WHY Prepared take-home dishes like lasagne and ravioli, huge and delicious sandwiches, savory sausages, take-and-bake pizzas and a bakery case lined with breads, cannoli and Italian cookies. WHAT This old-school Italian market and deli has been around since 1948, starting here in San Gabriel, and it now has five other locations. (This was once an [...]
April 13, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY The best takeout coffee in the area and, if you have time to sit down and eat, very good food, too. WHAT This is not really a place to sit with just a cup of coffee and linger—the people waiting for a table for breakfast or lunch will look daggers at you—but it’s a [...]
March 28, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Superb and generous ten-inch Italian subs made before your eyes on fresh bread. While you’re there, pick up some prosciutto, burrata and delicious, cheap homemade marinara sauce to take home. WHAT Every day around 11:30, the crowds start to gather at the long glass deli case, waiting to place their order for one of [...]
March 15, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY A little bit of heaven right on bustling Main Street. Delicious panini, a nice breakfast and lovely sweet crèpes. WHAT This modest café is a sleeper find on Main Street—a welcome alternative to the many overpriced and/or touristy eateries. Take your crisp, absolutely delicious panini to the hidden rear garden, where umbrellas shade the [...]
March 10, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Gorgeous lunch salads and very good dinnertime pastas. WHAT Run by hometown girl Gale Kohl and her husband, Rene Chila, Gale’s features a talented Italian chef, warm atmosphere and professional wait staff. Favorite dishes include mussels with white wine and garlic, caprese salad, Caesar salad and rosemary lamb chops. But for the best eating, [...]
March 4, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Pizza dough of perfect flavor and bite, paired with superb toppings; the margherita is simple the way E=MC2 is simple. WHAT Is Mozza’s pizza the second coming of Christ? You’d think so with all the hullabaloo around this pizzeria and its celebrity-chef parents, Nancy Silverton and Mario Batali. But the result is something more [...]
January 31, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY Seductive charm, a setting right out of Venice, Italy, and superb Italian food make it ideal for a memorable date or celebration. Just be prepared to pay for the experience. WHAT This beachside trattoria is so warm and intimate that you’ll feel like you’ve been invited to a friend’s house for dinner—a friend who [...]
January 21, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY A lovely covered sidewalk patio, worthy wines to drink here or take home, and mighty fine panini. WHAT Part wine shop and part outdoor café, this place was cleverly designed to keep the indoors temperature-controlled for the wine while having that indoor-outdoor flow so essential to Venice living. The wine-by-the-glass list is relatively short [...]
January 5, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY For celebrity cachet and hearty, South Beach—friendly Tuscan meals of salads followed by delicious bistecca fiorentina, flattened chicken or veal chops with rustic beans. WHAT The star power burns bright at this manly (and pricey) Tuscan trattoria, where the ingredients are good and the plastic surgery is better. WHO With co-owners like Robert De [...]
January 2, 2013 | Posted in
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WHY The mozzarella tasting plate, grilled octopus with potatoes, celery and lemon, orecchiette pasta with sausage and swiss chard, pan-roasted sea trout with Umbrian lentils—in fact, pretty much everything. WHAT The frenzy that built around the opening of this joint venture between Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and Nancy Silverton may have subsided, but getting a [...]
December 4, 2012 | Posted in
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