Hey everyone! We’re Industry Only at The Cheese Store, a podcast about food, culture, and Los Angeles coming to you from the basement of The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills. We’re recording new episodes of the pod today with some special guests, so we’re hanging out till around 2:30 to talk about food, the restaurant industry, and of course, cheese.
Gabi, one of our producers, is going to be fielding q’s and responding to questions here, and we would also love to dive in to any questions you think deserve a longer discussion on the podcast, so hit us with your best!
And if you’ll allow us to turn the tables, we want your takes on some questions we debate a lot:
- Do you think LA gets the proper recognition as a food destination on the national level? Do you even care about awards or are you too busy pounding gamjatang and adobada to care?
- What’s your favorite new restaurant?
- What’s the best meal Dom will never enjoy if we can’t get him to leave the Westside?
Shameless plug time:
You can find full episodes of the podcast on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. We’ve got a really cool one with Rob Gentile of Stella tomorrow that goes super deep on authentic Italian cuisine and what Rob’s doing with Stella's incredible menu.
Come visit us at The Cheese Store anytime. You can find the pod, our socials, and all our links here:
by IOatCSPodcast
17 Comments
Thanks for coming by, guys! I’ve got a basic question — You’ve got a friend in town for one night taking you out to dinner anywhere in the LA metro area with an unlimited budget: Where do you go and what do you get?
Yo, Dom is late driving from Beverly Hills to Beverly Hills. What should we be opening up at The Cheese Store while we wait for him? There seems to be a lot of tinned fish in this basement.
What’s Andy’s favorite sandwich at the cheese shop and what is he sick of eating there at this point???
Hi, why do many chefs hold such distaste for vegan/plant based food? They could easily lower food costs and bring in more customers with some simple changes to already existing menus.
What OTHER LA food podcasts are worth listening to, if any at all? Bonus points if you can name one that isn’t two dudes cooperatively overlapping.
Why is pan de Cristal hard to find in La?
>1. Do you think LA gets the proper recognition as a food destination on the national level? Do you even care about awards or are you too busy pounding gamjatang and adobada to care?
I would say it does, yes, though perhaps not always for the reasons it should (people from elsewhere somehow still sleep on LA and greater LA having incredible Asian food other than Japanese—Chinese in SGV, Korean, and Thai come immediately to mind).
Also just curious about the adobada reference, is there a place you like to order it in LA?
>3. What’s the best meal Dom will never enjoy if we can’t get him to leave the Westside?
Very hard to narrow it down to just one meal, but might as well be Langer’s—for me, it’s the #6 chopped liver and pastrami with Russian dressing.
If you guys could only eat one cheese for the rest of your life – what would it be?
No question just wanna say thanks for what you all do.
Government needs to regulate podcast equipment. Are you telling me a cheese store has a podcast now?
The best meal Dom will never enjoy is Holy Basil in Atwater Village. One of the better meals I’ve had in a really long time. Everything was incredible but definitely recommend the wagyu gra pow and the grandma’s fish and rice.
Sounds like they are leaving money on the table as well as an entire market they could easily tap into. People’s wives need something to eat too.
Vegan food is not expensive. It is marked up to the point it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Chefs have the opportunity to get creative here, bring in more customers, and support a healthy lifestyle for everyone, but most importantly, themselves who need it the most.
What’s happening at the Neighborly version of the Cheese Store?
EDIT 10:55: We’re about to start recording an episode with Guelaguetza’s co-owner Bricia Lopez, who is one of “America’s foremost authorities on Oaxacan culture and cuisine, and is credited with helping popularize mezcal in the United States”. Please send any questions you might wanna ask us while we’re with her!
Ask Bricia to bring back the cemitas… that is all. And tell her Nguyen says “Hi!” 👋😉😅
You ask Gentile about the harassment and toxicity that got him ousted from Buca, or did y’all maintain the status quo?
Big fan of the BH cheese store! What is your favorite cheese? Also, what’s a new, exciting cheese to recommend? What are your standard party cheese plate cheeses that you use if you’re making a cheese plate?
Also, am I going crazy or are there less cheeses in the new location? I love the cheese store (and will always go!) but feel like it’s not the same variety as in the old spot.
Re: your questions:I think that there was a ten year period from 2010-2020 where the food and drinks in LA were amazing and innovative. It felt like people were so creative and really willing to take risks at reasonable prices (across the price spectrum for what was being offered). It feels like Covid really messed that up—lots of restaurants seem to be struggling or have closed and the places that I try just don’t seem to be at the top of their game. And the prices are wild. My new favorite spot is Boy Blue, which is a pizza pop up, and has a zucchini pizza that was amazing when I last went!