Monthly Archives: October 2009

October 30, 2009

The Midnight Run: LA Nike+ Human Race 5K/10K

Written by Caroline on Crack in Los Angeles, Recreation
6 Comments


I’ve wanted to run the Nike+ Human Race since it replaced the Nike Run Hit Wonder fun runs and I especially liked the idea of the whole world (well, 30 cities around the world) running together on the same day.

But since the official Nike+ Human Race in Los Angeles was 1) at USC (Go Bruins!) and 2) at midnight, I decided to get my own run going. That was the beauty of the Human Race. You could run wherever you wanted whenever you wanted just as long as you tracked your miles with your Nike+ and did it on October 24 AND you wouldn’t have to pay a registration fee!

So a month before the race, I assembled a team of running blogger friends to join me for a morning run along the beach in Santa Monica that Saturday, after which we would enjoy brunch at Gjelina. It was going to be so fun!

It wasn’t until a week or so before the actual event that I got approached by someone representing Nike asking if I wanted to cover the event — Twitter and/or blog it. The incentive for that? Free race registration, running gear, a Nike+ Sport Kit or Sportband, VIP tickets to the tailgate party before the USC vs. Whomever game the next day as well as tickets to the game itself. Who’s going to say no to that? (Except the party and game part for me.)

But I had to check with my blogger friends first to make sure this was something they wanted to do. The Nike rep said that they were welcome to join, too. After I told them what they’d get for running at midnight instead of at the beach, they were in. So we all got hooked up.

Share|

October 29, 2009

This Weekend: Terrorizin’ Y’alls Neighborhood

Written by Caroline on Crack in Dining, Lists, Los Angeles, Movies, Nightlife, Recreation, Shopping & Sales
Say what?

As a supplement to my earlier what-to-do-on-Halloween post, I present the following for your consideration. BTW, didja guys see my post about Halloween wine and candy pairings on LA Weekly? Eeeee!

Thursday, October 29

Build Your Own BBQ at Zeke’s Smokehouse
Famished but cheap? Zeke’s got you covered with its “Build Your Own BBQ Special” where for $9.95 you get a choice of two meats like pulled pork and smoked ham AND two sides like collard greens mashed potatoes. This special is only from Monday-Thursday 3 to 10pm and Saturday and Sunday 11am to 4pm. PLUS if you time it right, you can score wine or draft beer for only $2.50!

Wine House’s Spooktacular Halloween Sale
Wine House has got your back if you need a last-minute solution to stock up for your Halloween bash. Crystal Head Vodka (the one with the skull bottle) is on sale for $40 instead of $45, Death’s Door Whiskey is $32 instead of $36 and Paqui Silver Tequila, usually $33, is on sale for only $12! Head over asap as supplies are limited and the sale ends on Saturday at 7pm.

  • Thru Saturday 7pm. Wine House, 2311 Cotner Avenue, West Los Angeles (map).(310) 479-3731‎.

Saturday, October 31

Zombiethon: A Run for Brainssss
Stop running from zombies and try running with them for a change. It’s all for a good cause: Brain Cancer Research. Show up zombified and ready to run or get a zombie makeover ($5) from pro special effects makeup artists. The 5K run/walk is on the Silver Lake Reservoir Recreation Trail and all walkers, runners and staggerers are welcome. Meet-up and registration will be held in “the Meadows” on the East Side of the lake, along Silver Lake Boulevard.

  • 4-6pm. $10 registration. Silver Lake Reservoir Recreation Trail, Los Angeles (map).

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Screening: Halloween
For those who favor screaming in fear over screaming “Wooo!” while clubbing on Halloween, check out one of the best horror movies evuh at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Come in costume and bring your own booze, spread out a blanket and hold onto your honey for dear life. BTW, how creepy would that be if a bunch of folks showed up in Michael Myers masks? Eek! Hold me! And remember, NO TALL CHAIRS dammit!

  • Gates at 5:30pm, film at 7pm. $10. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles (map).

Down & Derby at the Echoplex
Rollerskating zombies will converge at the Echoplex this Saturday for a good ol-fashioned Thriller disco-themed rollerskating party. There will be over 200 pairs of rollerskates to rent but bring your own if you don’t want to count on that. A limbo contest, disco tunes and a live performance by Pink Dollazs will keep you up out of your seat. RSVP here and pay only $5 to get in.

  • 9pm-2am. $5 with online rsvp, $10 at the door. Echoplex, 1154 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles (map).

Sunday, November 1

Early Registration for Long Beach Turkey Trot Ends
“Never too early to start thinking of the Turkey Trot!” is what I always say. OK, not really but this T-day tradition is a great way to up your metabolism before your turkey feast on November 26. It’s $25 when you register before November 1 and then $30 til November 23. And if you mail in your entry or register a group of seven or more together before Sunday, it’s only $20!

Silverlake Wine Co.: 2007 Rhone Valley Diamonds with Food from Bottega Louie
Enjoy some 2007 vintage from the Rhone Valley along with nommy food from downtown’s Bottega Louie at this Sunday’s Silverlake Wine tasting. Featured vino include: B&B Bouche Cremant de Limoux Rose NV, Mourgues du Gres Costieres de Nimes Blanc 2007, Dom. de la Ferme Saint Martin Cotes du Ventoux 2007, Domaine des Lises Crozes-Hermitage 2007 and Andre Arneiux Chateauneuf-Du-Pape 2007. Reservations required and it’s $20 a person.

  • 3pm. $20. Silverlake Wine Co., 2395 Glendale Boulevard, Silver Lake (map). (323) 662-9024.

Share|

October 28, 2009

Marked5 Burger: What Do Bloggers Think of It?

Written by Caroline on Crack in Dining, Los Angeles
4 Comments

There are so many food trucks out there now that it’s hard to be able to try them all, but this past Saturday after brunch in Venice with H.C. of LA and OC Foodventures, Sonja of Active Foodie and my friend Mei-Mei we spotted the Marked5 truck (Japanese style burgers). Even though we had just eaten at Gjelina we still felt compelled to check it out.

Mei-Mei was nice enough to spring for the Torakku beef burger for us to split. Made with Angus beef marinated in “Marked5 secret Torakku sauce” as well as Romaine lettuce, vegetables and rice buns, it basically looks like a burger (Carl’s Jr. burger size) with white rice buns. That’s why the chef couldn’t split it four ways for us. He said it would just fall apart. So instead we treated it like a communal burger. Hey, we’re all friends here.

H.C. took the first bite while we anxiously waited to hear his thoughts. He doesn’t say it in the video but eventually he did relay, “Marked5 is all right, if a little messy. I’ll give it a try again if I spotted them.” M’OK. I had enjoyed my bite of the burger, too, well enough but would have preferred to get the Katsu Pork which has received high praise in the blogosphere and just sounds yummy: “tender boneless pork fried to golden perfection served with Marked5′s special Katsu sauce along with fresh cabbage” and the rice buns. But their off-the-menu spam and egg sandwich sounded intriguing, too!

The great thing about the Marked5 truck is that everything costs just 5 bucks. “So for all of you it would have been only $20 for lunch,” said the guy at the truck. We all looked at each other since we had just dropped about $30 a person at Gjelina earlier. D’oh! Oh well.

Hopefully I’ll run into the Marked5 truck again soon. They don’t seem to be as Web-savvy as Kogi, but that’s OK. Marked5 does have a Twitter that fans can follow if the calendar on their site hasn’t been updated.

What Other Bloggers Say:
Eat to Blog
Mikey HATES Everything
Potatomato Blog
Take and Marie’s Food Blog
The Thirsty Pig

Share|

October 28, 2009

Brunch at Gjelina: Experiencing the Mr. Hyde Side

Written by Caroline on Crack in Dining, Los Angeles
9 Comments

misc 011

Have you ever given someone a compliment and then wished you could take it back because they turned out to be an a-hole? Well that’s how I feel about Gjelina in Venice. I LOVED having dinner there, that scrumptious flat bread pizza! But when I had brunch there this past weekend with bloggers Active Foodie (Sonja) and LA OC Foodventures (H.C.) the experience was bad enough to make me question my own previous judgment.

Was I blinded by the truffle oil, grilled nectarines and butterscotch pot de creme to not have been able to notice all the attitude? Yes, during this round on a Saturday morning, there was attitude from the hostess and our server.

Let’s start at the beginning. This brunch was supposed to be a post-Nike Human Race event when I had organized my own run with my blogger friends. So when I had made the reservation a month ago it was for eight people. But when we all decided to do the run at USC on Friday night instead, many in the group wanted to sleep in the next day so our group dwindled down to four.

Share|

October 27, 2009

Win Tickets to 23rd Annual Great Chefs of L.A.

Written by Caroline on Crack in Dining, Los Angeles
94 Comments

misc 453

Dakota’s chef Jason Johnston at last year’s Great Chefs.

******Contest is CLOSED*****

How would you like to spend an afternoon noshing on dishes created by renowned L.A. chefs like Akasha Richmond (Akasha), Govind Armstrong (8 oz.) and Jose Chicas (The Bazaar – SLS Hotel)? You will at the 23rd Annual Great Chefs of Los Angeles food event taking place at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City on Sunday, November 8.

This always anticipated annual food fest brings together some of our city’s most celebrated chefs all in one space so you can basically enjoy them in one sitting, going from table to table picking up food. Yum!

Here’s the list of participating chefs:

Adam Horton, Saddlepeak Lodge
Akasha Richmond, Akasha
Andrea Cavaliere, Cecconi’s
Benjamin Ford, Ford’s Filling Station
Bob Lynn, La Grande Orange
Brian Moyers, BLT Steak
Calogero Drago, Celestino Ristorante & Panzanella
Celestino Drago, Drago Restaurant, Enoteca Drago, Il Pastaio, Drago Centro
Chris Moran, Events D’Elegance
David Linville, Charlie’s Malibu
Frank Leon, LaLoggia Ristorante & Bokado
 Keven Alan Lee, EAST Restaurant & Lounge
Giacomino Drago, Il Pastaio
Govind Armstrong, 8 oz.
Jason Johnston, Dakota
Jesse Perez, Fuego at Hotel Maya
Jimmy Shaw, Loteria Grill
Joachim Weritz, Moonshadows
Jonathan Burrows, Mr. Cecil’s California Ribs
Jorge Chicas, The Bazaar – SLS Hotel
Josie Le Balch, Josie Restaurant
Margarito Cid, Harry’s Oklahoma Style Smokehouse BBQ
Mary Sue Milliken & Susan Feniger, Border Grill & Ciudad Restaurants
Michael Fiorelli, mar’sel
Neal Fraser, Grace & BLD
Paolo Sicuro, Via Alloro
Roberto Maggioni, Lago
Sam Marvin & Christopher Goossen, Bottega Louie Restaurant & Gourmet Market
Simon Dolinky, BLVD 16 at Hotel Palomar
Steven Fretz, XIV
Tanino Drago, Tanino Ristorante & Panzanella Ristorante
Yoji Tajima, SHU – Sushi House Unico
Leyna’s Kitchen

To wet your palate, wine, spirits, beer and more will also be available from the likes of Laetitia and L’Aventure wineries, Tequila Ocho and Right Gin, and Stella Artois and Fireman’s Brew.

As the theme of this year’s Great Chefs of L.A. is Go Green, Go Organic to promote eco-conscious living and sustainability, guests will enjoy a Veev Acai Spirit Go Green cocktail bar, 944 “Get Green Get Hip” lounge, as well as gift bags packed with $250 worth of goodies from eco-friendly companies like LaRocca Skincare, OPI and Alterna. Squeeeal!

Tickets for this event are $150 a person and go to benefit The National Kidney Foundation.

But if you’re lucky you can win a PAIR of tickets ($300 value) to the event right here!

To enter this giveaway you must do ALL of the following which isn’t too hard:

  1. Leave a comment below saying which chef you’re looking forward to seeing at this event. Make sure to include your email address!
  2. Follow @greatchefsofla on Twitter and tweet: “I wanna win tickets to @greatchefsofla http://bit.ly/Y7G3S #greatchefsla via @carolineoncrack”
  3. Sign up for my newsletter Daily Crack in the sidebar on the right side of the CoC homepage (NOT the “Register” link underneath the CoC banner). Easy peasy!

You must live in L.A. to participate. Deadline to enter is next Tuesday, November 3rd at 5pm (PST). I’ll randomly pick the winner on November 4.

Good luck!

EVENT: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8 from 12 to 3:30pm

CBS Studio
4024 Radford Drive
Studio City, California 91604 (map)
Twitter: @greatchefsofla
Facebook: Great Chefs of LA

Tags: ,

Share|

October 26, 2009

10 Halloween Parties: From Free to Flea

Written by Caroline on Crack in Lists, Los Angeles, Nightlife
1 Comment

Jessica Rabbit and Poison Ivy

This year Halloween falls on a Saturday and is going to be kuh-rayzee! My friends kept asking me to come up with a list of events to help ‘em sift through it all so here’s the following. And I picked ones that didn’t sound too douche-y. For your convenience it’s listed from “No cover” to $150. Happy Halloween!

Halloween at High Lounge in Hotel Erwin
Enjoy Halloween under the stars at Venice’s rooftop hotel lounge. And partake of Trick ‘r Treat cocktails, Crystal Head Skull Vodka bottle service ($200), dancing and a midnight costume contest. For those who want to get a room, Hotel Erwin is offering $99 rates for Halloween night. Just call (310) 452-1111 and mention the Facebook Halloween rate.

  • 3pm. No cover. High Lounge at Hotel Erwin, 1697 Pacific Avenue, Venice (map). Reservations: (310) 452-1111 x. 175

Halloween at West 4th and Jane
Wanna just keep it a chill Halloween? West 4th and Jane is doing its first Brown Paper Bag Halloween party where costumed revelers can partake of their Delirium Tremens, sake, wine and/or champagne out of brown paper bags. What’s more chill than that? At 9pm the dancing starts thanks to spinmaster DJ XMAN. Best part? Ample parking garage is located next door. No hunting around for parking.

  • 9pm. No cover. West 4th and Jane, 1432 A 4th Street, Santa Monica (map). (310) 395-6765.

A Haunted Halloween Party at Rush Street
Rush Street in Culver City is taking the Thriller-theme party a step further by decking out the entire restaurant like the Thriller music video! Zombiefied MJs will enjoy a graveyard patio deck, a house of horrors lounge and a “trick-or-treat” pole room(?). Billed as the “biggest, craziest Halloween party,” this spooky shindig will also feature a DJ, dancing, drink specials and bottle service as well as a costume contest. If you partied too much, Rush Street will take you home via its free group van service! So nice!

  • No cover. Rush Street, 9546 Washington Boulevard, Culver City (map). (310) 837-9546.

Zombie Hipster Yelpoween at the Viper Room
Yelp rolls out the dead carpet at the Sunset Strip’s legendary Viper Room. Yelpers take their costume parties seriously so go all out with the undead chic and compete in the contest for Most Original Hipster Zombie, Best Z-List Celeb or Hottest Hollywood Zombie. Yelp Elite gets to party first 7-9pm with free treats and drinks and after 9pm, the public joins the fun and live bands hit the stage.

  • 7-9pm for Yelp Elite; 9pm-2am public. $5 in costume, $10 no costume. The Viper Room, 8852 W. Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood (map).

Thriller Night at Dakota Lounge
Dating site/city guide The Lek has teamed up with the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica for a Thriller-themed blowout. There will be an MJ dance-off and costume contests for Best Michael and Best Zombie. This will be the spookiest setup as special effects studio Drac Studios (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Batman) provides the haunted displays. $3 Bloody Drink specials from 9-10pm for thirsty early birds. Bypass the line out front by dropping “The Lek” name at the door. Lekkers RSVP here.

  • 9pm. $8 for Lekkers, $15 regular. Dakota Lounge, 1026 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica (map).

All Hallow’s Eve at The Edison
The Edison downtown always knows how to do up Halloween. Just check out last year’s party. So fun! This year the gorgeous underground bar boasts DJ sets by DJ Imagika and Helios Jive, Crystal Head Vodka bottle service, and costume contests for Best Original, Humorous or Ghoulish Costume. All the presale tickets are sold out but if you arrive before 9pm your chances of getting in are good.

  • 8pm. $20 in costume, $30 no costume. The Edison, 108 W 2nd Street, Downtown (map).

LACMA Muse Heroes and Villains Costume Ball
This Halloween, 1,000 Wonder Women, Supermen, Jokers and more will converge at LACMA for the museum’s annual costume ball and DJ sets, interactive installations by Mindshare Labs, and costume contests. There, the superheroes and super villains will come together over an open bar featuring Dos Equis, Malibu Family Wine, Pernod Absinthe, Honest Tea, and more.

  • 8:15pm. $30, Muse members; $50, non-members. LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles (map). (323) 857-6000.

KCRW’s Masquerade: Halloween Costume Ball and Dance Party
KCRW’s party has five uniquely themed rooms to explore as well as live music and performances by DJ Shadow (DJ set), Little Dragon and Sea Wolf and 11 KCRW DJs, including Jason Bentley and Garth Trinidad. This masquerade also has got the best eats in town thanks to a mobile food court featuring FOUR food trucks — Kogi, Border Grill, Coolhaus and Sprinklesmobile trucks.

  • 9pm. Tickets: $75 advance, $85 at the door. The Legendary Park Plaza, 607 South Park View Street, Los Angeles (map).

Pandora Halloween Spectacular at Vibiana
Vibiana downtown is a beautiful event space but this Halloween you’ll see it transformed into a haunted cathedral with its high ceilings, marbled columns and 35,000 square feet of space. Costumed revellers get to enjoy an open bar and a live performance by rapper Asher Roth.

  • 9pm. $75. Vibiana, 210 S. Main Street, Downtown (map). Table/VIP reservations: (310) 989-0654.

Silverlake Conservatory of Music’s 5th Annual Halloweenabaloo
This fundraiser/Halloween party boasts performances by Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ben Harper in the gorgeously historic Union Station. More highlights include gourmet food trucks (Spring Street Smokehouse, Green Truck and more) and musical performances by students and teachers of the Conservatory. Tickets are $150 but you get an open bar, all the tacos you can eat and access to the silent auction. Tickets are available at 3920 Sunset Boulevard, (323) 665-3363.

  • 6pm. $150. Union Station, 800 North Alameda Street, Los Angeles (map).

Other Halloween lists:

About.com’s list of Halloween Parties in L.A.

Going.com’s Halloween Event Guide

Share|

October 23, 2009

Whisky Live: Drinking Around the World in 3 Hours

Written by Caroline on Crack in Cocktails, Los Angeles, Nightlife
1 Comment

Johnnie Walker girls

Creme brulee, caramel, espresso, pralines, prunes. Before I attended the Whisky Live event this week, my default descriptors for good whisky were “smooooth” and “yummy!” But after getting the chance to talk to the reps from such distilleries like Bushmills, Four Roses, Glenlivet, Johnnie Walker and Macallan, to name but a few, and try a vast variety of whisky, I’ve actually managed to expand my vocabulary. Woo hoo!

Last Tuesday, me and my blogfather, Michael, were lucky enough to gain VIP entrance to the Whisky Live event at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. There I ran into not only some of my favorite online personalities like Lesley of Tasting Table and Dawson from Yelp but old friends like H.C. of LA OC Foodventures and John of Social Domain as well as booze community big shots like Vincenzo Marianella of Copa d’Oro and Christina Perozzi, the Beer Chick. We were all here for the same purpose: to partake of and enjoy the different whiskies in attendance.

Share|

« Older Posts