Street Food Pasta Punk Estrano Opens L.A .’s Most Exciting Restaurant Inside an Arcade Bar in Echo Park

Estrano—L.A.’s most nihilistic street pasta pop-up—has a new face. Diego Vinicio Argoti’s celebrated concept has been possessed by Poltergeist, a sorta new new for his long-awaited first brick-and-mortar restaurant inside Button Mash in Echo Park.

At a time when the narrative around L.A. restaurants mostly circles around the difficulties of staying open amid surging overhead costs and guests’ wavering earnings, Poltergeist stands out for windmilling its way against the pit, counterclockwise, opening an extremely experimental restaurant that defies categorizations  in 2023 despite the inherent dangers.

But of all the neighborhoods and potential brick-and-mortar locations, Argotti could have taken his DIY cult gonzo cooking project to, how did he end up in an arcade bar with a decent cider selection?