Andrew Simmons

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The 5th Annual Earth Day Food and Wine Festival

Andrew Simmons
Los Angeles residents aiming to celebrate Earth Day 2011 might want to gas up the whip and spew noxious emissions up the coast for the 5th annual Earth Day Food & Wine Festival. From April 15th through the 17th, growers, winemakers, and chefs will gather to celebrate sustainably produce food......
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The Best in Restaurant Signage: Phillips Bar-B-Q

Andrew Simmons
It was 7:15 p.m. at Phillip's Bar-B-Q on Crenshaw and Adams and the woman paying for her barbecue was excited. As the cashier went through her order ("beef tips. . .1/2 slab of spareribs with hot sauce. . .chicken links. . .greens. . .mac-and-cheese. . .cornbread. . .cobbler. . .")......
Beef sliders; Credit: Henan J.

College Bar Report: The Lab Gastropub

Andrew Simmons
The Place: The Lab Gastropub, 3500 S. Figueroa Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90007; (213) 743-1843. The Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; Noon-10 p.m. Sat.-Sun. The Digs: The Lab is a college bar unlike any we have encountered. Apparently, there's a "science" theme at this USC-operated establishment, but when we arrived for some......
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Kofi Annan to Weigh in on Climate Change and Wine

Andrew Simmons
Kofi Annan used to preside over the mass of bickering poker buddies known as the U.N. Back then, he worried about an AIDS epidemic and that retro scourge "weapons of mass destruction." Nowadays, Annan is a travelling sage, collecting causes the way Hiltons collect boyfriends: namely, those related to economic,......
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Baconalia at Denny's

Andrew Simmons
With its new "Baconalia" campaign, Denny's has taken the already overblown bacon trend to a new level.  Bacon soared to popularity alongside eggs, pancakes, and lakes of syrup on greasy diner plates. For decades, that was where it largely remained apart from detours to puddles of lentil soup, collard greens, and......
Fried snapper (the hush puppies are hiding)

Central Fish Market in Compton: More Fish in the Sea

Andrew Simmons
Central Fish Market in Compton is no fancy fishery, some Daily Candy-crowned ice-glazed jewel bedecked with pristine slabs of halibut and ahi. The finned wares behind the smudged glass case of this strip mall shop aren't necessarily sustainably caught or raised; the freshness of each variety is not to be......
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Hot Knives: Music-Beer Pairings Not For Amateurs

Andrew Simmons
Harmonic Alcohol Alchemy from Hot Knivez on Vimeo. This week, on their blog Hot Knives, Evan George and Alex Brown call bullshit on the bloggers wading deep into the bilious swamp of music-drink pairings. They cite among others, a San Francisco Chronicle article and a post by the blog Functional......
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Beauty is Chicken Skin-Deep at Honda Ya Izakaya

Andrew Simmons
Anyone who orders sushi at Honda Ya Izakaya has wasabi for brains, specifically the fake, green, putty-like sort that comes on supermarket trays rimmed with plastic "fences." We're not saying that the raw fish at this Little Tokyo eatery isn't decent; we just don't see why anyone would order it......