Archive for the ‘Wine & Dine’ Category
All the Best Food & Wine From The Taste Los Angeles
The Labor Day Holiday weekend saw thousands of us flock to Paramount Studios in Los Angeles to spend three glorious evenings eating, drinking, sampling and savoring from LA’s best restaurants at the Taste, the Los Angeles Times annual food festival. The Taste has become Los Angeles’s de facto, signature food and wine festival. And for good reason. At no other festival in Los Angeles will you find such an extraordinary roster of restaurants. It’s the perfect event to cross off your 2018 restaurant “must” list in one weekend.
This year’s event paid special tribute to the late, legendary Jonathan Gold. Dozens of chefs created dishes in honor of the Pulitzer Prize winning critic. What a joy to discover so many hidden gems! For those of you couldn’t make it – here are a few of the many highlights from the festival. Your next dinner reservation starts here.
Hope to see you at next year’s Taste!
The Taste LA Pays Tribute to Jonathan Gold This Weekend at Paramount Studios
The Los Angeles Times’ The Taste is back this Labor Day weekend at Paramount Studios in Hollywood for 3 evenings of amazing food, wine, spirits and chef experiences, plus unique culinary pop-ups and collaborations. And, yes, there are a few tickets still available.
Jonathan Gold has always been a big part of the food and wine festival, but this year The Taste will pay tribute to our beloved restaurant critic through special programming at each event, celebrating the life of the man whose passion for food, accessible voice and unparalleled insights won him a well-deserved Pulitzer and a permanent place in Los Angeles history. Several restaurants at this year’s #TasteLA will be serving dishes in his honor, including Faith and Flower, Herringbone, Pacific Dining Car, and Chiguacle Sabor Ancestral de Mexico.
Your Guide to Los Angeles’s East Side Farmers Markets
Garlic is on its way out. Out of season, I mean. In California, it’s easy for it to seem we have a constant supply of fresh fruits and vegetables no matter the season because so much of what we buy at our grocery stores travels such great distances to reach us. So there’s always been a soft spot in my heart for farmers markets and organic produce sold by local and regional growers. Afterall, What small town would be complete without a weekly Farmers Market? Luckily, the east side of Los Angeles makes up several small towns (the neighborhoods feel like small towns anyway) and so it offers several farmers markets where you can find a wide variety of affordably-priced fruits, vegetables, honey, herbs, bread, flowers, vintage clothing, arts & crafts, and more.
Everyone from local families who live in the neighborhood to some of Southern California’s most respected chefs use our farmers markets as their weekly food source and walk-in pantry. And once you visit any of the markets on our list below it’s easy to see why: vine-ripened and tree-ripened local produce is way tastier than your average grocery supply, you can feel good about eliminating packaging and plastic waste, it’s amazing to know the people who grow your food by name, and so much more. It’s simply amazing to buy food from passionate people who value sustainable agricultural practices.
Below you will find the definitive list of all of Los Angeles’s east side farmers markets that specialize in every crop that’s grown seasonally around our great state of California, for every day of the week. Except for Mondays for some curious reason. That must be the day of rest for our local growers.
Where to Get the Best Happy Hour Oysters in Los Angeles
Toward the end of a warm late August summer day, you may find yourself in an unfamiliar neighborhood, or in the midst of a new stretch of restaurants, and the thought may occur to you: there must be some place nearby that has really great happy hour oysters. The $1 happy hour oyster in LA may be close to becoming extinct, but it’s not quite there yet. Below is the definitive list of $1 dollar or near $1 dollar happy hour oysters in Los Angeles for all your summer oyster cravings, no matter the neighborhood you may find yourself in.
Inside East LA Meets Napa: Los Angeles’s Best Food & Wine Festival
After arousing suspicions for the past several years, it may be safe to call it: East LA Meets Napa Food & Wine Festival is the best food and wine festival in Los Angeles. At no other festival is there more food, more wine, music, and dancing than at AltaMed’s annual downtown Los Angeles bash. Find your new favorite bottle of wine and where you should book your next dinner reservation inside.
Hollywood’s Essential Restaurants – Summer 2018
Hollywood’s best restaurants don’t always have a gimmick, but when they do they resemble a summer blockbuster more than a favorite film you decide to return to again and again. The latest en vogue tendency for Hollywood restaurants is actually no gimmick at all, but instead a worthy reclaiming and reimagining of urban blight: Hollywood’s best restaurants are taking back the strip mall. The strip mall is, of course, not unique to Los Angeles at all, but it does feel like a Los Angeles signature, especially when you are driving down Hollywood’s most famous streets like Hollywood, Sunset, Melrose, and Santa Monica.
Of course, not all of Summer 2018’s essential Hollywood restaurants are packed like sardines inside a strip mall, many are sprawling and grand architectural and artistic works in themselves, Provençal cafés, or sleek and modern spots with menus to match. Here, we take a look at 14 of Hollywood’s best restaurants including Baroo, Chi SPACCA, Gwen, Kali, Trois Mec, and more.
Also, for the purpose of this article – let’s define exactly where Hollywood is. We only looked at restaurants above Melrose, below Franklin West of the 101, and east of Fairfax. Give or take a block or two. If we’ve left any incredible restaurant out, please let us know! We love trying at least one new restaurant each week.
Enjoy!
Amazing Spots for Mother’s Day Brunch in Los Angeles
Making last minute Mother’s Day plans? You’ll want to take a list of these amazing spots for Mother’s Day brunch that, against all odds, still have a table or two open. While we may celebrate Mom every day in our own way, here’s where to take Mom for a brunch to remember.
A Bit of Los Olivos in South Pasadena – Crossings Restaurant Relaunches
Of the moment, yet not on the nose, Crossings in South Pasadena is your newest Los Angeles dining destination. Crossings uses hyper-local ingredients for its hyper-modern California cuisine. You’ll love it. I did. And don’t let Crossing’s off the beaten path location deter you – you won’t find food this good, a vibe this cool, and a wine list this extensive, anywhere else in Southern California. It’s the fine dining establishment South Pasadena needs, the of one-of-a-kind restaurant that, before iPhones and Instagram and Yelp, you felt lucky to have stumbled upon and discovered.
Nancy Silverton’s Chopped Salad Goes National – Recipe
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Nancy Silverton Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images for NYCWFF
If you’ve ever been to Pizzeria Mozza, chances are on your way to those delicious pizzas you started with “Nancy’s Chopped Salad.” Nancy Silverton’s chopped salad has been a staple on her world famous restaurant’s menu for decades. In her cookbook from 2011, The Mozza Cookbook, she notes that she’s been perfecting the chopped salad since the 1970s, and you better believe the version from her Melrose outpost is near perfect. Silverton has now partnered with upscale salad chain Sweetgreen to serve her salad in stores nationwide.
Along with the Sweetgreen collaboration, Silverton is also embarking on another new venture: the opening of her newest establishment, Triple Beam Pizza in Highland Park.
Perhaps the only Los Angeles salad that rivals Nancy’s in terms of renown is Wolfgang Puck’s Cobb Salad from Spago. Of course, Silverton’s famous chopped salad is no secret. You can make the salad at home with her cookbook’s recipe! The original recipe has a little bit of everything—radicchio, chickpeas, pepperoncini, provolone, and salami. And the vinaigrette is simple, refined, and the sort you’ll be dressing all of your salads with in the future.
Behold, Nancy Silverton’s chopped salad recipe!
Côté Est in Highland Park Adds Brunch & Perfects Dinner
Approaching their third month in business, Highland Park eatery Côté Est has added weekend brunch hours while at the same time perfecting their dinner service. The York Boulevard restaurant, from the team behind Barbrix in Silver Lake and All’Acqua in Atwater Village, has become a destination for both locals in the neighborhood and those of us traveling from the other side of the 5 Freeway. After a short span of new restaurant jitters and hiccups, both large and small, Côté Est now feels like a well-oiled machine and it’s difficult to imagine a time when the restaurant wasn’t a favorite meeting place for this tight-knit community.
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