Having celebrity parents can be tough. Sure, your birthday parties are the stuff of legend at your elementary school, but you end up with a name like Apple or North, and there’s a good chance you grow up to be an insufferable twit. As the child of Uchi and Franklin Barbecue, Loro definitely has two famous parents. And while it borrows from both, this Asian-influenced smokehouse is that rare nepo baby who actually turned out great. The atmosphere gives off camp dining-hall energy—minus the hairnets and giant trough of sloppy joe gravy. You’ll find mostly meat-centric dishes, like curry chicken over rice and large-format plates piled with char siu pork belly and oak-smoked brisket (thanks, Franklin). Nearly everything takes on a loose Asian inspiration, whether that’s a cheeseburger topped with yuzu thousand island or a somewhat confused “Malaysian” bo ssam chicken that bears little resemblance to the Korean dish it seems to reference. Unlike its parents, there’s no intimidating line or tough-to-get reservation needed to eat here—though there’s often still a bit of a wait. Luckily, you can grab frozen cocktails from the outdoor bar while looking over the menu (we like the mango sake slushy). Since ordering happens at the counter indoors, Loro is perfect for after-work drinks or big birthdays where people are arriving at different times and no one wants to deal with splitting a single check. Loro is always lively, the food is reliably good, and you never have to worry about any celebrity scandals (let’s hope that holds). This is a restaurant that doesn’t try to hide where it came from—but it’s also carved out an identity of its own. Thankfully, no one has to figure out how to pronounce X Æ A-12 to visit.