Ryan Abelman

Chef Michael Bryant

In Los Angeles, hitting the 40-year mark usually means it's time for a facelift. So when 41-year-old West Hollywood restaurant Mirabelle announced it would be closing for some updates, customers needn't have been shocked.

What could rightfully come as a surprise, though, is the culinary direction the former Californian/Mediterranean restaurant is taking: Owners George and Lenore Gemanides have brought in chef Michael Bryant (Palihouse, Father's Office, Norman's), who will be developing a "seafood charcuterie" menu for the restaurant.

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In the cookbook realm, turning out consistently great books has a downside: We expect more of publishers like the River Cottage and Phaidon. The River Cottage's Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, here with co-author Nick Fisher, a seafood journalist and avid fisherman, does not disappoint with the new American edition of The River Cottage Fish Book, the best (600-page!) fish cookbook we have seen in years.

It's part cookbook, part seafood encyclopedia, really, as 200 of those pages are dedicated to a glossary of fish by species described in that signature (read: highly entertaining) River Cottage storytelling voice. And not just the what and where, but whether we should be eating the species, like conger eel, for sustainablility, taste and safety reasons:

"Every sea fisherman has a conger [eel] story to tell; some twisty tale of a huge, snapping eel with a head the size of a boiled ham, teeth so sharp they could fell a pylon, and the attitude of a Jack Russell with a wasp up its nose."

Yeah, we're seriously considering becoming a professional fisherman now, too, just for the horror-film fun of it.

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J. Ritz

Vintage tin at Son of a Gun.

With all the talk in our culture of locavorism, sometimes the noise of that discussion can have the odd effect of drowning out one of our region's signature wild-food sources. We do live in a coastal city, after all, and stretching back millennia, inhabitants of the Los Angeles area have sustained themselves on proteins caught from the ocean. This tradition still lives on, thankfully, and thrives, often now in concert with other overlapping environmental and culinary pursuits. It's a beautiful thing when a piece of big-eye tuna meets pickled watermelon rind, red onion and shiso that likely were bought at the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market. Or when word gets out that a sliver of a restaurant on Pico procures bloody clams on a regular basis. And yet, despite best intentions, we often wind up eating seafood from globalized sources despite our immediate access to the Pacific. (It's complicated.)

Regardless, print out your Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch pocket guides or get the app if so inclined, or maybe even read up on your alarming-but-hopeful Paul Greenberg analysis of the current state of ocean-derived foods today. But don't let that destroy your appetite, since most of us could use an omega-3 boost. So turn the page for our picks for the 10 best seafood places in town.

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rogerimp/Flickr

The Hungry Cat's seafood platter

David Lentz's The Hungry Cat opened seven years ago, a little ode to New England seafood shacks located in what might be the antithesis of a breezy seaside town: a tiny courtyard off of Vine between the smoggy nightmares that are Hollywood and Sunset boulevards, kitty-corner from a now-defunct Borders and next to the just-shuttered Cafe Was. Nonetheless, the restaurant has not only survived, it has thrived, what with its lobster roll and fantastic cocktails, and two more restaurants in the perhaps more likely locations in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara.

Today, however, is all about the oldest of the restaurant children. The Hungry Cat's Hollywood location celebrates its seventh birthday tonight with $1 oysters, plus specials on cocktails and beer. Happy birthday, Hungry Cat. May be this just the beginning of your nine lives.

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If, like us, you're an enthusiast of simple, no-frills home cooking without gimmicky food television-type hooks, there's a new cookbook, Fish: Recipes From the Sea, that should be in your Italian kitchen arsenal. The 200 seafood recipes have been culled from the Silver Spoon cookbook series, with plenty of deboning step-by-step guides and tempting photographic additions (the latter not an area the early Silver Spoon cookbooks excelled in).

In terms of recipes, think sardines al forno (baked sardines stuffed with breadcrumbs), razza in salsina verde alle erbe (skate with green herb sauce), bucatini al sugo do cozze (bucatini with mussels) and risotto speziato ai gamberetti (spicy shrimp risotto with saffron). Yeah, we're considering swinging by our seafood market right now, too.

The chapters are divided by general fish variety ("White Fish," "Oily Fish," "Freshwater Fish") and begin with full-page descriptions of the fish featured in each chapter.

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Torrance-based Seafood Solutions Inc. was sentenced yesterday to pay $1 million in fines and community service payouts for falsely labeling frozen fish fillets. (You mean those Gorton's fish sticks weren't mahi mahi? We, for one, are shocked.)

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Kathy A. McDonald

Locally caught Pacific lobsters at the Hollywood Farmers Market

Although California in the midst of Pacific lobster season, it's surprisingly hard to find the hyper-local crustacean at area fish markets or restaurants. That's because the bulk of SoCal's most abundant and sustainable seafood has become an in-demand and pricey export to Asian countries.

No plans for a trip to Baja or San Diego or a midnight poaching dive off Laguna Beach? No worries, as spiny lobsters are available as close as the Sunday Hollywood Farmers Market or via FedEx from California Offshore Products.

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J. Ritz

An in-progress retro revamping: chandeliers at the new Water Grill.

Downtown Los Angeles continually witnesses its fair share of change and reinvention. So it's no surprise that one of its fine dining stalwarts, where notable chefs have developed careers and power brokers wheeled and dealed through many a seafood and martini-fueled lunch, is in the middle of a top-to-bottom renovation that started on December 18th. When the Water Grill at the ground floor of the landmark 1922 Pacific Mutual Building reopens in about two weeks, gone will be the early 90s décor sensibility, with an updated yet totally retro style room in its place. And in all likelihood, a new executive chef will be overseeing the kitchen by the time service begins again.

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If you're concerned about the levels of mercury in your seafood, particularly your sushi -- and you should be -- the Sierra Club is here to help. And not by telling you to go up to Yosemite and catch the fish yourself, with the ghost of John Muir and some fancy duds from REI. Although that's not a bad idea. Instead, the Sierra Club has taken the more convenient hi-tech approach, by creating an app for your iPhone or Android called Safe Sushi.

Launched to coincide with Mercury Awareness Week (Dec. 5-11) and the Obama Administration's first federal controls on mercury emissions from power plants, the app lists 38 varieties of seafood commonly used in sushi and indicates their mercury levels.

Listed alphabetically, from aji (horse mackerel) to awabi (abalone) to ikura (salmon roe) to uni (sea urchin roe), the app categorizes the sushi as high, medium or low in mercury. It also indicates actual mercury levels of each -- 0.21 per mil for katsuo (bonito) -- and tells you whether the fish is sustainably harvested or unsustainably harvested and therefore better to avoid entirely.

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Screenshot of Sam Sifton's Twitter page