David Clarke

The Comic Book Creator Wants Cartoon Superheroes to Look Like the Kids Who Revere Them

At 5:09 p.m., I receive an email from Off Shoot Comics’ co-founder, David Clarke: “It was hard to find, but I made it to the Red Door! I’m just chilling inside.”

Panicked, and still at home, I whip through our email exchange to double-check the time of our rendezvous; I was certain we had set the time for 6 p.m.

We had. But Clarke, professional in every way, simply arrived early—I had warned him that the entrance to the bar in L.A.’s Toluca Lake neighborhood is a bit tricky to …

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Brenda Barnes

L.A.’s Classical Radio Maven Doesn’t Need to Turn Up the Volume. In Fact, KUSC’s President Is Just Fine With Silence.

On our way over to happy hour drinks from her downtown office, Brenda Barnes marvels at the glut of construction projects on South Hill Street. “Change,” she tells me, “is …

Jesse Gomez

The Tattoo-Sporting, Motorcycle-Riding, Princeton-Educated Restaurateur Who’s Bringing Mexican Back

Most of what I know about the restaurant business I learned from Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain’s 2000 tell-all memoir of his life as a high-end restaurant chef, Kitchen Confidential, was rife …

Stephen Francis Jones

A Restaurant Architect Who Can Sex Up Dinner Time at the Mall

Having grown up in New Jersey, I’m no stranger to mall dining. In middle school, my friends and I spent many Saturday afternoons consuming pizza slices and garlic knots on …

Grant Livingstone

The Guy Who Can Steer Your 950-Foot Container Ship to Shore

Dark wood, padded leather seats with brass nail heads, wrought iron, dim lighting: Everything about the interior of A Restaurant in Newport Beach says old school. The watering hole, formerly …