TLT Food Ups the Ante for Fast-Casual Restaurant Fare in Pasadena; Opens Thursday in Playhouse District

TLT Food, a fast-casual, chef-driven dining destination, opens Thursday at the Playhouse Plaza in Pasadena.

Born of The Lime Truck, which won Season 2 of the Food Network reality television series “The Great Food Truck Race” (beating seven other teams), the restaurant is co-founder and executive chef Daniel Shemtob’s take on bold flavors that are down-to-earth, finessed into amazing dishes made from scratch.

“What makes us different is that our whole outlook towards food is pretty unique,” says Shemtob. “Everything is made from scratch. We use really high-quality ingredients and we try to deliver in a low price point. It takes years to train my kitchen managers the way that I want so that they can create the food that I want. So it’s a labor of love.”

The Playhouse Plaza location, 36 S. El Molino Avenue, is the fourth brick-and-mortar TLT restaurant. The others are in Westwood Village, Newport Beach and the Irvine Spectrum.

“One thing that we understand is that we’re not opening necessarily to a massive crowd,” says Shemtob, who happened on the Pasadena location while walking around the city, feeling its vibe. “I think what we want to do here is each dining experience has to be amazing. I have always believed that you become a threat, but we’re not against Pasadena. We need to work with the community and spend our time and really build it. We’re starting slow; our projections are slow to begin with, just so we could build it with the community.”

Indeed, the chef’s culinary life has been an emerging one, and one he didn’t expect, having had zero cooking experience prior to opening The Lime Truck with a friend in 2010.

The Lime Truck became an Orange County fixture with occasional forays into Los Angeles, quickly becoming a passionate experience for its fans. In 2012, TLF Food opened in Westwood Village, in 2014, the Irvine Spectrum, and most recently Newport Beach.

As Shemtob and his crew prepare to open the Pasadena restaurant, the young chef says he hopes the Pasadena crowd will like TLT’s mix, reflecting the flavors of Southern California.
“We’re a very fluid, excited company about food,” he says. “And our menu is incredibly creative and different. All the flavors are exciting. They’re street-inspired, they’re bold in flavor. It’s very much Southern California which is just a melting pot of Asian, Mexican, Middle Eastern. And I think you’ll find all of those flavors and styles here in the restaurant.”
Though he first saw 18- to 35-year-old males flock to TLT Food, Shemtob has watched his dining clientele expand with his new locations.

“I think it’s open,” he says of the prospective clientele. “I think we’ll see a lot of really unique faces. I think we’ll see different age groups every day.”

TLT Food, 36 S. El Molino Avenue, officially opens Thursday and plans to be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday to Saturday. Visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TLTFOOD/