The former Studio City home to Take A Bao is now a Midcentury Modern dream called Mister O’s. Longtime Los Angeles restaurateur Michael Cardenas is a prolific restaurateur who co-founded Innovative Dining Group. IDG provided Los Angeles with restaurants like Sushi Roku, BOA Steakhouse, KATANA, and Robata Bar. He later opened Little Tokyo restaurants like Lazy Ox Canteen, Aburiya Toranoko, and udon fueled Fat Spoon. Mister O’s is his latest venture, which he named for late IDG investor Jordan Ostrow. Cardenas coincidentally first got started down the street at Teru Sushi back in the ’80s. To oversee Mister O’s bustling cocktail bar, Cardenas hired Bar Director Rafael Jonathan Barba. This Los Angeles native previously worked in Napa as Goose & Gander’s Bar Director and in The Restaurant at Meadowood’s lauded kitchen.

Trade Secret ($15) is the closest thing that the restaurant has to a signature cocktail. This tangy, slightly spicy cocktail combines Cazadores reposado tequila, passion fruit and lime juices, and egg whites. Trade Secret also incorporates a Thai shrub crafted in-house with lemongrass, ginger, jalapeño and coconut. The sneaky-potent yellow concoction is shaken until frothy and served in a stylish coupe. The finishing touch involves white foam stenciled with “Mister O’s” using orange-hued Angostura bitters.