First Look: La Grande Orange

Jonathan Gold muses on how the Phoenix La Grande Orange is more like California, and the new Pasadena one feels like somewhere else, maybe even AZ, but still fits right in: "Although the cocktails are professional grade, the cooking is strictly by-the-pool stuff: Brussels-sprout salad with cranberries, lobster tacos, fried chicken with mashed potatoes, grilled-chicken nachos, and what tastes like a catering-kitchen version of the olive-oil cake at Pizzeria Mozza. But the restaurant is open early and late, has decent, drippy burgers, and mixes a splendid martini. In the first week it was open, a friend managed to eat there five days in a row." [LAW]