and San Diego where there was plenty of exploring to be had.
Los Angeles, Part I: Black Market Liquor Bar & The Black Cat
I haven’t been to L.A. since I was 20 years old, so obviously I was very excited about the fact that I could both dine and imbibe on this trip. Fortunately my dear friend from ye olde days of serving at Roister, who now somms at Latin-inspired Dama by celebrity chef Antonia Lofaso in L.A.’s fashion district, really took the reins with only two days of me being in town. I landed Friday afternoon and we pooled around (my first time on a pool floatie, it was a giant mermaid tail, it was great!) until dinner reservations with his roomie and roomie’s ladyfriend at Black Market Liquor Bar, another Antonia Lofaso spot. I don’t know if it’s the Cali glow that everyone has that adds a warm veneer or if the staff was all so genuinely abuzz with cheerfulness and attentiveness, or both, but service was great and the food was fabu-licious. We had the dill chips, fried cauliflower, crispy spring rolls, and hamachi for apps, all of which were inhaled. Next round, burrata then heirloom tomato, and shells & cheese, tagliatelle, and whole tai-snapper escabeche to round us out. Drown me in the burrata. Bury me in that tagliatelle. Snapper so good we even went for the eyes. Drool emoji.
We needed a little mezcal to wash it all down, so next stop The Black Cat on Sunset Boulevard. It’s not quite midnight yet so food service hasn’t ended yet and there are open tables that can’t be claimed by the drinkers-only, so people are spilling out onto the patio and sidewalk. It isn’t rowdy or loud though, no one is pushing or mean mugging or passively-aggressively competing for bartender attention. There’s a comfortable closeness in the young and eclectically attractive crowd that’s easy to settle into, and the booze probably helped. I imagine it has more to do with the fact that it is the site of the “first documented LGBT civil rights demonstration,” as the plaque on the art-deco building says. I almost feel bad, like I didn’t honor the space enough, being in the haze of a food coma and a few shots n’ beers, though I had a lovely time. Next time, because there will certainly be a next time, I’m definitely returning for what looks like an amazing menu, and the powerful sentiment of the space.
Food makes you feel something. That’s why we stress eat or “eat our feelings,” that’s why we have sugar highs, that’s why we celebrate with birthday cake, and invent things like Edible Arrangements. It tastes good. It feels good. To put it another way, food has the power to do good. That’s why I appreciate working with The Chopping Block, and getting to teach, learn, and practice good habits through food, drink, and hospitality.
I wrote my first article on how we compost, but another thing that I value that we do is donate food. When we have an excess from parties (and within health and sanitation rules, obvi) it goes to Fight2Feed, a Chicago organization fighting hunger and food waste. I also enjoy working among peers whose culinary interests go beyond cooking, who write things like 8 Anti-Inflammatory Foods in Season Now, Go Greener in your Kitchen by Ditching Plastic Bags,and A Playbook of Healthy Game Day Food. Our mission is to get you to cook--what’s that old thing about a man and teaching him to fish?
Stay Tuned for Los Angeles, Part 2: Scopa Italian Roots & Old Lightning!
