Top bins
Best bars for World Cup watching, Pasadena properties, Full Proof Pizza, Rancho Park, The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, MORE
RESTAURANTS • The Ask
Since we launched FOUND, we’ve been asking all new subscribers to tell us their favorite restaurant. Thousands of you have obliged, for which we are grateful. (It’s a great list!) Today, as we prepare to draft the first-ever canonical list of FOUND’s favorite LA restaurants (the FOUND 45), we’re asking those of you who haven’t shared your favorite restaurant to reply to this email and give up the goods. Bonus points for a line or two explaining why you love the restaurant.
THE STORYBOOK COAST: For those trading long-haul itineraries for something slower this summer, Carmel-by-the-Sea delivers the kind of coastal escape people usually fly across oceans to find. Check into a charming inn, then let the rest fall into place. Big Sur, Pebble Beach, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium are wonderful day trips, but the real luxury may be staying put in storybook Carmel. Book a summer trip [spon]
WORK • Thursday Routine
Proof positive
OR AMSALAM • co-owner, baker & operator • Lodge Bread Co. & Full Proof Pizza
Neighborhood you work in: Carthay Circle
Neighborhood you live in: Culver City
It’s Thursday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Our bakery is bustling on a Thursday morning: we’re making bread, pastry and challah for Friday morning. My morning consists of checking in with my bakery/cafe team, performing QC checks in the bakery and planning for the weekend. After checking in with the Culver City crew, I will start work on our new Pasadena project.
Thursdays are usually our tasting days for Full Proof Pizza, our new dinner concept set to open late summer 2026. We go through five to six menu items, ranging from handmade pastas to chicken parmesan.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
This week we had the pleasure of dining at Lielle. It was amazing. From the food to the staff, everything was on point, fine dining without a stuffy and pretentious atmosphere. Highly recommend it. Also recently visited Budonoki, where we ended up ordering almost the entire menu. Standouts were the spicy tuna hand roll, Japanese sweet potatoes, negima skewer, and the chef’s salad with salmon furikake. Everything was excellent.
I also love Electric Bleu. It has classic French bistro vibes with great steak frites and a deep wine list with lots of options. The atmosphere is lively and fun, and the GM brings a very French energy in the best way. Great neighborhood spot. My wife and I recently dined at Sushi:K and did the omakase. All the nigiri was incredibly fresh and delicious, especially the yellowtail and aji. It’s a small, cozy place that we found really charming, and the service was so warm and friendly.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I love to golf in my free time or sometimes first thing before I start my day. Spending three to four hours walking a golf course without a phone, just with my own thoughts, is very relaxing and therapeutic for me, especially after a long week. My favorite course is Rancho Park. It’s one of the best, but also one of the hardest places to get a good tee time. It’s actually considered the most played municipal golf course in America, often logging over 100,000 rounds a year. It used to host PGA tournaments, which says a lot about the quality. It’s a beautiful course, tucked right into the middle of the city. Because it’s so busy, I’m lucky if I get to play there twice a year. Other public courses I like are Soule Park in Ojai and Olivas Links in Ventura.
Any weekend getaways?
Every few months we take a quick one- or two-night trip without our kids, and we recently went up to Los Olivos and had a blast. It’s a trip we’ve done before. For a special getaway, we stayed at The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern. Another great, more budget-friendly option we love is the Skyview in Los Alamos. We love going to Bar le Cote for lunch, followed by some wine tasting in town (our favorite room is Solminer). We then like to have dinner at Bell’s which is a fantastic experience.
What was your last great vacation?
Nosara, Costa Rica, for a family spring break with friends. We rented a house near the beach and it was a really special experience. At its core, Nosara is a sleepy surf town that’s starting to grow in popularity. If you want to stay in town, the Sendero Hotel and Villas is a great option. The only real mode of transportation is renting golf carts for the week and we would take the kids to Organico Bakery for breakfast pastries. Restaurante La Luna is literally on the beach and offers a stunning sunset view during dinner. There are a handful of easy and fun casual dining spots to choose from but you should start the night with a drink at the Harmony Hotel Bar. There are plenty of activities to do but the best is heading to the beach during sunset. It’s pretty special.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
Our pizza oven for Full Proof (our aforementioned, forthcoming new pizza spot). We will be working with an electric Moretti Forni deck oven and we can’t wait to start using it.
Where are you donating your time or money?
We donate bread and pastry to Nourish LA. We also donate our time yearly to a charity called This Is About Humanity.
WORK & PLAY LINKS: Silver Lake cult-favorite menswear retailer Anonymousism closes • Jyan Isaac Bread takes over Silver Lake’s Say Cheese setup on Hyperion • Highland Park’s vintage furniture favorite Sunbeam Vintage shrinking retail footprint, selling lots at discount right now • Are people really making $500K a month on ShopMy?
BARS • The Nines
World Cup watching
The Nines are FOUND’s distilled lists of the best in LA and surrounds. Paid subscribers access the complete Nines archive.
The Greyhound Bar & Grill (Highland Park), white-tiled floor, dark wooden booths, Atlantic-inspired hotspot for Tottenham Hotspur matches, excellent wings, walk-ins only