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The New Cheese Wiz
  
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At Mac & Cheeza, Everything Revolves Around a Single Dish
by Richard Guzmán
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Larkin Mackey and Joshua McBride don’t make macaroni and cheese like your mother made it. Nor do they make it like Kraft, which turned the dish into a simple-to-prepare American classic in the 1930s when they put it in a box and called it Kraft Dinner.
Instead Mackey, the chef, and McBride, the PR and business mind, have turned the old concept of the meal on its head. In their restaurant Mac & Cheeza, which opened in February on the ground floor of the Chapman Building at Eighth and Broadway, they reveal what the humble dish is really capable of becoming.
“People have done mac and cheese at restaurants before, but this is the first totally customizable mac and cheese restaurant where you get to pick what goes in it,” said Mackey, a talkative chef who left his office job at a children’s hospital to pursue his love of cooking.
To wit, the 400-square-foot space functions less like a restaurant and more like an ice cream parlor, where customers pick their flavor and add toppings. In Mac & Cheeza’s case, they start with a size (Baby Mac, Momma Mac or Daddy Mac), then select the type of noodle, which can be the regular or rice varieties. That is followed by a choice of cheese, either Mackey’s three-cheese secret mixture or a soy-based choice.
Then comes the real fun, where diners become chefs by picking and choosing vegetables and meats. Toss-in options include collard greens, black olives, peas, ground beef, BBQ chicken, hot links, tuna and veggie sausage.
The final step is the topping, either the house cheese blend or, for the vegans, spicy toasted walnuts. It’s all placed in a recyclable aluminum container and put in a conveyor oven, where it pops out on the other side with a crispy top.
“Everybody loves mac and cheese,” remarks McBride, explaining the impetus to build a restaurant around a single dish. “I mean, seriously, who doesn’t love mac and cheese?”
Noodle Art
So far, a lot of people seem to love mac and cheese, and, for that matter, Mac & Cheeza. It has earned generally positive reviews on Yelp and the foodie website Eater LA. In an early review in the L.A. Weekly, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold wrote, “Is this the mac ’n’ cheese of the future? It might be.”
The restaurant offers neither tables nor chairs. Instead, a pair of padded benches and stools offer a place to “snack in.” Most customers pick up orders to go.
A yellowish floor and white and yellow walls mix with brown columns and McBride’s noodle art, which hangs on the walls. A yellow and black sign bearing their logo of a wedge of cheese and a macaroni noodle hangs outside where their delivery vehicle, a yellow electric scooter with a basket attached to the back, is parked.
“We wanted a really relaxed lounge, bench couches, stools, something simple, clean, with a yogurt shop feel but completely different,” said McBride, a slim, tattooed former hair stylist.
On a recent afternoon, Peter Molina was picking up a Daddy Mac portion for his family, which was visiting Los Angeles from Santa Barbara. Although an out-of-towner, Molina seemed to be a convert.
“It’s our second time coming here before we leave, and it has been really good. We order it and take it back to our hotel,” Molina said. “We read about it online and it just seemed like such a cool place, so simple but really appealing.”
Hands Off the Cheese
Mac and Cheeza is not the first restaurant for Mackey and McBride, who are both business and life partners. In 2007 they opened Larkin’s Joint, a neo-soul food restaurant in a converted house in Eagle Rock. The idea for the Downtown space came about one day while they were chatting in the kitchen.
“I thought, why doesn’t anybody throw other things in macaroni and cheese?” recalled Mackey. “You can put bacon, you can put just about anything. It’s like a pizza.”
A week later they did a mac and cheese special at Larkin’s Joint. It was a hit, and inspired them to look at a standalone restaurant. When they shared their concept with Jessica Wethington McLean, executive director of City Councilman José Huizar’s Bringing Back Broadway initiative (Huizar’s territory also includes Eagle Rock), she argued that they should be in Downtown.
“I thought this would be so great for Broadway,” she said. “It was an interesting and unusual concept. It felt very urban, very L.A.”
It didn’t take much arm-twisting to get them Downtown. Mackey and McBride live in the neighborhood, and wanted to be part of the growth of the area. Recognizing the street life and the growing crowds at all hours, they operate seven days a week, staying open until 11 p.m. on weeknights and 2 a.m. on weekends.
The recipes, meanwhile, are hybrid versions of those Mackey grew up with. The biggest change is that he incorporates fresher ingredients.
“I’m a stickler for basic good ingredients: milk, butter, cheese,” he said. “Nothing that’s processed or full of chemicals.”
The family tie runs strong in Mac & Cheeza. Mackey’s brother has opened a second location in Bakersfield, where Mackey grew up. And his mother, who first fed him macaroni and cheese, makes the desserts, which include peach cobbler, red velvet cake and chocolate chip cookies.
But she doesn’t have a hand in preparing the main dishes.
“Not with my mac and cheese,” Mackey said with a smile. “She’s the dessert lady. I don’t touch the dessert, and she doesn’t touch my mac and cheese.”
Mac & Cheeza is at 223 W. Eighth St., (213) 622-3782 or macandcheeza.com. Open Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-11p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-2 a.m.
Contact Richard Guzman at richard@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 08/02/2010
©Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
Instead Mackey, the chef, and McBride, the PR and business mind, have turned the old concept of the meal on its head. In their restaurant Mac & Cheeza, which opened in February on the ground floor of the Chapman Building at Eighth and Broadway, they reveal what the humble dish is really capable of becoming.
“People have done mac and cheese at restaurants before, but this is the first totally customizable mac and cheese restaurant where you get to pick what goes in it,” said Mackey, a talkative chef who left his office job at a children’s hospital to pursue his love of cooking.
To wit, the 400-square-foot space functions less like a restaurant and more like an ice cream parlor, where customers pick their flavor and add toppings. In Mac & Cheeza’s case, they start with a size (Baby Mac, Momma Mac or Daddy Mac), then select the type of noodle, which can be the regular or rice varieties. That is followed by a choice of cheese, either Mackey’s three-cheese secret mixture or a soy-based choice.
Then comes the real fun, where diners become chefs by picking and choosing vegetables and meats. Toss-in options include collard greens, black olives, peas, ground beef, BBQ chicken, hot links, tuna and veggie sausage.
The final step is the topping, either the house cheese blend or, for the vegans, spicy toasted walnuts. It’s all placed in a recyclable aluminum container and put in a conveyor oven, where it pops out on the other side with a crispy top.
“Everybody loves mac and cheese,” remarks McBride, explaining the impetus to build a restaurant around a single dish. “I mean, seriously, who doesn’t love mac and cheese?”
So far, a lot of people seem to love mac and cheese, and, for that matter, Mac & Cheeza. It has earned generally positive reviews on Yelp and the foodie website Eater LA. In an early review in the L.A. Weekly, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold wrote, “Is this the mac ’n’ cheese of the future? It might be.”
The restaurant offers neither tables nor chairs. Instead, a pair of padded benches and stools offer a place to “snack in.” Most customers pick up orders to go.
A yellowish floor and white and yellow walls mix with brown columns and McBride’s noodle art, which hangs on the walls. A yellow and black sign bearing their logo of a wedge of cheese and a macaroni noodle hangs outside where their delivery vehicle, a yellow electric scooter with a basket attached to the back, is parked.
“We wanted a really relaxed lounge, bench couches, stools, something simple, clean, with a yogurt shop feel but completely different,” said McBride, a slim, tattooed former hair stylist.
On a recent afternoon, Peter Molina was picking up a Daddy Mac portion for his family, which was visiting Los Angeles from Santa Barbara. Although an out-of-towner, Molina seemed to be a convert.
“It’s our second time coming here before we leave, and it has been really good. We order it and take it back to our hotel,” Molina said. “We read about it online and it just seemed like such a cool place, so simple but really appealing.”
Mac and Cheeza is not the first restaurant for Mackey and McBride, who are both business and life partners. In 2007 they opened Larkin’s Joint, a neo-soul food restaurant in a converted house in Eagle Rock. The idea for the Downtown space came about one day while they were chatting in the kitchen.
“I thought, why doesn’t anybody throw other things in macaroni and cheese?” recalled Mackey. “You can put bacon, you can put just about anything. It’s like a pizza.”
A week later they did a mac and cheese special at Larkin’s Joint. It was a hit, and inspired them to look at a standalone restaurant. When they shared their concept with Jessica Wethington McLean, executive director of City Councilman José Huizar’s Bringing Back Broadway initiative (Huizar’s territory also includes Eagle Rock), she argued that they should be in Downtown.
“I thought this would be so great for Broadway,” she said. “It was an interesting and unusual concept. It felt very urban, very L.A.”
It didn’t take much arm-twisting to get them Downtown. Mackey and McBride live in the neighborhood, and wanted to be part of the growth of the area. Recognizing the street life and the growing crowds at all hours, they operate seven days a week, staying open until 11 p.m. on weeknights and 2 a.m. on weekends.
The recipes, meanwhile, are hybrid versions of those Mackey grew up with. The biggest change is that he incorporates fresher ingredients.
“I’m a stickler for basic good ingredients: milk, butter, cheese,” he said. “Nothing that’s processed or full of chemicals.”
The family tie runs strong in Mac & Cheeza. Mackey’s brother has opened a second location in Bakersfield, where Mackey grew up. And his mother, who first fed him macaroni and cheese, makes the desserts, which include peach cobbler, red velvet cake and chocolate chip cookies.
But she doesn’t have a hand in preparing the main dishes.
“Not with my mac and cheese,” Mackey said with a smile. “She’s the dessert lady. I don’t touch the dessert, and she doesn’t touch my mac and cheese.”
Mac & Cheeza is at 223 W. Eighth St., (213) 622-3782 or macandcheeza.com. Open Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-11p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-2 a.m.
Contact Richard Guzman at richard@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 08/02/2010
©Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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