At Mexico City’s Pujol, Enrique Olvera makes what could be the world’s most famous mole, and next month, Angelenos can taste it at a pop-up he’s planning for the restaurant’s 25th anniversary.
From April 22 to 30, Olvera and his mole madre will touch down in L.A. to take over a few of his West Coast restaurants. While Pujol pops up at Damian in downtown’s Arts District with a tasting menu, it also will offer a more casual experience called Molino el Pujol at Olvera’s adjacent taqueria, Ditroit, serving a la carte options.
Through the years, Pujol’s tasting menu has highlighted the history, heirloom ingredients and vibrancy of Mexican cuisine, earning it two Michelin stars and a perennial spot on global best-of lists. At Damian, the special tasting menu will pull from some of Pujol’s most iconic dishes, including the mole madre.
Olvera continually adds to his original mole at Pujol to enhance and “age” its flavors — similar to a mother dough or starter for bread.
“On Tuesday [March 11], it was 3,650 days [old], which is crazy,” Olvera said of his mole. “I feel like a grandfather now, with the mole being 10 and the restaurant being 25. … When we opened 25 years ago we never dreamed that Pujol would become such a part of the Mexico City culinary scene, and we’re very grateful for that.”
Olvera is remodeling Pujol’s terrace, which requires shutting down the restaurant until May 5. In the meantime, he wondered, why not bring Pujol to another city? Most of its customers travel from New York or California; either would be an ideal pop-up location, he thought, especially considering Olvera’s multiple restaurants in both states. But after witnessing the way Los Angeles rallied for its residents after the devastating wildfires in January, he knew where he wanted to bring Pujol.
“We wanted to help revitalize a little bit of the energy,” Olvera said. “The beginning of the year was very hard for a lot of people, and we see the city having events and trying to revitalize not only the economy but also now the energy of the city. I think it’s a great moment.”
He and his team — some from Pujol, but primarily from Damian — will be revisiting past recipes, tweaking and updating them for seasonality and ingredients available in Southern California. Olvera is considering reprising his flauta with avocado and shrimp, or a cappuccino made with squash blossoms.
“We did that [cappuccino] in 2005, in that era we used to be a little bit more playful,” he said. “We all were playing around with food and making new things.”
When the restaurant opened, Pujol was more experimental and contemporary in its format but more strict in its use of only local, traditional Mexican ingredients. Now, the chef said, he’s more open to using new ingredients — provided they’re still local and seasonal. But when it comes to technique and his recipes, he’s become more classically minded.
The L.A. tasting menu will offer roughly six courses, plus a few additional bites. Expect two seatings, one around 5:50 p.m. and another around 8:30 p.m., for 90 guests at each time slot. The prices have yet to be determined for the Damian tasting menu and the items at Ditroit, but a portion of the profits will benefit No Us Without You, a local nonprofit that provides food and other resources to undocumented workers in the service industry and beyond.
Beverage pairings can be ordered separately, most likely following the format of Pujol’s, which involves mezcal or tequila along with Mexican beer and wine.
Reservations for the pop-up go live Friday at noon via Damian’s Resy page.
As Olvera readies his menu and his team for a brief L.A. residency, he’s looking to the future and imagining what Pujol might look like at 50 years old.
“As a mature restaurant, the next 25 years are going to be more challenging because staying relevant is going to require a lot of effort,” Olvera said. “It doesn’t get easier, that we know. But we’re really looking forward to it as well.”
pujol.com.mx/eng; Damian is located at 2132 E. 7th Place, Los Angeles, (213) 270-0178, damiandtla.com
Din Tai Fung Santa Monica
Din Tai Fung’s popular-all-over-the-world soup dumplings can now be eaten with an ocean view: The xiao long bao specialist recently expanded to Santa Monica with a sprawling restaurant that features playful steamer-basket decor and spans more than 10,600 square feet.
The Taiwan-founded dumpling chain began in 1972 and now operates more than 165 locations. Its latest outpost in L.A. is one of its largest in the U.S., perched atop the Santa Monica Place mall, and features oversize dim sum-basket touches across the space, such as the large wood structure affixed to the entrance of the restaurant or the main dining room’s booths that seat guests in what look like circular bamboo dumpling trays. Ocean views can be seen from the upper deck of the patio, which also features a firepit.
The food menu mirrors Din Tai Fung’s other Southern California locations, offering a range of hand-folded soup dumplings and wontons, plus appetizer salads, noodle soups, fried pork chops, stir-fried rice and noodles from the wok, yuzu margaritas and more. Unlike Din Tai Fung’s other local outposts, its latest is reservation-only for the time being. Din Tai Fung is open in Santa Monica from Monday to Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., then 4 to 9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
395 Santa Monica Place, Suite FC01, Santa Monica, (310) 737-2088, dtf.com/en
Lasung Tofu & Pot Rice
With bubbling cauldrons of lobster stew and steaming pots of rice brimming with toppings, a prolific Koreatown restaurant group is getting into the tofu-house game.
Lasung Tofu & Pot Rice is the latest project from On6thAvenue Hospitality, the team behind Korean-barbecue operations Quarters, Origin and Moohan, plus katsu specialist Lasung House, nightclub Terra Cotta and Long Beach Korean fusion spot Marinate. Lasung Tofu & Pot Rice is the group’s take on a soondubu house, or a specialist in Korean soft-tofu stews, with modern twists.
The focus is soondubu, and the bubbling red broth simmers for 10 hours and can be ordered in four spice levels, from light to extra strong. It can come chock full of crab, beef short ribs, mixed intestines, ham, the signature lobster tail and more, and ordered a la carte or as part of a set meal. Crisp-bottomed pot rice is also on offer — in options such as minari and clams, seasoned short ribs with garlic butter and grilled eel — as are pork jowl platters, fried dumplings, bone broths, bulgogi and grilled gochujang whole squid. Meanwhile, the menu details the health benefits of some of the restaurant’s ingredients such as green peas, whole barley, oats and black beans. Lasung Tofu & Pot Rice is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
3060 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite #150, Los Angeles, (213) 232-3136, instagram.com/lasungtofu
Midnight Oil
A new bar in Long Beach is serving inventive cocktails with dim sum from a team of familiar faces. Midnight Oil recently debuted in the former Rosemallows space with a new owner: Leonard Chan of hospitality group and consulting firm the Alchemists, which operates Anaheim speakeasy the Blind Rabbit, San Clemente tiki bar the Lost Inferno and others.
Chan kept much of the Rosemallows staff to run Midnight Oil, with alum Peter Ross leading a beverage menu that includes Japanese whisky with persimmons and apple soda; shochu with lemongrass and winter melon; and a fried-rice-inspired cocktail of baijiu, gin, pineapple, basil and five spice. To pair, there’s a tight menu of dim sum such as har gao, shumai, fried rice, Taiwanese popcorn chicken and egg rolls stuffed with pork and mushrooms — the latter a recipe from Chan’s aunt.
Attached to Midnight Oil is a down-home speakeasy called Roadkill, a “hidden bar with tropical-country vibes” that originally cropped up in Rosemallows. It serves frozen piña coladas, Twisted Tea, a large-format cocktail called Big Dolly Energy and other drinks with names like Girth Brooks, Merle’s Mai Tai and Grandma’s Purse Candy. An additional cocktail concept is slated to open within the Midnight Oil space in the coming months. Midnight Oil is open Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4:30 to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 4:30 p.m. to midnight.
255 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach, (949) 433-3854, mnolbc.com
Casa Gish Bac
After 15 years of succulent barbacoa and rich moles, one of L.A.’s premier Oaxacan restaurants has closed in Arlington Heights — but reopened in nearby Pico-Union.
The new Casa Gish Bac, from owners David and Maria Ramos, is a larger iteration of their celebrated restaurant Gish Bac. The Ramoses have moved their operation to a banquet hall in a strip mall, seating more than 100 guests, and are newly offering alcohol alongside their grilled and stewed specialties.
Casa Gish Bac’s menu is nearly identical as its Gish Bac predecessor, with tlayudas, enchiladas, caldos, tortas and all-day breakfasts, plus the addition of wine, bottled and draft beer, buckets of beer, micheladas, soju, mimosas and a range of margaritas all to be enjoyed under a rainbow of hanging papel picado. Casa Gish Bac is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
1436 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 315-5105, instagram.com/casagishbac
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