"There’s no meal more comforting for me than chicken parmesan. So in a year as sh*tty as this one, I was very happy to discover Parm Boyz’s residency at The Corner Door in Culver City. The chicken parm is pounded thin and extremely crispy, but is still moist, and the eggplant parm nails that happy medium between too-dry and too-mushy. Both versions take me back to some of my favorite meals from my childhood, eating tremendous Italian-American food in Boston’s North End, and I suspect this isn’t a coincidence, since the chef is from Lynn, MA, just north of Boston. They also put their own spin on other classics - like garlic bread stuffed with burrata, mascarpone, and cream cheese, and a Caesar salad with brown butter croutons - that set the mood just as well as the red checkered tablecloths. - BK" - brant cox, kat hong, brett keating, james montgomery