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This week, The Hollywood Reporter counted Kate Mantilini and BLD among the top power-lunch destinations in town. This week, such shining stars as Bill Maher, Girls' Adam Driver, and uh, Pat Sajack, hit the former, while Mandy Moore and Minka Kelly bonded at the latter. Elsewhere, David Schwimmer took his wife out to Gino Angelini's new RivaBella, Sheryl Crow sought to avoid answering questions about her disgraced ex at Craig's, a couple of those Real Housewives did what they do best, acting scandalous with young studs and talking trash on one another's restaurants, and Zoe Saldana offered the best endorsement for a vegan diet yet while dining at Real Food Daily. For all this and more, look on to today's Celebrity Settings.

Fried chicken and crispy pig ears are among today's current rages in L.A., while South L.A. is still a hot-spot for Southern soul food. But in a town closely associated with healthy diets, it may come as only a small surprise that the town is talking about a healthier approach to such dishes. Today, the L.A. Times talks with Byron Hurt, the filmmaker behind a new televised documentary called "Soul Food Junkies" that explores the traditional Southern diet and its impact on health and culture. Hurt tells the paper, "It's hard for people to wrap their head around making modifications to something they grew up with, but if we open ourselves to the possibility that we can make those changes and it can still be good." No sooner does Hurt speak than Intersections South L.A. reminds readers of Simply Wholesome, the longstanding, fresh take on soul food in Windsor Hills.

Jonathan Gold takes on Cortez today, noting that it's not for everyone. Specifically those who can't stand hour-long waits, "crowds...noise, screechy jazz...[And] well-meaning servers who are slightly impatient with the idea of service." The critic warns, "Cortez, like Cookbook, is an enterprise whose customers are pretty much self-selecting — if you belong here, you know who you are." Painting a pretty picture of precise, produce-intensive small plates, Gold puts the emphasis on the word small, telling us that "the size of its portions, at least the non-vegan ones, makes the usual sort of small-plates sharing almost impossible," leaving one's table-mates swiping and licking the quickly ravished bowls. "Tiny portions are great in principle...," he writes, "but there may be a reason so many of the regulars at Cortez fit nicely into skinny jeans. And by the time you finish ordering, you are going to have spent a shocking amount of money." [LAT]