This story originally appeared in California Winery Advisor.
Los Alamos – One Single Block Offering Days of Fun
The town of Los Alamos is one block long. As you drive through the single main street, it will seem like you have entered an old pioneer town. It is almost like a movie façade. But look closely and you will see storefronts for wineries, restaurants and antique shops. This tiny town is a wine country destination.
Los Alamos was a former stagecoach stop on the edge of the Santa Ynez Valley. A twenty-minute drive north of Solvang, Los Alamos was a sleepy town until a decade ago when refugees from Los Angeles arrived. Music industry, entertainment industry and fashion industry executives left their hectic city lives for the calmness of this little town. The town that used to be called “Los Almost” is now sometimes called “Little Los Angeles.” Los Alamos has also attracted young winemakers/entrepreneurs to set up shop there as the town, for the time being, is an affordable destination with unlimited potential.
The age old question is what came first, the chicken or the egg? Will we ever really know the answer? Do you care? After all, they both taste good and that is what matters. And you can choose both at Playa Vista's The Chicken or The Egg.
The Chicken or The Egg is a bright, welcoming space. With canary yellow walls and fresh greenery, it is hard not to smile when you walk inside.
Seating is available at tables but the lounge chairs are rather eye catching, especially on a lazy Sunday morning.
Downtown Santa Barbara was not a city I was very familiar with despite its proximity to Los Angeles. Typical weekend trips usually consisted of bypassing the...
When a chef creates a dish, a lot of thought goes into the combination of ingredients. There is a reason why a protein is selected and then why certain herbs, vegetables, sauces and sides are paired with it. At Barbareño in Santa Barbara, the story behind each dish takes it to another level.
Barbareño, a neighborhood restaurant located two blocks off of State Street, is a restaurant that honors the California Central Coast. It is owned by twenty-somthings Julian Martinez and Jesse Gaddy, who read a number of books, including historian Walter A. Tompkins’s The Yankee Barbareños: The Americanization of Santa Barbara County, California 1796-1925, while devloping the concept of the restaurant.
Like many restaurants today, Barbareño focuses on the farm-to-table concept and sources local and organic ingredients. But they also weave history into each dish on the menu. With all of the fun facts that they learned while reading books integrated into each dish, a meal at Barbareño is also a lesson of the history of Santa Barbara.
To begin with, the name Barbareño is an homage to the Chumash Indians. The local tribe had been named barbareños because of their language and over time, a barbareño is a person from Santa Barbara.
I have been to Lamill for coffee. I been to Lamill for lunch. Now I have also been to Lamill for dinner. The casual, neighborhood outpost in Silverlake is can be enjoyed all day long.
From morning to night, Lamill offers the same menu. Breakfast fans can order omelets, eggs benedict and other breakfast-fare all day. But Lamill also offers sandwiches, salads, pasta, snacks and sweets all day and recently added some new menu items to these sections. Don’t worry, favorites such as the tasty Avocado Toast and decadent Warm Doughnut Holes are still on the menu. But with the new section for “Snacks & Sweets," a selection of smaller plated items will satisfy for lunch, dinner or an afternoon snack.
The Spinach & Artichoke Dip is not like your typical spinach dips with lots of cheese and mayonnaise. This dip is actually the opposite. Made with roasted garlic, you can taste the spinach and artichoke. There is definitely cheese as well but it is not overwhelming, creamy or greasy. Add the housemade tortilla chips and this snack can fill you up!
A brick facade along Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood is what you are looking for. From the outside, it is a non-descript building. But step inside and this former dance studio has been converted into an art gallery and secret supper club. You have entered INTRO.
INTRO Art Gallery & Chef's Table is a place where friends, artists and others come together to celebrate food and art and music. INTRO Art Gallery & Chef's Table is created by Grammy Award winning sound engineer Manny Marroquin, General Manager Rob “Rob C” Ciancimino and Executive Chef Paul Shoemaker. Manny Marroquin ownsLarrabee Studios just next door. And just on the other side of the dance studio, he is building a restaurant with a state of the art music system connected to the studio. They took over the dance studio and converted it to an office.
But while waiting to open the restaurant, Chef Paul was getting antsy. Chef Paul has worked at Alan Ducasse, French Laundry, Providence and Water Grill, as well as Savory, Firefly, and Joe Pytka’s Bastide, where he earned himself a Michelin star. He was eager to start cooking again. While awaiting the new restaurant, one day Rob C found Chef Paul outside cooking on a homemade grill and when asked what he was doing, Chef Paul responded, "You have to eat; I have to cook." So Rob C and Manny took their office space, with its linoleum floors and dance bars, and gutted and painted the space. They repurposed wood found under the linoleum tiles and built a large long wooden table. They built a kitchen for the chef. They put art on the walls and INTRO Art Gallery & Chef's Table was born.
Thrillist is one of the most irreverant guides of where to eat and drink and where to go in cities across the U.S. In addition, they are a great source for telling us about fun events around town, from festivals to concerts and beyond. But this past weekend, they hosted their own food festival called Fest of the Best in LA. During a weekend afternoon, thirteen hand-picked restaurants were showcased for a few hundred Thrillist food-enthusiasts.
Thrillist selected restaurants that have been ranked by Thrillist for some of the city's best food. That is right, some of Los Angeles' best bites! Here is a recap of what was tasted!
Les Marchands Wine Bar & Merchant, located in the Funk Zone in downtown San Barbara, is a wonderful wine bar/retail shop that features local and international wine selections that each tell a story. It is a popular place for a glass or two of wine and a plate of cheese or small bites from afternoon to night. But now you can start earlier in the day with brunch as Les Marchands offers brunch beginning at 10am on Saturday and Sunday.
A friend and I met for brunch at Les Marchands on a Sunday morning. We sat on the patio and ordered glasses of bubbles. It was Sunday brunch.
But we also ordered a flight of wine, which includes three two-ounce pours of white, red or progressive (sparkling, white and red). After all, Les Marchands is a wine bar. We selected the white flight and enjoyed tastes of Chateau de Chasseloir melon de bourgogne from the Loire Valley in France, Bruna pigato from Italy and Tyler chardonnay from Santa Barbara. Varying levels of acidity and minerality, these wines were lovely to sip along with our meal.
When I first began studying wine, I remember reading that the French called the trio of wine, bread and cheese the “holy trinity.” I cannot disagree. However, throw in a spa treatment and life is perfect!
What wine, bread and cheese have in common, other than being delicious, are that they are all products of fermentation. But then how does the spa fit in? Well, it fits because it also includes fermentation. If this sounds good to you, then head down the scenic Bohemian Highway to Freestone, Sonoma’s first historic district. Freestone’s population is only 32 but it is home to the “fermentation corner” with includes a winery, bakery, cheese store and spa.