Bill Esparza

1 week ago | la.eater.com | Bill Esparza

One of Los Angeles’s most talented seafood specialists, chef Fransisco Leal, who helped develop the menu at Del Mar Ostioneria truck, is back on the street, preparing Sinaloan-style shellfish and seafood towers at a stand he calls Mariscos Chiltepín. Back in September 2019, Leal set up his mariscos shop with a few tables, chairs, and an ice chest along one of the desolate streets lined with warehouses in the city of Vernon.

2 weeks ago | la.eater.com | Bill Esparza

Erwin Recinos Mariscos Los Corchos is opening a dedicated pescado zarandeado trailer, perhaps the first of its kind in Southern California. The new rig has emerged after several setbacks, which included the shutdown of chef Anthony Plascencia’s successful backyard mariscos restaurant by the city of Rialto’s Code Enforcement office and a too-brief run at Smorgasburg.

2 weeks ago | la.eater.com | Bill Esparza

A new destination for South American cuisine has arrived in Los Angeles from restaurateur Henrique Huyer, who previously worked at Fogo de Chão for nine years, before opening H&H Brazilian Steakhouse in the former B. S. Taquería space in 2019. Casa Ipanema, which Huyer opened with his wife Herica on February 21 inside the historic Millennium Biltmore Hotel, serves a menu of Rio de Janeiro-style “fusion” in a space that would feel at home on a Brazilian beach.

3 weeks ago | la.eater.com | Bill Esparza

On February 28, the Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles went live with its “Elementa” dining experience, a menu set to an interactive, multi-sensory show designed by Mousetrappe Media. The Gallery is a venture between Darin Ulmer and Chuck Fawcett, a team of theme park industry veterans, and Joshua Whigham, a protegé of José Andres who took over the chef de cuisine role at the Bazaar in 2009.

3 weeks ago | esquire.com | Bill Esparza

I thought I’d seen it all, but nothing prepared me for the sight of a guy performing CPR on a dying rooster. If you happen to be a musician who used to perform at Mexican state fairs, as was the case for me back in the early 2000s, you’d go on stage as the headliner after the blood sport: cock fights, which are still legal in some Mexican states.