For Karina Kravalis and Marco Provino, love blossomed over a plate of spaghetti di mare. The seafood dish — a specialty by Provino, a chef — proved to be the key that unlocked Kravalis’ heart. “This is the pasta that when we started dating, Marco was always making for me,” she says. “I’m a seafood person. He cooked it for me, and then I invited my...
Downtown’s Italian food scene gets a further boost this week with the arrival of Dopolavoro, a casual side-concept from the Terroni team. The Italian deli and marketplace looks to open on Wednesday, some two-and-a-half years after first being announced. Dopolavoro sits just a couple of doors away from Terroni on Spring Street, inside the same large...
Who knew that Utopia was in Long Beach diagonally across from a Courtyard by 0 and a Best Western Plus? I always figured that Utopia, as first envisioned by Sir Thomas More in 1516, was indeed an idyllic island in the southern Atlantic. But no, there it is at First Street and Linden Avenue, a very pleasant Italian/eclectic restaurant with a good ba...
Los Angeles has entered a golden age of Italian restaurants. The last year has seen master pastamaker Evan Funke open Felix in Venice, Sotto chef Steve Samson create an ode to Northern Italy with Rossoblu, pizzaiolo Daniele Uditi has a fresh take on Neopolitan pies with Pizzana, and Alimento chef Zach Pollack start his red sauce joint Cosa Buona. A...
Replacing the Royal Stone Restaurant & Wine Bar, the Bankers Hill bistro that shuttered in September, is a new Italian restaurant called Mia Trattoria. Named after owner Sergio Torrisi’sone-year-old daughter, the eatery is his first stateside restaurant. Torrisi and his father Ivan each have over two decades of industry experience in Rome, Italy, w...
Maestoso is moving into The Hub at Hillcrest as early as February 2018. Named after Roman chef/owner Marco Maestoso, who moved to San Diego with partner Dalila Ercolani this year, the modern Italian restaurant is replacing the Hillcrest outpost of Napizza. Napizza founders Christopher Antinucci and Giulia Colmignoli, who are childhood friends of Ma...
Let us now praise John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, after whom the humble (and often, not so humble) sandwich is named. The way the story goes, the 18th-century Earl was fond of playing cribbage and enjoyed a bite while at table but didn’t like to get his cards greasy. And since using a fork would have meant putting the cards down, he came...
In the week leading up to Christmas, Roe Seafood will honor both an Italian-American tradition and modern sustainability efforts by presenting a Feast of the Seven (Sustainable) Fishes dinner series. “With our Feast of the Seven (Sustainable) Fishes offerings, we really want to educate the public on sustainability and showcase some of the amazing...
Located near the intersection of Hoover and West 32nd streets, Casa Barilla opened to the USC community on Monday afternoon as part of a long lineup of new businesses at USC Village. Originating in New York City and with two stores in Dubai, this marks the pasta restaurant’s second location in California. When entering the newly opened restaurant,...
Jason Witzl knew a lot of local eyes would be on him when he opened Ellie’s on the corner of Second Street and Orange Avenue in Long Beach, the location of the beloved neighborhood staple At Last Cafe, which closed earlier this year. “It’s a ton of pressure. We opened the restaurant very quickly. At Last Cafe closed on a Sunday, we came in on a Mon...
S00o let’s start with this premise: there’s plenty of good, maybe great pizza in Pasadena, and there’s absolutely no need to travel outside the city limits to get anything better. Well, maybe. But to paraphrase Hamlet: There are more things in heaven and earth, Pasadenans, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. He was speaking of ghosts. I am speak...
Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, has started a new venture as owner and executive pastry chef of the Los Angeles pizzeria. When Candace Nelson met Daniele Uditi at a friend's pizza party, she immediately knew she had found something special. As the founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, Nelson and her husband "had no intention of going back...