The gift of a warm tortilla
ATLA, private party caterers, West Hollywood houses, gift guides, canned wine, Desert Ridge, martinis, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
ATLA, at last
For a city with no shortage of excellent taco stands, Los Angeles has a dearth of high-end Mexican restaurants. The Mexico City-based chef Enrique Olvera set out to change that in 2020, when he touched down with fine dining Damian, an instant winner with its sleek interior, Caesar-topped uni tostadas, and perfectly crafted margaritas.
This summer, Olvera doubled down, opening ATLA in Venice. It’s more casual than Damian, but dapper enough for date night, with pale blue walls, bright yellow menus, leafy plants, and blonde wood bar shelves stocked with mezcal. There’s a spacious, stringlit patio in the back.
ATLA’s origins are in downtown Manhattan, where it garnered fanfare for herb-laced guacamole, flaxseed chilaquiles, and seductively high ceilings. The LA outpost is similarly appealing and, in a way, a more natural fit for beachy Venice.
Those who have spent time in Mexico City are familiar with the effortless elegance pervasive among its best restaurants, like Contramar and Olvera’s firstborn, Pujol. At Damian and now ATLA, this vibe feels at one with a stylishly laid-back slice of LA.
The standout dishes: a divine chicken soup with warm tortillas, the butter-poached lobster burrito, a Brussels sprouts taco with spicy peanut butter. And as for the margaritas? Perfect here, too. LA could get used to this. –Emily Wilson
→ ATLA (Venice) • 1025 Abbot Kinney Blvd. • Dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Sat.-Sun. • Reserve.
LA RESTAURANT LINKS: Critic Bill Addison reveals LA Times’ 101 Best Restaurants in LA • Another fancy Washington, DC restaurant coming to LA • LA’s new generation of sake makers • How Sacramento turned into a great restaurant city.
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
Taking inventory in West Hollywood
It’s a tight market for single-family homes in West Hollywood. Last quarter, only 12 sales closed in the neighborhood, one more than in Q2, and just two more than a year ago. The median price for those dozen sales last quarter was $1.825M, per Elliman’s LA market report.
Today, 11 homes are on the market, ranging from $1.395M to $5.995M. Here are three that caught our eye:
→ 8840 Ashcroft Ave. (West Hollywood West) • 3BR/3.5BA, 1808 SF • Ask: $2.795M • Days on market: 29 • Broker: Benjamin Illulian, Illulian Realty/KW.
→ 518 Huntley Dr. (West Hollywood West) • 3BR/3BA, 2523 SF • Ask: $4.695M • Days on market: 55 • Broker: Jennifer Purdue, The Agency.
→ 918 N. La Jolla Ave. (West Hollywood, above) • 4BR/4.5BA, 3566 SF • Ask: $5.495M • Days on market: 50 • Broker: Justin Alexander, Christie’s AKG.
GOODS AND SERVICES • The Nines
Private party catering
Coco’s to Go-Go, new Italian-American catering biz by The Bear’s culinary producer
MAYDAY, top-quality raw bar and dry-aged beef courtesy of chef Chris Kronner
La Morra, pizza from a wood-fired oven on wheels, plus charcuterie, salads, and sides
Little Fish, beloved for high-low seafood delights, from roe-topped oysters to filet-o-fish
Mini Kabob, pick-up platters of LA’s best kabobs or for bigger events, charcoal cooking on-site
Chainsaw, grilled meats and ice box pies in an Echo Park garage-turned-party space or at your home
Guelaguetza, Oaxacan institution does passed apps, tacos, and mole for all types of festivities
Bucatini, Mediterranean-leaning meals with pasta likely included
Bridgetown Roti, family-style Caribbean-American or multiple plated courses by chef Rashida Holmes
Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or email found@itsfoundla.com.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Gift Guide
Blue velvet
Beauty entrepreneur May Lindstrom formulated her cultish natural skincare collection as a result of having sensitive skin as a child. This blue tansy balm, which smells like cacao and melts into skin, has become her signature item and an instant hit. Get it for anyone and everyone on your list. –Zoe Schaeffer
→ Shop: The Blue Cocoon (May Lindstrom Skin), $180.
GOODS & SERVICES • Gift Guides, See Also
A non-exhaustive list of this season’s shopping roundups from friends and acquaintances with taste:
The Angel, for local LA finds
Gloria, for stylish women
A Continuous Lean, for stylish men
Yolo, for travelers
Wallpaper, for design heads
HTSI, for Financial Times types
Kottke, for polyglots
The Kids Should See This, for the children
Food52, for the kitchen
La Briffe, for Ruth Reichl fans
Did we miss a good gift guide? Drop us a line at found@itsfoundla.com.
WORK • Thursday Routine
Uncorked in Malibu
KRISTIN OLSZEWSKI, founder and CEO, Nomadica Canned Wine
Neighborhood you live in: Malibu
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
My entire team is remote, so most days I’m working from home. We recently moved to Malibu after spending most of our lives in East Hollywood/Silver Lake/Echo Park. I feel like I'm working out of a treehouse.
What’s on the agenda?
Awaken (the app, not just the physical action). I like to meditate from bed. A friend of mine told me she did this and I incorporated it into my life. It makes it so easy. Then, coffee and walking the dog before jumping into work.
Most of my day is taken up by meetings. Today I have eight, including a weekly call with our creative team, an investor pitch, a chat with one of my favorite founder friends about a big account that I’m trying to get into, and some sales and strategy calls. It can be difficult to actually find time to eat, so I have a mini snackboard between meetings.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Tonight, I’m meeting up with one of my best friends, Evelyn Goreshnik, the wine director for Michael’s and Last Word Hospitality, at Bar Monette in Santa Monica. It’s one of my favorite spots and this week has been a hard one, so I want some comfort food. The chef/owner, Sean MacDonald, makes this truffle and aged cheese pizza that I think about more often than I’d like to admit.
On Sundays, our part-time creator comes to my place to film content. She’s amazing. Apparently, at age 36, I don’t know how to hold a cell phone in a way that doesn’t block the mic. Then I’ll meet Aishwarya Iyer, the founder of Brightland Olive Oil, at The Georgian Hotel for lunch (where I assembled the wine list). The chef is from Mozza, and you can see the ocean from the terrace. Going there, you feel like you’ve left LA.
How about a little leisure or culture?
One of my favorite things about living in Malibu is the nature, of course. We’re usually taking our dog on a hike, and I love to take visitors to Solstice Canyon or Zuma Beach. Aviator Nation Dreamland has live music all weekend, and it’s a personal favorite.
I take any opportunity possible to go to the Hollywood Bowl and am obsessed with the F&B program there. Carolyn Styne has always been an idol of mine (I think probably every sommelier in L.A. feels that way), and her program there is to die for. I feel the same way about The Silverlake Lounge. Steven, the owner, has done such an amazing job of curating the best DJs, musicians, and parties, and it’s become one of the last vestiges of community in Silver Lake.
Any weekend getaways?
My husband and I really like to unplug at Two Bunch Palms in Desert Hot Springs. I’m a sucker for hot springs resorts, and this one is my favorite. Incredible food and drink, complimentary yoga and tarot, and individual hot springs hot tubs where we spend all day and night reading and relaxing.
We also have a little day trip planned to Los Alamos. It’s been way too long since I’ve eaten at Bell’s, and I’m craving everything on the menu. We usually go for dinner, stay the night and go back for lunch. I’ll usually stop at some of my favorite tasting rooms — Holus Bolus, Tribute to Grace, and Stolpman.
What was your last great vacation?
We went to Tanzania this past summer with my husband’s family to celebrate his parents’ 40th anniversary. It was truly the trip of a lifetime. We visited the Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, Oldupai Gorge, and then ended the trip in Zanzibar. I never expected to feel such awe from looking at animals from a car. To see so much wildlife in such a gorgeous setting is something I’ll never forget.
GETAWAYS • Phoenix
Desert Ridge, spiced up
Phoenix has no shortage of luxury resorts for travelers looking for a dose of desert magic. Often, when it comes to the on-property restaurants, the trick falls flat. But JW Marriott’s newly renovated Desert Ridge Resort & Spa is a notable exception, with two excellent options for a getaway dinner.
Angelo Sosa, a Jean-Georges protégé and Top Chef alum, is behind the stove at both Tia Carmen, the property’s Southwestern-leaning flagship, and the Asian-inspired Kembara, which opens today.
With its wood-fire grill and Instagram-candy plating, Tia Carmen drew near-universal praise from critics and locals alike when it opened last year. But Kembara is clearly where Sosa is having more fun, leaning into his love of Asian street food, pushing the boundaries of what a hotel setting might lead you to expect.
There’s a bit of a nightclub feel to the space, with graffiti-esque murals and neon rope lights, which, frankly, fits the mood at the sprawling resort. (The property has a bit of everything: kids screaming down a giant waterslide, almost four dozen pickleball courts, and a massive spa with an adults-only pool and turquoise massages.)
But the food hasn’t been neutered to appease timid tourists. I was pleasantly caught off-guard when instructed to eat the fish head curry, ladled over a banana leaf tableside, with my hands; ditto the fiery black pepper lobster, served in the shell alongside disposable plastic gloves so I could pick the meat from every last crevice. The chicken larb was so spicy that I downed my miso-enhanced mezcal cocktail in one go.
This is the kind of property — a half-hour drive from Phoenix’s downtown, designed with every comfort in mind — that it doesn’t make sense to leave once you’ve checked in. How nice, then, that now you won’t want to. –Jamie Feldmar
→ Kembara (Phoenix, AZ) • 5350 E. Marriott Dr. • Reserve.
→ Tia Carmen (Phoenix, AZ) • 5350 E. Marriott Dr. • Reserve.
GETAWAYS LINKS: American Airlines forced to fly empty planes out of Orange County Airport • Western ski resort expansions at Aspen, Keystone and Steamboat are going higher • Inside the new Auberge resort Bowie House in Fort Worth’s Cultural District • Two new Japanese boutique hotels that are doing it right.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Ice Cold
Disney On Ice - Frozen and Encanto, Crypto.com Arena (Downtown), Sat @ 7p, section 111, $214 per
Debbie Gibson's Winterlicious, The Bourbon Room (Hollywood), Fri @ 8p, GA gold, $75 per
Skid Row & Buckcherry, Fonda Theatre (Hollywood), Sat @ 8p, left balcony, $150 per
ASK FOUND
Stirred, never shaken
Q: What are the best bars to get a perfectly executed martini?
A: All martini-drinking Angelenos know that the answer to this question is, first and foremost, Musso & Frank, where bartenders clad in red jackets are the most seasoned in town. Martinis here are stirred (approximately 12 times) and served with a sidecar.
Another appropriate move is to belly up to a ritzy hotel bar. Here are two excellent options, one classic and one new:
The bar at Hotel Bel-Air carefully crafts martinis and feels like a getaway within city limits, inside the hedged gates of Bel Air. The lounge boasts a fireplace and a grand piano, and the walls ooze Los Angeles with blown-up celebrity portraits.
Dante, atop The Maybourne in Beverly Hills, has been getting all the buzz, but the hotel’s namesake bar, helmed by mixologist Chris Amirault, is also worth a visit — and makes a mean martini. The menu features a play off the Bond recipe, aptly called Skyfall, and a version with snow-aged sake, should you want to try something beyond your usual order.
A few more FOUND subscriber PROMPTS for which we are seeking intel:
Where can I find the best carbonara in LA?
What’s the best spot for a civilized New Year’s Eve dinner?
I’m updating my wardrobe for ’24. What are the best men’s and women’s boutiques?
Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or or email found@itsfoundla.com.