Friday as day turned into night, Deke and the Whippersnappers whipped up the crowd with their particular brand of honky tonk — a mix of solid rockabilly, 50s country and updated Western tunes. The rhythm guitarist jumps around the stage in a frenzy while the drummer and standup bass keeps things steady. Deke is a practiced professional, leading the band with never faltering style. If you get a chance, definitely check them out.
Friday night was a blast at Tiki Oasis. We spent a lot of time shopping, singing along with King Kukelele, dancing to the awesome DJs, checking out the art show, and loving the live music. We even hit some workshops in-between the parties! Stay tuned for cocktail discussions, book signings, photos of Deke and the Whippersnappers, and our favorite–the Aloha Caftan Society!
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“Catching Fire: The Anita Pallenberg Story” * (2024, Magnolia Pictures) Compelling but crushing doc about the titular ’60s figure, muse and running partner to at least three of the Rolling Stones, and cautionary tale about the excesses of a life lived in constant personal conflagration. Scarlett Johansson reads text from Pallenberg’s unpublished memoir discovered by her children after her death in 2017, which paints the author as a woman withstanding the circus that swirled around her from inside a cage of addiction, possessive and destructive men, and the expectations/restrictions placed on women who want to live their own lives. Keith Richards is heard but not seen, while son Marlon, filmmaker Volker Schlordoff, and Kate Moss, among others, add perspective to a subject that defied easy definition. Worth it for music/culture/zeitgeist devotees, but a tough watch.
Pret a Manger. Photo by Karin E. Baker for The LA Beat.
Pret a Manger (French for ‘ready-to-eat’) is a food chain that’s a huge success in England. Prepared with just natural ingredients and selling items only on the day they were made, their convenient grab-and-go items (sandwiches, salads, wraps, soups, chia bowls) are healthy but tasty items you don’t really find in U.S. convenience stores – but wish you could.
Pret just opened its second Los Angeles location in Studio City — and launched its new summer menu. The summer items feature fresh, seasonal ingredients. Think dishes like the Pesto Chicken, Strawberry & Burrata Salad (Gotham Greens Pesto chicken, creamy burrata, mesclun, cucumber, strawberries and basil with Pret’s simple vinaigrette), Falafel & Hummus Wrap (turmeric falafel, hummus, cucumber, pickled cabbage & carrots, spicy chipotle sauce, pickled jalapeno and romaine on 7-grain wrap) and Chicken, Elote Corn & Avocado salad (antibiotic-free grilled chicken, spicy chipotle sauce, avocado, elote corn mix, feta, grape tomatoes, pickled red onion, cilantro, lemon juice, and chili salt over romaine with herb yogurt dressing).
Other new flavors offered include the Guava Coconut Chia Pot, the Dragon Fruit Coconut Chia Bowl, and Chili Crunch Veggie Cottage Cheese Pot. Seasonal drinks like Dragon Fruit Mango Lemonades and Iced Teas are delicious and not overly sweet.
The Insect Surfers. Photo by Ted Kane
The annual Surf Guitar 101 Festival overtook the Golden Sails Hotel in Long Beach the last weekend of July, and the wave of bands was so powerful that the undertow could be felt at nearby venues like the Bamboo Club and Supply and Demand through the following week. Over two dozen bands bands from all over the world played on two stages during the three days of the event, including reunion sets from the Ghastly Ones and Untamed Youth, the Surfaris, the great Australian guitarist Martin Cilia, and a 45th anniversary performance by the Insect Surfers. Other attractions included a marketplace featuring cool guitar gear, vinyl and CDs, vintage clothes and other Tiki paraphernalia, as well as burlesque dancers and a retro swimsuit contest.
The festival kicked off Friday night, July 26th, with the exotica-tinged sounds of the Manakooras, followed by the Insect Surfers and the Mermen. Dave Arnson led the current edition of the Insect Surfers through an celebratory set of old and new psychedelic surf on guitar, before switching to oud and welcoming a group of alumni onstage for a closing jam. The action onstage all weekend was augmented by projections of classic films, and none were more effective than the scenes from “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” that appeared behind the band just as the music had reached its Morriconean peak. Also helping to fuel the excitement was go-go dancer Kiki Flambe. The Mermen followed, led by the scorching guitar of Jim Thomas and steady bass of Jennifer Burnes, were augmented by visuals of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the dance stylings of Miss Magnolia.
Providence. Photo credit: Daniel Collopy.
The Michelin Guide California 2024 awards ceremony took place last night at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, and some of the best restaurants in and around Los Angeles were presented with the prestigious awards.
Holbox, the Mexican seafood eatery inside South LA’s Mercado Paloma, earned its first Michelin star. Two Hollywood restaurants, Meteora and Uka at Japan House, earned first-time Michelin stars, as did Rebel Omakase in LA-adjacent Laguna Beach.
One Los Angeles restaurant, Vespertine in Culver City, was awarded two Michelin stars for the first time. Vespertine was also awarded its first Green Michelin Star. Green Michelin Stars are awarded to restaurants with exceptional sustainability and eco-friendly practices.
Two other California restaurants were awarded two Michelin stars for the first time: Aubergine in Carmel and Sons & Daughters in San Francisco.
Renowned for its exquisite, ever-changing seafood tasting menu, Providence retained its two Michelin Stars for a staggering 15th year. Michael Cimarusti’s world-class fine dining establishment also held onto its Green Michelin Star.
Providence earned its Green Star in part due to its unique rooftop garden, which was deemed a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation in 2023. The rooftop garden hosts two beehives that are home to a colony of 160,000 bees. The garden also produces a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. Providence’s zero-waste bar and cocktail program and its zero-waste chocolate program also contributed to its Green Michelin Star.
Other LA restaurants that held on to their two Michelin stars were Mélisse in Santa Monica and Hayato in Downtown.
Camphor, a French bistro in DTLA’s Arts District, retained its Michelin star from last year. Renowned for marrying classical French techniques with Asian influences, Camphor’s menu is both comforting and innovative. It’s also the only BIPOC restaurant in California to hold a Michelin star.
Pasta Bar, the from-scratch pasta restaurant from Chef Phillip Frankland Lee and Executive Pastry Chef Margarita Kallas-Lee, carried over its Michelin star for the fourth consecutive year. Located in Encino, Pasta Bar serves 12-course pasta-tasting menus inspired by what’s freshest and best at the market.
Other LA restaurants that retained one Michelin star: 715, Citrin, Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura, Gwen, Kali, Long Beach’s Heritage, Kato, Morihiro, n/naka, Nozawa Bar, Orsa & Winston, Osteria Mozza, Shibumi, Shin Sushi, Sushi Ginza Onodera, Torrance’s Sushi Inaba, and Sushi Kaneyoshi.
In addition, Ian Krupp of Anajak Thai in Sherman Oaks was honored with the special Michelin Sommelier Award.
iris yirei hu, mud song dream sequence (still), 2024. Video and clay; 24 x 30 x 6. Animation: Shoop Rozario.
Did you know that cultivating a grain can be an act of rebellion? A traditional food in Mexico and Central and South America, amaranth was banned by European colonizers, who assumed that the grain’s association with indigenous religions would interfere with their intent to spread Catholicism.
Inspired by the seed, “From the Ground Up: Nurturing Diversity in Hostile Environments” is a new group show that opens at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena on Friday, August 9.
The project begins before you even enter the Armory, where you’ll spy a vibrant crimson and gold field of amaranth growing in front of the historic 1932 building, a former California Guard armory located on Raymond Avenue in Old Pasadena.
This unique exhibition examines the injustices and traumas of colonization, climate change, racism, and genocide. The artworks were created by a collective made up of indigenous farmers, plantworkers, and artists from Guatemala, the Southwest, and Northern California.
This collective, “Malaqatel Ija, Semillas Viajeras, Seed Travels” comprises the Achi, Spanish, and English words for “seed travels.” (If you’re not familiar with Achi, it’s a Mayan language spoken in the region of Guatemala from which the seeds originated.)
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“The Boy and the Heron” * (2023, GKids/Shout! Factory) Elegiac feature, in all senses of the word, from Studio Ghibli chief Hayao Miyazaki, who has reportedly capped his remarkable animation career with this Oscar-winning fable. Making sense of the past is again the framework for Miyazaki: here, it’s young Mahito echoing the director’s childhood through his evacuation from Tokyo during WWII, though Mahito also suffers the loss of his mother in the conflict. Transported to a rural estate where his new mother (his birth mother’s sister) and local schoolkids offer additional alienation, Mahito finds an outlet in a large, talking heron (with the voice of Robert Pattinson in the English dub) and a mysterious tower built by his long-vanished uncle (Mark Hamill). The world inside the tower – a typically spectacular Ghibli fantasy-scape, populated by spirits and otherworldly creatures – allows Miyazaki to address a panoply of emotions (grief, loss, militarism, ecological decline), though his thoughts on these issues are occasionally obscured by a seemingly endless stream of new plot points and character arcs, though that may be the the point: life is messy and difficult to resolve, and what we are able to extract from the chaos offers some solace and hope, if not a clear-cut answer. The GKids/Shout set – a 4K/Blu-ray combo – offers both the Japanese and English-language dubs (the latter featuring the voices of Florence Pugh, Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe and Dave Bautista), as well as interviews with composer Joe Hisashi, animation supervisor Takeshia Honda, and various promotional items.
Image courtesy of bb.q Chicken.
National Chicken Wing Day is Monday, July 29, so why not take advantage of some of the special deals offered up around LA today? Here are a few of our favorites.
If you love fried chicken but haven’t been to bb.q Chicken yet, head to one of the Korean eatery’s LA locations post-haste. After starting in Seoul almost 30 years ago, there are now thousands of bb.q locations around the globe. At bb.q, you’ll find 14 flavorful varieties of juicy, crispy Korean chicken wings. My favorite, the spicy Gangnam-style wings, feature black pepper, garlic, onion, and peppers. Other varieties include the Golden Original (the most classic Korean fried chicken style), Honey Garlic, Cheeseling, Caribbean Spice, and more. On July 29 and 30, get 20% off your online or app purchase with the code WINGDAY24. You’ll find bb.q in Koreatown, Hollywood, Sawtelle, and other locations around LA. More info
Located in DTLA, White Elephant is an elevated Thai restaurant offering modern twists on traditional family recipes. For National Chicken Wing Day, White Elephant is offering a Thai version of wings. Purchase an entree and savor an order of Basil Chicken Wings, featuring a sweet and sour glaze, crispy basil, and fresh garlic, for just $7.29 (normally $18). White Elephant is located at 541 S. Spring Street. More info
Foodie destination Topanga Social features dozens of outposts of some of Angelinos’ favorite restaurants. One of them, Rock & Reilly’s, is an Irish pub that offers the largest selection of Irish whiskeys in Los Angeles and is known for its chicken wings. On National Chicken Wing Day, you can get an order of Chicken Wings, normally $7 at happy hour, all day long – from noon to 9 p.m. – at this charming Irish pub. More info
