West Hollywood’s Bravo Toast is on the expansion path, landing a new location in sunny Silver Lake. Owners and LA natives Jack Della Femina and Nathan Katz will take over the closed former Breadblok space at the Sunset Triangle intersection near Pine & Crane, with a planned opening slated for sometime this fall. The glossy space shouldn’t need much work, considering it had only recently been built out before the Breadblok team suddenly announced the closure of all of its locations overnight back in May.
Originally a pop-up with stints at Croft Alley and out in Montauk, New York, Bravo Toast has since gone legit at Doheny and Santa Monica Boulevard, offering its namesake toast as well as bowls, salads, and match drinks. There’s beer and wine now too, plus cafe drinks and dessert. Expect an opening sometime this fall.
Big food deals in Long Beach
Actor and author Tiffani Thiessen is doing a new cookbook signing with Kitchen Lingo Books in Long Beach on Saturday, September 30. In anticipation of the big event, restaurants around Long Beach’s Retro Row will be cooking up dishes from Thiessen’s book Here We Go Again: Recipes & Inspiration To Level Up Your Leftovers in the days ahead of the event. Little Coyote will be doing a pizza take on a breakfast sandwich, Alder & Sage will be doing lemon polenta flapjacks, and others will be joining in as well. The signing event goes down on Saturday, September 30 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Art Theater on 4th Street.
Changes in Virgil Village
Chef Travis Hayden is leaving Voodoo Vin in Virgil Village after nearly two years. Hayden helped to remake the restaurant into its current buzzy wine bar iteration, and while he has not yet announced a follow-up project his dishes will continue to live on at the restaurant, at least for the time being. Hayden’s final night at Voodoo Vin is this Saturday, September 9.
Punch’s best new bartender list
Congrats to Han Suk Cho of Kato at the Row DTLA development in Downtown, was named a semifinalist for Punch’s Best New Bartenders of 2023. Also listed are Ramsey Musk of Accomplice Bar in Mar Vista and Max Reis of Mírate. The final list will be revealed on October 10.
A big celebration
Feel like taking a road trip? Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos, California is celebrating 20 years with a big party on Thursday, September 21 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. The genre-defining Central Coast restaurant not only put the tiny town of Los Alamos on the map, it still makes some of the best, seasonally-driven, wood-fired food anywhere in California. Tickets are $65 per person.
A pop-up returns, and another finds a new home
The Parm Boyz pop-up is returning to Ronan on Sunday, September 10. Expect the usual antics from this long-running crew of restaurant insiders, in addition to the $44 set menu that includes salad, antipasti, chicken parm (or eggplant), and tiramisu for dessert.
Elsewhere, Armenian smoked and grilled meat pop-up III Mas Barbecue has landed as a weekly vendor at Smorgasburg on Sundays. Find them cooking up live-fire kabobs and other delights every week at the outdoor pop-up market at the Row DTLA complex.
Action Bronson visits LA
Want to see LA through the eyes of rapper Action Bronson? There’s a YouTube video for that. In this episode of Bronson’s Fuck, That’s Delicious he visits Yess Aquatic, the Little Fish pop-up, Anajak Thai, and hangs out with the guys from Badmaash.