Hey, it's nielsdra You're listening to kfi EM six forty the four Report on demand on the iHeartRadio app Neil Sevadra and the fore Report here at Desconzo Restaurant their la location out there, Orange County.

And what was his name again?

What's your justin Ibada?

Justin Ibada?

Where are you?

Where is he?

Did he roam around?

Is he roman around?

Always right there working at the bar?

Hey, justin Ibata.

Oh look at this guy.

This is pitch perfect.

This, this is how I judge somebody behind the stick.

This has been a round of applause.

I can't wait to go through more of your bar program and all your drinks.

But this is exactly what I look for in an old fashioned and that's how if you can do this right because you're not hiding behind anything except uh, good technique and good booze.

What's uh?

What is the uh?

What's the whiskey in here?

Old force?

So yeah, look at that?

All right?

But excellent, very well done.

And I've got my buddy signing with Jumdar hanging out and now I want to introduce you folks to the owner here, Rob Ariano.

Thanks for hosting us.

Man, this is.

Great, Neil, thank you for being here.

I really appreciate you.

This is great, it's fantastic.

Great listeners you have here, they're amazing.

This is perfect.

You said you're going to set aside this cool, cozy little area.

We've got a shot of the folks in on the line there get the best view in the house.

Yeah, this really is a great place to sit.

Chef Sergia there in the back.

Hey, chef, everything is fantastic, it really is.

You and your team are putting out truly special food.

This is this is exceptionally good.

So tell us, Rob, why the move to LA and taking on this this massive footprint which is stunning.

So many reasons, obviously a labor of love, my passion, my life's passion, but you know, I just really wanted to share our cuisine with the LA market, and I felt that there was a better community to really show off what we're doing, especially highlighting the flavors from beautiful state of Mutuacon and its neighboring states as well, of course, but you know, this was just a massive undertaking.

We're so excited to be right here in the.

Heart of mid Wiltshire.

Yeah, this is an interesting part of town, a lot of traffic, a lot of history.

Yeah, a lot of art too, which is great.

Yeah, I love the art around here.

Well.

See, that's the thing is this is worth whether you're in Orange County, even South Orange County to take a day trip or come out here for a weekend.

The museums that are out here are fantastic.

You've got the tar pits as well.

You've got all this action.

Down here, and you can now you have a place where you can come eat.

Absolutely.

It's actually how I found the place.

I was visiting the museums next door Tarpet's Lachma and yeah, stumbled across the location, fell in love.

It's a stunner, it really is.

This was always you know, as Marie Calendars.

It was a flagship location.

Absolutely stunning.

Yeah.

The beautiful breakfast sad they had just kind of blew me away and really had to keep that.

All of this is great, but the food has to be good, absolutely, And when I'm tasting different things, I always go this, this is a cazo fundido I have in front of me and it's perfect.

Thank you, And that's something that nobody really gets that well gets it.

And so when you have something like this which is easy but hard, if you know what I mean.

It's a bit like your old fashioned You have to get this right otherwise people aren't going to taste And this is great.

Yeah, it's not just melted cheese.

Well that's the thing with Mexican food.

The ingredients are simple, but it's the right combination of ingreen and we pride ourselves on ensuring that we are using real, fresh, natural ingredients.

You know, no substituted elements to add flavor.

And you know, flavoring with the ingredients is our goal and passion.

And right there, I mean we the chorty case of ver to day is our our caeso dish.

And you take you take chariso which is already have a lot of flavor, and you mix it with a lot of green chilis and peppers and you have even more flavor.

And then and then to mix our our threatqusos cheese blend in there, which is our own real special uh cheese blend of three different cheeses that I can't give away.

The ratio that is the house secret.

No, no, no, no, it's probably not a good idea.

What was in it?

No?

I always try I always I gotta try.

Yeah, don't give it out.

Cheeses are what I owe you offline.

I'll give you the recipe, no problem.

So I saw Simon.

Now, of course I'm a jum dhar Is judged every I've seen him judge live at uh for charity and things like that, addition to on the Food Network.

His eyes lit up.

Why did you go I want to get I got to try.

This from when I started looking at your menu online.

I wanted to see where I was going.

Otherwise I wouldn't have come, quite frankly.

Because I sorry, Neil, screw your birthday.

I like Neil, but if he doesn't have it, go to a good restaurant.

I won't bother.

And I started looking at it, and I goes, that looks proper.

That's what we said, written proper, and that means everything about that looks as if it's in the right proportion.

We talked about proportion and the heat.

I talked about the heat earlier.

The heat for this is there.

It's a little bit higher, but it's of the right proportion.

I love that you said that, because we took a lot of time in ensuring the heat was the right proportion, so it hits you, doesn't linger to where it ruins your meal.

It's got a good level.

So when you have something like this, which is something that everyone has had a had a case of.

Everyone's tried itsh but they're not always that good because people think it's just melted cheese thrown on.

And this is a.

Really fantastic dish.

And so when I come to judge something, I'll often get given this in guy's grocery games or something like that, and it's.

Usually a little bit horrible.

But when I come and try this, it's fantastic.

And I love that with the corn.

I mean, everything else was great, but the corn had exactly the right amount of spies.

The corn was fresh.

So when people come here, they're not just kind of come into this beautiful room, which is beautiful, but they're going to have good food.

And that's what I'm getting here.

Especially in LA because there's often times where they spend more on the em beans than putting into the food sparkles.

It's going to be good.

Our goal is to have both absolutely, And yes, you've got this wonderful space and this is great.

I'm sorry, I'm no, I'm not talking to you now, no, no, no, but here you've got a great space.

But sometimes I want to go into somewhere and I just this will see me.

I'll just sit with this in the side and I'll taste each of the bits and that's what I do as a judge.

And micro greens on top.

Is that a nice little finish, a little brightness at the end something or bases.

This is a microslang, yeah, microsallantro, And that to me is it has a purpose.

Garnish has a purposely and people don't think about garnish as it's just a little you know, they'll put a brig of parsley and.

This.

I'm tasting it together.

I taste it separately and with the onions and the beef and it.

Like I said, everything in it is proportional and you only need a bit of that cilantro.

You only need a little bit.

If you've put it it's powerful.

A lot of it in that's not the right thing to do.

So anyone who comes here, I do recommend you try this because it's perfect.

Oh I'm so thrilled to hear you.

I've loved the food, I've loved the drink program that Rob is brought on the air many many times, and to see it here.

Locally close to my home excites me as well.

Stick around.

We'll talk more with Rob Ariano, owner of Desconso Restaurant, both here in Los Angeles, also in Orange County please check them out, and Simon with Jumdars hanging out where as we broadcast live until five.

Handed over to Tiffany Hobbs, who's coming out to broadcast too.

So I can't wait for that because that means I don't have to do anything anymore except in enjoy my food.

All right, go don't where you're listening to the Fork Report with Nil Savedra on demand from KFI AM six forty.

Broadcasting live from Desconzo Restaurant on the Miracle mid On Wilsure just by Labria Tarpits today celebrating my birthday, which was on the twenty eighth of July.

But we we couldn't.

We ended up going well, thank you, Yeah, I was born.

I had ero to do with it, but I appreciate the love, and we wanted to do something here.

Rob and I've been talking about it for a long time.

So when things change, we pivoted and made it for today.

Rob Ariano, the owner, is with us.

There's a two locations, one in Orange County, one here in Los Angeles.

My buddy Simon the jumdars here as well from the Food Network, who's just loving it.

And he said, you gotta taste this case of fotnito.

I did, and holy hell, you really do?

Wait what is it?

I know a little bit of UK English?

Is it?

Bloody ll?

No, bloody bloody ell.

I don't know what that accident?

Is it that it's horrible?

No?

No, no, it's perfect.

But it's an area you don't know.

No, it's a fair very small, little tiny have have you heard of Liverpool?

That's nothing like Liverpool?

No, because it's nowhere near little if you knew it, it's kind of a it's it's a Russian influence of a Cockney accent.

I know.

It isn't.

Bristol City, No, nothing like Bristol.

Nothing like Bristol.

Dodgy bonnet.

Don't I think we should stop this?

Bloody?

You people?

You you people, you people.

But I love that.

So I did take a bite of that and I was like, that is that is actually the best I've ever had?

Last time you said that we ran out of the item that that you said that we're gonna have to preap some more chority cases.

All that is fantastic, very much, a lot of thought in love into that dish.

What do you what else do you want people to know about this place?

Gosh, there's so much to know.

You know, we're focused.

Why why get into restaurants at all?

Passion?

You have to Yeah, it's got to be, Yeah, labor of love, passion.

I fell in love with food at such a young age, and not so much just on the preparation side.

But the eating side.

Yeah, yeah, I'm with you.

I think we have that in common.

And I love that had the fortune opportunity of traveling all throughout Mexico with my father and visiting family throughout.

And eating foods all.

Over, and yeah, we just nothing like Mexican food.

In particular, the region that we are inspired from, Mutual Con is where I really fell in love with some of the flavors coming out of there and really wanted to celebrate that region.

So and that is the hard and soul of our restaurant.

What separates Mutual Kan from other regions in Mexico.

You know, I have to say it's you know, there's certain Chiles the climate's there just are so you know perfect where you high deserts and tropical weather, but or you're kind of on the fringe of that.

But uh, you know, the way they prepare their sauces and marinades, they're just a little bit different.

You know, we talked about you know, the you know, the different ratios in Mexican food are so important, and some of those, like old traditional familiar recipes are just so great.

The use of the mort eat to chili and like things real sort of cooked and charred and uh, you know kind of get that the cook flavor in there too, and they're really into that.

And the street food culture is it's just it's so good.

You know, that's a real big basis of their food, anything from your your your street market food to your your high end restaurants there.

You know, they're so focused on, you know, use use of natural ingredients, which is you know what we are champions of.

So that we got the.

Floral notes or some of the other notes in a in a chili, some of the fresher notes than just the capsaic.

Absolutely, But when you're from and you realize how many different states there are, and they all have different things to bring to the Mexican cuisine.

They really do.

A Miture cuisine I think is one of the best.

And that's why LA is a great place to have it, because this is like Mexico away from Mexico.

It's a great space to come to and to do that food here because people here will understand when you say Mitchell Kan and if you go to other areas in the country, probably not as much.

But in La, I think they really understand the cuisine that you have here and you go, this is a Mitchell Kan food.

Which is why we're here region.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

After the pandemic, I'd looked at different locations in Orange County, San Diego and a couple others, but I kept being pulled back to La and you know what was going on here in the Mexican culture, cuisine and to you always recommending that convincing me ultimately, So yes, I owe it to you name Rob.

We appreciate you.

We'll have you on before we leave again as well, buddy.

But it's always a pleasure and appreciate a hospitality show for my friend family here today.

Thanks awesome.

These folks mean a lot to me.

They listen and give me their time.

Time is the one commodity you can't make more of in life.

So when these folks come out here, it's special to me in the fact you're treating them so well.

And of course, all right, buddy, we'll talk more to Rob.

Come you back, so go know where I have someone else I wanted to introduce you to coming back, So stick around.

You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on demand from KFI A six.

Thanks for hanging out today's broadcast live on the Miracle Mile in Lo Sanngeles.

This is a great restaurant.

It's called Desconso Restaurant.

They have a location in Orange County and this newer location here.

I cannot tell you enough that you should come check this place out.

It is special, not only in appearance, but the food is spectacular.

The bar program right, it's great, huh, and the hospitality is fantastic.

But they're treating us very well today and thanks to all of those you who rsvped and came out.

We're calling it my birthday party.

But the reality is I want an excuse to bring you folks here to check it out.

You're enjoying it.

Yeah, great, really.

Oh and I saw one of my dear blind fans look at you over there.

I want to remind you that if you've ever heard of George Clooney, that's what I look like.

So, yeah, let her know.

Let her know because she can't.

Yeah, so I have his ear lobes and everything.

It's all great.

I invited my dear friend Monica Rodriguez.

She is a counselwoman for the seventh District here in Los Angeles, and she is one of the few people that is absolutely doing it right in my humble opinion, and holding up the chaos that goes on in our city right now, a voice of reason.

You're trying to you're trying to take a great a way to chaos, which is wonderful.

You are very kind to bring me this certificate.

Let's hold it up here.

Check this out?

What is Look at this?

This is like official.

So if my mom wasn't enough evidence, this is evidence that I was born.

Yeah right, just think about the dead air you'd be listening to right now if I wasn't.

Uh, this is wonderful.

Like, this is official, and it's got like calligraphy and gold on it.

It's one of the things that we really do right.

And I want to think our graphics who do a beautiful job.

This is good, gorgeous.

I'm cooler than you right now.

They should have that would have been funny.

I'm like, kay, and thanks going for this.

That is super special.

It's I mean, it's special to me that you and Rollick came to begin with.

But this is very very very special, of course.

And for those who know know Rally is Cuban Daddy also known as Keith.

D Cuban Daddy online.

Uh huh, probably best that you don't call him that casually.

But he's still at the same place off of the freeway.

Yeah, he's still at Gelpin, Gelpin Gelpin.

Here's for gosh, twenty seven years.

You need a car, go see Raleigh there at Galpin Motors off of the freeway.

And if you can't find it, it's the one under the massive American flag.

You won't miss it.

You won't miss it.

This is very sweet.

Thank you for this, as certificate says City of Los Angeles, State of California Birthday Greetings.

Got my name on there and your lovely signature, and it's got my actual birthday, July twenty eighth, on that very very cool.

Yeah, that is super sweet.

Of course, it's so beautiful.

And by the way, Rob, I want to thank Rob.

This is spectacular, you know, at a time when you know, and I know restaurants are having a tough go, not just here in Los Angeles but frankly everywhere.

This reusing this space.

I used to come here when it was a Marie calendar for the potato cheese soup.

Oh yeah, but it is.

Absolutely clause for potato cheese soup, potatoes and cheese, potato.

And cheese, or the pop pie.

You know, that's why you want to Marie calendars.

But this is really stunning.

But the food is equally on par with the ambiance.

It's gorgeous.

It's absolutely for a place like Los Angeles, which is the mecca for Mexican food outside of Mexico.

He's really nailed it.

It's amazing.

Yeah, it's kind of hard to stand out with Mexican food in La.

Well, there's so much Mexican food in this city and some it's amazing, but someone isn't this.

I will tell you it's delicious.

It's absolutely fact.

That's okay, it's got to be delicious.

Yeah.

Have the folks from Golden Voice rob come over yet?

Yeah, they're right across the street.

So Golden Voice not only putting on Back in my day, it was small, small punk rock concerts that they put on.

Now they put on Coachella and everything else.

Shout out to my friends there at Golden Voice.

But that's very very My buddy Bill Fold, festival director for Coachella, and all those good.

Folks over there.

Got to get over and enjoy this spot here.

We're gonna get some news.

We come back.

If you stick around, I'd love to hear what's going on in La, some thoughts that you have on things, because I want people to know there is there are people fighting for us.

There are positive, good things coming.

And I want you to.

Talk about the huge rug.

That is being knitted now so that mayor Bass can sweep everything under it for the Olympics.

I'm looking forward to that.

No, I'm sorry I should do it.

I'm sorry, that's not fair.

What about the World Cup?

Yes, we have all kinds of things that are coming up, but we'll talk about that more we come back.

Monica Rodriguez, she is the councilwoman for the seventh district.

Go somewhere.

Fukim Yeah, lit's here for a PUCKI okay.

All right, we'll be back to more go nowhere.

You've been listening to the Fork Report.

You can always hear us live on kf I AM six forty two to five pm on Saturday and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.

How perfect is it that we're talking to councilwoman Monica Rodriguez from the seventh district and listening to X.

On the way back.

Yeah, excellent La band.

Same with Jumdars hanging out as well from the Food Network.

So let's talk about it loaded.

I was out there meeting some folks, talk about a loaded question.

Hey, what's going on at city Hall right now?

Anything?

Anything going on?

Nothing?

A lot of a lot of nap time.

Yeah, so I know you are one of those not shy voices.

And yes, exactly that's what we want more of.

Thank you, thank you.

Which I love.

I've said this on the show many times before as we've had you on that.

I can't wait for you to run for mayor.

Hint hint, please do, please do, please do your sensibilities.

If you.

If I didn't know that you, I had that you have a D after your name.

You are what I think I am, and that is reason first.

You know, and I trust your reasoning.

And I appreciate that you know.

For me, it's really important that we don't simply associate ourselves with the political leanings of any one side.

It's about making sure that we can both be hospitable to creating a good business environment here in Los Angeles and ensuring that we support workers and meet them where they are.

It's not one side fits all.

We have to make sure that we strike a balance, and I think that's really important.

I'm not a fan of a two party system.

I think whenever you have two, you have one against the other.

Mentally, could you imagine if we only had two football teams in the United States, how many people would die at games because like, oh, you vote for those you vote I mean seriously, because we're stupid and we look for reasons to separate ourselves.

So the two party system is what it is.

They tried hard early on and nothing stick with some stupid ass names by the way of some yearly parties.

But we're at a place where it will not cannot and won't work without some compromise.

Absolute system has to be if you're going to have two party system, then there has to be compromised.

And I'm looking forward to.

The fact that we've hit the wall on both sides and hopefully we're finding the middle.

Are you seeing any any sort of and any sort of bond even within the same party anything.

We're at this moment and this juncture based on what's coming down from the federal government as well, that there's the you know, what you get is the equal and opposite reaction, and so you know, for example, the redistricting conversation which is happening at the state level, you know that is not without its concerns as well, And so we have to make sure that what we need is just reasonable people to have a conversation and understand, and that we have a diversity of individuals and needs that we have to meet.

What I appreciate about local government is that it's nonpartisan and that it was designed that way so that we didn't get entrenched in the party politics, but more so to really focus on fundamentals like public safety, like quality of life issues and cleaning streets and just fixing a sidewalk and not having to wait fifteen twenty years for that.

It's supposed to be rational and it's not supposed to be political, but unfortunately, I think so much has really infused at the local level.

I get attacked by individuals that are upset that I don't supersede the actions of the federal government, and I understand, I understand people's frustration, but it just doesn't Our government doesn't work that way.

But in absence of holding their federal elected representatives accountable, we're on the front lines taking it on everything.

And that's the reality of what we face at the local level, which is a really difficult challenge.

But you know, I focus every day on trying to help close the gaps and you know, take care of my district and proud to have one of our mutual friends and restaurant owners from Pacoima here as Mike's Cafes in the.

House on Van Ey's.

If you want the best breakfast of your life, man, go to Mikey's on Van Eys.

Holy smokes, It's fantastic, so good.

But it's just making sure that we are creating an environment I know, specifically in my district, and I appreciated Michael Monks covering, for example, the release of the of the financial literacy app that we're making available for young people.

I just try to approach my job with common sense approaches to solving the problems the intractable book problems that everyone is frustrated with and getting to the root of that.

And thankfully, because of my experience having worked for mayor reared and worked for other council members, and you know, I learned how to do the job before I applied to do the job.

I know that sounds crazy, but I actually was a staff member.

That's exactly the way it's supposed to be, but that unfortunately doesn't happen.

And all of that experience was really important to informing how I approach my work.

But sadly, so often people just they have other they have alternative pathways, whether it was what was politically expedient, and I just my husband says to me all the time, honey, you do it the hard way.

You do it by trying to show everybody that your work product and the results of your work.

And I understand, I said, but that's the more honorable way for me to do it, because I'm not going to just casually suggest that I can do something without being able to prove it.

I demonstrate that my ability to lead change and the examples in my district every day I see it.

I follow you, and I see the before and after shots of places, and I love that.

That is what I think government should be.

And I don't spend hundreds of millions of dollars to do it for one location.

Just to be clear, I'm very you know, fiscally to making sure that we can meet all of the needs of our local government.

And it's not just about my districts, it's about everything.

So it's about, you know, all of the city.

And I think that's critically important.

But some people take they take a politically expedient route, and when they control all the resources in order to do it, they're denying some of the very neighborhoods that they purport to care about, and that's infuriatable.

That's why I call it out.

And you know that's why i'm you were the first and the only originally to take task with city Hall and the money for the homeless.

Problem that we have in La Yeah, and she was.

She was the first one out there saying where the hell is the accountability.

Where's all this money going?

And everybody's like shhh, yeah, yeah, you know, you've got tons of money.

But I appreciate that.

As we were talking with Simon and with Rob earlier.

It's one thing LA is very good about putting up facades.

Right, you can put up this beautiful building and if you don't have good food inside Desconzo restaurant, screwed.

But they do and it's the same.

I find sometimes LA City Hall tends to do the facade and say all you got to do is say this or pay you know, do that, and it's done.

And it's like you didn't do anything.

You put a label on the can and nothing's in the can, right.

Yeah, but we have a ar.

No, you don't have a czar.

Goodness to you.

Thanks for coming by.

That is very sweet.

I will cherish that certificate forever.

Thank you for getting a tattooed on.

I want to encourage everybody to come out to discon so.

It is absolutely beautiful and food is you know, the food outshines the facade.

It's really stunning.

And I also want to say it looks like a great party room over there.

People want to have a private party with the the Teppin' Bars and thens.

Yeah, oh my god.

That's amazing.

That's where everyone should be having their holiday.

Parties for I'm doing it.

We're going to have our own, all right.

Thank you so much, my dear.

You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on demand from KFI a M six forty

HM