CHOW Tour
Two CHOW editors on a caloric extravaganza exploring innovation, novelty, and deliciousness. rss
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LA, We Love You, But We Have Some Questions

We've had a few days to hang in LA—an incredibly fun town, for the record—but we do have a few bones to pick.

  • Why don't any of the restaurants seem to have beer on tap? It's available everywhere in San Francisco from the high to the low end. When we asked Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo of Animal, they told us it's because it takes a different license. Well if so, that just sucks. Bottled beer does not compare.
  • Where are all the beards? We've only seen three guys with beards in this town. We thought it was some kind of food nerd prerequisite.
  • We keep trying to hang our bags under the bar and not finding any hooks. Progressive citizens of LA: Ladies need purse hangers!
  • Pedestrian entrance? What’s that? We circled all around a Whole Foods in Beverly Hills trying to find a door, and then realized we could only walk in through the parking structure. Yeah, we get it, LA's a car culture, but doesn’t anybody walk?
  • Foie gras on menus like it’s about to be banned. Foie gras cotton candy, foie gras ramen, foie gras biscuits and gravy (at Animal – post coming soon). How much foie gras can we eat before we turn our own livers into foie gras? That’s not a rhetorical question, by the way.

    • Posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 by Lessley Anderson and Roxanne Webber in CHOW Tour: Innovation 5 Comments

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    COMMENT

    • 1. Agree on this.

      2. Our agents tell us that facial hair was "out" again as soon as Brad shaved his off. Welcome to L.A. Next question?

      3. Mrs. J.L. has given up trying to carry a bag anymore in this town. I now carry her cell phone and sunglasses in my manpurse... yeesh.

      4. Why are you going to Whole Foods when we have 99 Ranch Market? Besides, how would we know "how you roll" if we...+READ

      1. Agree on this.

      2. Our agents tell us that facial hair was "out" again as soon as Brad shaved his off. Welcome to L.A. Next question?

      3. Mrs. J.L. has given up trying to carry a bag anymore in this town. I now carry her cell phone and sunglasses in my manpurse... yeesh.

      4. Why are you going to Whole Foods when we have 99 Ranch Market? Besides, how would we know "how you roll" if we don't see you get out of your "phat ride" in the first place?

      5. Isn't foie gras about to be banned in L.A.?!-COLLAPSE

    • 1. Because not enough people drink it to make it worthwhile, is the short answer. Many places do have beer on tap; you've just been at the places that don't.

      2. That was popular here five years ago. Also, it gets HOT here in the summer, especially inland and in the Valley.

      3. Agree.

      4. Dommy! is right, especially in Beverly Hills. Also, certain plazas were built too close to the curb to...+READ

      1. Because not enough people drink it to make it worthwhile, is the short answer. Many places do have beer on tap; you've just been at the places that don't.

      2. That was popular here five years ago. Also, it gets HOT here in the summer, especially inland and in the Valley.

      3. Agree.

      4. Dommy! is right, especially in Beverly Hills. Also, certain plazas were built too close to the curb to allow doors to be cut into them (cf. the plaza with the Ralphs at Vineland and Ventura).

      5. That's because it will be banned in California, starting in 2012.-COLLAPSE

    • I know the WF you're talking about in BH, and believe it or not, it does have a street/pedestrian entrance. I know, because I sued to walk there.

      Foie gras is about to be banned here, yes,

      Beards are so last century. In LA it's all about the 'taches.

    • 1) The boys are right. Plus taps take maintance, so I know you've loved our lower prices in L.A., that would just send the costs up. Besides, cocktails in this town are too much fun. For beers on tap we go to Father's Office and Wurstküche

      2) It gets warmer in L.A., even my burly irishman tends to trim his cookie duster in the summer

      3) GOOD suggestion. Almost every girl I know got some...+READ

      1) The boys are right. Plus taps take maintance, so I know you've loved our lower prices in L.A., that would just send the costs up. Besides, cocktails in this town are too much fun. For beers on tap we go to Father's Office and Wurstküche

      2) It gets warmer in L.A., even my burly irishman tends to trim his cookie duster in the summer

      3) GOOD suggestion. Almost every girl I know got some variation of these or Christmas in the last few years: http://clipa.us/

      4) It's to confuse the paparazzi. No. REALLY.

      5) You can buy big bags of them at Surfas. Yes. REALLY.-COLLAPSE

    • L.A.'s just not a beard city, except maybe within comic book stores and a small part of the Silver Lake-ish gay scene. That's why I usually shave mine off before heading from SF to LA.