Plugs — Max Block
L.A. food, drink, and leisure recs from a hospitality comms veteran + 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. Free subscribers will receive one Plug; upgrade your subscription to receive all six!)
#52 is Max Block, president of the hospitality communications firm CARVINGBLOCK. Max and his team oversee PR and event production for big-name clients ranging from Holbox to Coachella. Better yet, he’s a proud fourth generation Angeleno. Having grown up in Malibu in a family embedded in the restaurant industry (his parents run a major liquor licensing agency) he’s been a regular of many classic haunts since he was a kid. Max has endless stories to tell about food culture in Los Angeles, which I learned over martinis at the Tower Bar a few weeks back. The imperative next step was to have him on Plugs. Here he is!
Restaurant — Matsuhisa
I often joke with my friends on our first visit to the restaurant together that I’m convinced my mom’s water broke while dining at Matsuhisa, I’ve been so often (we are in fact born in the same year). Matsuhisa is just ‘that guy.’ It’s a restaurant of firsts for me — the first place I tried sushi, the first restaurant I took a date to, and it remains, personally, the most special spot in town. Michelle, the GM, has been there since the restaurant opened, as have most of the sushi chefs, and they have effortlessly mastered the art of hospitality in warmth, service, and substance. In a city of see-and-be-seen restaurants, Matsuhisa remains a beacon of eras past and retains all of its unpretentious charm. My dad, brother, and I have a standing reservation at the sushi bar every other Friday to shoot the shit, sip sake, and devour all the tiradito, sashimi, and shrimp asparagus hand rolls we can muster.
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