189 The Grove Drive Z80, Los Angeles CA 90036
Web: Maggiano's Little Italy
Phone: 323.965.9665
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"The Los Angeles Grove/Farmers Market location of Maggiano's is a step shy of a fine steakhouse in overall ambition, catering to a slightly less pretentious clientele."
In one week's time, Buffalo Chow's editors ate our way through so many of Southern California's restaurants that friends and family e-mailed to ask how we'd digested everything - the answer: we're not sure, but it worked. Most of the O.C. and SoCal Chow articles we've published focused on our favorite experiences, leaving a bunch of others that weren't as positive, but still worthy of brief mentions. We've decided to round them all up in this Leftovers piece for Western New Yorkers who might be interested in other interesting culinary trends taking place on the West Coast. Some of the topics overlap Buffalo Chow articles from months past; others cover entirely new subject matter.
Coffee and Tea: Though we've mentioned in the past that Southern California is quite well-served by chains such as Starbucks and doesn't have quite the same independent coffee culture we enjoy in Western New York and elsewhere, we went out of our way to visit a few noteworthy places on this visit. The most interesting to us was Kéan Coffee (13681 Newport Ave., Tustin CA 92780, 714.838.5326), the latest venture from one-time Starbucks competitor Martin Diedrich, who sold his popular chain Diedrich's to the Seattle-based giant, then opened two more gourmet-focused shops in Orange County. Inside, a Kéan shop looks like a Cheesecake Factory, with Italian-styled lighting, clean wood-seamed tiling, and a nice earthtone color palette; its baristas make drinks that are far closer to the gourmet experience, complete with "latte art," than anything served at most chains, and very good pastries are brought in from a nearby bakery. Amongst other drinks, we sampled a lightly minted creme de menthe Grasshopper coffee and a couple of different lattes, which were fine to good. Though we weren't blown away by the coffee relative to our favorite places in other cities, the Kéan story is an interesting second act for an entrepreneur who could have remained within the Starbucks corporate culture or cashed out to do something truer to his original vision, and followed the latter path.
Two other coffee shops we visited were somewhat memorable, as well. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (12556 South Mainstreet/Victoria Gardens, Rancho Cucamonga CA 91739, 909.463.2232) is a chain we've sort of liked for years, offering Starbucks-style drinks with interesting alternate flavors. Though we can never quite get past how powdery the chain's frozen drinks are, we did share a nice enough Pomegranate-Blueberry Ice Blended that had plenty of fruit flavor - and sugary particles - in a perfectly blended cup of cream and ice. We were also extremely intrigued by a newer Taiwanese chain called 85 Degrees Coffee (2700 Alton Parkway #123, Irvine CA 92606, 949.553.8585) based on its claim that "85 Degrees Celsius is the ideal temperature to drink coffee." As hot as we like our food and drinks, we found the claim to be something only a little shy of insane: its hot drinks were about as fun to drink as a mouthful of molten lava. A cool cup of Iced Sea Salt Coffee - listed by the shop as its most popular drink, chainwide - struck us as nothing special, more interesting because of its creamy, salty top layer of foam than anything else, but its bakery section was loaded with traditional Chinese Mooncakes, Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes, and other beautiful pastries, many with an dried egg yolk filling that would put off some, possibly most non-Chinese patrons. We weren't huge fans of the coffee, but it's possible that ordering other items would yield better results.
Frozen Yogurt: We've already discussed our love for tart, Italian-style frozen yogurt at length, and there's no doubt that the craze has completely taken off in California over the last two years. Due to the popularity of the yogurt flavors and fun new toppings, U.S. king Pinkberry has opened dozens of new locations, including at Los Angeles International Airport, and our other favorite, Yogurtland, has also expanded its footprint. Scores of unfamiliar small competitors have also come into the market with less impressive names and decor, obviously jumping in on a gold rush that shows no signs of stopping any time soon. We made multiple stops at both chains on this trip, sampling their new tart pomegranate, sweet Ghirardelli chocolate, and S'mores flavors, genuinely enjoying them all; new toppings such as dark chocolate crisp balls also were memorable. As desserts go, we would sooner have a Yogurtland in Western New York than any other possible franchise or chain we can think of; should it happen, we will be on cloud nine.
Jamba Juice: Though Western New York now has its own Jamba Juice - actually, half of one - within SUNY Buffalo's North Campus Student Union, we wanted to stop by a full-fledged location in California and get a couple of our old favorite drinks. Though we noted that Jamba's in-supermarket locations are basically just like the one at U.B., similarly limited in menu offerings, its full stores are now serving sandwiches, and have substantially changed their drink menus. We were still able to get a nice orange and lemon-flavored Citrus Squeeze from the "old menu," but when we tried a new innovation - a lemonade iced tea called the "Prickly Pear Tea Infusion" - what we got tasted like a garbage pail full of acetone, rancid lemons, and toilet paper. It should be against the law to serve drinks that bad, let alone to charge for them; maybe a bigger Jamba menu isn't a better thing after all.
Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ: As we understood it a couple of years ago, Lucille's (12624 N. Mainstreet/Victoria Gardens, Rancho Cucamonga CA 91739, 909.463.7427) is a BBQ chain built on a lie - specifically, its apparently fictional back story of a girl bringing "granny's" secret recipes from Greenville to Long Beach - but from its Southern-styled decor to the quality of its smoked and grilled meats, we were entirely willing to focus on the dining experience rather than whatever B.S. might have been in its background. We've left Lucille's in the past feeling both stuffed and impressed, but on our most recent visit to the Rancho Cucamonga location, most of the meat - pulled pork, beef brisket, and ribs - was overcooked and dry, and all of the appetizers were unimpressive, leaving only the chicken and the jam jar-styled soft drink glasses to stand out. We'd planned to do a longer article discussing the wonders of Lucille's fried green tomatoes and pickles, its memorable serve-yourself box of Tootsie Pops to accommodate its long waiting lines, and the smart ways that the chain has decorated its locales, but after this experience, we're wondering whether Lucille's may have expanded too quickly, compromising on its quality. In its current form, we'd take Dinosaur BBQ any day of the week.
Maggiano's Little Italy: Though it mightn't fly in Western New York due to the crazy level of competition in the Italian restaurant space - and the area's atypical lack of enthusiasm for chains - Maggiano's is one of the three best Italian restaurant chains we've visited. More upscale than a Buca di Beppo and far more high-end than an Olive Garden, the Los Angeles Grove/Farmers Market location of Maggiano's is a step shy of a fine steakhouse in overall ambition, catering to a slightly less pretentious clientele. From the bright red, meat-packed Tuscan Sausage & Orzo Soup to the surprisingly well-balanced, sweet but not too sweet Butternut Squash Ravioli - served with perfectly counterbalancing sour, lightly crispy sundried tomatoes - and a wonderful, interesting Chocolate Zuccotto Cake with a light but noticeable Sambuca flavoring in its chocolate mousse, we enjoyed just about everything in our most recent meal here, as we have in the past; the complementary bread and a Chicken Saltimbocca entree were a little overcooked but otherwise good. Maggiano's might blend in a lot with Buffalo's Italian places, but it always delivers a good meal - in generous quantities - at a reasonable price. Its recent doggie bag strategy, offering a half-entree to eat now and a half-entree to eat at home for the price of a normal meal, is one that Western New York restauranteurs could learn from.
Frozen Bananas and Ikea, Revisited: You already know our view on frozen bananas; our visit to Dad's Original Frozen Banana this time merely affirmed our taste for these seemingly simple but actually semi-complex little treats. For whatever reason - superior freezer technique, bananas, or pre-freezing prep - the bananas on Balboa Island next to Newport Beach are just plain tastier than the ones we've found elsewhere and locally, with stronger banana flavor, less ice, and a just-right chocolate shell. This one, we had with toffee crunch on the outside, and it was very good indeed.
Finally, we've previously spoken of our love for Ikea - the store, the design ethic, and the surprisingly addictive little restaurant inside. Rather than rehashing our prior comments, we will say this after visiting the Ikea store in Covina, California: Western New York needs Ikea. Badly. And not just for those awesome little Swedish meatballs with lingonberries. Particularly at a time when stretching dollars is critical to so many people, the company's affordable, well-designed furniture and appliances could literally transform homes in this area without emptying the pockets of their owners and renters. A petition drive is long overdue; there are some nice big parcels of land around here that could easily accommodate this amazing retailer.
That's the last of our coverage of Southern California dining for the time being; many, many more pictures and details can be found in our Facebook photo gallery here. Our reviews of Western New York restaurants will now resume in earnest.
