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Cascabel Restaurant: A Hidden Gem in Toluca Lake

Tucked behind a medical spa on Riverside Blvd in Toluca Lake is an old Spanish-style house that has been converted into Cascabel Restaurant. If you are driving down the street, you will not notice this restaurant but it is a special little find in Toluca Lake.

Cascabel means "rattle" and is the name that is used for both a venomous South American rattlesnake and for a type of Mexican chili. Perhaps both are behind the name of Chef Alex Eusebio's restaurant. Dark wooden beams, light wood tables with turquoise accents and white walls with a large rattlesnake drawn throughout, convert the former house into an cozy, inviting restaurant.

10 October, 2017

Please The Palate Pick of the Week – Maude’s Greatest Hits – October 2017

Having made it a personal mission to go to Maude almost every month since they opened in 2014, when October brings a "Greatest Hits" from the past four years, it should not come as a surprise that the Maude October 2017 menu is the Please The Palate pick of the week. This dinner marked my thirty-seventh meal at Maude (out of a total of forty-six seasonal menus in total). Maude's October 2017 menu offered a fourteen-course tasting of some of their Greatest Hits! With almost 500 dishes to chose from, they whittled it down to the top twelve. Although I am sure that there are many more dishes that could qualify, some dishes could not be included because the featured ingredient is not currently in season. The diverse menu played homage to four years of creative, diverse and distinct menus and it was yet another great meal shared with friends and good wine.

07 October, 2017

Greenbar Distillery – Born out of love and built on passion

This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.

Greenbar Distillery, Los Angeles’ original distillery, is a story of love. It was born out of the love of two people and today is a love letter to the city it was born in, Los Angeles.

Melkon Khosrovian and Litty Mathew met in journalism school at the University of Southern California. Litty, who is Southern Indian, was born in Ethiopia to missionary parents, raised in Jamaica and moved to the United States at age 11. Trained as a chef in Paris, Litty had a wine palate but did not like spirits. Melkon, on the other hand, is Armenian, and in his culture, Litty explained, it is the “land of toasts and it is impolite to not raise a glass.” Wanting Litty to fit into his family, Melkon created a vodka infusion that she would like so that she could participate in the toasts. His infusions, which were made out of his love for Litty, became popular in the entire family. Litty and Melkon married in 2002. At the time, Melkon owned a software company. He sold his company, and in 2004 they started Greenbar Distillery, originally under the name Modern Spirits and then under the name Greenbar Collective. Their goal was to create the best flavors and work with fresh ingredients.

05 October, 2017