How and why we chose our Restaurant of the Year
Last Sunday, in print and online, The Times announced Minh Phan’s new project Phenakite as this year’s Restaurant of the Year. It began as a trial-run pop-up last September at Second Home, a property in Hollywood originally designed by renowned architect Paul R. Williams; it currently functions as a “co-working complex,” but that phrase doesn’t really communicate its botanical garden setting and its mod aesthetic.
By November, while Phan’s much-loved Porridge and Puffs remained closed in the thick of the pandemic, Phenakite was settling in for a weekly residency at Second Home. Phan tends to describe the experience as “Angeleno”