Sexy Beans now open as Culver City ghost kitchen
By Dolores Quintana
Sexy Beans, a new member of the Brazilian contingent of the Los Angeles restaurant scene, has opened for business in Culver City using the ghost kitchen Culver City Cuisine. Culver City Cuisine is located at 5660 Selmaraine Drive. The new concept sells feijoada, Brazilian rotisserie chicken, and picanha plates through the ghost kitchen and you have your choice of picking up, doing a take-out order or ordering delivery.
Chef Simoni Siqueira and her husband and partner Greg Johnson are new to the restaurant game, but run a stall among the other ghost kitchen denizens at Culver City Cuisine. Siqueira is a very passionate and spirited conversationalist who is taking this opportunity to learn the business before opening her own brick-and-mortar.
Siqueira said, as quoted by Eater Los Angeles, “I think that if I can be successful, and reach customers with just the flavor of my food, adding the customer service element will be a lot easier.”
According to Eater Los Angeles, Siqueira comes from Magé, near the north of Guanabara Bay in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. She hopes that her feijoada, a Brazilian stew, and picanha or top sirloin cap, cooked medium rare and marinated galeto na brasa or roasted chicken cooked rotisserie style will make her reputation in Culver City and ultimately the city of Los Angeles. Another specialty is arroz é feijão or rice and beans that is served with manioc flour or toasted manioc flour also known as farofa. Sauteed collard greens are another one of her dishes.
The chef’s dishes are best when combined as the common bean and rice plate with a vinagrete or salad dressing and farofa. The restaurant’s name comes from the dish feijoada which is a stew of cured salt pork, sausage and Carne Seca or beef jerky. Siqueira hasn’t forgotten vegetarians and does make a vegetarian feijoada.
All of the meat for Sexy Bean feijoada comes from a local company that gives the meat the traditional Brazilian flavor because it’s not exactly possible to get meat from a Brazilian butcher shop in Los Angeles. Her rotisserie chicken recipe is based on the boteco dish found in late-night restaurants in Rio de Janeiro and is the only true representation of the style in Los Angeles.
You can also get a picanha sandwich, salads and some fusion plates like Brazil Loves Texas which is 50/50 feijoada and Texas-style chili. Siqueira says, as quoted by Eater Los Angeles, “The cloud kitchen is part of my learning process right now, where I can work out my ideas.”
