Where to Get Awesome Food Inside of an Arcade
Honey walnut prawns, braised lamb neck, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat. Hell yeah.
WHAT UP?
It’s Wednesday. Is that when this Substack is going drop every week? Probably. Wednesday just seems to make sense for me and my work schedule, which is as follows: I work very hard Monday and Tuesday, writing all day. I finish up some things by Wednesday afternoon, then on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I like to panic. Really panic. Finally, on Sunday I have a great day. I crush Sundays and always have. The other six days a week I’m completely confused as to how to live.
This week for The Move I want to talk about a place that embodies everything I want this lil’ weekly newsletter to be: Button Mash, and more specifically, Poltergeist, the newly settled restaurant inside of the arcade itself. That’s right, this arcade has a full service kitchen. It always has, though I’ve never really seen it being used to its full potential until now.
“I’m trying to keep this place alive,” chef Diego Argoti briefly said to me as he was passing by last Tuesday. I don’t know Diego very well, but I know he’s a super talented guy doing great work, who cares about what he does, and who cares about keeping Button Mash going (the whole team seems passionate about the place). If you need chef credentials, Argoti’s worked at Bestia and Bavel, though he’s more well-known around town for his wild ass pop-up Estrano. Truthfully, though, I don’t really care about any of those things. What I like about Diego is that he’s a ballbuster. Case in point:
Now I’m an LA transplant, and Button Mash has always been a sanctuary for me. It’s a fucking great arcade with cheap beer, the type of place where I’ve always felt zero judgement. I’ve been there for dates, birthday parties, Dodger games, and after comedy show hangs (from Good Heroin at Stories right down the street). I’ve been there to play air hockey, Jurassic Park pinball, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, TMNT, Tapper, and Timber (a game where you chop down trees), but I’ve never really sought out Button Mash for the food, that is until Diego got involved. I’ve long heard tale about Button Mash’s previous iterations, which apparently included some dope garlic noodles. And last year there were a bunch of rotating pop-ups which Diego himself orchestrated, but now Poltergeist is all his, and it fucking rocks.
The honey walnut shrimp ($18) is dope and made with deep fried New Caledonian blue prawns, celeriac kewpie, candied walnuts, horchata panna cotta, and crispy rice salad. That crispy rice rocks, by the way; It’s crunchy and chewy and getting a bite with some kewpie mayo and spiced panna cotta is delightful. Read: Everything should be garnished with crispy rice. The horchata panna cotta pretty much nails how Diego likes to cook; he plays around with Italian food in ways most people don’t, and I love it.
Anything that has potential to upset Italians makes me extremely happy. Though I myself cook traditionally, I do feel Italian food, and moreover the tenets around it, are far too rigid. Diego’s food often gets labeled as “chaos cooking” or the endlessly cringey “troll cooking” but in my opinion that doesn’t begin to accurately describe what he does at all. I sometimes read articles that describe him as a sullen punk dude with a past, but that feels far too reductive. Seeing Diego serve Crunchwrap Supreme lasagna and Hot Pocket agnolotti, to me, isn’t a “fuck you” so much as it’s a gentle, “Hey, relax. It’s food.”
The broccoli beef ravioli ($22) is my new favorite pasta dish in the city of Los Angeles. God damn, man. God damn! (I love writing my own Substack because as a food writer I can speak honestly - say things like God damn, fuck me, good god almighty, etc.) These egg yolk ravioli are stuffed with short ribs and Parmigiano Reggiano and come tossed with dark soy sauce and brown butter. Brown butter and dark soy sauce together tastes incredible. It’s so damn savory and delicious. There’s a side of broccolini tossed with the same mouth watering duo. Beef and broccoli: Classic, but in the hands of somebody like Diego, it feels like something completely new and yet still familiar. It’s a trodden thing to say, but it’s true.
Me? I’m a neck guy. I see neck, I order neck. Neck has a lovely amount of fat and tendon around it, and the meat near the bone is tender and juicy when braised properly. Side note: I myself am running a pork neck and Serrano pepper ragu with orecchiette this Sunday.
At Poltergeist, the panang lamb neck ($27) comes with some saffron bao and is served with persimmon Amba, pickled shiitake, pomegranate molasses, and brusselkraut (shaved and pickled brusselsprouts). The lamb is braised very well with curry spices and is deliciously tender and fatty. I found myself holding the neck like a chicken wing and picking off any remaining bits of fat and meat with my teeth. Lamb neck is a severely underrated cut of meat. I love all the accoutrement that comes with it, too. The pickled shiitake mushrooms, Amba and brusselkraut are perfectly piquant things to serve with a dish this substantial, and better than the things I see on a lot of pickle plates I get at bars around town. It’s a lot of food, and absolutely worth the $27. Share it.
The Parker house roll ($8) comes with miso honey, furikake duqqa, and Fresno butter. Essentially, it’s all the flavors of a fucking hot pocket which is silly and great. What I love about Diego is that he successfully borrows from a lot of different cuisines and has a lot of fun doing so. He doesn’t seem overly concerned with whether or not he’s supposed to do anything. Too much of cooking is rigid, afraid to borrow, and stays (unsuccessfully) in its lane. Diego, instead, is a dude driving on the shoulder to avoid traffic.
I’ll be back for the sticky rice stuffed game hen which features banana ketchup and pickled papaya, the green curry bucatini, and the Thai Caesar salad, all of which accurately capture the type of electric, fun-as-fuck food you’ll get from Poltergeist. That’s what this is all about, man: Fun. Go have fun at Poltergeist.
Other Things To Know:
This ain’t a pop-up, dawg. Use Resy, or take your chances at the door.
There’s a dope wine, cider, and beer selection. $5 Shiner Tall Boys, too.
There’s still a bar menu (also Argoti’s) so you can grab a seat in front of some TVs and order from this if the restaurant side is full. It’s pretty vegan and gluten-free friendly - a shiitake mash burger ($11), Korean Fried Cauliflower ($12), and thick ass Parmesan fries for $6. Not a thing inside this place I wouldn’t happily eat.
Button Mash
1391 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Poltergeist
Open Sunday (closed Monday) and Tuesday - Thursday: 6pm - 10pm
Friday - 6pm - midnight
Saturday - 6pm - midnight
Damn another post. Think I’ll celebrate by picking Johnny Cage and shadow kicking your ass into an acid pit.
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That’s it! Thanks folks.