Andrew Simmons

Refreshment is an almost unparalleled joy. When your throat is a barren, pebbly wasteland, your brow is slick with sweat, and you're feeling flat, exhausted, in need of pumping up, finding the cure, inevitably a liquid, is more pleasurable than discovering a $20 bill on the sidewalk. At Laurel Hardware,......

We liked Cookie Monster when we were 5. We realized we loved him seven years ago when he went nuts on Martha Stewart, begging like a pitiful junkie for the cookies she hadn't finished baking, even trying in vain to pimp out Bert for a freshly iced specimen. Now there's......

Ever see a poster for a show or, even better, one of those gluttonous, $100-a-head food events, and think, man, is that ugly? Ever say to yourself, I could do better with some gnawed-up crayons and the back of an envelope? Now's your chance. Set to go down at Randall's......

The beery, cheery assemblage of friends and family that typifies the traditional Fourth of July grillside hang is usually loose and easygoing. There may be burgers and potato salad. There may be a game of catch. There will certainly be fireworks. However, that giddy, sparkler-lit spirit of freedom can evaporate......

Set to unfold this Sunday, July 1, the 2012 Euro Cup Final is a familiar tale of the tape. On one side, you have Italy's defense, which stays at home and plays it safe, slurping down zabaglione and soaking up an opposition's assaults -- sort of like how the bread in......

There's something about a restaurant with shoes on the ceiling that just throws us off. At La Otra Taqueria Escuela, Steven Arroyo's brand-new addition to his food fiefdom forming around the corner of Stanley and Beverly (joining the original year-old Escuela Taqueria and the 3-year-old Potato Chips), the actual shoes......

The Place: Blipsy Barcade, 369 N. Western Ave., Los Angeles; 323-461-7067. The Hours: Monday-Saturday, 4 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sunday, noon-2 a.m. The Digs: A neon Pac-Man ghost outside the door lets you know you've arrived at the right spot. Inside, the bar area is lit up like one of those glowing......

In his take-down of urban butchery, "The Butcher Next Door," published June 6, Slate contributor and vegan animal rights activist James McWilliams tackles the so-called "hipsters" who think D.I.Y. slaughter is the next step in responsible animal husbandry. McWilliams worries that the cool kids -- the same ones who might......

Unless you're shopping at gas stations or forcing yourself through an instant ramen diet, $2.90 rarely buys lunch. At Maria's Tortillas on the edge of Inglewood, that handful of laundry money buys not only lunch, but a tasty if somewhat light one: a single hefty husk-swathed tamale bolstered with a......

Faith can restore a fractured soul. When temperatures skyrocket, it can also be quite refreshing. Over the weekend, at a pre-Design Week party at Gallery R'Pure in New York's Flatiron District, Chilean-born artist Sebastian Errazuriz's latest work -- 100 wine-flavored popsicles molded around crosses instead of sticks -- was doled......