Frogtown now has a vegan bar (behind Just What I Kneaded plant-based bakery) (2023)

justin bar

A green and colorful new bar in one of LA's best vegan bakeries serves wine, fresh-baked pizza and local vegetables. After about four years in the making, baker Justine Hernandez of Frogtown's Just What I Kneaded recently launched Justine's Wine Bar, which offers plant-based delights alongside organic and sustainably produced wines.

The wine list offers old-fashioned Austrian and French wines, as well as more local, interesting and original labels, as well as low-alcohol mixed drinks. According to Hernandez, Justin's Bar (and what I knead) is a fusion of old and new, tradition and experimentation, in short: "That's what we stand for," he says. "We have this old-school cafeteria (bakery), in the sense that it's almost like a cookie-and-pie diner, but in a new-school, vegan way."

While the new store bears his name, Hernandez sees the bar as a collaboration with local artists: His friends designed the lighting, painted the murals, and arranged and curated the floral arrangements throughout the bar. "Everyone has contributed to creating this unique space," he said. "It's a transformation: from this industrial area to this teenage jungle you walk into. It's a sexy escape."

Justine's Food Show is a former Plant Food + Wine chef and, like its sister concept, is also completely vegan.

(Rebecca Peloquin / Justin Bar)

With his knowledge of dough, Hernandez helps his chef prepare pizza. Just What I Kneaded's Simone Schlanger (formerly of Plant Food + Wine) runs the kitchen at Justine's, which serves marinated olives, meatball polenta, 10-inch pizza and seasonal salads, along with specialties like pasta and roasted vegetables. She and Hernandez alternate between soy and nut cheeses and often use a variety of vegetables instead of meat, including mushrooms for squid, a dish that pays homage to Italian calamari with a marinara sauce and salt. Fry pepper nuts, fry mushrooms with garlic and green pepper. Cheese croquettes with saffron aioli, rolled in homemade breadcrumbs made with bakery sourdough. Moroccan cigars smell like impossible ground beef with cinnamon and raisins; dip them in mint yogurt. Justine has room for around 40 people, including 12 in the bar, and in the evening she spends the night on the Just What I Kneaded terrace. The bakery now keeps pace with the sister concept and stays open late for cakes and coffee. Justine's Bar is open Thursday to Monday from 16:00 to 23:00. m. and plans to expand it to daily services.

2029 Black Avenue, Suite 102, Los Angeles,instagram.com/justineswinebar

Grand Central Market vendor Sushi Rush specializes in open-faced nigiri and hand rolls.

(Stephanie Brejo/Los Angeles Times)

New products at Grand Central Market

The historic downtown food court has been a gathering place and a place of hospitality for food vendors since its founding in 1913, and this month welcomes three new food stalls to its ever-changing roster. Culver City mainstay Maple Block Meat Co. opened on the forecourt of Grand Central Market and occupies the former Horsethief Grill space and features an outdoor bar serving craft beer and wine. The other grill, run by owners Daniel Weinstock and Mike Garrett, offers a reduced menu of Culver City favorites including smoked chicken wings, brisket, short ribs, Block burgers, fries and sides like macaroni and cheese. , cornbread and coleslaw, and fromTheir new pop-up shop, Maple Block Chicken, including chicken wrap and salad. Maple Block Meat Co. is open daily from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. rice. until

Inside, new vendor Sushi Rush stacks raw and charred fish atop handmade rice balls for nigiri and hand rolls at the old PBJ.LA stand. Founded by Tomohiko "Tomo" Kawamura (formerly of Katsuya and Jinpachi) and Nao Kikuchi, this new fast-casual concept specializes in nigiri sushi and "rush rolls" (or open rolls), which can be ordered a la carte. Or as part of a ready-made meal. Add-ons such as horse mackerel carpaccio, edamame, sashimi and shaved ice are also available. Sushi Rush is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. rice. until 20:00. A third vendor, Teddy's Tiny Bites, is slated to open in late August, featuring Armenian-style mini-pancakes by owners and longtime friends Paul Manjikian and Robert Baburian, and will operate from a booth next to Sari's Sari.

317 S. Broadway, Los Angeles; Maple Meat Company:Maple Chunk Meat.com; Sushi Hot:sushirush-la.com;Small fillings:teddystinybites.com

Maple Block Meat Co. Grill, now at Grand Central Market, serves ribs, sides like macaroni and cheese and weekend brisket.

(Stephanie Brejo/Los Angeles Times)

Sort restaurantuge

Los Angeles Black Restaurant Week is back with special offers and select menus from the region's Caribbean, African American and African restaurants. Now in its sixth year, the annual celebration will run from August 25 to September 3 and will focus on black-owned restaurants, bars and food businesses, participating juice bars, casual sandwich shops and fine dining. Includes Sky's Gourmet Tacos, Camille's Culinary Creations, Compton. Vegan, Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen, Pip's on La Brea, Peppered Goat and more.country indexHelps highlight these restaurants throughout the year.

different places,blackrestaurantweeks.com/los-angeles-black-restaurant-week

Danny House og Katsuya Century City

The two acclaimed restaurants will open under one roof next year, occupying 17,000 square meters of shared space in the Westfield Century City mall. The modern Mediterranean restaurant Casa Dani, managed by the well-known chef Dani Garcia, will occupy half of the space, serving Andalusian, Spanish and general Mediterranean cuisine, which can also be found at his New York outpost: Paella, croquettes, Spanish tuna, steak, lobster, oxtail brioche and much more. . Sushi chain Katsuya will choose another for its fourth location in the Los Angeles area, offering some of the Japanese restaurant's signature dishes, but with an all-new menu in addition; The menu is being rebranded. Both Katsuya and Casa Dani are managed by the culinary arm of global company sbe, and the shared Century City location will have around 400 seats across restaurants, a terrace, a circular bar between the two restaurants and the open restaurant itself. From Keya. beer garden The adjacent restaurant will fill the former Gulfstream and Bingsu spaces.

10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles,sbe.com/century city

The 17,000-square-foot Century City space will soon house two restaurants under one roof: Spanish-inspired Casa Dani and the newest branch of the Katsuya sushi chain, complete with a patio and shared bar.

(on behalf of Rockwell Group/sbe)

Monas Pasta Bar

An Italian-inspired bar in the former Ninth Saint Ramen House now serves homemade pasta amid floral installations and sculptures. The new venue was designed by local resident Devin Carlson, whose design firm also decorated the space. The wine list is almost entirely Italian, with an emphasis on low-intervention bottles that rotate by season. Executive Chef Freylin Morales, who has worked at All Time, Café Stella and L&E Oyster Bar, runs a kitchen that focuses on homemade pasta dishes such as spaghetti bolognese made with veal and ham, bucatini cacio e pepe and lamb sausage Casarecce with rapini. Morales offers more than just fresh pasta with fried calamari, citrus marinated pasta, burrata and tomato salad, veal Milanese and whole sea bass with caramelized fennel. Mona Pasta Bar is open Wednesdays and Sundays from 5-9pm and Thursday-Saturday from 5-10pm.

111 W. 9th St., Los Angeles, (213) 814-0094monapastabar.com

three hands

Tre Mani is Ghisallo's new casual eatery serving Italian sandwiches made from pizzeria dough. Options include a chicory roast beef sandwich with horseradish cream.

(Stephanie Brejo/Los Angeles Times)

Tre Mani, an informal collaborative place to have lunch at one ofThe Best New Pizza Places in LA, now open in Santa Monica, serving hearty sandwiches made by Gizalo. The owner of Tasting Kitchen, whose wood-fired pizzeria shares space with Jyan Isaac Horwitz's bakery, Jyan Isaac Bread, also makes schiacciata-style bread for Tre Mani sandwiches. The fillings are created by chef Travis Passerotti (The Tasting Kitchen), such as roast beef with horseradish, cilantro and endive; smoked aubergine with Calabrian peppers, mint, tomato and burrata; and salami with red berries, feta cream and pea sprouts. The name Tre Mani is a nod to the essence of the sandwich, meaning "three hands", or how many hands it takes to cut a sandwich in half. Tre Mani is open Tuesday to Sunday 12:00 to 16:00.

1622 Ocean Park Drive, Santa Monica, (310) 399-4060,tre-mani.com

dena r.

A retro-inspired restaurant is up and running near the lobby of one of the city's newest hotels. Delphi opened this spring in the former location of the Standard Hotel, and this month opened a late-night restaurant offering unique food and cool cocktails. Denae's serves fried chicken nuggets, all-day breakfast, mushroom melts, pastries, biscuits and gravy, macaroni and cheese, puddings, meatloaf, chicken pot pie and more, along with fillings like caviar tops. A canopy hangs over the restaurant bar and touts specialty drinks, while the cocktail menu adds a more American twist with drinks like the "To Live" and the "Pie in L.A.," made with cherry pie-infused Scotch. Denae's is open daily from 6:30am to 5:30pm. rice. until midnight. Additional restaurants and bars are planned to open in the Delphi Hotel later this year, including a rooftop restaurant and bar.

550 S. Flower St., Los Angeles, (213) 439-3002,Dana Estina's website

The Delphi Hotel in the new city center recently opened a retro-inspired restaurant that serves breakfast all day.

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mccharley's venice

McDonald's plant-based Frowny Meals hoax has gone viral on TikTok and has spread to the West End. The bright red and yellow restaurant first appeared in La Brea last year and went viral on social media; it recently opened another location, this time in Venice. McCarlie's offers McDonald's signature items like fries, nuggets, burgers and soft drinks (there's even a "Big Chuck," an explicit nod to the Big Mac), but it's all made with Impossible and other plant-based products.

"When I was a kid, I ate a lot of fast food," says partner Charlie Kim.told the times. "I'm a big guy, I play hockey, I'm used to eating meat and all that heavy stuff. I want to get fitter so I can take care of my family." The chain, which has a San Francisco location, is also committed to philanthropy: Local foundations have partnered with nonprofits like the Dream Center to staff their locations and hire people coming out of homelessness and substance abuse. McCarlie's in Venice is open daily from 11:11 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. rice. until

1827 Promenade, Venice, (310) 437-0149,mrcharlies.co