Seasonal California-grown ingredients shine at Costa Mesa's new Verde Restaurant. Here, co-owners Koire Rogers and Anthony Laborin, plus executive chef Paula Balderrama, dish on the buzzing eatery.

There are dive bars, and then there's the Palo Verde in Tempe. A place where obnoxious graffiti covers both restrooms, the default aroma is a hybrid of body odor and old cigarettes, and filth is ...