Jessica Ritz

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Where to Eat: A Sephardic style Passover at Koutoubia in Westwood

Jessica Ritz
Koutoubia on Westwood Blvd. does Passover Sephardic style, which often means more nuts, fruits and grains and fewer artery-clogging schmaltzy things. Saffron, preserved lemons, fennel and fresh tomatoes aren't ingredients you generally see much in a standard deli or Ashkenazi holiday spread. 2116 Westwood Blvd., Westwood, (310) 475-0729. https://www.koutoubiarestaurant.com/client/koutoubia/event.htm......
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Where to Eat: Pre-Passover Dinner at La Loggia

Jessica Ritz
Spring holidays are afoot, and restaurants are ready and willing to help out people who don't want to cook and clean up at home. In advance of Passover, the Let My People Eat! gathering at La Loggia Ristorante is "a Pre-Passover Gathering of Song, Spirit & Food for Thought" on......
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Meltdown No Mo'

Jessica Ritz
The general economic meltdown, alas, can have quite literal implications in the Los Angeles restaurant world. Local grilled cheese Meltdown grilled cheese restaurant in Culver City recently closed......
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Drink:Eat:Play:Chug — It's a Beer Festival

Jessica Ritz
Beer madness comes to town at Drink:Eat:Play's Beer Festival this Saturday and Sunday April 4 and 5 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Sony Studios in Culver City. Live music and unlimited four-ounce servings of more than 50 beers. Advance ticket purchase only, $40 each. 10202 Washington Blvd., Culver City,......
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Garden Party at Blue Velvet

Jessica Ritz
This event is already sold-out, but it's worth getting on de LaB's waiting list for its next happening east of La Brea, naturally, on Saturday, April 4 at Blue Velvet. It involves a garden party (dig out the hats and gloves, ladies and gents), LA Art Week, a SCI-Arc professor,......
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Egg Hunt and Spring Fest at the Watts Healthy Farmers' Market

Jessica Ritz
The Watts Healthy Farmers' Market hosts an Egg Hunt and Spring Festival on Saturday, April 4. Lots of activities for kids: basket making at 10 a.m., egg hunt at 11:00, and other games and face painting between 11:30 a.m and 1 p.m. Market goes until 2 p.m. Ted Watkins Memorial......
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Best Ticket to Train Heaven: Travel Town Museum

Jessica Ritz
In the general category of obsessive types, rail fanatics are hard to beat. It’s one of those fixations that begins in childhood and can balloon into an all-consuming, nostalgia-drenched existence. A glance at any historical rail Web site, typically filled with pages of precise timetables, minutiae about obsolete technology and......
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Best Blooming Urban Renewal: Exposition Park Rose Garden

Jessica Ritz
It’s hard to believe in a city that’s largely known for creating the decentralized urban form, but even during Los Angeles’ early years, shared public places were a given. Often, they didn’t take shape without a fight, and one of the most pleasant places in L.A., now known as the......
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Best Glass Houses: Judson Studios

Jessica Ritz
Searing flames. Tiny pieces of brilliantly colored glass. Hot molten lead cames. These are the same tools of the trade the Judson Studios have used in Los Angeles since 1897 to make stained-glass windows. Judson Studios specializes in an old-fashioned craft that hasn’t changed much since the Middle Ages within......