Plugs — Tatiana Ettensberger

L.A. food, drink, and leisure recs from the GM of Café Triste + LINKS

Before we get into this week’s Plugs, I want to spotlight an event taking place this Monday, March 24th: “Equity in Hospitality,” hosted by friend of The Angel Rax Will in collaboration with the James Beard Foundation and the Queer Food Foundation. 5-7 p.m. at Highland Park Brewery, RSVP here.

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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!)

#73 is Tatiana Ettensberger, the general manager and wine buyer at Café Triste, the Chinatown wine bar we know and love, and which is, fun fact, tied for second place most Plugged. Tatiana is also a born and bred Angeleno, an alum of Lasita and Heaven’s Market (RIP), and the founder and wine director of “coming-soon-one-day-who-knows-when” restaurant Wilde’s—previously known as Seconds Supper Club. She and her chef partner Natasha Price (see Person :)) will be popping up at Pasadena’s Mortal Tasting Room tomorrow for the first time as Wilde’s. They’re doing a Sunday Roast, with Yorkshire pudding included. Details here, see you there? In the meantime, here’s Tatiana with her Plugs.

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Restaurant — Seoul Garden

My list of new/innovative/hip Korean restaurants to try has reached an almost untenable length, and Seoul Garden is to blame—when something is so perfect every single time, it can feel impossible to risk something new. It has deceptively good Google reviews (My friend John and I have a theory that the best Korean restaurants always have the worst reviews), but fear not: all of the things that Yelp reviewers love to hate are certainly there—fluorescent lights, service reminiscent of dinner at your grandma’s house, and a sometimes lukewarm reception of white people (only sometimes!!!). Most notably, however: the food. My grandpa would always start us off with chadol and galbi BBQ (finished with kimchi fried rice) before heading into our shabu shabu course (finished with udon and porridge). He’d always tack on a naengmyeon for good measure. My grandparents are in Irvine now, but I’m still at Seoul G holding court on their behalf, swapping my Sprite for a bottle of wine or two (their corkage policies are great), still ordering much more than I can chew.

My meal at Seoul G earlier this month + an old Instagram post of my grandparents at Seoul G in 2016 (before they tragically ripped out the gorgeous red booth seats). Photos by Tatiana Ettensberger.