Highland Park's new hot spot has no social media presence. Here's why

Steak, roasted sweet potatoes and Marcona almonds with a glass of white wine on a wood table at Sam's Place in Highland Park

Oct. 11, 2024 4:13 PM PT

Sam’s Place owners want customers’ first impressions to come from real life not Instagram.
New SGV Chinese dumpling spot Good Alley is drawing lines the length of a Rosemead strip mall.
With two chef partners, Edgemar brings new life to Frank Gehry-designed space.
From Japan to Echo Park, Izakaya Dongame and Indigo Cow soft serve with milk from Hokkaido.

Sam’s Place

Dimly lighted and mysterious, the new Highland Park hot spot Sam’s Place from Hermosillo wine bar vets Scotty Cantino and Ben Jones has no social media, no website and no phone number.

“We’re not trying to make it feel like a speakeasy or anything like that, where it’s exclusive,” Cantino says, “but I do think that we want the experience to start when you walk in the door, and not on your phone or on the internet. I feel like it’s more likely people will have a good time if their first interaction is when they come in, than judging how bad of a photographer I am on Instagram.”

Grilled chicken wings and Marcona almonds with a glass of white wine on a wood table.

With a cozy, wood-paneled atmosphere, Sam’s Place, named for a Buck Owens song, straddles the line between wine bar and neighborhood restaurant.

Cantino helms the bar, where he pours a tight selection of natural-leaning European and Californian wines by the glass — one white, one rosé, one red, one orange, one bubbles — alongside whole bottles, draft and bottled beers, vermouth spritzes and no-ABV (alcohol by volume) options.

Jones, who heads the kitchen, offers an also compact but thoughtful food menu of basics: bavette steak in red wine jus; roasted Japanese sweet potatoes just-burnt and served with tahini and spicy green shatta; spice-rubbed chicken wings in aji amarillo and pomegranate sauce; marinated olives; herbed salad and little else.

Indoor guests can sidle up to the bar or grab an arched wooden booth. The outdoor side patio features a walk-up window for placing and receiving orders with Cantino.

Sam’s Place is open Tuesday to Saturday from 4 to 11 p.m. 5530 Monte Vista St., Los Angeles

Good Alley

Black chopsticks lift a soup dumpling from a bamboo steamer

A new Chinese dumpling and tea specialist is drawing lines of guests down the length of a Rosemead strip mall. Good Alley, from the team behind the adjacent Ji Rong Duck House, recently opened in the Empire Commercial Center with fresh handmade dumplings, wonton soups, clay pot braises, charcoal-grilled skewers and cheese-foam teas. Owners Peter Pang and David Shao refer to the new restaurant as their “unassuming noodle shop,” and while their nearby duck palace specializes in Peking dishes, at Good Alley the spotlight is on guan tang bao, or Kaifeng-style soup dumplings.

Inspired by the team’s 2011 travels to China, where they found a Shenyang restaurant that served fantastic soup dumplings, Pang and Shao vowed to bring the delicate dumplings to L.A. Now they’re serving them filled with kurobuta pork, chicken, or pork with crab, alongside other specialties of roujiamo, or “Chinese burgers” where pork, beef or cumin lamb comes sandwiched between a flaky layered pancake bun.

Other items include noodle soups, XO-sauce-laced baby bok choy in superior stock, spicy hot pot, pork skin in jelly, wagyu beef fried rice, and a selection of iced Chinese teas with customizable sweetness and accoutrements.

Good Alley is open daily 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 8450 Valley Blvd., Suite 108, Rosemead, instagram.com/good_alley

Edgemar

A dual-chef concept is filling a storied Frank Gehry-designed building in Santa Monica, bringing new life to a former warehouse with curries, fried oysters and tartares that riff on the chefs’ backgrounds and favorite dishes.

Edgemar recently opened with chefs and friends Jared Dowling (Winston House, the Waterfront) and Jonathan Thoma (Great White) heading up a global menu of tempura oysters with yuzu tartar sauce, fennel oil and charred lemon; ikura-topped, sesame-crusted shrimp toast with citrus aioli; butter chicken with cilantro oil; a cheeseburger adorned with bourbon-caramelized onions; and stracciatella sprinkled with togarashi and chile oil.

Cocktails include guava mezcal daisies and a Cognac-and-Champagne “French boilermaker.” And at brunch, look for duck rice porridge, loco moco or crab cake Benedict.

Edgemar is open Wednesday to Friday from 5:30 to 11 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 9 p.m. 2435 Main St., Santa Monica, (424) 252-6844, edgemar.la

Izakaya Dongame

An Osaka-born izakaya just touched down in Echo Park, the first U.S. location of Izakaya Dongame, a brand founded more than a decade ago. At the Echo Park location, hanging lanterns, posters and low tables set the scene for kushiyaki — a range of grilled skewers of chicken, eel, vegetables, salmon, scallops and more — plus tempura, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, karaage, gyoza and other Japanese classics designed to pair well with sake, shochu and frosty mugs of beer.

House specialties include “sushi dogs,” or open temaki hand rolls, as well as mackerel torched tableside, Japanese hamburg steak, and Osaka-style fried pork loin, or tonteki, dripping with gravy.

Izakaya Dongame is open Sunday to Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m. 1712 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, instagram.com/izakayadongameusa

Indigo Cow

Next door to Echo Park’s Izakaya Dongame is another newcomer specializing in Japanese items. After moving to the U.S., Indigo Cow founder Keisuke “Kay” Kobayashi sought to bring the familiar flavors of his Hokkaido upbringing to Seattle, and launched a soft serve company that uses Hokkaido-cow dairy for the base. The milk from Iwase Farm, in Sunagawa, is now also making the journey to Indigo Cow’s new shop in Echo Park, where the soft serve can also come tinged with matcha and topped with mochi balls, warm roasted sweet potatoes, roasted soybean powder, brown-sugar syrup and more.

Indigo Cow is open Sunday to Thursday from noon to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from noon to midnight. 1710 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, indigocow.com