LA Magazine's Patric Kuh heads to Akasha Richmond's Culver City spot to see what this new "green" is all about and finds hits and misses: "The clubby setting, devoid of the self-righteous abstemiousness such places are capable of, demonstrates the extent to which this kind of food can evolve, and one can only hope that its ecological seriousness will inspire other restaurants to follow its lead. But Akasha’s idealism and clear vision shouldn’t constitute some kind of cover. The uneven nature of both its food and its service proves that it has plenty to learn from restaurants that don’t have the benefit of a high concept, that are judged every day on attentiveness, speed, consistency, and professional snap." [LA Mag]

Akasha Richmond dishes on opening her eponymous, eco-freindly Culver City resto: "The building itself has killer feng shui. My girlfriend did the feng shui. She told me it would attract...beautiful women and gay men. I said, fine, that’s all I need." And on being green: "We really tried to get solar panels. It would have cost $100,000, and it would have saved 5 percent of our electric bill. I’d rather give the $100,000 to starving children somewhere. Why should I spend $100,000 so I can put out a press release? That doesn’t make any sense. That to me is greenwashing." [DineLA]

The first (and only for right now) episode of Flip That Restaurant aired over the weekend, featuring Akasha in Culver City. It's a good inside look for anyone interested in how a restaurant comes together---from seemingly small details like picking out coffee and tea to dealing with city permits to construction delays to the millions of dollars it usually takes. On the ep, Akasha and partners jump through all the appropriate hoops to get to "opening night," a huge party that took place months before the actual opening. Merrill Schindler once again "plays restaurant critic" and blesses the resto a sure-fire winner. In the end, opening Akasha took more than the $2.5 million budget: When it finally opened in Feb, it was already $400,000 in the hole. That's a lot of tofu. The ep airs again tonight at 8pm and 11pm on TLC. [EaterWire; previously]