It’s taken years to recover from our last Seder — a sad, scrawny potluck populated by aging, embittered single women who nearly jumped us into the Landmark Forum. That’s why we haven’t celebrated Passover in a decade. But a fast-paced, irreverent Passover cooked by a professional chef — we couldn’t turn it down. Last night washed away a decade’s worth of bad memories and replaced them, mostly with food. So much food that we thought it was joke when dish after dish after dish kept coming out. We should have treated it like a marathon. Instead, we couldn’t stop ourselves from snacking on the delicious chopped chicken liver. The braised short ribs were a highlight; not a speck was left after people packed away their leftovers. Our favorite, by far, was the homemade gefilte fish, was so good we had seconds (and thirds). Pacing… it’s all about pacing.
Passover 2011, 1st Night: The Feast
Elina Shatkin • 04.19.11 at 4:32 pm
Holiday
→ No CommentsTags:Feast·Holiday·Jewish·Meal·Passover·Pesach·Seder·Tradition
Zócalo Union Station Speakeasy Cocktail Party 2010
Elina Shatkin • 10.10.10 at 3:04 pm
Cocktails, Elina Shatkin, Events & Festivals
Taxidermy Art at Zócalo Speakeasy.
Occasionally, I trade my buffet pants and lobster bib for an evening gown and heels. Last night, I had a great excuse to get fancy at Jonathan Gold’s Union Station Speakeasy Cocktail Party, the second annual fundraiser for Zócalo Public Square.
Zócalo hosts loads of interesting panel discussions, book readings and occasional film screenings on on everything from religion and food to bioethics and architecture. It’s culture in the best and lest pretentious sense of the word, and L.A. is lucky to have such an organization.
One of my favorite aspects of any party is seeing a bunch of people I normally only see in jeans and workwear dressed to the nines (or at least the sevens and eights), boozing it up in a cocktail-rich environment. (That’s venture capital-speak.)
→ 1 CommentTags:Buffet Pants·Caña Rum Bar·Cedd Moses·Charity·Cocktails·Cole's·DayQuil·Downtown L.A.·Event·Jonathan Gold·La Descarga·Las Perlas·Rivera·Seven Grand·Speakeasy·Taxidermy·The Varnish·Union Station·Zocalo
When Fonts Fail: Guzzle & Nosh Gets A New Logo
Elina Shatkin • 10.09.10 at 11:31 am
Design & Architecture, Elina Shatkin
Guzzle& Nosh's new Gap-inspired logo
Inspired by The Gap’s recent marketing savvy debacle in transforming its instantly recognizable, decades-old logo into something that looks like a fifth-grader spent five minutes designing it with clip art, we decided to upgrade our logo.
Here, at Guzzle & Nosh, we don’t need an armada of brand managers or an entire ad agency staffed by font nerds to screw up our brand. Unlike the new Gap logo, which is real, took TWO YEARS to create and was overseen by Laird & Partners, New York, we conceptualize and execute our mediocre designs completely on our own.
Now, with CrapLogoMe, you instantly apply the styleless, technocratic sheen of the new Gap logo to your brand. Simply type in the words, and voilà! It’s a beautiful thing.
→ No CommentsTags:Branding·Design·Fail·Logo·Marketing·The Gap
dineLA: Little Next Door’s French Dip Sandwich
Elina Shatkin • 10.08.10 at 1:03 pm
Elina Shatkin, Lunch, dineLA Restaurant Week
I popped into The Little Next Door yesterday for lunch to sample the dineLA lunch menu. It was advertised nowhere in the restaurant and never mentioned by our waiter until we asked for it. Almost as if they didn’t want you to know about it…
I chose the marinated artichokes followed by what turned out to be a terrific French Dip. Thin slices of roast beef curled on bread that, on its own, would have been great but when grilled and buttered was divine. The real standout, however, was the horseradish mustard dipping sauce in place of traditional au jus. Light and creamy with enough horseradish to tingle but not enough to overpower, I found myself dipping stray frites into the stuff. The three course-meal, topped off by a forgettable chocolate eclair (a soggy chocolate eclair is still a chocolate eclair), was well worth the $16.
dineLA restaurant week runs Oct. 3-8 and Oct. 10-15. Click here for a full list of participating restaurants, conveniently organized by name, neighborhood and price.
Sexy La Descarga Dancers Love Tacos
Elina Shatkin • 10.07.10 at 10:19 am
Bars, Elina Shatkin, Street Food, Tacos
Even the super-sexy dancing girls of La Descarga need a taco after shaking their tail-feathers.
Last week, coming out of the faux speakeasy after a party for Los Angeles magazine’s Great Nights Out issue, we spotted two of the lovely La Descarga dancers about to nosh on some classic L.A. street food. Where else but El Patio, a taco stand a couple doors down from the rum bar. Rob couldn’t resist snapping their pictures — and they gamely played along.
After all, what could be sexier than an already sexy girl eating a taco?
Premiere Supper Club: Best Urinal in Hollywood?
Elina Shatkin • 10.06.10 at 4:26 pm
Design & Architecture, Elina Shatkin, Hollywood, Pubs & Clubs
I’m no connoisseur of urinals, but this futuristic black bullet set against the mish-mash of shattered rainbow tiles at Premiere Supper Club gets my vote for Best Urinal in Hollywood. What better receptacle for that $5,000 jeroboam of Dom Perignon?
After all, Premiere is the kind of club where bottle service starts at $395 (Stoli, Bacardi Light, Malibu, Maker’s Mark, Crown Royal) and goes all the way up to $30,000 (a methuselah of Cristal).
You can thank Kristofer Keith and Spacecraft for the design, which feels like the movie version of a Spanish wine cellar (i.e. it’s 20% sexier than real life). Owner Vinny Laresca (the man behind Villa) has a concept — above and beyond the usual make-rich-people-feel-special-so-they’ll-spend-gobs-of-money-on-alcohol concept that’s the hallmark of high-end clubs.
→ 2 CommentsTags:Abdi Manavi·Bar·Bathroom·Burlesque·Circus·Design·Hollywood·Jerry Garcia·Kritsofer Keith·Premiere Supper Club·Spacecraft·Supperclub Los Angeles·Urinal·Vinny Laresca
Icy Dildos & Hot Punches at table20 Best Bartender Contest
Elina Shatkin • 10.05.10 at 3:32 pm
Contests & Competitions, Elina Shatkin, Liquor
We didn’t stick around long enough to find out who won last night’s Best L.A. Bartender contest sponsored by table20, a soon-to-launch job site for chefs and bartenders. In truth, we don’t care. These PR stunts can be fun, but they determine the “best” anything about as well as American Idol susses out genuine vocal talent. Still, when someone sets off the “free alcohol” homing beacon, we show up. And when we do, we’re rarely greeted by a bar full of gleaming, rectangular ice dildos, as we were last night.
Actually, they were fancy, oversized ice cubes concocted by the Névé Luxury Ice Company to insure that no aspect of your alcohol consumption remains ungentrified. The Névé reps can chatter all they like about “surface area” and “cooling temperatures,” but all we could think about was the chilly forest of phallic symbols. The ice man had, indeed, cometh.
→ 1 CommentTags:Alcohol·Bartender·Cocktails·Contest·Ice Cubes·Neve Ice·Punch·table20
Robata Jinya Opens for Lunch
Elina Shatkin • 10.04.10 at 5:56 pm
Asian Cuisine, Elina Shatkin, Restaurant Opening
A couple months ago, I was on a press tour of a restaurant where the owner (not the chef) bragged that he had been the first person to serve sushi and robata in the same restaurant. My eyes must have clicked like marbles when they rolled back in my head.
These days, the sushi and skewer combo is common enough to not merit much awe. That doesn’t mean L.A. couldn’t use more restaurants that serve both.
After a painful wait for its liquor license, Robata Jinya, located at the corner of Crescent Heights and Third, finally opened last week — but only for lunch (service ends at 2:30 pm). Dinner, robata and the grand opening should all happen next week.
For now, Jinya offers a small but promising lunch menu that includes ramen ($8.55), rolls ($6-11) and a hearty bento box (for only $10.50!) packed with tempura, chicken teriyaki, gyoza, California rolls, salad and miso. The most promising item was the “tonkotsu ramen,” because of its broth, which was rich and subtle. The noodles are topped with a few slices of thin, soft pork, which isn’t the way I’m used to seeing tonkatsu (I’m used to it breaded and fried), but that’s the way they do it here.
→ 1 CommentTags:Japanese·lunch·Mid-City West·Ramen·Robata·Robata Jinya·Skewers·Sushi·Tomo Takahashi
Wolvesmouth Dinner: Into the Mouth of Madness (Part 2)
Elina Shatkin • 09.22.10 at 2:45 am
Chefs, Elina Shatkin, Review, Supper Club
If you saw my previous post, Wolvesmouth Dinner: Into The Mouth of Madness (Part 1), then you know how tragically it ended (at least for me). Let’s not dwell on that. Let’s focus on the glorious 11 courses that came before.
When it comes to ingredients, chef Craig Thornton is, happily, an agnostic, wantonly remixing culinary influences and cuisines. The style is sometimes called “modern global” and it’s all the rage with young chefs like Josef Centeno, Ludovic Lefebvre, Marcel Vigneron. If there’s anything that these chefs have proven, it’s that old school, often culturally biased, distinctions between “high” and “low” cuisines are meaningless.
In Course #4, a traditional Mexican torta is shrunk down to slider size and the chorizo topped with goat cheese and centered amid a pool of tart tomato water and robust sherry mellowed down to a thin gastrique. (Loads of big, gorgeous pics of ALL 11 courses after the jump.)
→ 1 CommentTags:Chef·Craig Thornton·Josef Centeno·Ludovic Lefebvre·Marcel Vigneron·Supper Club·Wolvesmouth
Wolvesmouth Dinner: Into the Mouth of Madness (Part 1)
Elina Shatkin • 09.22.10 at 12:33 am
Chefs, Elina Shatkin, Review, Supper Club
My work as a food writer is shockingly unremunerative, but I do get to eat well.
Last month (Aug. 12, to be precise), I caught a preview of Wolvesmouth, a small, private dinner prepared by chef Craig Thornton (@wolvesmouth). Perhaps you saw him on Carson Daly the other night? Currently working as Nicolas Cage’s private chef, Craig is a Portland transplant whose laid-back demeanor (I have a hunch he pays his helpers in weed) belies some serious culinary chops.
With every chef worth his weight in Alaea pink sea salt rushing to launch an “underground” supper club, it’s easy to get hipness fatigue. Wolvesmouth is more hope than hype. A standout among L.A.’s supper club scene — yes, we do have one — it was an amazing 11-course dinner that sucked me into the mouth of madness and spit me out at the other end.
→ 2 CommentsTags:Chef·Craig Thornton·Pine Brandy·Supper Club·Wolvesmouth
