Chef Tyler Wells’ restaurant opened one month before the Eaton fire tore through the scenic mountain town of Altadena, but it didn’t destroy the community — or his restaurant space. He relaunched it as Betsy last September, and this month, debuted Bar Betsy: an adjacent cafe by day and wine bar by night.
“Having those 30 days and having it taken away puts a different perspective on it,” Wells said. “You have this gratitude for what you have in the moment. Every day we’re just present.”
Tyler Wells sits outside of his new Altadena cafe and wine bar, Bar Betsy.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Bar Betsy serves what Wells calls “sunny, beachy, really simple food”: roast-carrot sandwiches, hearth-fired pecan cinnamon buns, heirloom-grain grits topped with thick-cut bacon and runny eggs, market tomatoes with strawberries and burrata.
Like Betsy, the menu pulls nearly all of its ingredients from local and independent farms. At night, Wells sees it as a kind of mountain take on a Parisian wine bar, with cheese, charcuterie, cara cara tuna crudo, lemon pie and a more robust by-the-glass wine list than can be found at Betsy.
He’d signed the lease on the Bar Betsy space before the fire, and happened to store some of his belongings there, including boxes of photos and his camping gear — the latter of which would come in handy post Eaton fire, when he spent a summer camping and cooking outdoors on a farm. “I feel like either the necessities survived, or the things that survived became necessities,” he said. “I don’t know which came first.”
After his own apartment burned, Wells couldn’t mentally or emotionally bring himself to sort through what little of his belongings remained — so he let the space sit. But as Betsy opened to acclaim, with guests clamoring for reservations weeks in advance, he realized he would need an overflow space. It was time to open Bar Betsy.
During the holidays Wells and his team started construction, adding a small kitchen, prep room and bakery to the former floral shop, along with banquette and bar seating.
Wells tapped Avanthi Dev — a Vespertine, Destroyer, Gra and Blue Hill at Stone Barns alum — to lead Bar Betsy’s food menu alongside Betsy executive chef Paul Downer.
“The most exciting thing about being up here is being part of a community that’s rebuilding,” Dev said. “It feels more meaningful to be a place that is needed, as opposed to just another place.”
The team also flipped a small alleyway lot that was formerly nursery space for the since-burned hardware store. This year they’ve planted garden boxes of tomatoes, berries, herbs and citrus trees, and added an outdoor oven, a composter, and a long table for private events. Bar Betsy is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
871 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, barbetsy.com
Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s New York strip steak with spinach and potatoes at Baldi, a new steakhouse in Beverly Hills.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Baldi
With handmade pastas, wood-grilled steaks and his childhood favorites, a famous Italian chef recently launched a personal take on a Tuscan steakhouse. Baldi, from chef Edoardo “Edo” Baldi, is now open at the base of the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills.
Bar Baldi, the Italian bar and lounge of Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s Tuscan-inspired steakhouse, is open daily.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Baldi was raised in Tuscany until the age of 10, at which point his parents, the famed proprietors of Giorgio Baldi, moved to Los Angeles. While the Baldis went on to dominate L.A.’s upscale Italian cuisine, they frequently returned to Tuscany, where Edo Baldi still has a home in Forte dei Marmi. In his new venture, he’s focusing on family recipes and Tuscan ingredients in an upscale setting.
“It’s getting away from a lot of fancy stuff — and also the trendy stuff — and really going back to the Tuscan table,” he said. “There are all these dishes that really, truly, are connected to my childhood, which is a Tuscan childhood.”
He has added a Tuscan family friend’s sauce to the menu — listed as “Sauro’s wife’s mezze maniche” — as well as a sformato special in a nod to his father, who would often make the soufflé-like dish for lunch. When the Baldi family ate steaks at home, his mother would make a simple red sauce and salsa verde to enjoy with the meat; at the new steakhouse, the meats come served with them too.
The menu also features Baldi-stalwart dishes, including a tortellini spin on their sweet corn agnolotti, which was based on a sweet corn soup Edo Baldi tasted roughly 30 years ago. “We give corn to chickens,” his father said at the time, but it became one of their restaurant’s most requested pastas for decades.
Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s signature sweet corn tortellini at Baldi.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
There’s a range of American steaks, as well as Japanese and Australian Wagyu, and sides such as broccolini, roasted potatoes and spinach are simply prepared. Baldi began his culinary career at 16 by making desserts for his parents’ restaurant; find cheesecake and butterscotch-and-rum budino on the menu. Baldi steakhouse is open Wednesday to Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. Its tandem lounge, Bar Baldi, is open daily from 5 to 11 p.m.
9850 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 860-6798, waldorfastoriabeverlyhills.com/dining/baldi
Fishmonger and entrepreneur Liwei Liao stands behind the new counter of his dry-aged seafood shop, the Joint, in downtown L.A.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The Joint Seafood and Uoichiba DTLA
This month one of L.A.’s most high-profile fishmongers opened a 4,000-square-foot emporium for dry-aged fish, hand rolls, coffee, Wagyu and fresh baked goods at the border of the Arts District and Little Tokyo.
A dry-aged fatty-tuna hand roll at Uoichiba downtown. Hand rolls can be ordered a la carte or in sets at the U-shaped sushi counter.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Liwei Liao, who helped proliferate dry-aged fish across the city and the country, launched the Joint Seafood market in 2018, followed by hand roll bar Uoichiba — both of which can be found under one roof in Sherman Oaks. Now both can also be found in a new downtown space that includes an expanded retail selection and a 32-seat sushi counter.
Liao wholesales dry-aged fish to restaurants, including Kato, Somni, Majordomo, Restaurant Ki and multiple José Andrés ventures. Using custom climate-controlled refrigerators, he draws moisture from seafood to develop flavor and alter texture. Dry-aged fish can be purchased at the counter for home cooking, or found in Uoichiba’s hand rolls alongside Wagyu, caviar and more. The retail counter also sells fresh oysters, smoked black cod, miso-marinated salmon, lox, a house furikake blend and uni butter.
The downtown store is 50% larger than Sherman Oaks’, and while the Valley outpost processes 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of fish per week, Liao expects the new location’s output will triple that, running through as much as 15,000 pounds weekly.
From the front door, guests can see every component of the space: Uoichiba with its U-shaped sushi counter to the far left and a neon sign with Liwei’s slogan, “FRESH IS BORING”; the Joint’s retail counter at center; and the coffee shop and shelves of pantry goods at right. Dozens of varieties of hanging fish can be glimpsed in the aging chambers. A larger production facility, in Vernon, is slated to open later this year. The Joint and Uoichiba are open downtown from Tuesday to Sunday, with the coffee bar open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Joint seafood counter from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Uoichiba from noon to 9 p.m.
600 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, jointseafood.com
A wedge salad featuring avocado, cured cherry tomatoes, bacon and house-made buttermilk dressing at Venice Steakhouse.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Venice Steakhouse
A cozy, low-lit steakhouse from a Petit Trois alum recently opened just one block from the famous “VENICE” sign. Venice Steakhouse is helmed by chef-partner Sydney Hunter III who, in 2016, Jonathan Gold called “the guy with the Snidely Whiplash mustache, handing you a plate of snails.” Hunter also worked at Bastide, Kettle Black, Café Pinot and Fraîche.
He’s melding that Italian and French training with California-cuisine sensibilities for items like meatballs with frisée and Champagne dressing; nasturtium French butter; wedge salad drizzled with Pedro Ximénez reduction; and carrots with sheep’s milk yogurt and his blend of “French five spice.” The steaks — some of which come dry-aged and in large formats — can be accompanied by a range of sauces such as Dijon-chicken jus, green peppercorn, red wine demi-glace and a horseradish cream made with whipped Kendall Farms crème fraîche. Venice Steakhouse is open Sunday to Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.
1715 Pacific Ave., Venice, (310) 209-8351, venicesteakhouse.com
Chef Tyler Wells’ restaurant opened one month before the Eaton fire tore through the scenic mountain town of Altadena, but it didn’t destroy the community — or his restaurant space. He relaunched it as Betsy last September, and this month, debuted Bar Betsy: an adjacent cafe by day and wine bar by night.
“Having those 30 days and having it taken away puts a different perspective on it,” Wells said. “You have this gratitude for what you have in the moment. Every day we’re just present.”
Tyler Wells sits outside of his new Altadena cafe and wine bar, Bar Betsy.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Bar Betsy serves what Wells calls “sunny, beachy, really simple food”: roast-carrot sandwiches, hearth-fired pecan cinnamon buns, heirloom-grain grits topped with thick-cut bacon and runny eggs, market tomatoes with strawberries and burrata.
Like Betsy, the menu pulls nearly all of its ingredients from local and independent farms. At night, Wells sees it as a kind of mountain take on a Parisian wine bar, with cheese, charcuterie, cara cara tuna crudo, lemon pie and a more robust by-the-glass wine list than can be found at Betsy.
He’d signed the lease on the Bar Betsy space before the fire, and happened to store some of his belongings there, including boxes of photos and his camping gear — the latter of which would come in handy post Eaton fire, when he spent a summer camping and cooking outdoors on a farm. “I feel like either the necessities survived, or the things that survived became necessities,” he said. “I don’t know which came first.”
After his own apartment burned, Wells couldn’t mentally or emotionally bring himself to sort through what little of his belongings remained — so he let the space sit. But as Betsy opened to acclaim, with guests clamoring for reservations weeks in advance, he realized he would need an overflow space. It was time to open Bar Betsy.
During the holidays Wells and his team started construction, adding a small kitchen, prep room and bakery to the former floral shop, along with banquette and bar seating.
Wells tapped Avanthi Dev — a Vespertine, Destroyer, Gra and Blue Hill at Stone Barns alum — to lead Bar Betsy’s food menu alongside Betsy executive chef Paul Downer.
“The most exciting thing about being up here is being part of a community that’s rebuilding,” Dev said. “It feels more meaningful to be a place that is needed, as opposed to just another place.”
The team also flipped a small alleyway lot that was formerly nursery space for the since-burned hardware store. This year they’ve planted garden boxes of tomatoes, berries, herbs and citrus trees, and added an outdoor oven, a composter, and a long table for private events. Bar Betsy is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
871 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, barbetsy.com
Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s New York strip steak with spinach and potatoes at Baldi, a new steakhouse in Beverly Hills.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Baldi
With handmade pastas, wood-grilled steaks and his childhood favorites, a famous Italian chef recently launched a personal take on a Tuscan steakhouse. Baldi, from chef Edoardo “Edo” Baldi, is now open at the base of the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills.
Bar Baldi, the Italian bar and lounge of Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s Tuscan-inspired steakhouse, is open daily.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Baldi was raised in Tuscany until the age of 10, at which point his parents, the famed proprietors of Giorgio Baldi, moved to Los Angeles. While the Baldis went on to dominate L.A.’s upscale Italian cuisine, they frequently returned to Tuscany, where Edo Baldi still has a home in Forte dei Marmi. In his new venture, he’s focusing on family recipes and Tuscan ingredients in an upscale setting.
“It’s getting away from a lot of fancy stuff — and also the trendy stuff — and really going back to the Tuscan table,” he said. “There are all these dishes that really, truly, are connected to my childhood, which is a Tuscan childhood.”
He has added a Tuscan family friend’s sauce to the menu — listed as “Sauro’s wife’s mezze maniche” — as well as a sformato special in a nod to his father, who would often make the soufflé-like dish for lunch. When the Baldi family ate steaks at home, his mother would make a simple red sauce and salsa verde to enjoy with the meat; at the new steakhouse, the meats come served with them too.
The menu also features Baldi-stalwart dishes, including a tortellini spin on their sweet corn agnolotti, which was based on a sweet corn soup Edo Baldi tasted roughly 30 years ago. “We give corn to chickens,” his father said at the time, but it became one of their restaurant’s most requested pastas for decades.
Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s signature sweet corn tortellini at Baldi.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
There’s a range of American steaks, as well as Japanese and Australian Wagyu, and sides such as broccolini, roasted potatoes and spinach are simply prepared. Baldi began his culinary career at 16 by making desserts for his parents’ restaurant; find cheesecake and butterscotch-and-rum budino on the menu. Baldi steakhouse is open Wednesday to Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. Its tandem lounge, Bar Baldi, is open daily from 5 to 11 p.m.
9850 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 860-6798, waldorfastoriabeverlyhills.com/dining/baldi
Fishmonger and entrepreneur Liwei Liao stands behind the new counter of his dry-aged seafood shop, the Joint, in downtown L.A.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The Joint Seafood and Uoichiba DTLA
This month one of L.A.’s most high-profile fishmongers opened a 4,000-square-foot emporium for dry-aged fish, hand rolls, coffee, Wagyu and fresh baked goods at the border of the Arts District and Little Tokyo.
A dry-aged fatty-tuna hand roll at Uoichiba downtown. Hand rolls can be ordered a la carte or in sets at the U-shaped sushi counter.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Liwei Liao, who helped proliferate dry-aged fish across the city and the country, launched the Joint Seafood market in 2018, followed by hand roll bar Uoichiba — both of which can be found under one roof in Sherman Oaks. Now both can also be found in a new downtown space that includes an expanded retail selection and a 32-seat sushi counter.
Liao wholesales dry-aged fish to restaurants, including Kato, Somni, Majordomo, Restaurant Ki and multiple José Andrés ventures. Using custom climate-controlled refrigerators, he draws moisture from seafood to develop flavor and alter texture. Dry-aged fish can be purchased at the counter for home cooking, or found in Uoichiba’s hand rolls alongside Wagyu, caviar and more. The retail counter also sells fresh oysters, smoked black cod, miso-marinated salmon, lox, a house furikake blend and uni butter.
The downtown store is 50% larger than Sherman Oaks’, and while the Valley outpost processes 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of fish per week, Liao expects the new location’s output will triple that, running through as much as 15,000 pounds weekly.
From the front door, guests can see every component of the space: Uoichiba with its U-shaped sushi counter to the far left and a neon sign with Liwei’s slogan, “FRESH IS BORING”; the Joint’s retail counter at center; and the coffee shop and shelves of pantry goods at right. Dozens of varieties of hanging fish can be glimpsed in the aging chambers. A larger production facility, in Vernon, is slated to open later this year. The Joint and Uoichiba are open downtown from Tuesday to Sunday, with the coffee bar open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Joint seafood counter from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Uoichiba from noon to 9 p.m.
600 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, jointseafood.com
A wedge salad featuring avocado, cured cherry tomatoes, bacon and house-made buttermilk dressing at Venice Steakhouse.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Venice Steakhouse
A cozy, low-lit steakhouse from a Petit Trois alum recently opened just one block from the famous “VENICE” sign. Venice Steakhouse is helmed by chef-partner Sydney Hunter III who, in 2016, Jonathan Gold called “the guy with the Snidely Whiplash mustache, handing you a plate of snails.” Hunter also worked at Bastide, Kettle Black, Café Pinot and Fraîche.
He’s melding that Italian and French training with California-cuisine sensibilities for items like meatballs with frisée and Champagne dressing; nasturtium French butter; wedge salad drizzled with Pedro Ximénez reduction; and carrots with sheep’s milk yogurt and his blend of “French five spice.” The steaks — some of which come dry-aged and in large formats — can be accompanied by a range of sauces such as Dijon-chicken jus, green peppercorn, red wine demi-glace and a horseradish cream made with whipped Kendall Farms crème fraîche. Venice Steakhouse is open Sunday to Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.
1715 Pacific Ave., Venice, (310) 209-8351, venicesteakhouse.com
Chef Tyler Wells’ restaurant opened one month before the Eaton fire tore through the scenic mountain town of Altadena, but it didn’t destroy the community — or his restaurant space. He relaunched it as Betsy last September, and this month, debuted Bar Betsy: an adjacent cafe by day and wine bar by night.
“Having those 30 days and having it taken away puts a different perspective on it,” Wells said. “You have this gratitude for what you have in the moment. Every day we’re just present.”
Tyler Wells sits outside of his new Altadena cafe and wine bar, Bar Betsy.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Bar Betsy serves what Wells calls “sunny, beachy, really simple food”: roast-carrot sandwiches, hearth-fired pecan cinnamon buns, heirloom-grain grits topped with thick-cut bacon and runny eggs, market tomatoes with strawberries and burrata.
Like Betsy, the menu pulls nearly all of its ingredients from local and independent farms. At night, Wells sees it as a kind of mountain take on a Parisian wine bar, with cheese, charcuterie, cara cara tuna crudo, lemon pie and a more robust by-the-glass wine list than can be found at Betsy.
He’d signed the lease on the Bar Betsy space before the fire, and happened to store some of his belongings there, including boxes of photos and his camping gear — the latter of which would come in handy post Eaton fire, when he spent a summer camping and cooking outdoors on a farm. “I feel like either the necessities survived, or the things that survived became necessities,” he said. “I don’t know which came first.”
After his own apartment burned, Wells couldn’t mentally or emotionally bring himself to sort through what little of his belongings remained — so he let the space sit. But as Betsy opened to acclaim, with guests clamoring for reservations weeks in advance, he realized he would need an overflow space. It was time to open Bar Betsy.
During the holidays Wells and his team started construction, adding a small kitchen, prep room and bakery to the former floral shop, along with banquette and bar seating.
Wells tapped Avanthi Dev — a Vespertine, Destroyer, Gra and Blue Hill at Stone Barns alum — to lead Bar Betsy’s food menu alongside Betsy executive chef Paul Downer.
“The most exciting thing about being up here is being part of a community that’s rebuilding,” Dev said. “It feels more meaningful to be a place that is needed, as opposed to just another place.”
The team also flipped a small alleyway lot that was formerly nursery space for the since-burned hardware store. This year they’ve planted garden boxes of tomatoes, berries, herbs and citrus trees, and added an outdoor oven, a composter, and a long table for private events. Bar Betsy is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
871 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, barbetsy.com
Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s New York strip steak with spinach and potatoes at Baldi, a new steakhouse in Beverly Hills.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Baldi
With handmade pastas, wood-grilled steaks and his childhood favorites, a famous Italian chef recently launched a personal take on a Tuscan steakhouse. Baldi, from chef Edoardo “Edo” Baldi, is now open at the base of the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills.
Bar Baldi, the Italian bar and lounge of Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s Tuscan-inspired steakhouse, is open daily.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Baldi was raised in Tuscany until the age of 10, at which point his parents, the famed proprietors of Giorgio Baldi, moved to Los Angeles. While the Baldis went on to dominate L.A.’s upscale Italian cuisine, they frequently returned to Tuscany, where Edo Baldi still has a home in Forte dei Marmi. In his new venture, he’s focusing on family recipes and Tuscan ingredients in an upscale setting.
“It’s getting away from a lot of fancy stuff — and also the trendy stuff — and really going back to the Tuscan table,” he said. “There are all these dishes that really, truly, are connected to my childhood, which is a Tuscan childhood.”
He has added a Tuscan family friend’s sauce to the menu — listed as “Sauro’s wife’s mezze maniche” — as well as a sformato special in a nod to his father, who would often make the soufflé-like dish for lunch. When the Baldi family ate steaks at home, his mother would make a simple red sauce and salsa verde to enjoy with the meat; at the new steakhouse, the meats come served with them too.
The menu also features Baldi-stalwart dishes, including a tortellini spin on their sweet corn agnolotti, which was based on a sweet corn soup Edo Baldi tasted roughly 30 years ago. “We give corn to chickens,” his father said at the time, but it became one of their restaurant’s most requested pastas for decades.
Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s signature sweet corn tortellini at Baldi.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
There’s a range of American steaks, as well as Japanese and Australian Wagyu, and sides such as broccolini, roasted potatoes and spinach are simply prepared. Baldi began his culinary career at 16 by making desserts for his parents’ restaurant; find cheesecake and butterscotch-and-rum budino on the menu. Baldi steakhouse is open Wednesday to Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. Its tandem lounge, Bar Baldi, is open daily from 5 to 11 p.m.
9850 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 860-6798, waldorfastoriabeverlyhills.com/dining/baldi
Fishmonger and entrepreneur Liwei Liao stands behind the new counter of his dry-aged seafood shop, the Joint, in downtown L.A.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The Joint Seafood and Uoichiba DTLA
This month one of L.A.’s most high-profile fishmongers opened a 4,000-square-foot emporium for dry-aged fish, hand rolls, coffee, Wagyu and fresh baked goods at the border of the Arts District and Little Tokyo.
A dry-aged fatty-tuna hand roll at Uoichiba downtown. Hand rolls can be ordered a la carte or in sets at the U-shaped sushi counter.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Liwei Liao, who helped proliferate dry-aged fish across the city and the country, launched the Joint Seafood market in 2018, followed by hand roll bar Uoichiba — both of which can be found under one roof in Sherman Oaks. Now both can also be found in a new downtown space that includes an expanded retail selection and a 32-seat sushi counter.
Liao wholesales dry-aged fish to restaurants, including Kato, Somni, Majordomo, Restaurant Ki and multiple José Andrés ventures. Using custom climate-controlled refrigerators, he draws moisture from seafood to develop flavor and alter texture. Dry-aged fish can be purchased at the counter for home cooking, or found in Uoichiba’s hand rolls alongside Wagyu, caviar and more. The retail counter also sells fresh oysters, smoked black cod, miso-marinated salmon, lox, a house furikake blend and uni butter.
The downtown store is 50% larger than Sherman Oaks’, and while the Valley outpost processes 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of fish per week, Liao expects the new location’s output will triple that, running through as much as 15,000 pounds weekly.
From the front door, guests can see every component of the space: Uoichiba with its U-shaped sushi counter to the far left and a neon sign with Liwei’s slogan, “FRESH IS BORING”; the Joint’s retail counter at center; and the coffee shop and shelves of pantry goods at right. Dozens of varieties of hanging fish can be glimpsed in the aging chambers. A larger production facility, in Vernon, is slated to open later this year. The Joint and Uoichiba are open downtown from Tuesday to Sunday, with the coffee bar open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Joint seafood counter from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Uoichiba from noon to 9 p.m.
600 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, jointseafood.com
A wedge salad featuring avocado, cured cherry tomatoes, bacon and house-made buttermilk dressing at Venice Steakhouse.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Venice Steakhouse
A cozy, low-lit steakhouse from a Petit Trois alum recently opened just one block from the famous “VENICE” sign. Venice Steakhouse is helmed by chef-partner Sydney Hunter III who, in 2016, Jonathan Gold called “the guy with the Snidely Whiplash mustache, handing you a plate of snails.” Hunter also worked at Bastide, Kettle Black, Café Pinot and Fraîche.
He’s melding that Italian and French training with California-cuisine sensibilities for items like meatballs with frisée and Champagne dressing; nasturtium French butter; wedge salad drizzled with Pedro Ximénez reduction; and carrots with sheep’s milk yogurt and his blend of “French five spice.” The steaks — some of which come dry-aged and in large formats — can be accompanied by a range of sauces such as Dijon-chicken jus, green peppercorn, red wine demi-glace and a horseradish cream made with whipped Kendall Farms crème fraîche. Venice Steakhouse is open Sunday to Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.
1715 Pacific Ave., Venice, (310) 209-8351, venicesteakhouse.com
Chef Tyler Wells’ restaurant opened one month before the Eaton fire tore through the scenic mountain town of Altadena, but it didn’t destroy the community — or his restaurant space. He relaunched it as Betsy last September, and this month, debuted Bar Betsy: an adjacent cafe by day and wine bar by night.
“Having those 30 days and having it taken away puts a different perspective on it,” Wells said. “You have this gratitude for what you have in the moment. Every day we’re just present.”
Tyler Wells sits outside of his new Altadena cafe and wine bar, Bar Betsy.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Bar Betsy serves what Wells calls “sunny, beachy, really simple food”: roast-carrot sandwiches, hearth-fired pecan cinnamon buns, heirloom-grain grits topped with thick-cut bacon and runny eggs, market tomatoes with strawberries and burrata.
Like Betsy, the menu pulls nearly all of its ingredients from local and independent farms. At night, Wells sees it as a kind of mountain take on a Parisian wine bar, with cheese, charcuterie, cara cara tuna crudo, lemon pie and a more robust by-the-glass wine list than can be found at Betsy.
He’d signed the lease on the Bar Betsy space before the fire, and happened to store some of his belongings there, including boxes of photos and his camping gear — the latter of which would come in handy post Eaton fire, when he spent a summer camping and cooking outdoors on a farm. “I feel like either the necessities survived, or the things that survived became necessities,” he said. “I don’t know which came first.”
After his own apartment burned, Wells couldn’t mentally or emotionally bring himself to sort through what little of his belongings remained — so he let the space sit. But as Betsy opened to acclaim, with guests clamoring for reservations weeks in advance, he realized he would need an overflow space. It was time to open Bar Betsy.
During the holidays Wells and his team started construction, adding a small kitchen, prep room and bakery to the former floral shop, along with banquette and bar seating.
Wells tapped Avanthi Dev — a Vespertine, Destroyer, Gra and Blue Hill at Stone Barns alum — to lead Bar Betsy’s food menu alongside Betsy executive chef Paul Downer.
“The most exciting thing about being up here is being part of a community that’s rebuilding,” Dev said. “It feels more meaningful to be a place that is needed, as opposed to just another place.”
The team also flipped a small alleyway lot that was formerly nursery space for the since-burned hardware store. This year they’ve planted garden boxes of tomatoes, berries, herbs and citrus trees, and added an outdoor oven, a composter, and a long table for private events. Bar Betsy is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
871 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, barbetsy.com
Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s New York strip steak with spinach and potatoes at Baldi, a new steakhouse in Beverly Hills.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Baldi
With handmade pastas, wood-grilled steaks and his childhood favorites, a famous Italian chef recently launched a personal take on a Tuscan steakhouse. Baldi, from chef Edoardo “Edo” Baldi, is now open at the base of the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills.
Bar Baldi, the Italian bar and lounge of Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s Tuscan-inspired steakhouse, is open daily.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Baldi was raised in Tuscany until the age of 10, at which point his parents, the famed proprietors of Giorgio Baldi, moved to Los Angeles. While the Baldis went on to dominate L.A.’s upscale Italian cuisine, they frequently returned to Tuscany, where Edo Baldi still has a home in Forte dei Marmi. In his new venture, he’s focusing on family recipes and Tuscan ingredients in an upscale setting.
“It’s getting away from a lot of fancy stuff — and also the trendy stuff — and really going back to the Tuscan table,” he said. “There are all these dishes that really, truly, are connected to my childhood, which is a Tuscan childhood.”
He has added a Tuscan family friend’s sauce to the menu — listed as “Sauro’s wife’s mezze maniche” — as well as a sformato special in a nod to his father, who would often make the soufflé-like dish for lunch. When the Baldi family ate steaks at home, his mother would make a simple red sauce and salsa verde to enjoy with the meat; at the new steakhouse, the meats come served with them too.
The menu also features Baldi-stalwart dishes, including a tortellini spin on their sweet corn agnolotti, which was based on a sweet corn soup Edo Baldi tasted roughly 30 years ago. “We give corn to chickens,” his father said at the time, but it became one of their restaurant’s most requested pastas for decades.
Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s signature sweet corn tortellini at Baldi.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
There’s a range of American steaks, as well as Japanese and Australian Wagyu, and sides such as broccolini, roasted potatoes and spinach are simply prepared. Baldi began his culinary career at 16 by making desserts for his parents’ restaurant; find cheesecake and butterscotch-and-rum budino on the menu. Baldi steakhouse is open Wednesday to Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. Its tandem lounge, Bar Baldi, is open daily from 5 to 11 p.m.
9850 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 860-6798, waldorfastoriabeverlyhills.com/dining/baldi
Fishmonger and entrepreneur Liwei Liao stands behind the new counter of his dry-aged seafood shop, the Joint, in downtown L.A.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The Joint Seafood and Uoichiba DTLA
This month one of L.A.’s most high-profile fishmongers opened a 4,000-square-foot emporium for dry-aged fish, hand rolls, coffee, Wagyu and fresh baked goods at the border of the Arts District and Little Tokyo.
A dry-aged fatty-tuna hand roll at Uoichiba downtown. Hand rolls can be ordered a la carte or in sets at the U-shaped sushi counter.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Liwei Liao, who helped proliferate dry-aged fish across the city and the country, launched the Joint Seafood market in 2018, followed by hand roll bar Uoichiba — both of which can be found under one roof in Sherman Oaks. Now both can also be found in a new downtown space that includes an expanded retail selection and a 32-seat sushi counter.
Liao wholesales dry-aged fish to restaurants, including Kato, Somni, Majordomo, Restaurant Ki and multiple José Andrés ventures. Using custom climate-controlled refrigerators, he draws moisture from seafood to develop flavor and alter texture. Dry-aged fish can be purchased at the counter for home cooking, or found in Uoichiba’s hand rolls alongside Wagyu, caviar and more. The retail counter also sells fresh oysters, smoked black cod, miso-marinated salmon, lox, a house furikake blend and uni butter.
The downtown store is 50% larger than Sherman Oaks’, and while the Valley outpost processes 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of fish per week, Liao expects the new location’s output will triple that, running through as much as 15,000 pounds weekly.
From the front door, guests can see every component of the space: Uoichiba with its U-shaped sushi counter to the far left and a neon sign with Liwei’s slogan, “FRESH IS BORING”; the Joint’s retail counter at center; and the coffee shop and shelves of pantry goods at right. Dozens of varieties of hanging fish can be glimpsed in the aging chambers. A larger production facility, in Vernon, is slated to open later this year. The Joint and Uoichiba are open downtown from Tuesday to Sunday, with the coffee bar open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Joint seafood counter from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Uoichiba from noon to 9 p.m.
600 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, jointseafood.com
A wedge salad featuring avocado, cured cherry tomatoes, bacon and house-made buttermilk dressing at Venice Steakhouse.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Venice Steakhouse
A cozy, low-lit steakhouse from a Petit Trois alum recently opened just one block from the famous “VENICE” sign. Venice Steakhouse is helmed by chef-partner Sydney Hunter III who, in 2016, Jonathan Gold called “the guy with the Snidely Whiplash mustache, handing you a plate of snails.” Hunter also worked at Bastide, Kettle Black, Café Pinot and Fraîche.
He’s melding that Italian and French training with California-cuisine sensibilities for items like meatballs with frisée and Champagne dressing; nasturtium French butter; wedge salad drizzled with Pedro Ximénez reduction; and carrots with sheep’s milk yogurt and his blend of “French five spice.” The steaks — some of which come dry-aged and in large formats — can be accompanied by a range of sauces such as Dijon-chicken jus, green peppercorn, red wine demi-glace and a horseradish cream made with whipped Kendall Farms crème fraîche. Venice Steakhouse is open Sunday to Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.
1715 Pacific Ave., Venice, (310) 209-8351, venicesteakhouse.com
