Harvard University

The Varnish Still up for Best Bar in the World Eric Alperin on Defeating Pretentiousness

Much like the James Beard Awards, the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards release a long list of nominees and then a short list, from which the winners will be chosen. We were excited to see The Varnish on the long list for World's Best Cocktail Bar, and Eric Alperin on the long list for American ... More >>

A New Play About...LAUSD School Lunch?

Cornerstone Theatre Company does not believe in art for art's sake. Nor, for that matter, do they believe in merely putting on plays. At least not in the marbled-restroom, big-ticket-opulent sense of, say, the way the Taper puts on plays. Rather, Cornerstone believes in art as a means of social cha ... More >>

86 Company in Los Angeles: A Spirits Company Moves West

Dushan Zaric and Simon Ford of the 86 Company were in town this week prowling around the bars that sell their hooch and getting their bearings -- in fact, this duo of drink slingers with a New York pedigree as long as a tattooed arm is here to stay -- both have officially moved west, to develop the ... More >>

Q & A with Sam Adams Founder Jim Koch: Loan Program for Food & Beverage Business, Advice on Opening a Brewery Beer in a Can

It's a familiar story in the beer world: well-educated guy leaves stable or lucrative job to make his homebrewing hobby a profession. Jim Koch's history set the precedent for that narrative. Koch, who comes from a long line of brewers, founded The Boston Beer Company in 1984 with two friends he met ... More >>

Music Picks: John Beasley, Down, and Tift Merritt

Top 10 L.A. Architecture Stories of 2012

We spend most of the year criticizing Los Angeles' ugly buildings and other unfortunate aspects of the local built environment. Here's our chance to rundown some of the thoughtful, inspiring and downright stellar projects that make us L.A. proud, and that make our burg a better place in general.

Miles Thompson's Allumette Coming to Echo Park Mid-January

Echo Park's dining scene is getting yet another big boost with news that Allston Yacht Club, recently home to chef Miles Thompson's pop-up Vagrancy Project, will reopen in January 2013 as Allumette, a brand new restaurant helmed by Thompson, complete with a new menu and a redesign of the space.

Proposition 33 Auto Insurance Changes: George Joseph's Record Under Fire

The guy behind Proposition 33, insurance magnate George Joseph, has spent nearly $17 million to fight for the right to extend discounts to drivers who've had five years of uninterrupted coverage, even if that coverage has come from more than one company. Joseph has said that he's pushing the measur ... More >>

Proposition 33 Auto Insurance Changes: George Joseph Tries Again

What could you buy with $16.9 million? George Joseph, the billionaire auto-insurance magnate, hopes it will be enough to score votes from a plurality of Californians -- that's how much of his personal fortune he'd spent, as of Nov. 3, to push Proposition 33. (For the latest, check out the nonpartis ... More >>

Rashida Jones on Celeste and Jesse Forever, Her Debut as a Screenwriter

In terms of looks, charisma, and talent, Rashida Jones should have been a star a long time ago. But in terms of what she's ready to offer Hollywood (and what Hollywood finally might be ready to let her accomplish), her belated ascent seems well-timed. Bittersweet breakup comedy Celeste and Jesse For ... More >>

At Melisse: Reviving the Zombie

The other night at Melisse, chef Josiah Citrin, beverage director Brian Kalliel and their new cocktail consultant, Pablo Moix, were working on reviving the Zombie. Not the undead, flesh-eating sort, but the cocktail variety, brought to life in the '30s by Donn Beach at his Hollywood restaurant Don ... More >>

Institute For Figuring's New Space: An Art Gallery For Math and Science Nerds

A new space has opened its doors in Chinatown, and this time it's not your usual funky alternative art gallery. The Institute For Figuring is a center for hands-on discovery of cool scientific and mathematical concepts, with a strong artistic bent. Australian twin sisters Margaret Wertheim, a note ... More >>

UMAMIcatessen: Now Open Photo Gallery

Up until Saturday, Broadway Street in downtown L.A. was a great place to be if you were in search of a bedazzled quinceañera dress, a solid gold watch, an art deco architecture tour, or a decent torta. But it terms of modern dining, Historic Broadway wasn't quite the hot bed of hipsterdom that the ... More >>

Helen Kim Takes on L.A.'s Old Guard

Rising star of Koreatown's Generation K

Music Picks: Skrillex, Diplo, Wu-Tang Clan, The Health Club

Also, Art Lande, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Gilad Hekselman, The Stitches, The Villains and others

Jonathan Gold Reviews a Beefsteak at Vibiana

The Tasting Kitchen's Justin Pike Named L.A.'s Best Bartender

Steven ArmstrongThird-place Devon Tarby pours a thirsty spectator some love​ On Sunday, Table 20 hosted its second annual L.A.'s Best Bartender contest at Elevate Lounge in Downtown Los Angeles. Five of L.A.'s top bartenders arrived to compete for the title of L.A.'s Best Bartender before six ... More >>

Occupy L.A. Graphic Design: Six Awesome Signs From the Downtown Protest

Last weekend, along with thousands of other cyclists, I clambered off my bicycle at the intersection of 1st and Main, and joined the crowds surging through the Occupy Los Angeles campsite in a public park off City Hall. Occupy L.A. was just one stop on the CicLAvia route, so demonstrators, perhaps ... More >>

Despite Job Growth, Latinos Are More Scared of Losing Their Jobs Than Other Workers

​The good news for Hispanic workers is that over the past two months there's been solid job growth in industries where Hispanics have a significant presence. But with the good, there's always a bit of the bad. Latinos are more worried about job security than any other workers.

Arcade Fire's Secret Show for LA Fans: Here's Where You Can Get the Cheap Tickets (People Are Camping Out Already)

Arcade Fire Frontwoman Regine​Yeah, yeah we know: The Arcade Fire is playing a secret club show in LA. [UPDATE: We got the right locations.] You were probably monitoring Arcade Fire's Twitter feed all week awaiting details about the Montreal group's surprise show tonight. Last night, that fe ... More >>

Cookbook Review: Flour Bakery, Where Boston Gets Its Homemade Nutella Fix

​Does the cookbook world need another baking book? Probably not. Do we? Maybe, depending on how much chocolate and pastry cream are stuffed into that Flour Bakery breakfast brioche. The just-released book, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery Cafe, by Boston bakeshop owner ... More >>

First, Listen to the Neighbors

An architect's plan for making L.A. more livable

CLINTOPHILE

So I Keep Hearing

From Bernstein to Dudamel

Queer Town: The Life and Spirit of Genevieve Florence Range

On Monday morning, a day after her oldest daughter celebrated her seventieth birthday, Genevieve Florence Range passed away at the age of 95 in New Jersey. She was my grandmother, friend, and one of the major influences in my life. Grandma, as her eight grandkids called her, was everything you want ... More >>

An Interview With Nick Thorburn of Islands

Islands are playing the Henry Fonda next Tuesday. As your faithful attorney, I recommend that you attend. Their recent Arm's Way is one of the year's finest records and they put on a fantastic show. Plus, the last time I saw them play in LA, for their encore they decided to light Roman Candles o ... More >>

Laurence Tribe Tangles with CBS and L.A. City Hall

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s Courtroom 3 - a miniature auditorium with comfortable, smoked salmon-colored seats - was mostly filled with law students who seemed to be interested in just one thing: listening to Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe argue constitu ... More >>

Mark McGurl

Noisemaker

Movie Reviews: Redbelt, A Walk Into the Sea, Swimming in Auschwitz

Plus other releases opening May 2

John Adams: America's Middleman

HBO's patriot gamesmanship

Movie Reviews: The Bucket List, Persepolis, The Great Debaters

Also National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and more

Game Over

Quakes, asteroids, mass extinction — when the end comes, will it come from below, above or within?

The Rhythm Method

Producer Joe Boyd learned it in the folkie ’60s, but it’s still the key to making global music in the new millennium

I Am...Doll Parts

So, I was bored one evening (tonight, as it happens) and as we do in the digital age I decided to google my name and find out what other Steffies exist on this planet. There's a lot of us in Europe: a couple Germans, a Steffie from the Netherlands, and a Brit Steffie who blogs about her "frolics." ... More >>

Theater Reviews

Including this week's pick, It Ain't No Fairy tale

The Passion of the Cash

Da Vinci Cannes the world

5 Reasons Phil Angelides is the Anti-Arnold

Terminator Genes

Repetition in politics, news, big business and human suffering

The First Time

The First Time

Venus de Me

The waxing of male beauty

Spiritual Living: God Is in the Peacocks

Text and the City

Londoner Toby Young gets hired and fired by Vanity Fair and lives to write about it

A Defense of Missile Defense . . .

. . . is enough to torpedo your appetite

Blue Like Me

On race and depression

Absolut Art Guise

1,000 coats of paint — at the intersection of Crescent Heights and commerce

Flip a Coin

How Wally and Sheila could’ve saved millions

Gruel and Unusual

Chinese porridge in San Gabriel

On the Coffee Table

Titillation, titillation, titillation — and Julius shulman

Fulfillment

A Publishing Memoir