Andrew Simmons

The Place: The Churchill: 8384 W. Third St., Los Angeles; (323) 655-8384. The Hours: 3-7 p.m., daily; 10 p.m.-close, Sunday and Monday. The Deals: $4 for selected beers, wines and well drinks; $8 "bar bites" (only from 3-7 p.m.). The Digs: Like designated hitters in the '90s, gastropubs are getting......

Tom Bergin's is back. Some folks were worried the 76-year-old Irish pub's eight-month renovation might have sent Bergin's tumbling from grace. A few might have imagined in their bleakest moments that the doors would swing back open to reveal a "green" oxygen bar with shamrock-shaped throw pillows or a sleek,......

When the ban on foie gras takes effect on July 1, Californians with a taste for foie will be reduced to copping the creamy tan stuff in little, perfect slugs squeezed into wax paper packets like opium. They'll slip from hand-to-hand on public transportation. Liver-laden trucks will trundle from neighboring......

A 4-year-old artist might sculpt a lumpy face in a dish of mashed potatoes, adding peas for eyes. Twenty years later, the same artist might stage a gleeful cafeteria food fight and call it social sculpture. Curator Hanne Mugaas says, "Food has always been present in art. ... It is......

The food intellectual is not a new phenomenon, but it is a new cliche. The glut of rant-prone gonzo restaurant critic bloggers, armchair sustainability experts and urban chicken farming gurus reminds us that the importance of caring about food, where it comes from and who makes it has soaked deep......

Just when you'd managed to expunge -- via marathons and wheatgrass-and-spinach elixirs -- the last traces of Wilbur from your digestive tract, the Cochon 555 roadshow is back for another round. This time, five local chefs, five heritage hogs and five winemakers will tangle at the House of Blues on......

You've been known to splurge on boutique fish sauce and $10 cocktails, but are you ready for the level of luxury and status a splash of super-fancy, ultra-special, mega-perfect Greek olive oil can confer? Seeing as just one teaspoon of Speiron's ritziest edition of its Lambda oil costs as much......

Roll up a towel, wedge it under the door, and put on a record -- Alice Coltrane or some pre-disco Bee Gees.  You may have to part the paisley curtains on your way in.  And find a comfy cushion to melt into.  Are we smoking weed?  Nah, we're drinking wine,......

The day after Tax Day, Los Angeles residents will do two things. Galvanized by the promise of impending refunds, some will start throwing cash around. Crushed beneath the weight of checks they just mailed off, others will batten down the hatches, crafting new family budgets, vowing to spend less on......

First they come for your guns. Then they stub out your smoldering joint. Next they want to stitch shut your bright expressive mouth, tell you to drive some hideous, tiny, "responsible" lawnmower of a car, and boss your genitals around to boot. Civil liberties are under assault in America, and......