The Other Critics

J. Gold Pours One Out for Angeli Caffe; Virbila Lists Her Five Favorite Wood-Burners

Evaqn Kleiman at Angeli Caffe
Evaqn Kleiman at Angeli Caffe Photo: Tatiana Arbogast

Just try to keep a dry eye as Jonathan Gold stands at Angeli Caffe’s graveside, memorializing the Melrose pioneer’s final days and scoping the funeral for patron saints of L.A.’s true foods movement. “Evan Kleiman seemed to be at every table at once, dispensing hugs like aspirin tablets, consoling her customers on a day when she may have needed mothering most of all,” he writes, pointing out how the Good Food host “has figured in Los Angeles cooking for as long as anyone can remember.” Gold happily eats, “a last plate of gnocchi, a last pizza with artichokes…and slipped out, slightly drunk,” while we’ll all be tuning in to Kleiman’s show come Saturday to hear both continue a 15-year collaboration. [LAW]

Where there’s a chance to mention Ammo, S. Irene Virbila will be there. Today she’s looking at her favorite restaurants that highlight wood-burning ovens, bypassing Post & Beam and hardly holding her horses for Tar & Roses to retread such familiar ground as Marche Moderne, The ‘Nard’s Tierra Sur, A.O.C., Mezze, and last but certainly not least, the one they call Ammo. [LAT]

J. Gold is dropping prose left and right this week, but still has time to uncover tarte flambe for a Mr. Colin Brown, whose search ended somewhere between La Poubelle and Cafe Stella. Though maybe not as abundant as it once was in L.A., Mr. Gold has it and most enjoys the version at Church & State, and thinks you’ll also find satisfaction at Comme Ca or with the “goaty” spin at Artisan House. [LAW]

Jonathan Gold is back at Aroma Cafe in Westwood, and recommends the pljeskavica, “more or less like an enormous Balkan-spiced hamburger spun out into two dimensions instead of three,” which you don’t have to be able to pronounce to eat. [LAW]

The Goldmeister heads to Sushi Kimagure Ike in Pasadena, catching up with a chef “beloved for his skill at the early-morning fish markets, and his ability to less cut fish than to coax it into its ideal form.” He calls it “probably the best sushi bar Pasadena has ever seen.” [LAW]

J. Gold Pours One Out for Angeli Caffe; Virbila Lists Her Five Favorite