L.A. dine-around, Taco Bell nuggets and oak-fired steak

On this week’s podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discuss recent tasting adventures. Bret traveled to Los Angeles on vacation, where he began exploring restaurants in the West Hollywood neighborhood where he was staying almost as soon as the plane landed. He tried two happy hours, one at Madre, where he had a memorable fruity and spicy margarita and chicken enchilada with mole, and another at Laurel Hardware, where he ate glazed pork ribs while sipping a couple of beers. The next day, Bret met up with a restaurant consultant friend who led him to several of his favorites, starting in Beverly Hills at a small plates restaurant called Bacari, where each dish was better than the next and most were a reasonable $15. The culinary tour continued to an old-timey place called The Hideaway, followed by loaded breakfast burritos at Cofax Coffee, and several hotspots in the Silver Lake-Eagle Rock area of the city. Before heading to Las Vegas for the second leg of his trip, Bret had tasted L.A.’s wide array of global cuisines, including Armenian, Japanese and regional Mexican. Meanwhile, Pat got a preview of Taco Bell’s new chicken nuggets, which roll out nationwide on Dec. 19. The nuggets are coated with a mix of breadcrumbs and tortilla chips to make them extra-crunchy, and they lived up to the crunch. Since nuggets demand a dipping sauce, Taco Bell introduced three new ones: Hidden Valley Fire Ranch Sauce, Jalapeno Honey Mustard and creamy Bell Sauce. The steak boards at Rare Society offer a sampling of several cuts and sauces. | Photo courtesy of Trust Restaurant Group. Then Pat shared clips from an interview with Brad Wise, chef-partner in San Diego-based Trust Restaurant Group and operator of six Rare Society steakhouses—among other concepts. Chef Wise introduced the Santa Maria style of wood-fired cooking at Rare Society, using oak sourced from Central California. He also has a unique way of presenting Wagyu and dry-aged steak on wooden boards and lazy Susans so guests can sample many different cuts. Listen as Chef Wise talks about how he developed Rare Society as the antithesis of traditional steakhouses and describes his other concepts within Trust, including a zero-waste ice cream shop is primed for expansion.