For those of you living in (or traveling to) Los Angeles, there is a new restaurant, the Kassava Caribbean Café (8600 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (310) 385-0233), which the Los Angeles Times raves about today. This is some of what the Times had to say:  

The sunny yellow bungalow that houses Kassava Caribbean cafe is a Chandler-esque remnant of an earlier L.A., a poignant contrast to the neighboring steel- and glass-fronted restaurants along 3rd Street and the monochromatic hulk of the Beverly Center nearby.

But the intriguing pull of this ambitious little restaurant extends beyond the charm of its palm frond-festooned patio. Kassava is run by three chefs, each from a different area of the Caribbean, and each provides a discrete expertise to assure that the restaurant’s offerings are as polycultural as the islands themselves.

The French-influenced Haitian specialties prepared by Carmen Dagon, who maintains a following from her tenure at Chez Nous in Inglewood, are distinctly spiced from those of French-speaking Martinique, cooked by Vanessa Walkoviak. Jerk chicken and other Jamaican food — with their own set of influences — are turned out by chef Pedro Gil.
“The idea is to represent the Caribbean’s regional flavors authentically,” says co-owner and filmmaker Jean-Claude La Marre.

For the rest of the review go to http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-find10-2009jun10,0,6259211.story