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The source music heard in City of Gold, Laura Gabbert’s examination of the food culture of Los Angeles that Jonathan Gold has been writing about for 30 years, charismatically echoes the culinary sprawl of the city. A 17th-century tune written for viola da gamba, Snoop Dogg, the Germs, Louis Armstrong‘s “Tight Like This” — songs heard during Gold’s guest DJ set at Santa Monica, Calif.’s KCRW — are as disparate as the restaurants visited in the film, which covers specialists from southern Thailand, Mexico’s mole region of Oaxaca, Korea and the Sichuan province in China.
And, of course, the multi-ethnic taco trucks — the places that got club kids talking and tweeting about food — get a starring role as well.
“I know I say this a lot, but food may be what rock was to us when we were kids,” Gold tells Billboard of his tastes, developed in the late 1970s and ’80s. “Young people are passionate. If they’re Team Vegan, Tea Ramen, Team nose to tail, they fly that flag. They have it tattooed on their body. They have the bumpersticker on the back of their bikes, they have chefs who embody their lifestyle.”
Before he ever wrote abut food, Gold was a cellist who wrote about classical music — he got his start as a writer interviewing composers — having avoided pop music until late in his teens, when he became enthralled with punk rock and local bands such as X.
“I was a proofreader [at LA Weekly], and the the idea you could be a kid in a room with Pierre Boulez for three hours or with John Adams or Steve Reich or Philip Glass — it blew my mind,” Gold told Billboard. “I hung out with [Polish composer Witold] Lutoslawski. At an editorial meeting, the guy who ran the paper asked if anybody wanted to edit the restaurant issue, and I raised my hand. It turned out that I could do it pretty well.” After patting his belly, Gold says, “obviously, I like to eat.”
City of Gold had its premiere Jan. 27 though has yet to be sold to a distributor. One of Gold’s best-known annual pieces is his guide to essential Los Angeles restaurants. With that in mind, Billboard asked the gourmand to put together a guide specifically targeted to give music fans (good) places to eat near L.A.’s busiest concert venues.
The Forum. “It’s not walking distance, but it’s a really good excuse to go to Coni’seafood — for the tacos de pescado empanizado.”
Staples Center/Nokia Theater. “Until three weeks ago, it would have been Rivera, a place I really mourn. If it’s before a show it would be fun to go to El Parian about a mile east in Pico-Union. Otherwise, your better off going to a noodle place in Little Tokyo. Last time, Rick Rubin, who’s now gone Paleo, asked me, I sent him to Belcampo Meats in Grand Central Market. He loved it.”
Greek Theater. “I like Little Dom’s a lot. If you think of it as an Italian restaurant you might be slightly bummed. If you think of it as a New Orleans Italian restaurant you’ll like it better. It errs where a place in Uptown New Orleans would err.”
Wiltern Theater. “You’re probably looking at Korean and after a show the lines will have faded a bit at one of the really good barbecue places, Kang Ho-Dong Baekjeong. There’s a place i like called Eight. It’s a pork belly barbecue restaurant where you get eight different flavors of pork belly. In Korea they have the benefit of considering pork belly as health food.”