Is L.A.'s best steakhouse a family-run, 1990s-era Argentine charmer?

"Jenn Harris and I included Alto, which opened in late August, on our most recent guide to L.A.'s 101 Best Restaurants. We were both especially taken with the beginning and end of dinner: some extraordinary interpretations of breads common to the Río de la Plata region to start, and a fantastic, painstaking dessert called torta rogel comprising layered wafers glossed with dulce de leche and crowned with breaking waves of Italian meringue."

"Chefs Juana Castellanos Lagemann and Esteban Klenzi met while working at Mugaritz, the 28-year-old modernist restaurant in northern Spain's Basque Country. While never veering too extreme, their menu at Alto flashes now and then on the avant-garde."

"Carlos and Azniv Bozoghlian moved with their three sons from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles in the early 1990s. They were part of the large Armenian diaspora in Argentina's capital, settling anew in the city that is home to the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia. The Bozoghlians opened their restaurant on Melrose Avenue in 1996 with no prior experience in the food industry, but driven by a desire to re-create the Argentine dining experience."

Alto, a new restaurant in Studio City, represents an innovative fusion of Argentine and Uruguayan culinary traditions created by chefs Juana Castellanos Lagemann and Esteban Klenzi, who previously worked at Spain's modernist Mugaritz restaurant. The menu showcases regional specialties including extraordinary interpretations of Río de la Plata breads and the elaborate dessert torta rogel, a layered wafer creation with dulce de leche and Italian meringue. While Alto advances fine dining in Los Angeles, Carlitos Gardel, an Argentine steakhouse celebrating its 30th anniversary, embodies more traditional Rioplatense culture. The Bozoghlian family, Armenian-Argentines who relocated from Buenos Aires in the early 1990s, established Carlitos Gardel on Melrose Avenue in 1996 without prior restaurant experience, driven by desire to recreate authentic Argentine dining.

Read at Los Angeles Times