Your Counter Intelligence Preview: In Which Mr. Gold Considers MB Post

Anne Fishbein

MB Post interiors

In which Jonathan Gold visits David LeFevre's MB Post in Manhattan Beach, the chef's first restaurant of his own after many years at Water Grill. Nearby ocean. Volleyball on the sand. Bacon cheddar buttermilk biscuits. In other words, a very good reason to make that drive.

The recession may be on, and everyone is on a diet, but you'd never know it on a Monday night elbow to elbow with people tearing into soft hunks of braised hog jowl glazed with dark, fish sauce-infused caramel, crisp-skinned pork meatballs that explode with the flavor of aniseed, or slices of grilled skirt steak draped over a forest of grilled baby broccoli.

Read the complete story in Gold's Counter Intelligence, "Stylin' in South Bay," and check out Anne Fishbein's photo gallery. Then maybe get in your car.