PROPRIETORS’ PROFILE
Coming in Hot By Dora Dalton
Ori Menashe Bavel/Bestia Los Angeles
Culture & Taste - Proprietors LA
Top Chef winner and Detroit native Mei Lin opened Nightshade in January 2019 (launched with partners Francis Miranda and Cyrus Batchan of No.8.), joining the growing ranks of intriguing restaurants in the Arts District. It’s an apt location since her fresh, innovative, and very now dishes are beautifully plated works of art, with flavors that lend an Asian vibe combined with a farmer’s market flair. (Her lasagna with pork ragu, tofu cream, and prickly ash is already attracting acclaim.) Lin got an early start in the food business, working in her family’s Chinese restaurants. After a minor teenage rebellion away from the business, she trained in kitchens from Spago in Las Vegas to Michael Voltaggio’s ink in L.A. and staged in L’aterlier Robuchon, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Paris. Following the family tradition, she now runs her own special spot, and she’s truly making Nightshade her own. nightshadela.com 98
CULTURE & TASTE
Jennifer Feltham Sonoratown Los Angeles
Los Angeles is a taco-saturated town, but there’s always room for more, especially when they’re made with the care and craft— and warm welcome—that Jennifer Feltham and Sonoratown bring to each one. Her airy, handmade, award-winning tortillas (she says they’re more like dumplings than the typically stodgy f lour tortillas we’re used to) use a carefully chosen flour from Mexico, topped with carne asada cooked over a mesquite wood fire. Sonoratown, which she owns with her boyfriend, Teodoro DiazRodriguez Jr., opened in 2016 with the name of the community of Mexican immigrants that settled in Los Angeles in the 19th century (now L.A.’s Chinatown). The taqueria’s creations are based on the ones Feltham tasted in Sonora, while the tiny (but recently expanded) restaurant builds on 25 years of combined experience in food service. sonoratownla.com
Photo Credit: Laura Murray, Jenny Zheng
Mei Lin Nightshade Los Angeles
Nightshade’s neighbor in the Arts District, Bavel, was inspired by chef and co-owner Ori Menashe’s Moroccan, Turkish, Georgian, and Israeli roots, and the menu will take you on a culinary journey. The expected Middle Eastern standards like shwarma, hummus, and pita, were painstakingly made new with Menashe’s deft chef ’s touch, extensive experimentation, and thoughtfully import-
ed ingredients. Bavel—which Menashe opened in 2018 with his wife and co-owner, Genevieve Gergis—joins the couple’s previous outing, Bestia, located less than a mile away. Like that acclaimed Italian bistro, Bavel is a family affair in more ways than one: A from-scratch sensibility and a sense of community means you’ll feel at home at either restaurant, and will probably want to be repeat customers at both. bestiala.com