854: Adam Weisblatt Wrote the Restaurant Industry’s Realest Owner’s Manual

Adam Weisblatt (0:08)

New York has so many of these little restaurants that you walk around a corner and you duck in and the feeling of that is magic.

And LA, again, because of its size, can lack that. And a lot of what we wanted to do was create intimacy. And when you have a space that's small, everybody's working right next to where you're dining and it forces intimacy.

Matt Rodbard (0:29)

This is TASTE. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard. Adam Weisblatt has opened seven restaurants with Last Word Hospitality, the LA group behind Hermon, Barra Santos and Rasarumah. His terrific new book, For the Love of Restaurants, colorfully traces the arc of building a restaurant from location scouting, lease negotiations, financing, hiring, and opening night, through the story of the group's first and smallest restaurant, Found Oyster. On this episode, Adam joins the show to talk about why he wrote the industry playbook he wishes somebody had handed him and why sharing harder knowledge is good for operators and restaurant fans alike. And at the top of the show, it's the return of Three Things where Eliza and I talk about what is exciting us in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole.

Clayton, we are back to share our LA restaurant visits.

Aliza Abarbanel (1:27)

Yes, we were in LA.

Matt Rodbard (1:29)

Love it. Los Angeles, my favorite restaurant city by a long shot these days.

We were there filming for Rezzy. We have some really great episodes coming up later in this year, and I cannot wait to share them. But I wanted to go over some of the meals we had because they were really terrific. I am not going to mention like we went to Bubbin Grandma's. I loved that place, talked about it a lot. Great salad. Great salad.

I went to Quat, loved Quat, loved that place. But I want to start with Rustic Canyon. Rustic Canyon, I went there two years ago or maybe a year and a half ago. And I had never been, so this is my second visit in two years. And I have to say, this is hands down one of my favorite restaurants in LA right now. Small sample size obviously, I don't live there. But I just have to say this chef, Aliza De Leon is doing amazing work there. Do not sleep on Aliza's cooking. Let's talk a little bit about the history of the restaurant. It's turning 20 this year, which is amazing, 20 years from Josh Loeb.

And a cast of chefs like Jeremy Foxx and Evan Funke, and really other partners who really have made this an institution in Santa Monica. And to me, I think that it's probably some of the better years are right now.

Again, small sample size. And I just love what's happening there. I mean, it's clearly, it's really inspired by the Santa Monica farmers market. And Aliza and I caught up and we talked about his market visits. And he's there all the time. And he's bringing places like Paris from Terry Ranch. And there's brilliant melons and Weiser is there. And Jewelry Farms corn is there. And like really, and there's flannery beef. I mean, I could just say I noted many of the farms on the menu. And really, to me, this is exciting stuff. And I think like it was probably one of our favorite meals in California, wouldn't you say?

Aliza Abarbanel (3:31)

100%. And you always talk about on this podcast about supporting restaurants that have been around five, 10, 15, 20 years. 20 years is an accomplishment for a restaurant. And the fact that the food is at this level is so amazing. I mean, the chef came to the table, said hi to us, really nice guy.

Every dish, I think, was a hit.

Matt Rodbard (4:01)

Yeah, we didn't have any skips. I agree with you. I mean, back to those pears. You know, there was shaved Stracciatella with this kind of like green oil over it. What a cool pairing, pears and Stracciatella. I loved that. There was a tomato with brown butter and charred fried bread. It was like anti-basil, which was a version of the panzanella, bluefin tuna crudo in a chipotle broth under those melons. I loved that. I mean, vegetables are definitely the star. I think that we all agreed this grilled oyster mushroom al pastor with the habanero peppers. Like those pickled peppers, they were delicious. I mean, I could have eaten a fistful of those peppers. Amazing work. I mean, there's big Jim peppers with this corn, you know, like a succotash. I feel like the fried Japanese sweet potatoes with chili served in that kind of chipotle aioli.