Behind the Scenes: DineLA and EDA
Hello, EDA family and friends! It’s a long weekend, and we’re excited to support other local restaurants and celebrate workers, in hospitality and other industries! During COVID-19 especially, let’s honor our hospitality community and celebrate the people behind the scenes that keep our lives running smoothly, from the farmers and producers we source our ingredients from, the kitchen and front of house staff at our favorite restaurants, to the delivery drivers who pick up and deliver our meals! At Eat Drink Americano, we literally could not do it without our dedicated, wonderful team each and every day.
This week we’re excited to take you through our DineLA menu, share some insights and inspiration for what we’re cooking up, and make some suggestions on what to order -- and if you’re in the mood for a tipple, what to drink with it!
Behind the Scenes at EDA during DineLA Restaurant Week
Restaurant Week is one of our favorites times of year here at EDA! It’s a time where we can experiment with our favorite dishes, improve and rethink how we see our food and our menus, and share our favorites with our customers, all at a great price! It’s a buzzy time in the restaurant industry across LA, and this year is no exception, even with COVID-19.
This year’s takeout-only celebration of local food might look different, but until we can invite you back into our dining room for the biggest celebration we’ve ever had, we’re excited to take part in this important yearly tradition, and keep our morale high! For our regulars and new customers alike, we are so grateful for your support in good times and bad, and we look forward to sharing our menus with you this year!
So, what are we waiting for!? Let’s talk food!
Our Braised Pork Cheeks with Creamy Polenta and Chimichurri, off our Dinner Menu.
Our DineLA Lunch Menu is a celebration of new and old favorites, and special menu items not normally offered on our regular menu. We wanted to bring something different to the table this year, and give our regulars and new friends an opportunity to enjoy dishes they love that are rarely seen on our specials board. Some of our customers visit us once a week, sometimes more, and we wanted to say thank you by bringing back some of their favorites.
Plus, who doesn't like Mexican food? According to co-owner Angelina, most of the dish ideas came from our kitchen family meals, when our cooks made Mexican dishes from their own families and culinary history. We wanted to bring these dishes to our customers to enjoy.
She says, “We designed our menus to celebrate delicious traditional Mexican dishes, but with a little flair of Americano, too! We love working with amazing ingredients like Niman Ranch Short Ribs that appear in our Braised Short Rib Tacos, and bringing a French-Mexican twist with our Ratatouille Tacos. We always joke around that we should call our place Mexicano instead of Americano because our Mexican food is so good!”
Our Picks:
Appetizer: Roasted Poblano Caesar Salad (a classic, and loved for a reason!)
Entree: Braised Short Rib Tacos
Beverage: our house-made fresh squeezed lemonade (it really hits the spot on a hot day!)
At $20 per person, it’s a great deal. We hope you enjoy our Mexican-inspired menu as much as we love preparing it for you!
Our Vegetarian Bowl off our Dinner Menu.
For our DineLA Dinner Menu, we wanted to bring back our favorites from our pre-Covid menu that we miss so much! These are items that we love to make, and our customers crave! We love working with high quality proteins, so we’ve included our current favorites like our Smoked Corned Beef Brisket, and brought back our Braised Pork Cheeks, due to popular demand! It’s a long, slow cooking process and a lot of work, but we truly believe that it's the best preparation for these delicious cuts of meat!
Angelina says, “These favorite dishes are back, but with a little Americano flair! We’ve upped our ante and have included creamy polenta in our Pork Cheeks dish, and are now serving it with Adobe Chipotle demi glace and chimichurri sauce for a little kick!”
Our Togarashi Fried Chicken is a play on our Togarashi Fried Chicken On-A-Bun: the same buttermilk brined, sous vide, chili spiced, honey-drizzled fried chicken we’re famous for, and making it more decadent: we’ve brought in our creamy mashed potatoes, and a burst of crisp, acidic brined coleslaw to balance the dish.
At EDA, we’re always conscious of our customers’ dietary needs, and we wanted to accommodate everyone with celebrating the best-of-the-best ingredients, whether it's proteins or fresh organic local produce. Our Vegetarian Bowl (make it vegan without the cheese!) celebrates this season’s best with a truly luxe mushroom duxelles, rich butternut squash, creamy avocado, tomatoes, cauliflower, and arugula over rice.
Our Picks:
Appetizer: Organic Cherry Tomato and Truffle Burrata (locally made, fresh, and celebrates the last-of-the-summer tomatoes: it’s too good!)
Entree: Braised Pork Cheeks (our slow cook really pays off big time: we braise over 18 hours and the result is the most tender, craveable dish on our menu!)
Dessert: "Scrumpdiddlyumptious" -- a mouthful to say, but in our opinion, a chocolate lover’s ideal dessert! A not-too-sweet flourless chocolate torte, with fresh berries.
At $35 per person we might be biased, but this three-course meal is one of the best menus out there!
We love seeing our regulars on our patio! It’s now bigger and better, come by and say hi!
Let’s support our friends! DTLA go-tos we’re excited to support during Restaurant Week
Our owners Angelina and Michael are true locals to the Arts District here in LA. Not only do they work each day at the restaurant, but they also live close by! Neighboring restaurants have become friends over the years, and they’re excited to celebrate and enjoy local neighborhood food.
We love seeing our restaurant friends across our city open their doors to new and old customers excited to try limited-edition menus, so we thought we’d share our neighborhood picks!
Angelina and Michael love dining local and have a soft spot for these restaurants:
Arts District
“Pizzanista is our go-to for delicious, hot pies made with love. We appreciate their high quality ingredients they use!”
Manuela is a solid choice for seasonal food, with a twist.
“We’re neighbors! And we love their food!” Angelina says. Many of their back of house staff come by EDA before their shifts start for a bite, and we’ve become friends with everyone there over the years.
Little Tokyo
“We’ve been patronizing our favorite little sushi restaurants in Little Tokyo for over thirty years now! We want to give our friends at Comasa and Hama Sushi a shout out!” Angelina and Michael order sushi from them once a week. It’s fresh, with incredible, high quality seafood, and run by the nicest people in Los Angeles.
Whether you’re participating in DineLA to support your favorite restaurants, try new places, or get some great deals on delicious food, we hope you continue to support local, this year especially! Local restaurants like us need your support to keep making the food we all enjoy.
We are excited to try some DineLA menus, enjoy the long weekend, and try to stay cool! How are you spending your Labor Day Weekend? Let us know in the comments!
Let’s work together to support local favorites, try new restaurants, and celebrate food!
Cheers!
Til next week,
EDA team