Acclaimed Heritage Barbecue chef takes on classic diner food in vintage Quonset hut
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- Rising-star barbecue chef Daniel Castillo of Heritage Barbecue and Taco María alum Ryan Garlitos team up.
- Castillo talks of his mental health struggles and the pressure for maintaining success in the restaurant industry, plus his hopes to use the diner as a space to raise awareness.
- Also: 61 Hundred Bread has some of the Southland’s most creative pastries, including ube cruffins and the viral blue corn masa loaf.
- South Bay chef and restaurateur David LeFevre and his Fishing with Dynamite chef Alice Mai are collaborating on AttaGirl, a Mediterranean-leaning restaurant and bar with live-fire cooking.
- Plus: How Patina vet Ellen Ramos is reimagining classic Mexican pan dulce at Santa Canela in Highland Park; Villa’s Tacos founder Victor Villa has opened a third location; and Sama, a new hand roll bar in the Arts District.
Le Hut Dinette
What happens when one of the country’s rising-star barbecue chefs launches a diner? At Santa Ana’s new Le Hut Dinette, the latest project from San Juan Capistrano’s Heritage Barbecue, seven-day pastrami slides into gooey melty sandwiches and brisket goes into piles of chili cheese fries.
“I’ve always been a really big fan of the diners, and they’re kind of dying off,” says Heritage’s pitmaster and co-owner Daniel Castillo. “You’re starting to see a resurgence, but we lose more than we gain right now.”
Castillo, who is a nominee for best chef: California in this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards, operates his restaurants with his wife, Brenda. When approached about opening their own diner inside a vintage Quonset hut, they jumped at the opportunity and tapped Taco María alum Ryan Garlitos as the executive chef.
They’ve devised a sunny, rotating menu that includes pastrami sandwiches, smoked-turkey clubs and a Cubano made with coppa ham, which, like the pastrami, is cured and smoked at Heritage. Chickens also smoked in San Juan Capistrano get shredded and added to Le Hut’s Caesar salads, which are spiked with an anchovy crumble and slices of bright cara cara oranges.
For a caffeine fix — a necessity at any diner — there are mugs of $1 Cafe du Monde chicory coffee.
On weekend evenings, the menu flips to a more elevated diner that pays homage to the past with more modern techniques. You might find steak Diane with mushroom cream dripping over a 10-ounce New York strip, or a hearty smoked beef rib with a mushroom demi-glace, oregano rice and binchotan-grilled vegetables. Garlitos weaves his Filipino heritage into this menu, as well as other culinary influences such as Japanese or Mexican, a nod to his time at Taco María.
Weekend brunch will kick off on Mother’s Day weekend. The menu is evolving, but will likely include pancakes and brisket with eggs.
While Heritage Barbecue focuses on craft beer, Le Hut Dinette spotlights wine, especially natural wine, with most pours produced in California and Texas. There are also ciders and co-ferments; beer options include the standards one might find at a diner, like Miller Lite.
In contrast to what the Castillos describe as the no-frills masculine setting at Heritage Barbecue, the couple wanted to create a more fun, feminine space for the diner: pink terrazzo floors and what Daniel Castillo calls a Wes Anderson color palette. They salvaged booths, formica tables and chairs from shuttered diners in the region and sourced mismatched plates from thrift stores. They scoured eBay for vintage napkin holders. They wanted a cozy and authentic, lived-in feel to their restaurant.
“All this stuff is true to it,” Castillo says.
They hope to use the space to host collaborative dinners with other chefs, and already offer items from their next-door neighbor, 61 Hundred Bread (see below). Next year, they plan to expand Le Hut Dinette with an adjacent deli and bodega, selling sandwiches as well as smoked meats by the pound.
It’s been a busy time for Castillo. In addition to being in the running for the James Beard Foundation Award, earlier this year he quietly exited his business partnership in Oceanside brewhouse Heritage Beer Co., which recently closed and will reopen under a new name sans the Castillos. On May 3, the husband-and-wife duo will launch yet another concept: a casual restaurant at Bolsa Chica State Beach. SeaSalt Smokehouse will offer handheld items such as tri-tip sandwiches and nachos. It is, he admits, a lot happening at once.
“I feel like I’m in the right mind to be able to accomplish these things now, and my wife, of course, is amazing,” says Castillo, who struggled last year with depression and anxiety. “If it wasn’t for her I would not be able to do this, 100%.”
Nominees include Jon Yao of Kato and Daniel Castillo of Heritage Barbecue. Castillo hopes the nomination will shed more light on Orange County and barbecue.
Under the pressure to maintain a successful restaurant that garnered national praise, Castillo sought help from his family and took steps that included therapy and quitting drinking.
“I know there are a lot of chefs out there that know exactly what that feels like,” he says. Castillo hopes to use more of his time — and his new diner — to help chefs who might also be struggling with mental health issues. He’s hoping to platform and host organizations, such as the Southern Smoke Foundation, which provides resources for members of the restaurant community in need.
He’s also made mentoring his own chefs more of a priority. “These guys are the future,” he says. “I want them to know what I went through and that we should be able to talk about these things.”
SeaSalt Smokehouse by Heritage Barbecue at Bolsa Chica State Beach, 18751 Pacific Coast Hwy., Huntington Beach, opens May 3. Le Hut Dinette is open Sunday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. 730 N. Poinsettia St., Santa Ana, instagram.com/lehutdinette
61 Hundred Bread
The pastries and loaves of bread are some of the Southland’s most creative, with ube cream and blue corn masa peeking through laminated croissant dough and crusty loaves of sourdough.
61 Hundred Bread’s chef-founder Karlo Evaristo was raised in the Philippines and named his business in honor of his old zip code. He weaves his heritage through the Santa Ana bakery’s offerings with ube cruffins and fresh, fluffy pan de sal. But he also riffs on other cultures’ touchstones with large loaves of panettone; pillowy sourdough shokupan; croissants filled with Oaxacan cheese, chile and garlic; sourdough chocolate babka; and Evaristo’s signature item, the viral blue corn masa sourdough loaf.
Evaristo says he “went a little crazy during the pandemic” in his obsession with sourdough, and it’s what launched 61 Hundred Bread as a cottage business. That quickly ballooned into one of Orange County’s most popular pastry go-tos. (Prior to that, he cooked at Studio in Laguna Beach and cropped up in L.A. as one half of pop-up Adia.) In November he opened his first bricks-and-mortar, which draws lines out the door for fresh pastries and ube cream-top lattes.
61 Hundred Bread is open Thursday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., or until it sells out. 728 N. Poinsettia St., Santa Ana, (714) 884-4323, 61hundredbread.com
AttaGirl
One of the South Bay’s most famous chefs — whose restaurants include Fishing with Dynamite, Manhattan Beach Post, the Arthur J and RYLA — recently debuted a long-awaited restaurant in Hermosa Beach.
David LeFevre tapped Fishing with Dynamite chef Alice Mai to collaborate on AttaGirl, a Mediterranean-leaning restaurant and bar with live-fire cooking and fresh pastas.
The chef-partners serve a menu that connects the similar climates of Los Angeles and the Mediterranean Coast. There’s fresh pizza with a range of mezze, house-extruded pastas (with clams and anchovy breadcrumbs, or lamb bolognese), farmers market vegetables, show-stopping plates of skewers, and large-format dishes such as chicken tagine and a spiral of spinach feta pie that receives a tableside pour of lemon béchamel. The wines are sourced primarily from the Mediterranean and California, echoing the dinner menu, while cocktails feature ingredients such as limoncello, saffron, hazelnut orgeat and clarified pineapple.
AttaGirl is open Sunday to Wednesday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Thursday to Saturday from 5 to 10:30 p.m., with brunch service planned for the future. 1238 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach, (424) 600-2882, attagirlla.com
Villa’s Tacos #3
One of the city’s top taquerías recently expanded with a new location — and an entirely new menu. Villa’s Taco’s, one of the 101 best restaurants in L.A., unveiled the third bricks-and-mortar restaurant in its expanding chain, but unlike the other Highland Park outpost and the stall in Grand Central Market, Villa’s Tacos #3 is all about seafood.
The new Highland Park spot takes over the former La Estrella Tacos stand, adding fresh color to the walk-up taqueria with murals dedicated to the Dodgers and Highland Park. The freshly made blue corn tortillas and maximalist ethos found in the first two Villa’s restaurants can also be found at #3, though it diverts from char-grilled meats with a seafood-centric menu.
There are beer-battered, rice-bran-coated fried fish and shrimp tacos with mango pico de gallo and cabbage in a nod to Baja’s taco style, the main inspiration owner-founder Victor Villa turned to when opening this location. There are plates of shrimp with rice, as well as a few vegetarian options and what Villa calls “fine dining tacos in the hood, with hood prices”: Spanish octopus with potato purée and roasted tomatoes ($6), wild-caught mahi mahi with black beans and salsa macha ($5) and a market-price take on surf-and-turf that sport Japanese Wagyu, mahi mahi, bone marrow butter and carrot purée. The salsas are bold, the fish is fried to order and the lines — like the other Villa’s — can wrap around the block but still feels like a party.
Villa’s #3 is open Thursday to Sunday from noon to 9 p.m. 6103 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, villastacos.com
Santa Canela
A pint-size panadería is reimagining classic Mexican pastries with new spins and techniques in Highland Park with fresh conchas, cafecito specials and more.
Santa Canela is the latest operation from the team behind Loreto and LA Cha Cha Chá, and is fronted by the aforementioned restaurants’ pastry chef. Patina vet Ellen Ramos, who was raised in nearby El Sereno, is now piping conchas with burnt-vanilla chantilly cream; frying to-order custardy-centered churros into the shape of “L.A.”; and filling fluffy doughnuts with strawberry jam laced with morita chiles for a lingering burn that balances the sweetness.
Savory items make an appearance too, with a soyrizo-and-potato croissant; a cecina focaccia sandwich with kale chimichurri; and a chicken tinga tart that’s inspired by Ramos’ mother’s home recipe. The pastries rotate at this 720-square-foot bakery, with more specials available on weekends. To drink, look for burnt-cinnamon lattes and cafe de olla.
Santa Canela is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 5601 N. Figueroa St., Unit 120, Los Angeles, santacanela.com
Sama
There’s a new hand roll bar in the Arts District, and while Sama specializes in temaki, the robata is constantly firing with kushiyaki: miso cod, skewers of chicken hearts, pork belly with spicy mustard, beef tongue with yuzu kosho and more fly out from the semi-open kitchen. Other hot plates include tempura, unagi curry and lobster dashi pasta, but a large focus from chef-founder and SBE Group alum Lester Lai is sushi.
Sama offers a range of classic hand and cut rolls such as blue crab, yellowtail and salmon, as well as a few signatures, including the Sama, which tops toro and truffled uni with shaved, salted egg yolk. Roll add-ons include caviar, uni and tempura flakes, among others, while sashimi features bluefin tuna with ikura and burrata; salmon carpaccio with yuzu vin; and seared toro with cured egg yolk.
Sama is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. 897 Traction Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 265-7047, samahandroll.la
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