Pacific Northwest

Connie & Ted's: Michael Cimarusti's Seafood Restaurant to Open in June

If you've spent any time dining at Providence, Michael Cimarusti's Melrose Ave. seafood palace, you'll know how much the chef and co-owner of the place loves his fish. Since it opened in 2005, the restaurant has earned accolade after accolade, including Best Restaurant, 2012 in these pages. But for ... More >>

The Rolling Stones - Staples Center - 5/20/13

The Rolling Stones Staples Center 5-20-13 If last night's concert at Staples Center really was the Rolling Stones' final show in Los Angeles after nearly 50 years of faithful pilgrimages to the Southland, it revealed that the British warhorses are still capable of major gasp-inducing surprises. Whe ... More >>

America Hates L.A., But We Love It

We've witnessed people come to Los Angeles from the U.K., the Midwest and all over Asia only to declare they've found true paradise. What's not to like? We've got the beaches. We've got the red carpets. And we've got the pretty people. But for many, L.A. will always be Hell A, as some folks in Sa ... More >>

February Roundup of Restaurant Openings and Closings

February was a big month for restaurant openings: Umami Burger continued to grow its empire with a $20 million dollar acquisition and a 14th location in Pasadena. On a smaller scale, Josh Gil and Daniel Snukal opened Tacos Punta Cabras in Santa Monica. The tiny taqueria replaces Utopia Cafe. After ... More >>

Now Open: Caffé Vita in Silver Lake

It took about a year and a half of construction and cutting through the red tape, but Caffé Vita finally opened last week in Silver Lake, right next to Rudy's Barbershop. Founded in Seattle in 1995, Caffé Vita is one of the most prominent independent coffee shops in the Pacific Northwest; the Silv ... More >>

From Opera to the Terminator: Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

See also: *More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage Friday, Feb. 22 USC will be showing a free advance screening of Phantom, starring Ed Harris as the captain of a Cold War Soviet submarine who faces off against a rogue KGB agent (David Duchovny) trying to seize control of a nuclear missile. The film start ... More >>

The Best Concerts To See in L.A. This Weekend: Nov 9-11

Friday, November 9 Ute Lemper SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS Ute Lemper is already a masterful interpreter of sad/romantic/tragic balladry, whether she's bringing to life "Mack the Knife" and other cabaret chansons by Kurt Weill or transmuting the surly poetry of Charles Bukowski into song form. B ... More >>

Music Picks: Gary Clark Jr., Those Darlins, Wiz Khalifa

23: The Tasting Kitchen's Pork Rillettes

Celebrating this year's Best of L.A. issue -- now out in print and online -- we're counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 23. The Tasting Kitchen's Pork Rillettes: Deciding what to order at The Tasting Kitchen, the Abbott Kinney restaurant run by chef Casey Lane that ha ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Market: Wild Lobster Mushrooms from Northern California

The Lobster mushroom -- it's a fungalian horror story just in time for Halloween, complete with body snatcher metamorphosis, disfigurement and a cheery seasonal orange glow. Imagine you're at short-stemmed Russula (Russula brevipes) or a peppery milk cap (Lactarius piperatus) -- two edible mushro ... More >>

Light in the Attic Finds Old Records and Releases Them Like They're New

The offices of Light in the Attic live up to the label's name. Walk up the narrow stairwell of a nondescript Hollywood apartment building and you're immediately bathed by light-blue photons streaming through the second-floor window. Its cupboards are stuffed with pristine, vacuum-sealed vinyl, and i ... More >>

James Franco Vanessa Hudgens Ashley Benson vs. Asia Argento Charlotte Gainsbourg François Cluzet : Threesomes at the Toronto Film Festival

This is a blog post about two movies that were screened for the press within the first 24 hours of the Toronto Film Festival, both of which feature three-way sex scenes. In Spring Breakers, characters played by James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson "do it" in a swimming pool; in Do Not Dis ... More >>

Ronald Weekley, Jr: LAPD Task Force Involved in Videotaped Take-Down Pulled From Venice

The videotaped LAPD take-down of college student Ronald Weekley, Jr. has some in Venice's African American community concerned about police tactics. The department says the West Bureau violent crime task force to which the officers belong has since been reassigned to other areas as the investigatio ... More >>

Exclusive: A Disgruntled Label Exec Spills the Beans About Taylor Swift's Insane-Sounding New Album

Big news: Young country-pop starlet Taylor Swift took a bit of time out from making the "Who me?" face to record another album. Red, out October 22, is about "relationships and breakups," according to Swift, and its first single is called (no shit) "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." She's be ... More >>

Dog Stabbed on Venice Boardwalk: VIDEO

A dog was stabbed by a man on the Venice boardwalk today, police said. Witnesses captured on video said the pooch was a "service dog," ostensibly for a legally blind person. The attack happened in the 1300 block of Ocean Front Walk shortly after 7:35 a.m., LAPD Lt. Mark Day told the Weekly: Venice ... More >>

Music Picks: As Blood Runs Black, Kelly Hogan, Regina Spektor

Also, Agalloch, Antibalas, Power of the Riff and others

BMW M6 Does 136 MPH in SoCal, CHP Says: Journalist Behind Wheel Gets Big Ticket

Putting the hammer down in a hot German touring car is almost required these days for automotive journalists. Rare is the piece that doesn't mention taking a vehicle to the limit and taking its speed beyond the legal limit. (Go ahead, flip through your favorite magazine with Track, Driver or Car i ... More >>

Jimmy Cliff, Liars, Jesse Sykes

Also, New Edition, Kátia Moraes & Sambaguru, Milo Greene and others

Read This Now: Francis Lam and Eddie Huang on The Identity Politics of Culinary Misappropriation

In case you missed the latest bird whose feathers are being ruffled, writer and Gilt Taste features editor Francis Lam recently penned a The New York Times piece entitled, "Cuisines Mastered as Acquired Tastes," in which he pondered how American chefs like Andy Ricker become successful in cooking cu ... More >>

Aubrey Plaza and Greta Gerwig, Meta-Ingenues: Safety Not Guaranteed and Lola Versus

What's In Season at the Farmers Market: Morels

Morel mushrooms are back -- after a tense few days among antsy pickers up north. Conventional wisdom says that on the West Coast, morels show up in spring after two full days of 80 degree weather and that they favor recently disturbed earth, either from fire, logging or new landscaping. This bode ... More >>

Dennis Hedgecock: The Oyster Is His World

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. Dennis Hedgecock wants to breed a better oyster to feed the world. Since 99 percent of the biosphere's volume is sea water, it's time to put it to work. Oysters are a nearly ... More >>

We're All Just Getting Along Fine 20 Years After L.A. Riots, Survey Says

If you remember the aftermath of the riots, things were dire in Los Angeles, and it seemed like every other white family had left town for the Pacific Northwest. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the uprisings and chaos, Loyola Marymount University has released a survey measuring the temperatur ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Market: Makah Ozette Potato

Alex Weiser's potato varieties form a mounded rainbow of surprisingly vivid colors, ranging from a nearly black Purple Peruvian to red-fleshed Chilean tubers to pale fingerlings. So you'd be forgiven for passing up on the Ozette (a.k.a. Makah Ozette), but only once. It is one of Weiser's, and the ... More >>

Venice Homeless Being Pushed off the Boardwalk, Advocates Say

Advocates for the homeless are steaming over what they say is a homeless crackdown in one of L.A.'s last bastions of free living -- Venice. The last two nights along the boardwalk and beyond LAPD officers have been contacting homeless people, warning them they can't sleep there, according to David ... More >>

Portlandia: The Tour - Echoplex - 1/17/12

Sean J. O'Connell ​See also: Portlandia Was Partly Inspired by Los Angeles Portlandia: The Tour The Echoplex 1-17-12 Portlandia, the Pacific Northwest-skewering IFC comedy show now in its second season, has run less than ten episodes. But SNL'er Fred Armisen and Sleater-Kinney rocker Carrie ... More >>

4 Double Black IPAs That Debuted in 2011: Or, Crossing Over to the (Very) Dark Side

In the last twelve months, the craft beer world has welcomed new flavors from a slew of emerging styles including the rye saison (Avery's Eighteen), the wheat IPA (El Segundo Brewing's Picket Fence) and the seasonal imperial pumpkin ale (Flying Dog's The Fear). But no new style was more exciting for ... More >>

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1: What They Were Eating at the Premier

Kathy A. McDonaldRobert Pattinson at the Twilight premiere​As every schoolgirl -- the presumed reader of The Twilight Saga books -- knows, vampires don't eat prepared food. A bit of a challenge for Monday night's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1 premiere organizers. Why? Because a f ... More >>

Four Things to Love About Patrick Warburton

​ Patrick Warburton has a knack for scoring roles that foster pop culture obsession. Back in the 1990s, he played Elaine Benes' boyfriend, David Puddy, on Seinfeld. He went on to star in the short-lived, yet beloved live-action adaptation of The Tick. More recently, you can hear his deep, boom ... More >>

Music Picks: Method Man, Sufjan Stevens and Raymond Raposa, Billy Childs Jazz Chamber Ensemble

Also, Lights, Gallows, Slow Club

Q & A with George Abou-Daoud: On Township, One Bad Review, and Why "Nobody Cared" About District

Just a couple of weeks ago, George Abou-Daoud owned seven restaurants in Los Angeles (The Bowery, Delancey, Gelatovino, The Mercantile, The Mission Cantina, Rosewood Tavern, Tamarind Ave. Deli). But as of last week, he has an eighth, Township Saloon, which begins serving lunch today, and stays open ... More >>

Band of Horses - The Wiltern - September 8, 2011

Timothy Norris(See also: Our Band of Horses and Brett Netson slideshow)​Band of Horses The Wiltern September 8, 2011 Better Than: Sitting on the porch of a cabin in the woods with loved ones drinking a beer and listening to cicadas. Band of Horses has two gears: mellow-pseudo-philisoph ... More >>

Music Picks: Shunda K, SebastiAn, Fleet Foxes, Miles Evans Band

Also, Ray LaMontagne, Kissing Cousins, the Kills and others

Music Picks: Agnostic Front, the Latebirds, Def Leppard, Jay Rock

Also, Kristeen Young, Diego Garcia, the Human League and others

The Decemberists and Wye Oak - The Greek - 08/12/2011

Timothy Norris​What: The Decemberists With Wye Oak Where: The Greek When: 08/12/2011 If there's one god awful concert tradition that needs to die of a combination of ebola AND bird flu, it's the ridiculous ritual in which the band prematurely ends an excellent set, dishonestly says 'goodnigh ... More >>

'Organ Donor' Now a Required Field on DMV Driver's-License Apps

Decide -- or else.​Kind of a freaky new requirement for those conspiracy theorists who think emergency responders are less likely to save them from a fiery car crash if they're a declared organ donor: NBC LA reports that the California DMV's driver's-license application was revised on July 1 ... More >>

Music Picks: Tinariwen, Colbie Caillat, A.R. Rahman, Best Coast

Also, Monopoly, David Bazan, Gravespawn and others

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Morels Cherry Crop in Danger

Felicia FriesemaMorels from Clearwater Farms at the Hollywood market.​ If you are an Angeleno with a love for morels, you have two options. You can either creep through the misty, moss covered forests of northern California (think hobbits at the break of dawn) to zero in on a treasured morel ... More >>

Venice Beach Drum Circle Stabbing Suspect Sought: Photos of Man Circulated by LAPD

LAPDCops want to talk to this guy.​Cops have released a photo of a man they want to question in last month's stabbing of a man on the beach in Venice during Sunday "drum circle" festivities. The LAPD calls the man both a "suspect" and "a person of interest" who "is wanted for questioning only ... More >>

Q & A with Bobby Flay, Part 2: Why Being on TV is the Easy Part

The Food NetworkBobby Flay on the set of his newest cooking show, Barbecue Addiction​In the first part of our interview with Bobby Flay, he gave us some insight into how his opinion of the L.A. restaurant scene has changed over the years, as well as how he thinks the Food Network has molded th ... More >>

Cannes 2011: Teenage Death Trip Double Feature

Tilda Swinton in We Need To Talk About Kevin​ My Cannes 2011 began with a kind of American teenage death trip double feature: the world premieres of Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Gus Van Sant's Restless. The non-linear Kevin, based on a novel by Lionel Shriver, stars Tilda ... More >>

Rock Picks: Daedelus, Beth Thornley, Yeasayer

Also, Ohioan, Hepcat, Vivian Girls and others

El Sinaloense: Let He Who Is Without Sinaloa

... get to Huntington Park