F2 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 LATIMES.COM/FOOD
West Adams tacos
Bee Taqueria opened Tuesday in
West Adams from Osteria Mozza
veteran Alex Carrasco. A take-
away window serves beet tinga on
fresh tortillas, shrimp and scallop
taquitos, ceviche fritoand barba-
coa de borrego. In addition to a
few outdoor tables, there is also a
four-seat, reservation-only “taco
omakase” experience next to the
kitchen.
Info: 5754 W. Adams Blvd., Los
Angeles, (323) 452-9575,
instagram.com/beetaqueria
Emilia’s Italian
Emilia is now open in Beverly
Grove from Amici chef-owner
Tancredi DeLuca. You’ll find fresh
pastries and avocado toast with
ricotta and lemon zest in the
morning, and dishes including
wild Scottish salmon and grilled
pappardelle with Leoncini ham for
dinner.
Info: 8500 Burton Way, Los Ange-
les, (424) 999-4755
Swine of duty
Porchetta Republic is now open in
Westlake for pork-laden Italian
sandwiches, including focaccia
with house-made porchetta, meat-
ball marinara on ciabatta and the
“Arlecchino” with porchetta, peco-
rino cream and red-wine-braised
onions.
Info: 1220 W. 7th St., Los Angeles,
(213) 372-5022, porchetta
republic.com/home
Hot fried chicken
Firebirds L.A. is now open in
Northridge on Friday, Saturday
and Sunday nights. The street
stand’s menu includes fried
chicken with four levels of heat,
available in brioche sandwiches, in
flour tortilla tacos or served over
crinkle fries.
Info: 10324 Zelzah Ave.,
Northridge, (818) 800-5898,
firebirdsla.com
Wagyu handrolls
Seaweed Handroll Bar is now open
in Koreatown. The menu includes
10 hand rolls, with ingredients
such as spicy lobster, blue crab
and seared scallops, along with
Miyazaki A5 Wagyu nigiri,octo-
pus sashimi and salmon nigiri
topped with black caviar.
Info: 3450 W. 6th St., Los Angeles,
(213) 674-7996, seaweedsushibar
.com
Birria boom
L.A. Autentica Birrieria is now
open in North Hollywood. The
orange truck serves meats includ-
ing birria de res, birria de chivo,
beef cheek, beef lip and chicken on
handmade tortillas in tacos
suaves, tacos dorados, quesa-
tacos, mulitasand vampiros.
Info: 111 17 Victory Blvd., North
Hollywood, (323) 690-0987,
instagram.com
/l.aautenticabirrieria
Ale to the chief
Washington Ale House is now
open in Marina del Rey in the
former Sports Harbour location.
There are 40 beers on tap, in addi-
tion to carnitas-topped nachos,
garlic fries, New York steak and
clam chowder.
Info: 13484 W. Washington Blvd.,
Marina del Rey, washington
alehouse.com
Dagu debuts
The first L.A. franchise of China’s
Dagu Rice Noodle chain is now
open in Arcadia. The specialties
are rice noodle soup with braised
bone-in pork or beef in a 250-de-
gree clay pot, and Yunnan’s “cross-
ing the bridge” noodles. Both
come with add-on options such as
lamb slices, whole shrimp and
stuffed meatballs.
Info: 1108 S. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia,
(626) 461-5356, dagurice
noodle.com
Closings
South City Fried Chicken at Cor-
poration Food Hall in downtown
has closed. The same menu of fried
chicken sandwiches will be avail-
able Monday through Saturday at
New Orleans-inspired restaurant
Preux & Proper, which has the
same owners.
Info:840 S. Spring St., Los Ange-
les, (213) 896-0090, preuxand
proper.com
Kit MillsFor The TimesNEWSFEED
Beachside page-turners and
boppy pop tunes that stick like
molten asphalt can forever
stamp the way we remember a
particular summer. So can the
right new restaurant. Some
favorite touchstones of summer
2019: Ocean Vuong’s debut novel,
“On Earth We’re Briefly Gor-
geous,” Kygo’s reverent remix of
Whitney Houston’s rarely heard
1990 cover of “Higher Love” —
and Ceviche Project, a 28-seat
seafood bar in Silver Lake that’s
ideal for hiding from the heat
and the world.
This isn’t a summer block-
buster of a restaurant. It’s an
indie charmer, urbane and light
enough for an hour or two of
sparkling diversion.
Ceviche Project resides with-
out much street presence in a
strip mall painted a distracting
shade of eggplant. Inside, the
space has a self-contained char-
isma: white walls that are calm-
ingly stark, orchids in bloom on
brass-framed shelves, a marble
bar whose churning shades of
green suggest seaweed swirling
in tidal pools, gentle rhythms of
calypso and jazz whirling from a
record player.
The room’s center of gravity is
Mexico City native Octavio
Olivas, a one-man cevicheria
preparing seafood behind his
restaurant’s snug counter. Wear-
ing his hair slicked and rocking a
crisp, buttoned naval captain’s
jacket emblazoned with an octo-
pus insignia, he manages to look
dashing while staying in near-
constant motion.
Everything he needs is close
at hand: He reaches behind him
to the display of shellfish on ice
and plucks a scallop shell; he
pries it open, slices through the
muscle and decorates the bivalvewith tangerine segments, pome-
granate seeds, serrano peppers
and, for a $3 upcharge (worth it),
uni. He merges pineapple, ji-
cama, corn nuts, wisps of red-
orange carrot and plantain chips
in a bath of citrus he draws for tai
snapper ceviche. Then he’s on to
cracking snow crab claws, or
breaking down a hunk of yel-
lowfin tuna during infrequent
quiet moments.
Olivas ditched his career as a
lawyer in 2012, transitioning into
the culinary world via pop-ups
and food festivals, honing his
ideas until he finally opened his
own place four months ago. His
menu runs brief: a few straight-
up raw seafood options, four
variations on ceviches and tos-
tadas, a couple of vegetarian
options, a handful of daily spe-
cials, beer and wine. It’s refresh-
ing, in more than one sense, to
cool off and make minimal deci-
sions. One or two servers tend to
customers; order a few things
and see how you feel. Hungry for
more? No sweat. You aren’t being
rushed.
“What kinds of oysters do you
have today?” I ask Olivas during
a meal when I’m seated in front
of him.
“I have one,” he says with a
smirk. “Kusshis.” He dresses a
half-dozen of them in a re-
strained mignonette that doesn’t
mask the tiny oysters’ piercing
salinity. Among the few raw bar
items, I’m even fonder of the
scallops on the half shell; too few
restaurants present them in
their purest state like this, when
their flavor is buttery sweet and
their yielding texture is as satis-
fying to bite through as a gum-
drop.
Olivas’ composed tostadas,
creativity-wise, set off the loud-
est fireworks. They’re monu-
ments to fish built on pebbly-
textured, undulating fried corn
tortillas made in Guadalajara.(“I tried for years to make better
tostadas myself,” he says. “I
can’t.”)
He builds a kanpachi tostada,
arguably the menu’s centerpiece,
over a thick smear of what Olivas
calls avocado mousse; it’s too
tart and restrained in seasoning
to be labeled “guacamole.” On
top he sculpts the fish around
piles of trout roe, grapefruit
crescents, nasturtium leaves and
radish sprouts.
That enigmatic extra some-
thing sneaking through the
ingredients? It’s tosazu, a Japa-
nese dressing that includes
katsuobushi, the fermented and
smoked bonito that often gives
dashi its potency.
Olivas frequently dreams up
tostadas as daily specials; one
colorful tumble of shrimp, to-
matoes and cucumbers drizzled
with smoky salsa negrareminds
me of the kind of pristine combi-
nation served at Erizo Market in
Tijuana, one of Baja’s standout
seafood restaurants. He might
swap in a similar variation piled
generously with octopus.
Keep an eye on the specials
board hung to the left of thecounter: Most of the time caviar
is among the options.
These are glory days for cav-
iar in American restaurants,
given the more sustainable and
affordable varieties available
today.
Olivas prepares an elegant,
on-brand spread for $40:
a 1-ounce tin of California farmed
white sturgeon roe paired with
brightly popping trout roe,
joined by sides of tostadas,
crema and avocado.
The succinct drink list pre-
sents seven wines by the glass
and four beers (two lagers, two
pale ales) that match the food’s
sunny disposition.
With most of the dishes I lean
toward an Austrian orange wine;
with the caviar, I’ll sip a gently
effervescent Ameztoi Txakolina
rosé.
Ironically, given the restau-
rant’s namesake and the affec-
tion I feel for this place, the cevi-
ches are the least compelling
thing; they run a little too sweet
for my taste, especially the tai
snapper number with pineapple,
though I enjoy its nod to Peruvi-
an ceviches with the addition of
corn nuts.
If you want a true dessert
after a wonderfully weightless
meal, Olivas offers a single con-
fection: a peanut butter ball
covered in dark chocolate and
sprinkled with sea salt. I watch
many customers succumb to its
nostalgic tug.
It’s not really my yen. But I sit
at the end of a meal at Ceviche
Project, breathing in the restau-
rant’s cool air and the clean smell
of the freshest seafood, and then
I look through the window out-
side. The bare earth on a little hill
across the street looks parched,
and the leaves on a nearby tree
seem to be clinging to their final
supplies of chlorophyll. Maybe
one more scallop on the half
shell?Ceviche Project owner-chef Octavio Olivas composes his octopus tostada on a pebbly-textured tortilla made in Guadalajara.Photographs by Mariah TaugerLos Angeles TimesRESTAURANT REVIEW
Cevicheria soothes, sustains
BILL ADDISON
RESTAURANT CRITICScallop on the half shell with tangerine and pomegranate. Hawaiian kanpachi tostada with trout roe and nasturtiums.Ceviche Project
LOCATION
2524 1 ⁄ 2 Hyperion Ave, Los
Angeles, (323) 522-6744,
cevicheproject.com.PRICES
Raw bar $4-$21, most ceviches
$16, vegetarian options $13,
dessert $3DETAILS
Credit cards accepted. Wine
and beer. Lot and street
parking. Wheelchair accessible.RECOMMENDED DISHES
Kanpachi tostada, special
shrimp tostada, caviar special,
scallop on the half shell.