Listen 6 min MORE A restaurant in downtown Culver City features a bottle of hand sanitizer on each of its outdoor dining tables. Photo by Amy Ta.
On June 15, California and LA County will be completely reopened, meaning no more capacity limits and social distancing guidelines. It’s great news for restaurants that are eager to welcome back diners on-site.
But during the pandemic, many in the food service industry adapted and found success through ghost kitchens, using reservation apps like Tock, and through pop-ups that don’t have the overhead of a brick and mortar restaurant.
“Restaurants are going to revert back to zero restrictions on indoor and outdoor dining capacity limits, [and no] physical distancing at restaurants, cafes, clubs, bars. It s pretty much going to just go back to what life was like before March 2020. Although just remember, some businesses will likely still be applying the facema
Listen 9 min Jackfruit sopes at Chicana Vegana. Photo by Mona Holmes
In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic and a struggling food industry, LA’s vegan restaurants are experimenting with different and unusual ethnic flavor combinations, often with delicious results.
Eater LA reporter and KCRW contributor Mona Holmes re-joined Greater LA to talk about her top vegan dishes.
Holmes stepped away from contributing to Greater LA for a few months and explains why.
“When I learned about the accusations of a hostile workplace earlier this year, I believed them, and it was a very specific, familiar hurt, so I wanted to take a step back and see how the station would handle it.”
Mona Holmes
A giant spotlight is on plant-based dining after Eleven Madison Park chef Daniel Humm made a major announcement earlier this week. When his New York City restaurant reopens on June 10, he’ll introduce a $335 completely vegan tasting menu, and eliminate the unique dishes that made his three-Michelin-starred restaurant a worldwide sensation.
Reactions were mixed: from those who support a chef most well-known for making meat taking a step toward sustainability, to those who questioned its overall impact, and others who wondered aloud about the tastiness of the food. Some felt Humm’s shift isn’t new, as other fine dining chefs made similar leaps into plant-based cooking, including Dominique Crenn, who in 2019 announced she would no longer serve land animals in her restaurants. And while Wolfgang Puck’s menus are not plant-based, the LA-based chef served a mostly vegan menu for the 2020 Oscars with dishes like sweet potato tempura and wild mushroom bolognese.