541: Los Angeles Restaurants Right Now with The Angel’s Emily Wilson

25:31You enter through the kitchen. I mean, there's like dudes with sochu bottles with like their name on the masking tape. Yeah, it's great. You go there every week. we chatted up a couple next door and they're like have a weekly date there great place there's yeah the places feel really old yeah um and i like that it feels like there's a lot of history to be had there's also this sushi spot called sake sushi which makes like these beautiful packaged sushi boxes to go i think i forget what style of sushi is but yeah that's a really really cool area and i've been finding myself there a lot on that note how do you think about sushi in la i know like Like Bill Addison has written really, I would say, completely about it for the LA Times.

26:11I love reading his words. But it seems like a moving target for me when I try to go. I've got my usual spots. Yeah. But there's always just like a sense of there's a new counter opening to try out. Totally. I think for me, I mean, I love a good Omikase experience. It's not something I seek out that often. I'm always looking for like that really good kind of casual sushi experience. There's this place I've been obsessed with called Yama Sushi Marketplace that's been in the San Gabriel Valley for many years. And they have like a like you pick your fish and they slice it into sashimi fresh for you and they make amazing rolls.

26:54So like I love that kind of casual opportunity. But yeah, I have my like there's a spot in Westwood called Eshigo that has also been around for a while. And it's kind of under the radar. No one's ever there. And it's amazing. And like I always tell people to go there. So, yeah, you have your spots. Yeah. There's also this spot Mori Nozomi, which I wrote about in The Angel, which is like an eight seat sushi counter in Sautel. All female team, female sushi chef. And that like that was like one of my favorite dining experience of the year because it just feels very special and different. Man, Sautel has changed in the past decade.

27:25I mean, it feels like there's openings every time I go back. And what a great strip to have Japanese cuisine, but also there's some great Thai there as well. Yeah, totally. I feel like I'm an East Sider, so I don't like I get to the West Side when I can for sure. I think I go to the West Side more than most East Siders. But all my friends who live on the West Side like love Sato. Yeah. Let's talk about coffee in L.A. I think it's an important topic because I've said in the show, I've done some events out there at various coffee shops and with I've interviewed plenty of people in coffee. It's like the best city in America for coffee.

28:03I think the weather has something to do with that, especially with the cold drinks coming out of Dayglo and G &B and like places in between. But you are on top of it. You cover coffee really well in the Angel. So, Emily, give us a little like update about what's happening at LA Coffee right now. Yeah, I think there were actually a lot of new coffee shop openings this year, which was sort of fun. There's this place near my house in Los Feliz called Camel Coffee, which is from South Korea. I'm sure you're familiar. Yeah, totally. I mean, the lines have been noted. Yeah. So that's sort of a fun new addition.

28:41There was this place Concierge Coffee that opened from Berlin, I think, in the Arts District. My favorite new coffee shop opening is this place called How's It Going to End? It's a bit of a mouthful, but it's like a beautiful space in Montrose and a former dry cleaners. And they have like all like native plants in the front yard. And it's a super cool space. The people who are doing the coffee are super legit. The founder, Michelle, started Dinosaur back in the day. She sold Dinosaur. Now she's doing How's It Going to End. But that's cool. It's also in this kind of like little suburban part of L.A., like just above Glendale.

29:19so I wasn't super familiar with that area before that but it's not that far so I like it there a lot and then yeah I mean the coffee is great. Kumquat always does an amazing job I love Kumquat. I've been there a number of times great roasting and just a cool hang. Yeah and they do like five different types of cold brew there which is kind of amazing like that feels very like LA. Intense I mean, definitely. But also intense. I love that there's like varietal cold brews available. Very cool that they do that. Totally. It's like not like most people I was just talking about with David earlier today.

29:56Like most people don't care that much or understand that much about coffee. Most people drink coffee, but most people just whatever, go to Starbucks or just do something quick and easy. But if you want to go there, Kumquat is the spot to like really go there, you know? Yeah, definitely. And you've got Go Get Him Tiger. You've got the original Intelligentsia. Totally. You've got Nicely Able is always doing cool stuff. Yeah. His cappuccinos, like if you live on the west side or you are on the west side, stop into Hooked. Yeah, Hooked. It's his pop-up at Dudley. He's there like most days, most mornings.

30:34And it's nice too because it's inside of a restaurant. So it's a nice place to just be able to hang out during the day. And yeah, his cappuccinos are strong, but they're very, very good. He's got a beautiful touch with cold drinks and he's been on the show before. Love nicely. And then, of course, Dayglo. Yes. Got to give Dayglo some props. Yeah. So I actually, I think we've DMed about this, but I am not out at coffee shops as much anymore because I now have an ex-bloom. Oh, I see. Which is a great coffee machine. I like it. You're taking it inside. I took it inside. Yeah. And we got our coffee beans from Dayglo.

31:13Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the wall is always a changing variety of incredible coffee from around the world. Yeah, yeah, they do a great job. What is up with Sam's Place? And I say that with respect, a little skepticism. It seems like this, my read is like it's a restaurant with no social media that tries to be off the radar. But for some reason, it's been written about by literally everybody. So like mission not accomplished. Am I being unfair? No, I hear that. I mean, I think in some ways, yeah, like maybe not being on social media could end up being counterintuitive because then, I don't know, people feel like it's on them to get the word out there or it's like, oh, like there's a secret spot, right?

32:02That's what I read from it. But yeah, I mean, I've heard that. I haven't been back in a couple weeks. A couple weeks? And I like to go. Oh, are you like, is this like in the rotation then? I guess it's probably been more than a couple of weeks because I just don't live in Highland Park. If I lived over there, I think I would go a lot. But I was going a lot in the early days. And I've heard that on the weekends. It's like crazy now. Tell us a little bit about what that restaurant is. Like what kind of food? Literally, I don't know much about it. I just know the name. So I'm very curious. Yeah. So it's part of the reason that I've been compelled by it and why I think it's been successful as well is I think it's basically a bar, but there's food.

32:39So you could have a full dinner. But like you belly up to the bar and you order that way. So it's casual. Like it's anti-committal in the way that a restaurant is not. But they have great wings. They have a great salad. They have a great sweet potato dish. All the food is super good. I think it's like to me kind of represents what a lot of people actually just want out of a restaurant experience, which is that level of casualness that you can't always find in a dinner restaurant. or like that amount of food you can't normally get at a bar and like that quality of food you can't normally get at a bar.

33:14And I honestly think like from a financial standpoint, you know, we talk about how it's never been harder to open a restaurant. And I think having a bar with food with like less labor costs, less overhead, at least in their case, I know they had like a pretty good rent deal or something. I think as a business model, it sort of makes sense. And I think that Maybe we're going to start seeing more of that. So I think it and then, you know, famously, they're not on Instagram because they just don't want to be. And that is their right. And I and I respect it. I'm not trying to snark on their ability.

33:50I mean, it seems like slightly there's maybe a model where you get people to talk about something that's underground a little bit more than if you're above ground and blasting out like like Etra or whatever. Some, you know, flashy place that always has. I'm not trying to pick on any places. That feels great. Yeah, that feels great, I've heard. I think also it's funny, right? Because if you open a restaurant and you're on Instagram and you're doing a great job at Instagram and people are drawn to you because of that, that's one thing. But even if you're not, if people start talking about it, it's going to blow up when it's new anyways.

34:24It'll be interesting to see how them choosing not to be on Instagram will kind of pan out as they kind of settle into life as a bar, right? Because at the end of the day, they don't have a way to communicate things outwards. And I think that should be interesting to see how that works. Yeah. Well, I hope to visit. I can't judge until I go. Yeah. You should check it out. I'm going to ask you for your plugs. We're just going to go there. Because plugs is like my favorite. You know, on Saturday, I'm like, OK, who's the new person in plugs? What are the new spots? I learned a lot from it. But so like just to review, and this is going off memory.

34:56It's a restaurant, a bar, a thing, a person. A restaurant, a bar, an ingredient, a shop, a person, and a treat. And a treat. Okay, Emily, you're on, and I know you are the editor of this publication, and you certainly ask people to give you this information out every week. But on this show, what are your plugs? I would say my restaurant is probably Dunsmore because it's the restaurant that I recommend to people the most when they're visiting from out of town and want to go somewhere cool and special. That's so interesting. Can I just interrupt and just say that is like the most recommended restaurant for me when I visit.

35:45I've been going a bit this year. And I look at the menu and I'm like, do I want to eat like New Orleans style in L.A.? Unfair, potentially. And then I end up going to Bubba and Grandma's next door. Yeah. Unfair, I know. For dinner or just for lunch. I guess it's lunch. Maybe I should think about Dunsborough for dinner, of course. Yeah, I mean, I think to me it's like it reads like Southern food, but it's sort of more than that. Or Southern, right, not New Orleans. Yeah. So the chef Brian Dunn's more like his ancestors in Colorado. He grew up in the South, but he's like very inspired by pre-Gilded Age recipes, like all these old cookbooks and stuff.

36:25So there's sort of a lot. It's like American heritage cuisine is sort of the way he describes it. But, you know, he has this big like hearth and everything is cooked over wood fire and there's all these restrictions in the kitchen. So like most there aren't really machines in the kitchen save for like one stovetop or something. So cool. So cool. I got to go. And that's cool. Like, you know, it's cool. This sort of cliche of constraints breed creativity. I just think that really, really happens there. And it's a beautiful room. I've peeked in for sure. And I guess my timeline was off because they only do dinner, right?

36:58Only dinner. So, like, I guess I go at the wrong time, then I'm going to Bowman Grandma's. Anyways, great pick. I got to go. What is your bar? My bar? You know, it's funny. People always get tripped up on this one the most because a lot of people are like, well, I don't really drink, which is fine. Yeah. Because I think my thing with plugs, I want people to just use it as a soup, like a loose category. Yeah. It could be a coffee bar. I think you picked it. When I did it, I picked definitely a coffee bar. Yeah. Or two or three. I can't remember. It could be bar seats at a restaurant. Yeah, right.

37:29It's interpretive. So it's so fun. I love it. Yeah. What would my bar be? I mean, I have said Stir Crazy in the past because I have done plugs before. To me, though, Stir Crazy has very much evolved past a wine bar. It really is a restaurant.

37:48What is my bar? On the spot. I know this is not easy. It is tricky, but I'm going to come back to that. Okay. Um, ingredient. I've really been into buckwheat recently. Cool. Yeah. Um, like baking with buckwheat flour. Um, I'm really into making ice cream. I made like a toasted buckwheat ice cream the other day that I really liked. What's the setup for ice cream at your house? I just have like the classic Cuisinart 1.5 quart ice cream maker. Yeah. Um, and it's great. It's like the best, like LA I feel like is a great place to have dinner parties. and it's the best like party trick at a dinner party where it's like, oh, I've made this ice cream.

38:32Yeah, I've made like buckwheat ice cream. Yo, let's go. Okay. So yeah, I would say buckwheat. Person? Person. I know, like this is, you can't hide from this one. There's a microphone in your face.

38:47I guess I would have to say David, my partner. Yeah, there you go. Photographer of the angel, David Grziv. Okay. That's how I say his last name. um and i mean the angel really like wouldn't be able to happen without him i think one of the things of publishing independently is i don't have an editor yeah i know some subsects have editors um which is great but he the way we do an angel story oftentimes i'm doing the interview at the same time that he's shooting which i really like working that way because i think you really capture someone cool energy while they're telling their story while they're in their element um And I feel like we do a good job at making people feel comfortable.

39:28It doesn't feel like too much. So, yeah, he reads over the stories, makes sure I don't forget anything, catches all my typos. And I think that the photography really makes the stories come to life. Your treat. My treat. I'm going to say right now a cinnamon roll because I'm currently doing cinnamon roll research for a cinnamon roll guide on Angel. Love that. Just because like during the holidays, I always think about cinnamon rolls. So my brain is in cinnamon roll. What makes a good one for you? I think I like I think it's either really classic and done really well or there's like a fun spin on it and it's creative.

40:13Indeed. Yeah. Into that. And obviously just extremely delicious. Extremely. And like, of course, there's like that middle of the part of it is is substantial. Yeah. Because, you know, in the middle, in the heart of it, I don't know, like maybe I'm thinking like artichoke. It's like when it's too small, you're like, there's no satisfaction. No. Yeah. It has to be like, there's this baker named Kate Pepper who lives and works in Ojai. And she has this sort of like, sometimes she bakes, sometimes she doesn't. She has a newsletter. You can subscribe. Like, she's sort of hard to catch, but she makes amazing bread and her cinnamon rolls are the best I've ever had.

40:48Do you make it up to Ojai a bit? I do. I love Ojai. Me too. I think that Ojai is like a very peaceful place. There's a cool food scene. The pastry case at the Duchess is amazing. It's amazing. It was better than the meal at the Duchess, I'll just say that. I love that pastry case. Yeah. Meditation Mount. Meditation Mount is, I mean, beautiful. It's so good. Meditation Mount at sunset is, you got to do it. Pinion also is an amazing place. I've heard. I wasn't able to visit Pinion when I was there. But, okay, back to bar. Back to bar.

41:24The reason this is so hard, too, is because L.A. doesn't. Yeah, it just doesn't have the same bar scene, I think, as New York does. There's no more varnish either. There's no more varnish. Although I actually never made it to the varnish. Oh, really? Well, back in my drinking days, that was like quite the place. I felt that was a very cool, you know, for me, 2009, 10 kind of place. Yeah, totally.

41:56I really like the bar above Eleni Oyster Bar in Silver Lake. It – this is sort of like a rare model and it's been around for a while. So people love it and people know it and they go there. But I feel like sometimes people forget about it. but downstairs there's the restaurant and then upstairs there's a bar yeah and you can get like the shrimp cocktail and the french fries they do great shrimp cocktail and great french fries and they have a full bar and yeah it's a great date spot it's a nice place to just like pop in and get a drink and a snack if that's what i like the vibe up there too yeah it's got a nice lot of light up there no i know that space exactly that's very cool um do we cover them all uh shop Shop.

42:39OK. Interesting. A great, a great shopping town for food ish and food ish. A great shopping town.

42:51I mean, there's so many great international grocery stores, obviously. Tokyo Central, I was just talking about, and Torrance is amazing. but I my like the shop that I go to more than any other is McCall's it's a butcher and fishmonger that used to be in Los Fields now is in Atwater which is not that far but it's now not in my neighborhood anymore which is sad it's like on the higher end like you're definitely like paying the top prices but like everything they do is so great great steaks like great chicken great fish and all their pantry items are great they sell like They just sort of are selling all the best things from a lot of the local food makers in L.A.

43:40And if you want to just make a really nice dinner for yourself at home, McCall's is a good place to start. Very cool, Rek. Okay, thank you for doing plugs on the spot. Lots of cool places to check out. I want to ask you about this Some Meals map on Google Maps. It's a public map, or is it only for subscribers? It's a public map, yeah. It has like 1 ,100 spots on it. Yeah. Emily, you've done the work. Oh, my God. So let me ask you about this map. Like, how do you operate a 1100 location Google map? I mean, is it just like every time you go somewhere, you add it? So every time I go somewhere and like the experience.

44:19It's only for likes. I add it. So it's all like the way I explain it is it's all the places that I've vetted. Like all the spots that I've been to and I like. That said, I started building this map. Like I had a substack back in the early days of substack that you, I think that's how we met because you started reading it. Yeah. It was like very novice. I'm not recommending anyone to go read it. But it was called Some Meals. Yeah. And I basically every place that I wrote about on that early newsletter, I put on my some meals map. And then eventually I just sort of it became something where, like, for example, I went to Bridges the other night, loved it.

44:56It's on the map now. And but it's like all over the globe. Are you doing editorial? There's like write ups with it? No, it's just the point. It's just like the Emily approval. But yeah, it's just the Emily Google. And honestly, like it's gotten I've met people who like follow the map. I wish Google let you see how many people follow a map. Because it doesn't, for whatever reason, if anyone on Google is listening to this. I mean, Google is notoriously terrible at social networks. They've tried to launch a million times. Yeah. They just can't build community around Google products. Like, it just.

45:27And it's crazy because maps, to me, it's like it's so untapped. Like, I used to work at my first job out of college was at Foursquare. And, like, Foursquare was the thing for me. I loved it. I loved checking in. I loved keeping places. like maps and location data and all that kind of stuff like lists like i love that kind of stuff um dude i was like user 3000 and foursquare i have it in my app it's like there's actually a number and i still use swarm you do i'm still a swarm guy i'm glad for that they've like they're sunsetting one of the two apps and it makes me extremely sad because i use it all the time i use literally and i i like keep it pretty private but like i use swarm and like it's literally what we've just talked about but apparently didn't work i know i now because now my solutions for swarm are um my map yeah google maps and then the other thing that i love is like apple and google photos like being able to search search on your maps for a place that you work because i take so many pictures of places that i can find places that way yeah we've created our own metadata for our Our own lives and our own graph, so to speak.

46:39Yeah. Our grid. Love this talk. Okay. On this, we discuss our brother, Descerning Taste. So to close this interview, here's a little rapid fire, fast and furious. Taste check. Emily, are you ready? I'm ready. The best fruit. It's got to be a perfectly ripe hachia persimmon. You are in persimmon gang hive. I love that. Yeah. I mean, I really, it's funny because I saw persimmons at a grocery store today in New York, but it really was just not something that was in my life until I moved to L.A. Persimmon season is very much a thing in L.A. And everyone who's had an unripe hachia persimmon knows that it's like the worst thing in the world to eat.

47:17Like sucks like all the moisture out of your mouth and it feels like you have drank in a cup of poison. But a ripe hachia persimmon is it's like there's just nothing else like it. The worst vegetable. I would say bell pepper. Yeah. I just think it's irrelevant at this point. You know? Yeah, totally. It's like we have Jimmy Nardello's. We have like, what's it new? Like, habanados is our thing now. Like, all the amazing chili peppers. Like, I'm here for peppers, but the bell pepper to me has no use anymore. I agree. And especially on pizza. Stop. Stop with that. Definitely not on the pizza. Stop with that.

47:55The best dessert. Honestly, just like a perfect, simple slice of chocolate cake. Yeah. Yeah. Have you done your cake roundup yet? I haven't. I would love to. I feel like I have to be sparing with my like when you do like sugar intensive research, it like can actually make you go crazy. Yeah. But I do want to find like the best the best slices of chocolate cake in L.A. So if anyone if anyone knows the answer to that, please let me know. There's like definitely a demand for that in L.A. I feel like, you know, every fucking writer's room Hollywood type wants to waste time thinking about the best chocolate cake.

48:32Like in one small example, I'm sure there's a lot of people in L.A. who want to know that. I love also like just a simple cake. Like I think I'm here for like all the beautiful decorated tiered cakes. Like I think cakes have exploded in ways that are amazing. But just something like I was at Stissinghouse this weekend. Oh, you were. The coconut cake there. Oh, cool. Yeah, totally. That to me, just like a thick slab of cake and like a frosting on top. That is a perfect cake, too. So shout out to that cake. Very that cake is always like hanging out like in the dining room, just like showing its head.

49:06Yeah. It knows it knows that it's what's up and you're supposed to order it. No doubt. And on the note of sugar research, I have to give my own plug to Mahira Rivers. She did the top 100 chocolate chip cookies in New York. Incredible. Yes. I was just reading that. And I mean, I I love her sub stack. It's great. I the amount of sweets that she eats, like I'm constantly impressed by it. And the chocolate chip project was super cool. It was a very cool project. And Mahira is going to be writing our Friday newsletter occasionally starting in January. Amazing. I'm excited. Can't wait to have her on.

49:42Your favorite city outside America to visit for food? Definitely London. Yeah. I love the London food scene. I love a pub. I love a lot of these modern British restaurants. I think also I love British desserts. Oh, yeah. Like custardy things. Eaten messies. Yes, like all that stuff. And I also think like in terms of like the higher end restaurants, there's such diversity in cuisine, which is really cool. It's also like London is very spread out. Like in some ways, I think it's more like L.A. than it is like New York. So it feels like there's just endless, endless, endless places to go to. Your favorite cookbook of all time?

50:23Mina Stone, Cooking for Artists. Oh, very cool book. Yeah. Yeah. I love that book. I always come back to it. It kind of like represents like how I want to cook at home. Super simple. Like I feel like that book always reminds me that cooking doesn't have to be so complicated. And for someone like me or for us who go out to restaurants all the time, like I just want like simple, delicious, easy food when I'm home. And I always come back to that book. A favorite recent cookbook discovery. because I have gotten so into making ice cream I probably one of my most used cookbooks is La Grotta by Kitty Travers she's a London based ice cream maker it's a beautiful book I think we published the US version here it's great love that book none of the recipes have ever failed me and she has a very kind of like California sensibility to making ice creams and crafting flavors so it feels like it's made for an ice cream maker in LA A restaurant you wish you could bring back from the dead.

51:25It's got to be Florent. Oh, yeah. I think so, yeah. Did you go there as a kid? I went there as a kid, yeah. I went there. It was like one of the first restaurants I think I went to where, I mean, I remember my mom bringing me there and was like, you know, sort of telling me the lore of it. And she was excited to introduce me to it. And I loved it. And now, like, we, I grew up so close to it. like just a few blocks south um so it bums me out that it's not there anymore yeah i feel like yeah i wish it was like because in the meatpacking it's like it was such like it was like the restaurant that kind of defined or like was the heart and soul of the meat yeah like 90s 2000s it closed in the mid 2000s and um absolutely like a pioneering restaurant yeah french brasserie Yeah, and it's such a New York spot to me.

52:18So, yeah, I wish that was still there selfishly also. And also a shout out to the original Suen. Oh, yeah, original Suen. Good call. I knew you'd come to play with that one. I love it. A few more. Your favorite bar. It's got to be Long Island bar. Yeah, we went over that. We'll cut that one. Last one, your favorite sandwich. Honestly, just like a turkey sandwich with cheddar cheese or Swiss cheese. Good choice. Lettuce. Yes. A little bit of mayo, Dijon on like maybe multigrain bread, great sourdough, even in like a wrap would be great. Like that is the kind of sandwich that I grew up just going to delis, bodegas on the corner and getting.

53:01And special shout out actually to M &O Market on Thompson and Prince. Oh, that's your one? That's your bodega? They, well, they do fresh roasted turkey on their sandwich counter on Tuesday and Friday. I love it. Which makes it like a great deli to know about if you're into a turkey sandwich. Are you going to grab one? Maybe. I might. Maybe on Friday. I also love like a, just a great tuna sandwich. But it's got to be the turkey sandwich ultimately. Love that choice. Emily Wilson, what a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining This Is Taste. Thanks for having me. It was fun.

53:40Matt here. Eliza is still traveling, so it's monopod time. Last one went pretty well. Clayton, our producer, thank you for saving me from all of my errors, my stutters. But we are here, or I am here, to talk about the Fancy Food Show, which just went down in Las Vegas. I had a great time there. I got to interview Molly Baz on stage at the show and talk about AO, which she's been on the show talking about it here. But talking about her new mayonnaise line, her flavored mayonnaise line, it was great. I got to catch up with Molly. I got to judge something. I'm not quite sure what it is. It's through SFA, especially Food Association.

54:23Trendspotting, that's what it's called. I was trendspotting. And this segment is a number of companies I got to visit with when I was on the floor in Las Vegas. So to set the scene, the Winter Fancy Food Show is a big show. It was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. And rows and rows and rows of founders, big and small, countries and cities and states have their own separate areas. New York State had a great presence. Italy, Japan. And there was great, great presence from Wisconsin Cheese, our friends over there. And then there were small little pockets of, you know, it's like science fair time.

55:04It's like, here's my product. Hello. And I loved it. I love this energy in these rooms. I love walking shows. I've been to Expo West in Anaheim. I've done fancy food in New York. And this was my first time at the Winter Fancy Food Show. And I got to see a bunch of really cool new products I'm going to talk about. And I loved the energy. You know, this is a very crowded, you know, floor. People are passing by. The audience is all, it's buyers, it's media, it's folks from retail, you know, lots of folks who, and then other founders, people who are also trying to sell their stuff looking at the competition.

55:40So each person that comes up to the booth to try a sample and talk about the products could be, you know, the next big thing for these founders. And so I love that the energy level was so high, even on day three. I got a lot of respect for these folks schlepping all the way out to Vegas to show their new products. So the products I'm going to talk about range widely. There's some beverage in here, quite a bit of dairy, products from Hawaii, products from big-name places, products from small founders who are under 20 years old. There's some young founders here. And I just really had such a great time catching up with them.

56:17I'm just going to run down my list and talk a little bit about each. And I hope you can, you know, visit their Instagram or website. I'm going to link to all the brands in the show notes so you can follow along. Many are available in retail, Whole Foods, Pop-Up Grocer in New York, FAIR. You know, if you're in the retail space, you can order some of these products on FAIR. And also, of course, online you can order direct. First, you know, I'm not going to really go in any order. There's no like rhyme or reason. I'm just going off the list that I made. And so the first product I really enjoyed was a was called Joyous Non-Alcoholic Cabernet Sauvignon.

56:56So it was an NA wine, had so many NA wines over the years and very few hit me the way Joyous did. Really great tannins, really emblematic of a cab. It felt like I was not drinking a version of grape juice, which most NA wines taste like Joyous Non-Alcoholic. love their product check it out next one spritz king chipotle smoky and spice now i this could be a drink it says spritz in it it is not it is actually a spray bottle that you you spray on meat after it's left the grill clever invention i know it's not the first time this has been used but i really like these guys the flavor profile was real it felt um there was some spice in there and they were sampling and demoing.

57:40I love that. Next up, Tanglewood Ginger Spice Chai. Now, I got to know Ro Tam at the booth. Now, Ro runs Either Or, which is a chain of cafes in Portland. Great cafes, by all accounts. I've not been, but I've heard great things about Either Or. But Tanglewood is this food service mostly, although they sell small bottles for retail, of ginger spice chai mix. And, you know, there's a lot of chais in the world. I actually saw probably four or five on the floor alone. But this one was a real highlight, very clean. It was less sweet than most. And I just really loved this product. It looks like they have a pretty big food service representation in the Pacific Northwest, but you can buy the bottles online.

58:23Next up, Maca Meats Veal Stock. Maca is a brand from Hawaii. And they had a really nice section of Hawaiian products at the show. And I got to meet with many of the founders. We were just joking. I met some folks who listen to the podcast, which is great. Actually, throughout the show, I met lots of you listeners out there. Thank you for coming up and saying, hey, I really enjoy that. I love when you give me feedback and advice and everything in between. Malka Meats Veal Stock is a really cool product because it really is giving terroir to Hawaii, which, you know, I don't think in the lower 40 we're getting much of.

59:03You know, of course, there's a meat production. There's a beef farming industry in Hawaii, but most of it stays in Hawaii. So to have a veal stock, which is much more easy to transport than, you know, frozen beef, is a really cool thing. And I met the founders. They have farms throughout Hawaii, in Kauai, in Molokai, Waimea. It's all over Hawaii. And I loved the story they told me about how this veal stock is finding itself into really nice kitchens in Southern California. and the idea that Hawaii can have a terroir that is, of course, we know the fruit, but actually on the beef side, there's terroir and this is a product that you should seek out as a chef was very cool.

59:44That's mauka meets veal stock. Next up, Belchev spreadable goat cheese. Genius product. We know goat cheese is usually in the logs and when we see those logs, we think, how the hell am I gonna cut the log? How am I gonna eat half the log? Messy stuff. I think we've just been kind of living with the logs for a while. But I love that this product exists. It has a really cool story. They're from Elkmont, Alabama. And it's a very spreadable product in a resealable container. And I loved it. It was a really nice chev. It was very light. It tasted like the way chev should, which can be used, of course, on vegetables, on spread across bread or crackers.

1:00:27You know shrev. I don't need to explain what chev is. Belle Chevre does a nice one and it's spreadable very cool sticking with cheese our friends in Wisconsin I love Wisconsin cheese, they're our buddies Chalet cheese is a historical brand and first off I noticed they did a rebrand and it looks really cool so they got really cool packaging at Chalet cheese I love the way it looks very classic and it has like you know 1950's vibe to it but very bright colors love it, but what is Chalet cheese known for? they're known for historical cheeses, brick cheese, Havarti cheddar you know those those industrial cheeses those workhorse cheeses that we love from wisconsin but they're also known for limburger limburger is a famous fragrant pungent cheese do i know what limburger tastes like no because i didn't get to taste it at the show they weren't even tasting it that's how crazy limburger is i gotta try some limburger chalet cheese reach out i love to try it really cool product really cool company i loved it next up was probably my favorite product of the show.

1:01:27I'm not leaving it for the end. I'm just going to say it right here. Eddie's Homemade Kitchen Popcorn. This was in the Japan section, and I was struck by the packaging right away. They were going for, I would say, 1940s graphics. It looked like something that you'd see at Mayberry. Really like a classic font, and I really liked the way it's branded. It was like classic Americana. The brand is cool, but the popcorn is even better. They use the mushroom-shaped corn, which we love. I love a mushroom-shaped kernel. I think those are the best types of popcorn. The flavors, though, oh, my God, really, really terrific.

1:02:05Yuzu, pineapple, citrus, really, really great popcorn flavors using citrus. I got to, you know, chat with the folks there. I've emailed them. We've been in touch trying to get my hands on some products. It is available on Amazon. Problem is I checked it out, and they said, well, it's a little expensive. Yeah, man. It's like 15 ounces for$29 on Prime. Like, it's good popcorn, but I don't think I'm going to pay$29 for 15 ounces of popcorn. That said, they're looking for distribution in the States. Eddie's Homemade Kitchen Popcorn. I hope that happens. I will buy many bags. Terrific product. Next up, Maza Magic Sauce.

1:02:43It was so cool to meet the founders. I met Yasmin and Shilia Shade. They're from the Twin Cities. They had a great store. I got to catch up with them at the booth. And Mazda's everywhere. I saw it at the Whole Foods in New Jersey this weekend, and it's around, and I got to sample it. And it's a really nice product. It's cilantro and mango chutney and lemon aioli. You know, they call it magic sauce. You can put it in lots of things. You can cook with it. You can put it on and dress your salad with it. You can dress vegetables with it. And, you know, they're channeling Afghan-American flavors. First-gen Afghan-American founders.

1:03:18I love to see that. But, you know, Afghan food is prevalent throughout the world, but not as much in the United States. And really, really, really beautiful sauce here. I love catching up with them. Check out this product, Maza Magic Sauce. Next up, Eataly. Wow, that's not a small brand. You know Eataly. Well, the cool thing about Eataly is they're launching CPG. They're launching their own line of products. They've already launched it. I actually bought a Panettone this Christmas time, and it was beautiful. and I got to chit chat with the Italy folks and they were telling me all about their big plans and you know Italy sells so many great products from Italy, all the producers and I was like how do you negotiate doing your own versus having other founders there and other products and they're basically like getting into Italy is hard there's so many products in the world we pick the best ones, that's true and so Italy's own house products is basically saying well we can do it as good maybe the price is a little better I like that flex there because I think you can pick up some of the smaller products, pay a little more, and then get a great dry pasta, some olive oil, some balsamic, maybe a panettone from Eataly, mix it up.

1:04:27I really like what they're doing. I'm impressed by the line, and I loved the panettone. So Eataly CPG. Next up, I got to sample Vermont Creamery's Salted Cultured Butter Logs. Now, it's not a new product, I believe. I think it's been out for a little while. But how about this for baking, for putting it, you know, great cultured butter. Remember, this is cultured butter. This isn't just a standard butter that's been perfectly seasoned. You know, you can put this on radishes and dip it, you know, do that whole French thing. You can definitely bake with it. There's lots of cool ways to use this product.

1:05:01And I just love catching up with Vermont Creamery. They were really cool people. And I love the salt. I love the salt factor. I think having crystals of salt in your butter for, you know, bread or for whatever, really, really terrific. That's Vermont Creamery. Next up is Marike Gouda, Fenugreek Gouda. And this is from the great state of Wisconsin again. Shouts to our friends in Wisconsin cheese land. And, you know, this was a really unexpected Gouda flavor. You know, fenugreek is not a flavor that I associate with Gouda. And it really worked. It reminded me a little bit of the white jasmine tandoori cheese that we sampled Eliza and I when we were in Wisconsin.

1:05:39It's in our Wisconsin cheese episode. And I met the cheesemaker, Marika Penerman. And, you know, she holds a Wisconsin Master Cheese Maker certification, which there are only four women ever in the history of that program to achieve this. And in chatting with her, she was humble. Someone else told me this. She got a perfect score. So how about that? Perfect score on the exam. Really, really cool. product and i think like she's from the netherlands she's making gouda in its very classic sense and trained in the netherlands but is in wisconsin doing it if you can find this cheese at your specialty cheese shop you should definitely check it out that's marika gouda fenugreek gouda terrific next up is uncle waifley's smoked pineapple ginger beer a lot of ginger beers in the world you know i love regatta regatta is a really classic ginger beer and i i've definitely had it with alcohol.

1:06:33I've had it with non-alcohol. It's really nice. Now, Uncle Wafee's is a very cool product because they're using spiced scotch bonnet peppers in it. Very, very, very important. This is a classic recipe from St. Vincent, and it really has a kick, but it does not burn. Hard to do, hard to do. Now, I just love the way it refreshes and it tingles the palate. And this company has a cool story. It's founded by Carl Franz Williams. Now, he's the owner of 67 Orange, this kind of pioneering cocktail bar in Harlem. Really one of the first speakeasy bars to open in Harlem and has gotten great, great acclaim.

1:07:12Not been, but I've heard great things about it. And I just I love Uncle Waifley's. I know they're available at Whole Foods and variety of specialty beverage shops. And I think you should check it out. They definitely will sell you a bottle online. I know it's a really buzzy brand in the Whole Foods world. It's Uncle Waithley's. Two more. Okay, this one was kind of, I would say when I walked up to the booth, I was like, okay, this is not my typical, my choice to like snack on because it's frosting. It's frost buttercream. So they're selling buttercream in individual containers to, of course, spread across cupcakes.

1:07:50And you can have a little buttercream on a larger cake if you want. But really, they're kind of selling it as a snacking frosting or icing. I guess you call it frosting. And I was like, OK, I'll try it. Man, it was good. It was really, really light, less calories than typical buttercream. This is kind of protein maxing at its core, you know, advertising the protein macros of a buttercream snack. I'm here for this company, Young Founders. Really enjoy catching up with them. It's available in, I believe, New York only right now, Uber Eats and at Pop-Up Grocer. But I really like it. I kind of want to get a couple containers of it and snack on it.

1:08:30I feel it's a perfect 3 or 4 p.m. snack. Frost Buttercream is the name. Last one. Thank you for rolling with me on this monopod about the fancy food show in Las Vegas. Tamarin Heads barbecue sauce. Another Afghan American company. I think they're from Georgia, they said. I think it was amazing to see tamarin sauce in this way. I could see it on ribs. I could see it in pulled pork. I really love the flavors. It felt like it was a fresh take on barbecue sauce that is called Tamarin Head's Barbecue Sauce. Okay, that's the list. I had a great time hanging out. I hope to go to other fancy food shows, maybe Expo West.

1:09:08Next year, I'm not going this year. I just, I love this energy around founders in the CPG world. And you know what? I hope we can have a couple of the founders on the show. If you like any of these products, again, links in the show notes. Thanks for checking out these products.