When you can’t discover Jeff Strauss in his Highland Park deli, Jeff’s Desk, or inside his Studio Metropolis bar-restaurant, Oy Bar, you need to in all probability test the parking zone of the latter.
The ex-television author — now chef and restaurateur — is channeling extra of his artistic power into a brand new, weekend-only bar and tasting menu known as Vey, Oy Bar’s new alfresco house constructed within the again parking zone.
“I wanted to do something that had as much delight and surprise without being the same experience,” Strauss mentioned. “We’re sitting in a parking lot in Studio City, in the Valley in the summer. It was 92 degrees back here today! So I said, ‘How do we celebrate that space, the night sky?’… The other idea, since we’re on effectively asphalt, we’re on the street, is to pay tribute to street food both here and all over the world.”
Oy Bar chef-owner Jeff Strauss, left, with sous chef Esteban Palacios at Vey, the brand new, tandem outside bar and restaurant.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
He normal new partitions from his storage unit behind Oy Bar, whereas artist Nick “Sick” Fisher painted them as a type of residence inside in surreal, nearly cartoon-like trend.
Spicy albacore with binchotan-grilled onigiri, a negroni and grilled scallops at Vey.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
At one nook, Strauss and sous chef Esteban Palacios grill crisp-edged onigiri, yakitori-style rooster liver with egg and sizzling honey, and scallops dripping with gochujang butter over binchotan charcoal, whereas a pizza oven warms entire heads of mushroom in soy and butter in cast-iron skillets. Typically they provide small plates, different occasions, like this weekend, a reservation-only, six-course tasting menu for what Strauss likens to “a casual, rolling omakase.”
On Friday and Saturday nights, friends fill the tandem idea whereas ready for indoor tables, or use Vey as their meal and cocktail vacation spot for the night. The expertise, like Vey’s culinary inspirations, is supposed to be versatile and fluid.
“People have taken to that very nicely,” Strauss mentioned. “It feels fun to me. I hope it feels fun to them.”
Vey is accessed by means of the again of Oy Bar, and is open Friday and Saturday starting at 6:30 p.m., with variable hours. Strauss hopes to increase its days of operation sooner or later.
12446 Moorpark St., Studio Metropolis, oybarla.com
Marinated blue prawns atop brandy wine tomato sauce on the patio of Child Bistro.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
Child Bistro
They name it a California bistro, however actually, chef Miles Thompson mentioned, it’s “an Angeleno bistro.” The brand new 36-seat restaurant from Thompson and his sommelier enterprise associate, Andy Schwartz, debuted earlier this yr in Victor Heights with hyper-local sourcing and a wide-ranging menu that pulls on Japanese, Korean, Italian, Mexican, French and extra flavors.
“I think the food is really defined by the cultures of Los Angeles,” Thompson mentioned. “If you already eat at any of the regional or international restaurants in this city, you’ll find inspiring foods that go into this menu.”
It started as a pop-up, which debuted on the base of Koreatown’s Resort Normandie in June 2023. Thompson, a former Michael’s and Konbi chef, teamed up with Schwartz, previously of Lolo Wine Bar, to serve a good menu of seasonal dishes by candlelight. Now in its everlasting residence, the duo are leaning into their creativity and discovering their footing.
A eating room of Child Bistro, which is housed in a former residential bungalow.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
Thompson ages wild-caught squid for 5 days earlier than slicing it and tossing it in a cucumber and yuzu kosho salad. His ginger-marinated prawns come plancha-seared and served over a puttanesca-leaning sauce, then garnished with Scorching Cheetos-inspired fried enoki mushrooms. He drapes burnt eggplant over house-made rooster sausage with fish sauce, Hungarian wax peppers and chile de arbol. Even Thompson’s signature planks of frivolously fermented, fluffy home bread replace with native produce. The dough is filled with candy caramelized onions; in a single iteration it’s topped with Liptauer cheese and extra marinated onions, and in one other, it’s Franklin’s Teleme cheese and marinated squash.
The three compact rooms in a transformed bungalow — a part of the reimagined courtyard that additionally homes Perilla, Bakers Bench and Cassell’s — supply the mushy glow of candlelight with a view of the open kitchen. On the patio, take within the small grove of century-old banana bushes.
Child Bistro’s à la carte menu is designed to share between two folks, and many purchasers order all of it.
“If you’re looking to really experience the beating heart of the restaurant,” Schwartz mentioned, “it’s in the menu.”
Day by day specials would possibly contain objects extra versatile to the whims of the farmers market, both in small plates or a bigger meat dish.
The intimate new setting additionally permits for Schwartz to rotate his wine choices incessantly.
Child Bistro chef and co-owner Miles Thompson, middle, with co-owner Andy Schwartz, left, of their Victor Heights restaurant.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
His listing spotlights pure wines, usually small producers making esoteric flavors or blends. He’s having fun with creating pairings for Thompson’s delicacies, which he characterizes as “classically challenging to pair with”: distinctive concentrations of flavors, consideration paid largely to acidity. The problem is a part of the enjoyable.
“That speaks to the connection between the wines that I like, and the ones that we serve at the restaurant, which can taste different every day,” Schwartz mentioned. “That’s sort of the nature of real cooking and real wine.”
Child Bistro is open Tuesday to Saturday from 5:30 p.m., with its final seating at 9:30 p.m.
1027 Alpine St., Los Angeles, babybistrola.com
A banana roll in tiger-stripe cake with cream at Hello Bake in Beverly Hills.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
Hello Bake
With laminated egg tarts, whimsical pastries, strains out the door and loads of cute puppies, a prolific China bakery chain has touched down in Beverly Hills. Hello Bake, based in Hong Kong, has expanded to greater than 60 outlets in China during the last 12 years, and because of a brand new partnership with Chubby Group (Niku X, Chubby Cattle), it simply landed within the U.S.
Its first American location takes over the previous residence of Sur Le Vert and Bouchon, and provides a lot of the signature objects discovered abroad: Tokyo banana rolls, thousand-layer muffins, meat floss rolls and egg tarts. Loaded toasts, flattened croissants, Dubai-chocolate tarts and fluffy matcha rolls all line the pastry case, whereas a separate pickup counter for cream-top matchas, pistachio lattes and different caffeinated drinks might be discovered subsequent door. Hello Bake is extraordinarily pet-friendly, internet hosting adoption occasions for cats and canines all over the world; the bakery’s personal emblem is a drawing of Dà Mài, the founder’s personal rescue canine. In Beverly Hills, anticipate house-made pet treats within the close to future. Hello Bake is open Monday and Wednesday to Friday from 9 a.m. to five p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to five p.m.
235 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, hibakebakery.com
Stuffed, fried squash blossoms and the Morso Di Vita cocktail at Bar Avoja, Mom Wolf’s hidden cocktail lounge.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
Bar Avoja
It’s not on daily basis that Evan Funke opens a brand new idea, not to mention a devoted cocktail bar, however the celebrated pasta-focused chef just lately launched Bar Avoja, a brand new semi-hidden cocktail lounge inside his Hollywood restaurant, Mom Wolf. Very similar to the restaurant, Bar Avoja is a partnership with co-owner Giancarlo Pagani, and it’s accessed solely by strolling by means of the lounge space of Mom Wolf.
It fills the previous Mars bar house (which was additionally owned by Pagani), and options separate meals and cocktail menus in a setting impressed by a Roman villa: jewel-tone curtains and pillows meant for lounging, whereas a disco ball displays off the partitions and gold-gilded mirrors. On Thursdays, discover vinyl DJ units, however each evening of service discover spuntini knowledgeable by Roman avenue meals, together with an oxtail-meatball sandwich on pizza dough; fried carbonara bites; flatbreads piled with salad, salmon or sugo; and grilled octopus skewers. Bar Avoja — slang for “hell yeah” — is open Thursday to Saturday from 6 to 11 p.m.
1545 Wilcox Ave., Los Angeles, motherwolfla.com/bar-avoja
Boichik Bagels Bradbury Constructing 
Boichik Bagels’ second L.A. outpost might be discovered downtown on the base of the Bradbury Constructing.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
This common Bay Space bagel outfit made its L.A. debut earlier this yr, and it’s already increasing. Boichik Bagels, from former engineer Emily Winston, serves the New York-style bagels she loved all through her childhood within the Northeast. Now it serves them on the base of one in all L.A.’s most iconic buildings, downtown’s Bradbury Constructing.
The brand new bagel store provides the identical vary of bagels discovered within the Los Feliz location — together with bagel sandwiches, greater than a dozen bagel flavors, and schmear in choices like hatch chile, chive or lox — with its personal distinctive menu of each day specials. Search for whitefish-salad sandwiches, kippered salmon, frozen take-home bagels, espresso and extra. Boichik Bagels is open downtown each day from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
304 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, boichikbagels.com
A dozen bagels from Boichik Bagels downtown.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
