it’s good to be ari taymor these days. you have your own critically-acclaimed restaurant in downtown la, praised in particular by jonathan gold, who named alma one of his 101 best restaurants in la having one of his 10 best dishes of 2012 . and now, you’re on the national stage, being named as the best new restaurant in the entire country by bon appetit. all of thisaccomplishedat the age of 27 (same as me!), armed with an impressive resume that includes the likes of bar tartine and flour water in sf, as well as the pop-up that led to the current restaurant of the same name. alma had been high on my to-dine list for quite some time, and one day in early august i decided to just pull the trigger on opentable for a solo dinner, as a treat to myself for all the fine work i’veaccomplished(ha!). the process wasn’t very difficult – there were tables available online during prime hours for a weekday, and i was going