Taste of Asia offers a taste of magnificence. It is like heaven on a fork, offering a fusion of the best dishes from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Japan, Korea and China.

As much as I love great deals like free parking at Sunset Beach (between Huntington and Seal Beach) and All You Can Eat Spaghetti Wednesdays at the Pizza Barn, I’ve got another secret you won’t be able to stop talking about. Mi Ranchito, a La Verne favorite for 15 years and in business for 35 [...]

Saffron — carefully handpicked from the burgundy-colored crocus (crocus sativus) — is the world’s most expensive spice. Each flower provides only three stigmas, yet it takes more than 14,000 of them to produce one ounce of saffron. The flavor is distinct, pungent and integral to hundreds of dishes, such as bouillabaisse, paella, risotto and many [...]

Linda Wilkinson is downsizing. The magnificent backyard of her 20-plus room modern Colonial estate on Old Ranch Road in La Verne that has hosted so many weddings and fundraisers over the years will be replicated on a smaller scale in her new Third Street restaurant called Chases, expected to open in December or January. The new restaurant, [...]

By Peter Bennett Every time I have guests in town, especially from the wrong coast, they want to sample SoCal’s famous Mexican cuisine. Depending on where an outing takes us — from Santa Barbara to San Diego — I can usually rely on one of these Mexican restaurants to provide a delicious meal or a scenic setting — [...]

Executive Chef Ricky Brewer went from a kitchen nightmare to a kitchen fairy tale. In 2007, Brewer was the executive chef for Lela’s Restaurant in the heart of the Pomona Arts Colony. While the upscale restaurant featured an ambitious, eclectic menu, it lacked the financing, discipline and downtown foot traffic to survive, despite the best efforts [...]

Moving faster than a New York minute, Sal Mangiafreno, a Queens-born and raised baker now living in La Verne, is preparing bagels, baguettes, dinner rolls, turnovers, and deep dish Sicilian pizza before opening the doors at 6 a.m. to his New York City’s Finest Bakery and Café in West Covina. His hands are a blur, pulling [...]

For a delightful lunch or evening of champagne and chandeliers, charcuterie and conversation, and chocolate bliss and café coziness, take a ride to Old Town Pasadena where you’ll find POP Champagne and Dessert Bar, La Verne’s home away from home. One of only four know champagne bars in the country, POP bubbled up from the effervescent [...]

 The Corner Butcher Shop in La Verne is not a supermarket. It’s a super market! Instead of miles of aisles of clangety-clang metal shopping carts rattling around corners, you have a homey, cheery 2700-square-foot shop dedicated to serving top quality meats and seafood, soups and salads, cheeses, boutique beers and wines, steak rubs and sauces, [...]