The Rogue 99
March 23, 2018 4:48 PM Subscribe
Tien Nguyen, Katherine Spiers, and LA Taco protest the embattled LA Weekly’s annual Essential 99 list of restaurants: The last year hasn’t been a great one for many of our local media institutions. With the fragility of those institutions in mind, we didn’t want such a vital list to disappear. In the spirit of the first one, we decided this year to create our own. As with the original, the Rogue 99 is intended to be a guide to the culinary soul of the city. It is not, to be clear, a list of the “best restaurants” in Los Angeles; rather, it’s a showcase of places to eat if you want to be fluent in the language of Los Angeles. These are restaurants, taco stands, and food carts that have been the lifeblood of the city and the county for at least a year, if not considerably longer.
Considering Spiers was the food editor at the Weekly until she was laid off last November , I’d consider this more revenge than anything else. Jonathan Gold remains the gold standard for LA food writing.
posted by Ideefixe at 6:09 PM on March 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Ideefixe at 6:09 PM on March 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
This is the kind of list that makes me wish I was independently wealthy and could just travel and eat.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:26 PM on March 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Dip Flash at 7:26 PM on March 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
bravo to this, and down with Semanal!
posted by wibari at 8:22 PM on March 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by wibari at 8:22 PM on March 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Considering Spiers was the food editor at the Weekly until she was laid off last November , I’d consider this more revenge than anything else.
I mean, it sounds like every single editor and all but one writer were fired, by a shadowy group of conservative investors. So it's not like one lone fired employee with sour grapes.
posted by lunasol at 8:39 PM on March 23, 2018 [11 favorites]
I mean, it sounds like every single editor and all but one writer were fired, by a shadowy group of conservative investors. So it's not like one lone fired employee with sour grapes.
posted by lunasol at 8:39 PM on March 23, 2018 [11 favorites]
Yeah, Papa Christo's missing the list was a disappointment, but as a frequent visitor of sushi gen and sushi katsu-ya I can vouch for both.
Salazar is more interesting to me, though, for its past: it was built on the location of an independent Mazda repair shop owned by a gentleman named Salazar who fixed just about every older Miata in town, as well as an old Protege owned by my father until he died.
I drove around in that car for a few years, loaned it to many friends for many years more, and finally gave it to Salazar so he could pass it on to someone in need. If you go to the restaurant and enjoy the food, take note that the kitchen is indeed in the original repair shed, and the whole thing is on a concrete slab that (I assume) had to be laid down because the ground is contaminated by years of gas station and auto repair activities.
When I went for the first time, I was disappointed to learn that they'd adopted his name but had no connection to him or his family, and knew nothing of the location's past. Nice people though, and good food.
posted by davejay at 10:43 PM on March 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
Salazar is more interesting to me, though, for its past: it was built on the location of an independent Mazda repair shop owned by a gentleman named Salazar who fixed just about every older Miata in town, as well as an old Protege owned by my father until he died.
I drove around in that car for a few years, loaned it to many friends for many years more, and finally gave it to Salazar so he could pass it on to someone in need. If you go to the restaurant and enjoy the food, take note that the kitchen is indeed in the original repair shed, and the whole thing is on a concrete slab that (I assume) had to be laid down because the ground is contaminated by years of gas station and auto repair activities.
When I went for the first time, I was disappointed to learn that they'd adopted his name but had no connection to him or his family, and knew nothing of the location's past. Nice people though, and good food.
posted by davejay at 10:43 PM on March 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
I had friends caught in that sell out of the Weekly. I'm really proud that they're still keeping the feet of the new idiots to the flames.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:12 PM on March 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:12 PM on March 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
My one objection is Din Tai Fun. Might as well put McDonald's on there. DTF is in most major international cities I go to.
posted by rednikki at 2:05 AM on March 24, 2018
posted by rednikki at 2:05 AM on March 24, 2018
I don’t think there are any McDonald’s with Michelin stars.
posted by lunasol at 7:52 AM on March 24, 2018
posted by lunasol at 7:52 AM on March 24, 2018
Hawkins House of Burgers is near my house. Their burgers are OK but I don't go there often and would not recommend them to anyone. Their business seems set up to emphasize that your time, as a customer, is completely without value.
Grand Central Market contains many vendors. Eggslut is good for breakfast. Horse thief is OK but not great Bbq. I have no idea who Villa Moreliana appeals to.
DTF, Apple Pan, and Langer's pastrami are classics. Philippe's is downtown Los Angeles the way it was when I was a kid. The Serving Spoon is reliable.
I've been to Neptune's Net but I never really thought it was about the food. It's up the coast on Pacific Coast Highway. The journey there would make anything taste great.
That leaves about 90 more places to eat.
posted by rdr at 1:23 PM on March 24, 2018
Grand Central Market contains many vendors. Eggslut is good for breakfast. Horse thief is OK but not great Bbq. I have no idea who Villa Moreliana appeals to.
DTF, Apple Pan, and Langer's pastrami are classics. Philippe's is downtown Los Angeles the way it was when I was a kid. The Serving Spoon is reliable.
I've been to Neptune's Net but I never really thought it was about the food. It's up the coast on Pacific Coast Highway. The journey there would make anything taste great.
That leaves about 90 more places to eat.
posted by rdr at 1:23 PM on March 24, 2018
DTF is overrated. Shame they didn't include another SGV spot that has better XLB at half the prices. It's not the true language of LA Chinese food without rude service. But better for me, since the tourists stick to DTF so lines dont form and prices rise at my local spots...
Looking through the list, I don't think I see any other restaurant that is a branch from an original location outside of LA. Even from the description of it from the list you wouldn't realize that it's a chain that started in Taiwan.
Also, that Michelin star is specifically for the Hong Kong-based DTF.
posted by xtine at 10:08 PM on March 24, 2018
Looking through the list, I don't think I see any other restaurant that is a branch from an original location outside of LA. Even from the description of it from the list you wouldn't realize that it's a chain that started in Taiwan.
Also, that Michelin star is specifically for the Hong Kong-based DTF.
posted by xtine at 10:08 PM on March 24, 2018
Has anyone mapped this? Because that A-Z list is doing me no favors.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:33 PM on March 25, 2018
posted by St. Peepsburg at 3:33 PM on March 25, 2018
Has anyone mapped this?
Checking now on mobile, if you scroll all the way down there's a Google map and an alpha list of neighborhoods. I think this was in the sidebar on the computer.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:46 PM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Checking now on mobile, if you scroll all the way down there's a Google map and an alpha list of neighborhoods. I think this was in the sidebar on the computer.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:46 PM on March 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Bless you! We're downtown now and I want to try something new :)
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:11 PM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 4:11 PM on March 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
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Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon, since the 69 places I haven't been to are, by and large, newer and trendier, and may only be flash-in-the-pan slang with no permanence, to go with that "language" thing.
I think if the list is about the language of LA, my particular dialect is missing Taylor's, Dong Il Jang, Tito's Tacos, Dan Tanas, Papa Cristo's, King Taco, Roscoe's, and Furaibo, off the top of my head.
posted by linux at 5:05 PM on March 23, 2018 [2 favorites]