Fresh

Southern California's always surprising restaurant scene was particularly inventive this past year, filled with fresh faces, new ideas and wonderful, spirited food. Restaurateurs are trying out new concepts, inventing genres and taking chances with design. And a new generation of chefs is opening up the kind of places they'd like to go to with their friends-- casual and fun, but still serious about food. Priced out of prime real estate, they've discovered Culver City, Hollywood and other unexpected neighborhoods, reconfiguring once-neglected areas as dining destinations. As a result, people are happily eating closer to home, and at the same time paying more attention to what is truly local. Eating out in L.A. has never felt so fresh and new.

*

Eric Greenspan

FINE DINING WITH SIMPLICITY AND FOCUS

Ever since Eric Greenspan left his position as opening executive chef at the late Meson G in 2005, he's been planning to open his own place. A former executive chef at Patina, he didn't want anything too formal or stiff. In fact, he calls what he does at the Foundry on Melrose "fine dining for the everyday man." The restaurant is casual and lively, with an airy enclosed back garden outfitted with leather banquettes and a fireplace. Upfront, there's live music five nights a week, and soon a live webcam will capture the action in the kitchen. All this is fine and dandy, yet in terms of the cooking, Greenspan's technique, honed in the kitchens of David Bouley, Ferran Adria and Alain Ducasse in New York, has a new simplicity and focus. For one thing, the 32-year-old New Jersey native is working with a small menu to better reflect the seasons and whatever inspires him at the moment. It could be supple little raviolis with quail egg, fava beans and Parmesan foam; wild salmon with white asparagus and radishes in a Meyer lemon sauce; or braised pork belly paired with soft scrambled eggs. He's got a sweet little wine list and one of the best cheese selections in town too. His new place has charged him up, and his cooking is now more personal than anything he has previously done.

THE FOUNDRY ON MELROSE

7465 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, 323 651-0915

*

FRESH TAKES

Rethinking favorites from around the world

SOBA NOODLES