No Echo Park, Silver Lake Restaurant on Jonathan Gold's 'Essential' List

"It has become a street food world," declares Pulitizer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold in the intro to his 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants 2011.

Maybe, but we still think it's interesting that not one Echo Park or Silver Lake destination is included on the list.

We tweeted generally about this omission when the list came out last week.

Within the hour, we heard back from Mr. Gold himself via direct message.

", and have all made the cut before," he apologized. "It's cyclical, I guess."

"Not a dis on the nabe or anything," he added  "I'm hoping Red Hill will be buzzy enough for next year's."

Red Hill, of course, is the new Jason Michaud project in the works for Echo Park Avenue.

We're keeping our fingers crossed about Red Hill too.

Right now Michaud looks to have his hands full with the new Local Express that opened Friday at the former Chimu location downtown.

Look for more about that project here shortly.