When a "Best of" restaurant kind of isn't

Bon Appetit magazine named Baco Mercat one of the "Hot 10" best new restaurants of 2012.  It was a "Best New Restaurant" in LA Weekly, covered in Esquire and made the cover of Angeleno. Not going would be like making some sort of statement, like the people who don't join Facebook. 

Book a table before 6:30 if you want to eat this year!

Baco Mercat was good. But it was also a lesson to me; a lesson I'd already learned in film. I used to think that if a movie was good enough to be nominated for an Oscar, it must be life-changing. But after years of cramming in the nominees' films during awards season, I realized that was false. Sometimes films are nominated because they happened to be the non-comedies that sucked the least. They were all good, just like Baco Mercat was good. But the earth did not rumble beneath me after my first bite, and I'd have to concede that expectations can ruin a perfectly good meal.

Hammered metal plateware classes up the joint

I also have to remember that this is Josef Centeno, the chef that every critic in Los Angeles goes gaga over. He opened The Lazy Oz Canteen to mucho fanfare, but I left disappointed. Critics are going to love whatever Centeno does, just like film critics will always love Spielberg, even if he made that Indiana Jones Crystal Skull film thingie in 2008. Oh, you missed that one?

Julie and Dayna, hotties who make me wish my hair were yellow

I wish Ricardo Zarate could get the credit that Centeno receives. Their menus are so similar, but the Picca Peru chef's food just tastes better. That's what should matter the most. Baco is worth the trip, but it's more of a People's Choice Award than Oscar-worthy.

having fun with friends even if I am a brunette

southern fried chicken and a biscuit - what could be better?

oxtail sandwich