From: Esquire
By: Jeff Gordinier, Joshua David Stein, and Amethyst Ganaway

What lures me back is an inexplicable pixie dust that occasionally turns a restaurant into a happening. I come back to RVR for the things that stay put on the menu, such as the house pickles and the Santa Barbara uni hand roll and the duck meatballs and the baby bok choy with sesame tonnato, and I come back to catch the seasonal delights that float in and out, such as a persimmon salad with orange-fleshed fruit so ripe it seemed to blaze like a lamp. Robinson and Lett have created RVR as a mash note from California to Japan—the listening bars with stacks of old vinyl, the highballs, the sake, the respect for nature, the sacredness of community—and the only logical response is to reciprocate that love again and again.

From: GlobalNewswire

Kosterina, the Mediterranean lifestyle brand known for its award-winning, premium, high-antioxidant extra virgin olive oils, today announces the launch of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil Shot, a bold and convenient new wellness ritual designed for the modern health-conscious consumer. This expansion into health is an exciting and natural next step for Kosterina, which has firmly established itself as a leading brand for wellness in the food space. Each Olive Oil Shot is packed with over 1,000 mg/kg of powerful polyphenols, natural antioxidants that support gut, metabolic, heart, skin, and immune health. With a bold, peppery taste, the shot delivers a clean kick in the back of the throat, a natural sign that the polyphenols are hard at work.

From: TimeOut Los Angeles
By: Gerrish Lopez

If Abbot Kinney feels like the stage for endless openings, RVR (pronounced “river”) is the rare spot with staying power. Chef Travis Lett (of Gjelina fame) teams up with Ian Robinson for a Japanese izakaya that’s deeply L.A. in sensibility: vegetable-forward, seasonal, effortless.