Why doesn’t FTC make their own top 100 . You know the truth.
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I think this is a very good list. I also feel that LA’s food scene has become such a tour de force that it feels way too short. And I also think that the first 10 rankings really matter and that the rest could be in any order.
That’s what the list has been for its entire existence. IIRC, Kogi was #1 once. I like it this way better, rather than the list of the best fine dining restaurants in LA that you appear to prefer, as I think it’s a much more accurate encapsulation of the LA dining experience.
No.
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Also, Somni/The Bazaar.
Vespertine at #101 reads almost like an honorable mention. Seems to me Addison & Escárcega are acknowledging the experience is like nothing else in LA, but also saying that it doesn’t connect with them the same way it did with Jonathan Gold. Looking at it that way, the placement makes sense, as a statement of their preferences/change of the guard. For what it’s worth, JGold’s review & placement of Vespertine at #1 in 2017 persuaded me to eat there, and I enjoyed that meal more than Kato (which was also excellent).
Jonathan Gold’s take on Vespertine wasn’t that different.
I would say that a meal at Vespertine is mandatory for a certain kind of diner, but mandatory in the way that the James Turrell show at LACMA a couple of years ago was mandatory, or Berg’s “Wozzeck,” or the current season of “Twin Peaks.” It’s not dinner; it’s Gesamtkunstwerk .
Why is Vespertine No. 1 on the 101 list this year?
Because Jordan Kahn is playing with modes of dining that have never before been articulated. Because months after your meal, images and juxtapositions will flash through your thoughts, as vivid as they were the evening of your dinner. Because Verspertine is in its way perfect.But isn’t the experience alienating? You tend to spend half of everything you write about a Kahn project explaining why most people are unlikely to enjoy it.
This is true — I do spend a lot of time thinking about how a young couple from Tarzana might save up for a nice night out and end up not just confused but angry about the fruit leather, dried kelp and clouds of smoldering frankincense. If you’re going to Vespertine — and of course, I encourage everybody to visit Vespertine — you should know what you are getting into, just as you would before seeing “Lulu” at the L.A. Opera.
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making a101 list in LA is impossible. that said, these lists are fun. yes this is a promotional list for the LA Times and it’s great because it creates attention to restaurants which all of us here love. but the list is apples and oranges. and that’s what it should be. there cannot be 50 sushi restaurants on this list. what would a best of LA (or socal) best sushi list look like? i believe it could easily be 50 restaurants. so the 101 list has a little bit of everything. the same applies to chinese restaurants. how about a top 20 szechuan list. it could exist here. we are blessed because this LA list has hole in the walls and $500 meals and everything in between. FTCers are a great resource for passionate food lovers. so my suggestion would be that the FTC cognoscenti create specialty lists. it might even be fun. i’d love to read them. and we can leave the 101 to the LA Times.
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