L.A. Plugs — Alex Tatusian
The OC native and Gourmet worker-owner's deep cuts + LINKS
Plugs is The Angel’s recs column. On most Saturdays, you’ll get six picks—a restaurant, a bar, a shop, an ingredient, a person, and a treat—from someone in New York or Los Angeles who knows what they’re talking about, plus a selection of Angel-curated links. Plugs are for paid subscribers of The Angel only; upgrade your subscription to receive all six!
#98 is Alex Tatusian, an editor, designer, and worker-owner of the revamped Gourmet 2.0, one of my favorite new food publications, which puts a delightfully subversive spin on the beloved magazine of the same name (where I, incidentally, interned in college). He is the man responsible for introducing me to an excellent Cuban restaurant in Pico-Union and a cocktail called the Tovarich, which he aptly describes as “a daiquiri from the other side of the planet.” Alex is a proud Orange County native who put in his time in New York before moving back to SoCal; his taste reflects a deep knowledge of the high-low pleasures of dining and drinking in L.A. Here are his Plugs.
Restaurant: Yerord Mas
We didn’t have Armenian food like this when I was growing up. Our family ate (happily!) at Carousel, Raffi’s, Skaf’s, Taron, and Sarkis Pastry. That was pretty much it. (The boomers thought it was cute when my cousin Tenny suggested we check out Mini Kabob and Monta House.) Food writers love to trot out the D-word when describing Yerord Mas, but the restaurant owns the word “diaspora” in Los Angeles, as far as I’m concerned. Where another proprietor might fold in an unexpected spice, yassify a family recipe, or go full fusion (IndiMex, we’ll meet one day!!), Arthur Grigoryan endeavors 1) to survey the food of a people that overwhelmingly live (and for generations have lived) outside their homeland and 2) to freak it. Dishes from Iraq and Iran not often seen outside Armenian homes coexist with tastes of Soviet and ancient Armenia on a tiny menu. Everything is handled carefully but unpretentiously, e.g., my favorite (literal) touch: their various kyuftahs (bulgur balls with assorted fillings) possess a strange, spiny seashell shape accomplished by squeezing the mixture inside a fist until it begins to poke between the cook’s fingers.
