Westside Mexican Restaurant Tallula’s Gains a New Executive Chef

Santa Monica Mexican restaurant Tallula’s has a new executive chef named Brad Long, a native of Long Beach and a third generation Mexican American who worked at Husk in Charleston and the Ace Hotel in New Orleans. Long replaces previous executive chef Saw Naing, who brought Burmese and Indian elements to the cantina-style menu. Naing is now moving on to work on his own place, opening up this opportunity to change things around for the Rustic Canyon-owned restaurant. Switching gears a bit, overseeing chef Jeremy Fox and Long hope to put in a little bit of that Sean Brock mentality on heirloom grains and local sourcing with the Tallula’s menu, keeping a strong California-Mexican mentality along the way.

In other news:

• Cento Pizzeria opens tonight at the Tartine on Sycamore in Hollywood serving wood-fired Neapolitan pies drawing on traditional topping combinations all the way to only-in-LA beef birria pizza (seriously). The pop-up runs 6 to 11 p.m., Thursday to Saturday.

• Another quick Thanksgiving takeout recommendation: Pasjoli in Santa Monica is teaming up with Dialogue for $95 per person dinner (or $65 for just sides) with roast turkey breast and leg, black truffle gravy, herbes de provence stuffing, and pumpkin basque cheesecake, among other things. Reserve the ritzy Turkey day dinner on Resy.
• Though longtime burger man Bill Elwell of Bill’s Hamburgers is 94 years old, he’s still out in Van Nuys grilling some of the best burgers in town, according to Reddit. Elwell has been looking for a buyer for the beloved roadside stand.
• The former Astro doughnuts in Santa Monica is turning into LA’s first outlet of Alfalfa, a very stylish New Jersey-based salad, soup, breakfast burrito, and donut place, according to Toddrickallen.
• Ever wondered about Thrifty Ice Cream in LA’s Rite Aid drugstores? LA Magazine has a terrific piece about the long history of one of LA’s most iconic ice cream brands, which is still produced in El Monte to this day.
• The former Tactile Coffee in Historic Filipinotown has flipped to another Third Wave espresso bar called Frank Coffee. Hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.