Jessica Ritz

Spend some time around Silver Lake and chances are you recognize Barbara Bestor's office, even if her name is unfamiliar. The SCI-Arc trained architect's practice is based out of a former hair salon on Fountain Avenue, the exterior of which serves as an ongoing changing mural project. Bestor is known......

The personal diet is now intensely political. This ethic now even applies to lighthearted summer drinks like the milkshake. City Council President Eric Garcetti is among the participants in the latest Got Milk? campaign focusing on milkshakes featuring recipes by Grace and BLD pastry chef Mariah Swan. Garcetti and other......

Trader Joe's in Eagle Rock has a new neighbor. Cacao Mexicatessen opened last Friday, functioning as a taquería, marketplace, café, and catering shop all in one. By the entrance there's a nice selection of the namesake product, including imported Mexican chocolates and a few organic Taza Chocolate goods, and the......

Algabar Home & Life shop and the Coolhaus ice cream sandwich/architecture fandom truck bring more fine tastes together in August and September. On select evenings starting tonight at 8-9:00 p.m., Coolhaus's silver and pink happy machine will park on La Brea and serve Algabar's Maison Matcha and Double Happiness Earl......

Umami Burger has helped spread word of the so-called "fifth taste," and now it's time for its own second and third locations. After all, the La Brea streamlined burger joint has been as packed as an ambitiously-built burger since it opened in February. Owner Adam Fleischman tells us he's eager......

Trends in spirits can move fast or slow, depending on which alcoholic beverage you're talking about. When some people think of sherry, for instance, the associations might be dated, even unkind. One friend describes her parents' drink of choice from the late 1970s as "cheap , which they then poured......

Sweet after savory is always good, right? Maybe that's part of the entrepreneurial logic behind Pazzo Gelato co-owner Michael Buch and his fellow business partners opening the contemporary styled Gobi Mongolian BBQ House on Sunset just east of Parkman/Silver Lake Boulevard. Following a soft opening period, customers are now assembling......

From a storefront located in the highly controlled, non-spontaneous South Park district of Downtown glows a business that is actually an important piece of any real neighborhood: the local bakery. Open since June 30, Hygge Bakery is stocked with fresh traditional Danish baked goods, including the expected signature flaky and......

In the crowded field of food benefit events, Wally's Sixth Annual Central Coast Wine & Food Celebration on Sunday, August 2 from noon to 4:00 p.m. is always one that's worth saving your pennies for. Hopefully gentler summer temperatures will prevail so that the many pinots, syrahs, etc. being poured......

Ever hear about an arcane artsy happening that you don't quite understand what it is, but it sounds cool and interesting anyway? If not, here's an example. The MAK Center Artists and Architects in Residence Program presents "Restaurant Transformable" by Austrian artist Rainer Prohaska. It's apparently "a mixture of cooking-lab,......