It used to be that Los Angeles’s most coveted tables could be found in a handful of neighborhoods like West Hollywood, Silver Lake, and the Arts District. But in recent years, with the debuts of chef Matt Molina’s Cannonball in South Pasadena, live-fire restaurant Betsy in Altadena, and the wildly popular Hermon’s in Hermon, a suburban dining renaissance has come afoot in Northeast Los Angeles. The most ambitious restaurant to settle in the foothills is Backbone in Montrose, a dinner-only new American spot run by chefs Nathan McCall and Karen Yoo. The pair met in the mid-aughts at the now-closed restaurant Sona in West Hollywood before honing their culinary chops at haute cuisine temple Daniel in New York City. Though the couple planned to open a restaurant together in Los Angeles, they instead owned and operated a butcher shop for a decade, deferring their dreams while raising a young family. At Backbone, the duo has reached that milestone preparing the kind of thoughtful, seasonal food they formed their entire careers around, all served in an understated dining room in a quiet pocket of Glendale.
While many suburban restaurants cater to families with young children, offering special kids’ menus, high chairs, and the like, Backbone has been designed with food-loving adults in mind. The crowd skews older, whether it’s parents escaping for an overdue date night or adult children treating their parents to a special night out.
Don’t hesitate to tap general manager L.A. Renigen’s encyclopedic wine knowledge for a beverage pairing recommendation. Whether in search of something festive to set the evening’s tone or a sweet sipper to close out the night, Renigen always has a reliably interesting and delightful suggestion up her sleeve. (I’m still thinking about the Japanese plum digestif she introduced me to on my last visit.)
Dining and Cooking