I often invite myself places without even realizing. I consider it a good thing and I accomplish way more by wielding my friendly-aggressive behavior. Last summer while in LA, I dined at one of my favorite restaurants located in Manhattan Beach, MB Post, by chef David LeFevre. Manhattan Beach is this great little beach town south of Santa Monica by 25 minutes and just below LAX airport. David is originally from the Midwest, worked the ranks of Charlie Trotter and, lucky for him, landed in Southern California. He’s a Midwest teddy bear living a beach life. With open arms, he welcomed me into MB on Friday morning (after I invited myself of course) to follow him around for a couple of hours. I also learned about his latest project, Fishing With Dynamite, a small raw bar next door to MB.

I arrived during the staff meeting when he waved from the back of the restaurant to give him a sec. Within a few minutes, we were seated at a table and chatting like old friends. Like most chefs, David is passionate about his craft and giddy about his upcoming venture. In some ways, he’s incongruous with the laid-back surfer life because he has this infectious upbeat energy. But it’s easy to see MB, the ocean waves and riding his bike to work every day completes him. His patrons love him. He’s warm with his staff and he genuinely walks around his space feeling proud and wanting to work harder. I was expecting a little more diva like, a’ hem, some chefs from the Midwest. Yet, LeFevre and MB are completely void of demanding culinary personas. It's all about the climate of the space created by the music, the spot-on seasonal food, the easygoing locals that pile in regulary and the totally chill staff. 

We decided to look at the new space, head to his office to see the plans for Fishing With Dynamite and take a quick trip to a farmers market near by. Peeking through the windows, he quickly described the layout and design concept. Then we headed up the back stairs to his office where the walls were covered with vision boards.  Beautiful vision boards that David put together himself. Being a former interior designer, I was immediately swept away in his dream. A cross-section of images, phrases and concepts collaged on boards fusing together his inspiration of east coast meets west coast raw bar. For David, being a chef is more than the menu, which I’m sure most chefs would agree with this philisophy. It's a full circle from the front of the house to back of the house, the design of every square inch and the depth of staff. It's all encompassing to build your dream restaurant. We chatted about the substance of every detail for the new space and more importantly, continuing the success of MB.

We then closed up the office and headed out back to his car when he told me that he almost brought his bikes to ride to the market. Whew, I narrowly escaped making a fool of myself riding a bike. I’m the worst bike-rider…EVER! He laughed and we drove to Hermosa for a tiny little market to look for greens for his weekend brunch at the restaurant. The Life: gorgeous 75-degrees. Strolling around a little market with a citrus sampling bar while chatting with the farmers. Pomelos. Grapefruits. Varieties of oranges. YUM and it's January.

Then I snapped out of and had to laugh when David started moaning that there were no good greens because the weather was recently chilly. I looked at him and said, COLD? Really? He was zipped up in a lightweight parka while I was sweating and dripping grapefruit juice all over my face trying to keep up behind him. No greens to be had, so he snagged some fruit and we headed back to MB. He’d have better luck at the Santa Monica market on Saturday morning.

We walked into MB, which was now packed for lunch with locals. I stayed for a bite and a beer and I’ve got my fingers crossed that his new place will be open when I’m back in a couple of months. 

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