On this episode of The LA Food Podcast, Luca sits down with Jessica Koslow, the chef and owner behind Sqirl, one of the most influential Los Angeles restaurants of the last 15 years. Koslow reflects on Sqirl’s unlikely evolution from a jam company into a defining all-day restaurant, the origins of dishes like the sorrel pesto rice bowl and ricotta toast, and why her background as a pastry cook and competitive figure skater still shapes the way she thinks about craft, repetition, and reinvention.

The conversation also dives into Sqirl’s new dinner service, which Koslow describes as a full restaurant within a restaurant, with a completely different menu, atmosphere, staffing model, and hospitality approach. She talks about the dishes leading the charge at night, including the chicken liver, roast chicken, smoked pork collar, French toast, and the personal story behind the Bacchanalia chocolate cake. Luca and Jessica also discuss LA dining culture, the economics of running an ambitious independent restaurant, the joy of hidden restaurant “Easter eggs,” and what it means for Sqirl to keep evolving after a complicated public chapter.

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