The Pantry

an umami boost. $12-14 | 👉 Purchase here or here All-Time pique sauce When restaurants pivoted to become one-stop pantries for produce and ingredients at the start of the pandemic, many started making their own bottled condiments, particularly hot

Here's a chance to give friends and family a "taste" of L.A. for the holidays. We’ve collected items from individual entrepreneurs and restaurants working to stay afloat during the pandemic, small businesses that give back to the community, shops

encountered creamy cacio e pepe and dry cacio e pepe. At times, an abundance of pepper made him want to choke. Some restaurants ground their own pepper; others used dust so fine it looked like it came out of the red McCormick box in your mom’s pantry. Cacio e

four ingredients: Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper, pasta and pasta water. It’s named for two of them. Translated from Italian, cacio e pepe means cheese and black pepper. The allure of a dish made with so few ingredients is indeed rooted in its

vegetable sides, and a dessert to share. It’s a great, colorful array of food for $22 per person. The restaurant also offers an a la carte menu, with items like a cumin lamb sandwich and shrimp & rice grits, along with pantry items like housemade brioche and

Manuela, the eclectic Art District restaurant, is offering delicious, well-priced meals for two with all the fixings. The suppers are just $44 and feature a nightly special—Sunday is fried chicken—along with great biscuits, a salad, various

Susan Yoon was furloughed from her job as chef de cuisine at Orsa & Winston shortly after the mid-March shutdown. At home, she cooked her way through a “pandemic pantry cleanout” and embraced projects such as transcribing her mother-in-law’s baking

recipes (date pinwheels, oatmeal icebox cookies) from photocopies. Yoon also began composing dishes for dosirak — the Korean lunch box, sometimes carefully composed with individual bites and other times shaken to mix all the ingredients together — and

are also two “dinner for two” options—a green chili with braised pork and a roasted veggie tagine—pantry items, wines and a few sides. (We loved the fries with nori mayonnaise when we checked out the restaurant in early February.) The idea to focus on

The lovely Silver Lake wine bar Eszett, which just opened in December, has drastically changed to suit the times. It’s now operating as Eszett Luncheonette and serving creative sandwiches (for curbside pickup or delivery via Caviar), like a grilled

workers. “It seemed like a very low-risk thing,” says Glanville. “I personally enjoy opportunities to go against the flow of things.” Customers can order coffee drinks, salads, sandwiches, and pantry items via an app for contact-free pickup outside the

The build-out was complete. Staff had been hired and trained. The kitchen was stocked. The opening party was on the calendar. Everything was in place for Go Get Em Tiger to debut its Culver City café in late March—until Los Angeles Mayor Eric

loss of more than $3 million dollars—funds which provide crucial support for our life-saving programs and services. At the same time, the pandemic has required us to create new programs, such as our Pride Pantry food bank which is now providing a box of

Opening a café in the middle of a pandemic might seem ill advised from a business perspective, but for the new Liberation Coffee House, located inside the Los Angeles LGBT Center, taking on that challenge is part of the mission. “We felt it was

for keeping your kitchen clean — How to organize all the ingredients you just bought — How to make some of your own pantry staples — How to freeze everything — Mastering the art of rice Lastly, it is a surreal moment to be a restaurant critic. Patricia

Josef Centeno is one of the chefs I admire most in Los Angeles. The owner of four restaurants — Bäco Mercat, Orsa & Winston and Bar Amá downtown, and Amacita in Culver City — he’s the kind of leader I’d nominate for a chef of the year award. On

developed creative concepts, are now being used as a food pantry where dinner ingredients are measured out. The goal is to provide enough food that a family of four can eat for a week. Word started to spread, and as donations started coming in, every dollar

As thousands of L.A. restaurants either switch their focus to takeout or temporarily shutter amid the coronavirus outbreak, the hospitality community has kicked into high gear to help its own. There are free meals, produce boxes, and innumerable

with a bottle (better value!) and can be picked up at from the restaurant parking lot. Pantry provisions like milk and eggs, along with the restaurant’s acclaimed mushroom French onion soup, are also available, as are tons of interesting wines by the

Already low on essential provisions like vegetables, milk, and wine? Head to Bar Restaurant, the “neo-bistro”  from restaurateur Jeff Ellermeyer, chef Douglas Rankin (who worked for Ludo Lefebvre for years), and manager and beverage director Pierluc