Plugs — Camelia, Tsubaki, & OTOTO

L.A. food, drink, and leisure recs from Courtney Kaplan and Charles Namba + 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!)

#94 is Courtney Kaplan and Charles Namba, the L.A. power couple behind Camelia, Tsubaki, and OTOTO. If you live in Los Angeles (or visit frequently) and love restaurants, you know that they are brilliant at what they do: Charles as a chef, and Courtney, likely L.A.’s foremost sake connoisseur, overseeing beverage. The duo opened the California izakaya Tsubaki in 2017, followed by the next-door sake bar OTOTO in 2019, and most recently, the Japanese-French brasserie Camelia last summer. Charles was born in L.A. to Japanese parents, while Courtney studied Japanese in college and began her career in the service industry at a yakiniku in Tokyo. They met while working at the lauded EN Japanese Brasserie in New York, and both have spent time working in European restaurants, as well—Courtney as a sommelier at Bestia, and Charles at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon. Most nights, you can find them in the kitchen and on the floor in one of their three restaurants, but this is where they go when they’re off the clock. Here are their Plugs.

Charles and Courtney in Kyoto, 2005.

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Restaurant — Delia’s

Working nights for so many years has always meant we don’t get many opportunities for dinners out, so over the years, daytime meals have become the primary restaurant experiences that we share together. Our tastes lean toward easy, friendly meals that feel home-cooked, and Delia’s is just perfect in so many ways. The crowd is super local — a mix of Occidental students, families, and many very evident longtime regulars — with real “small town in a big city” feelings, and the vibe is truly cozy with big mom-and-pop energy in a way that can be challenging to find in L.A. these days. A go-to is the breakfast burrito and fresh-squeezed OJ, but it’s hard to go wrong with anything on the menu.