Ammo plays to locavores, but the restaurant isn't just about seasonal and regional. The place is a shrine to the understated, unpretentious beauty of LA that's often lost on visitors who never stray off the Sunset Strip. Ammo's menu is ever-changing, rustic, uncomplicated. One outstanding dish by new executive chef Dan Mattern says it all: House-made orecchiette with cauliflower and broccoli rabe is at once sweet and bitter, earthy and delicate. And the Ammo classic, bass braised in a wood oven with baby artichokes, feels as homey as a Tuscan inn -- albeit one whose exposed soundproofing and ceiling pipes look more industrial than Italian. Ammo is casual fine dining where the farmer is the only celebrity that matters, and that says more about LA than all the prints along Hollywood Boulevard.

lunch: Mon.-Fri. 11:30 AM-2:30 PM
brunch: Sat. & Sun. 10 AM-3 PM
dinner: Mon.-Thurs. 6 PM-10 PM; Fri. & Sat. 5:30 PM-11 PM; Sun. 5 PM-9 PM

$13 (house-made pappardelle with basil and almond pesto) to $32 (pan-seared wild salmon on green and yellow beans, cherry tomatoes, charred white corn, shiitake mushrooms, chervil and green olive tapenade)