Jon and Vinny's, Los Angeles

Top: shishito peppers in crema. I am a terrible pussy and thus thankful to shishito peppers for being so mellow. This portion was probably meant for 2-4 people. Ha ha ha. Not around me.

Jon (Shook) and Vinny (Dotolo) are seriously hot restauranteurs in Los Angeles. They have won all sorts of fancy awards but know that awards don't mean shit if the food is shit. An interesting thing about Jon and Vinny's mini-empire- they never open the same restaurant twice. There's one Animal (carnivore paradise, one Trois Mec and one Petit Trois (both joints star Ludo Lefevre- Mec is highbrow French, Trois is more downscale cuisine), one Son of a Gun (seafood) and now one Jon and Vinny's, their newish Italian/pizza joint. 

I love a good chicken parmigiana. I prefer it like this- a solo act. It was nice to eat chicken parm without the ubiquitous giant pile of pasta or a big-ass hero roll. I left without cramps. It was also pleasant to have a flattened cut; it was perfectly cooked all around the mulberry bush. The cutlet reminded me of how Jerri Blank turned "pounding out the veal" into a nasty euphemism. 

A favorite thing about Jon and Vinny's restaurants- the menu always includes the line "we decline all menu substitutions." Something like that. I have *never* understood paying a good chunk of money to taste a hot-shot chef's work but then telling em how to cook it. Allergies? Fine. Otherwise you eat the meal the way they have developed it. 

When I was aboard Big Gay Ice Cream Truck customers would ask for "a Salty Pimp, but hold the salt." I told them no. I said "I'm going to make it my way. If you try it and don't like it I'll make you whatever you want and won't charge you anything."

I never had a person take me up on that offer. Every single one of them told me I was right and then walked off eating exactly the cone I wanted them to eat. 

So there. #IWin

Last words: Ludo is totally sexy.