Plugs — Camilla Marcus

L.A. food, drink, and leisure recs from the founder of west~bourne + 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!)

#74 is Camilla Marcus, a chef, cookbook author, sustainability activist, and entrepreneur. A second-generation Angeleno, Camilla started her career in New York, where she worked as the director of business development for Union Square Hospitality Group, co-founded the hospitality tech summit TechTable, and eventually opened west~bourne, a slice of L.A. in SoHo. The pint-sized spot was New York City’s first zero-waste certified restaurant, serving casual California cuisine, including a chopped cabbage salad I loved, with avocado, feta, and charred scallions. Since Camilla moved back to Los Angeles to start her family of four, she’s shifted to focus on crafting carbon-neutral pantry staples, like avocado oil and pancake mix. At the end of last year, she published her first cookbook, My Regenerative Kitchen: Plant-Based Recipes and Sustainable Practices to Nourish Ourselves and the Planet. Here’s Camilla with her Plugs!

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Restaurant — Barras Santos

Barra Santos lives rent-free, forever, in my mind. I fangirl chef Melissa Lopez, hard, and think she’s created one of the gems of L.A. — surely a new classic — in just a few hundred square feet. It is always worth the drive to Cypress Park, and if only I lived closer. I have deep admiration for restaurateurs and chefs who can do so much with so little, nowhere to hide behind lavish design or gadgets — pure honest and wildly talented cooking. Years ago, before it became quite popular, I had an expansive trip to Portugal, and for years after I lamented that it’s impossibly hard to find Portuguese cuisine in L.A. Our move is to go around 4 p.m. when they open with all four (!) of our kids (if you know me, you know I am apt to be delinquent about reservations — is it the thrill of the walk in?! — and often with way too many toddlers and babies in tow). I especially love how they honor their produce, of course, from the best farms around California — often just gently kissed with fire and a punch of acid. And, regardless of the day or time, I feel compelled to wash their impeccable seafood and special sandwich with a porto tonico (essentially a sherry spritz). The move is to overorder (I dare you not to finish it all) — which usually ends up with us ordering the whole, curated, and perfect menu (my favorite way to enjoy any restaurant is to go all in). The only challenge I have is to be present because every visit I’m so taken with the dishes and charm that I’m yearning and plotting my next pop in.

Photos by Camilla Marcus.