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Let them eat wedding cake!
2007-06-13 22:30:00
For a quick gallery of more knockout wedding cakes, click here. Bakerycentrism continues as la.foodblogging weighs in on Valley bakeries. It's a fine list that includes Big Sugar Bakeshop, Layers Cake s and Leda's Bake Shop (among others). Meanwhile, Callie Miller, she of the Sweet Lady Jane rant, has promised to keep me apprised of her cake hunt (Clean lines yes, foofy frosting flowers no). However, all of this points to a bizarre truth: Los Angeles has crazy money. Furthermore, we have a city of crazy-monied bridezillas who want their weddings to resemble movie premieres. We are also a city of creatively minded souls (like our brave Callie) who are neither crazy nor bridezillas but would like their wedding cakes to be interesting, unique and bear no resemblance to their fourth-grade bedrooms, when you still thought Cinderella was really neat. So why are we not a city of multiple go-to bakeries for brilliant, knockout, sophisticated wedding cakes? Why are we letting New York...
More About: Wedding , Wedding Cake

Robert Rodriguez: Director, Producer, Chef
2007-06-12 21:02:00
In Austin, Texas, breakfast tacos are a birthright. And if Robert Rodriguez wants to show me how to make "Sin City Breakfast Tacos," I am going to pay attention. (Thanks to Chow and to BoingBoing.)
More About: Chef , Prod

Sweet Lady Jane Sucks, or, The best LAist post ever
2007-06-11 21:38:00
I don't know Callie Miller, but she's my hero today for her rant against Sweet Lady Jane . The Paris Hilton of bakeries, it's earned a nationwide go-to reputation I've never understood. I've had the cakes many times and found them dry and bland, qualities I don't expect at $7 a slice. I've also heard tales of rotten, attitudinal service -- the kind that translates to, "I don't care because we're hot and I know you'll take it." Often, they have been right. This time, they weren't. You should read the whole post, but here's an edited highlight: She looked down at the packet of papers I was holding in my hand and said, “So I see you have your pictures. Let’s have a look.” I handed her eight different pictures of very basic, very clean cakes. She quickly thumbed through them and for each one said something like “Nope. Nope. Won’t do it. Wouldn’t want to. This one is awful. We might do this one for you. Can’t do that one. This one isn’t even possibl...
More About: Post , Sucks

Gonpachi wants to be the happiest place on earth
2007-06-11 16:12:00
LA's hottest restaurant designer isn't Dodd Mitchell. It's Walt Disney, the man who wasn't content to create an amusement park; he had to build the Happiest Place on Earth . Similarly, many Los Angeles restaurants aren't content to be "restaurants," based on the consumption of food and wine. They want to be Restaurants, where Customers Consume the Experience. Disney's spirit has long possessed the La Cienega restaurant corridor that's anchored by The Stinking Rose, which still prides itself on the ability to inject anything with that wacky allium known as garlic (Genuine tagline: "It's cool, it's hip, IT STINKS!"). And now, across the street, there's Gonpachi. Much has been made about how Gonpachi is imported from Japan and it's just like being Tokyo. And technically, that's true. There is a Gonpachi in Tokyo, and it apparently looks quite similar. However, it's a genuine Japanese dining experience much as TGI Friday's is a genuine American dini...
More About: Lace

K&L Hollywood grand opening: Generous pours without a cause
2007-06-08 17:05:00
If you care to join the battle for the hearts and minds of Los Angeles wine lovers, buy your tickets now. K&L Hollywood (1400 Vine St.) holds its grand opening tomorrow afternoon in hopes of stealing your business from Wally's et. al. (And tickets are $20 cheaper if you buy in advance.)  They promise to pour wines from Caymus Vineyards, Chateau Montelena, WH Smith, Talbott, Lewis Cellars, Etude, Opus One, Red Car, Sea Smoke, Cain Vineyards and Far Niente and provide "light appetizers" from the Beverly Hills Cheese Store and LOU. $65 advance purchase / $85 at the door. Call 877-KLWINES.
More About: Opening , Grand , Gene , Nero

BREAKING: Briefcase "bomb" threatens lunch for Variety, E!
2007-06-07 23:26:00
Walking back from LACMA's Patina outpost (aka the Pentimento Cafe), we saw helicopters overhead, black-and-whites blocking Wilshire traffic and a half dozen cops rolling out yellow tape, with another half dozen waving their hands, telling us to move away. Our keen reporting sensibilities told us something was wrong. So we asked one ("It's a bomb threat. Please move along"), two ("It's across the street. You need to move!"), three  policemen until we got satisfaction: "Someone left their briefcase outside." Yep, it's true: There's a black briefcase in the eating area outside Organic To Go. (You can't see it in the picture, but it was next to the shiny aluminum chair in the center of the shot.) And now it's surrounded with yellow tape, as are the three blocks around it. (Wrinkled, recycled tape! they pulled it out of a police car's trunk!) I bet they'd use fresh tape if someone left their briefcase outside M Cafe De Chaya. UPDATE (2:32 ...
More About: Lunch , Variety , Bomb , Breaking , Brea

Edible Events launches
2007-06-05 04:20:00
Have made a modest addition to The Knife in the right-hand sidebar. Edible Events is an ongoing calendar for all manner of hifalutin food and wine events -- anything ranging from charitable gluttony (it's the season!) to special menus (Grace's "Close To Home") and events (wine shop K&L Hollywood's grand opening). Tips, announcements and releases? Bring 'em here.
More About: Vent

Square One: Best breakfast in LA? Yeah, probably.
2007-06-04 05:45:00
This is fruit salad at Square One. I think it makes a nice picture. However, I am a shitty photographer, my camera phone is a whopping 1.3 megapixels and the only commands I know on it are Shoot and Send. All credit goes to Square One. And this tasted exactly like it looked. Apricots (ripe and tart, not mushy!), Gaviota strawberries, white peaches, cherries, nectarines. A few bananas, but nothing obnoxious. "Fruit salad" is usually a sop for the low-carb crowd, one that translates to "underripe melon chunks with the occasional albino strawberry and a few pineapple chunks if you're lucky." Even at the Four Seasons, fruit salad feels like an afterthought. Here, fruit salad is a classic bit of underselling: I've been to Square One three times, in three different seasons, and it tastes like a core sampling of whatever's at the farmers' market. Finish Sunday breakfast before noon and you'll have enough time to drive two miles to the Hollywood market and find the fruit fo...
More About: Breakfast , Brea , Probably , Yeah

Open season on picnics
2007-06-02 22:46:00
The prize for first press release on summer picnic baskets goes to La Cachette, which charges $28-$48 per person. Low end gets you butternut squash ravioli with chili-corn emulsion; high is the grilled beef filet with and a smoked whitefish salad as a starter. Unsolicited advice: Pick things that taste good eaten at room temperature and with your fingers, budget and utensils be damned. And read this.
More About: Open , Open Season , Season , Seas , Picnic