Plugs — Abby Sandler

L.A. food, drink, and leisure recs from a fruit-obsessed architect + LINKS

Plugs is The Angel’s recs column. Every week, you’ll get six picks—a restaurant, a bar, a shop, an ingredient, a person, and a treat—from someone in 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!)

#54 is Abby Sandler, an architectural designer at the L.A.-based architecture and design firm The Archers. Abby is one of those people that doesn’t work in the food industry but may as well. Her knowledge of restaurants, her passion for cooking a perfect linguine alle vongole, and her obsession with fruit are all reasons I was drawn to her (after meeting her through Ruby). In fact, our initial bonding occurred when we realized that we were both people who pulled over in the middle of traffic in order to inspect a particularly lush kumquat tree. Then she took me to an excellent, under-the-radar Glendale sushi spot (more below). Abby grew up in Los Angeles, likes to pretend that she’s moving to New York, and is a regular at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market. Here are her L.A. Plugs.

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Restaurant — Nishi-Ya

My most reluctant plug! I really sat on this one, deciding whether or not to answer honestly because part of me (all of me) wanted to gate-keep my most sacred spot. But joy is to be shared. Nishi-Ya is a small husband-and-wife-run sushi bar in a strip mall in Glendale. The husband is behind the bar preparing the sushi while his wife, the only server in the restaurant, tends to the diners. Aside from its deeply understated charm (which includes a tiny TV from probably 1991 that sits up in the corner and that I’ve never seen on), the fish is so spectacular that it needs no adornment. I only ever get the Omakase. I think you can also order a la carte, but why waste their time?

Photos by Abby Sandler.