Michael Phillips

Baristas Prepare for This Weekend's Southwest Regional Barista Competition

Starting today and going through the weekend, over 30 baristas -- including a good number from Los Angeles -- will be in Santa Cruz to compete in the Specialty Coffee Association of America's Southwest Regional Barista Competition. This would be one of six such regional competitions; the top 6 from ... More >>

What's Up With All the Dapper Baristas?

In a city known for its casual dress, one wearing suspenders and a tie can stick out like a sore (but dapper!) thumb. Especially if that person is not, say, a lawyer or an actor on their way to a audition to play Butler #1 but instead the person behind the counter at a coffee shop. The nicely-dress ... More >>

Preview of Handsome Coffee Roasters' Coffee Bar Grand Opening Feb. 15

If you ask Michael Phillips, one of the three co-founders of Handsome Coffee Roasters, how it feels to be opening Handsome Coffee's very own coffee bar on Feb. 15 hosting Handsome Coffee's grand opening party for its very own coffee bar on February 15 (the shop may be officially open to the public s ... More >>

Handsome Coffee Roasters Officially Opening Next Month

Handsome Coffee Roasters hoped to open their Downtown coffee bar right before the holidays, but what was supposed to be an early holiday present to coffee fiends is now a Valentine's Day gift to their fellow coffee lovers instead. According to Handsome Coffee's press release, their coffee bar will ... More >>

The Year in Coffee: The Revolution Will Be Caffeinated

Like National Coffee Day, summing up the Year in Coffee compels a certain knee-jerk response: every year is the year in coffee. But, then again, not every year is a year in great coffee. With over a dozen new coffee shops, several new homegrown coffee roasters, and customers willing to learn about ... More >>

The Ristretto: The Lame Duck of Coffee

There was possibly a time, a decade or two ago, when walking into a café and ordering a ristretto instead of an espresso meant something. A bold, strong, tasty version of espresso, maybe. Whatever it meant, it appeared to mean the same thing to the barista and the customer. That time has passed. ... More >>

5 Best New L.A. Coffee Shops: Wake Up

R.E.~/FlickrPourover coffee at Cafe Dulce.​Until recently, coffee barely registered a note in the many love songs to the foods and drinks that have made Los Angeles proud. Sure, great shops like Groundwork Coffee and Jones Coffee Roasters certainly existed here and there, but it was only in th ... More >>

Handsome Coffee Roasters Opening in December

R.E.~/FlickrHandsome Coffee Roasters coffee​ For the coffee lovers in the city, Handsome Coffee Roasters presents an early holiday gift: a December opening date. The coffee company founded by 2010 World Barista Champion Michael Phillips, Tyler Wells, and Chris Owens -- all of whom left top po ... More >>

5 Ways to Make a Damn Good Cup of Coffee

R.E.~/Flickr​ "Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love" was French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand's perfect cup of coffee. And ours too. Fortunately, that black, hot, pure, sweet cup of coffee requires only the right tool, great beans, water, and the willingn ... More >>

Stage Raw: Loveland

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTheater Feature on La Razon Blindada and A Wolf Inside the Fence and NEW REVIEW GO LOVELAND ​Photo by Leland Auslender What a rare experience it is, when a character that's as maniacal, sexually overheated and as transparently off the rails as a ... More >>

Theater Reviews: The Glass Menagerie, The Good Boy, Stepping on a Few Toes

Also Beast on the Moon, Martyrdumb and more

Stage Raw: Voombodian Women from Outer Space!

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTheater FEATURE on Happy Ending and WaterVOOMBODIAN WOMEN FROM OUTER SPACE! Staged reading of Barry Schwam's new play at Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., in Sierra Madre. Sun., 7:30 p.m. $5 (626) 355-4318 AN EVENING WITH PAT BOONE, ... More >>

Stage Raw: Circle X and Bootleg Hook Up to Read Plays

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTheater FEATURE on John StepplingCIRCLE X AND BOOTLEG HOOK UP TO READ PLAYS Circle X Theatre Company and Bootleg are joining forces to present a series of Monday night readings of new works, starting September 13, at the Bootleg venue. Playwrights s ... More >>

Intelligentsia Coffeehouse Opens in Pasadena

A. ScattergoodIntelligentsia Pasadena​ As of 10 a.m. this morning, Old Town shoppers, itinerant off-duty baristas, embedded Pasadena food writers and refugees from the Rose Bowl now have a place to order an excellent macchiato on Colorado Boulevard. Intelligentsia Coffee, Doug Zell's Chicago-b ... More >>

At the Movies Sans Siskel & Ebert Cancelled

Kevin Smith's implication that film critics are over-cushioned got swift counterpoint this afternoon: Disney-ABC has announced that it is canceling At the Movies, the long-running film review TV show that was originally hosted by Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. When Siskel died, he was replaced by Rich ... More >>

2009 Film Poll: A Whole World of Hurt

Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq drama tops our annual critics' survey

2007 Film Poll: If It Bleeds, It Leads

Dark and violent movies top the year’s best. What are we — at war or something?

The L.A. Times’ Drama-Critic Drama

Millennium Reproaches

Tony Kushner, back on the Left Coast

Debits and Credits

Waiting for the Cable Guy

Is HBO really why everybody’s doing theater here?

The Auteur as Gearhead

Notes on the digital video revolution, Part One