Top Chef Contestant Opens A Refined LA Deli

If you’re a fan of Top Chef, you most likely follow what happens to the winner and eliminated chefs after they: a) get kicked out of the show or b) win the first prize.

Season Five was taped in one of our country’s hautest cities: New York. And while the chef we’re talking about here isn’t the winner (that honor went to Hosea Rosenberg), we think our subject’s new little sandwich shop in Toluca Lake is worth gossiping about.

His name is Alex Eusebio and he was one of the contestants of Top Chef, Season Five. If you don’t remember him, it’s probably because he was the fifth one to be eliminated. But that didn’t stop this food lover from opening up a new, Sunday-brunch-type-of-restaurant in the L.A. area with his other half Sara Mann.

Prior to his Top Chef stint, the French and Spanish cuisine specialist used to work for Restaurant 15 in Echo Park. But after he got kicked off the show he came home to find out that the owners were selling the restaurant and he was going to be left without a place to show off his culinary creativity.

Unfortunately for foodies everywhere, he disappeared, David-Chappelle-style, and decided to wed his longtime girlfriend Sara Mann and move to Martha’s Vineyard to open up his dream eatery. Life had different plans for him though, and soon he was back in La La Land, so that his new bride could follow her own dreams and play the role of backup singer for Miley Cyrus.

Instead of opening his dream shop on the East Coast island, Eusebio and the Mrs. decided to scrape up all the green bills they had left and open up Sweetsalt Food Shop, a refined deli where you can stuff your face with sandwiches and salads. And you can also indulge on some pretty tasty desserts, like the signature Chocolate Bread Pudding. The vittles here are so delightful that they earned praise from Jessica Gelt at the L.A. Times, who described a “a melt-in-your-mouth braised short rib roll with onion confit, roasted garlic and goat cheese; and a free-range chicken spicy buffalo ciabatta with celery, onion and Roquefort cheese spread.”

Source LA Times