Crumbs Bake Shop's Lucky One cupcake.

I found the perfect way to make it through St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow: go on a bakery hop! Fortunately a ton of L.A. bakeries have created Irish-inspired goodies for the holiday and I rounded them up in a post for LA Weekly’s Squid Ink. There’s Kiss My Bundt’s Bailey’s Irish Cream cake with Irish cream butter cream and Yummy Cupcakes‘ Guinness cupcakes. And you know Sprinkles‘ Irish chocolate cupcake with Belgian dark chocolate and Baileys Irish cream cheese frosting is not to be missed.

For foodies who’d rather bake than crowd the bars tomorrow, Kiss My Bundt is also teaching a baking class where you will learn to make baked treats from scratch as well as tipple a complimentary beverage of Baileys, Guinness or Irish whiskey.

See my Squid Ink post here.

OK, so First & Hope Supper Club didn’t open last night as planned and will instead open up toward the end of this month. That’s OK, though, because Aidan Demarest and Marcos Tello of Tello/Demarest Liquid Assets cocktail consultation want to kick things off with a bang. And their new bar night, Red Rover, Red Rover on March 29 brings over guest mixologists from all over the country who will “create hand-crafted cocktails for your drinking pleasure.” Yup, just like the Edison’s Radio Room bar night.

For this event, guests will enjoy libations from Erick Castro of San Francisco’s Rickhouse, Misty Kalkofen of Boston’s Drink, John Lermayer of Miami’s Delano Hotel and Juan Sevilla of LA’s exclusive Soho House.

There will be complimentary appetizers, a cash bar, and above all, red, hot jazz.

And cocktail author/mixologist, Tony Abou-Ganim, will be at the bar signing copies of his new book, The Modern Mixologist.

Best part is that there’s no cover!

EVENT: MONDAY, MARCH 29 at 7pm

First & Hope Supper Club
710 W. 1st Street
Los Angeles, California 90012 (map)
(213) 617-8555

The Tavern's Taverine mocktail

Bored and alone, I found myself having dinner at the bar in the Tavern in Brentwood. No biggie if I were able to drink cocktails but since I’m liquor free for Lent-ish this made keeping my own company a boring prospect.

Fortunately the Tavern has a nice cocktail menu comprised of fresh juices. Unfortunately, they don’t have ginger beer. I’d have to get creative.

Looking over their drink menu I tried to figure out which cocktail could easily be a born-again virgin.

The Taverine made with vodka, Grand Marnier, grapefruit juice and tangerine vanilla syrup seemed like a good candidate. I could just sub orange juice for the booze, right?

The resulting mocktail poured over ice in a tall glass simply tasted like tangerine juice with the grapefruit’s subtle tartness. It was ok. Makes me wonder if the booze version tastes like a tarty Screwdriver.

Anyway it was a nice change from the usual ginger beer.

Tavern
11648 West San Vicente Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90049 (map)
(310) 806-6464

Pole Dancing 101

I did something the other night that I swore to myself I’d never ever do. I took a pole dancing lesson. Yup. Rush Street has an ’80s ladies’ night on Wednesdays on its second floor where ladies can take a free pole dancing lesson courtesy of Studio City’s pole dancing/fitness studio, Polistic. And I was invited to this girls-only media dinner which showcased this as well as the Culver City barestaurant’s new spring cocktail menu.

I told my friends who pooh-poohed the bar night that I was just going to take pictures and maybe some video of other bloggers taking on the pole but that I would never deign touch it myself. I’m not a big party girl and definitely not the type to sexy it up for some random male attention at a bar.

But then after our dinner of yummy portabello mushroom fries, miso and sake marinated salmon, crab ravioli and grilled shrimp and some tasty mocktails, our group of gals took the party upstairs. A couple of the instructors showed us around the pole, starting off with a basic spin around it. “The only thing I require is that we all cheer as loud as we can for everyone,” the instructor said. Little did I know how much this would help.

It also helped that most every girl had taken a turn on the pole and that the move was so easy I really had no excuse not to give it a try. Oh, except one. “I ate too much,” I warned the instructor when she tried to get me on the pole. But even then I already had one hand on it and the girls were already shouting words of encouragement from the sidelines. “Alll riiight, I’ll be a good sport,” I told myself while listening to the instructor’s instructions to put my left hand over my right hand on the bar overhead and then wrap my left leg around the bar. She then pushed me so I fell to the left and twirled around the bar in a not very graceful way.

The girls cheered loudly anyway, “Woooooooooh!” I know my style was a far cry from pro but it was kinda fun. Took me back to when I was a kid and loved playing on the monkey bars. I even got the friction burn on my hands like I did in the old days.

Now, I did this stone sober because I’m in the midst of a booze fast but this would probably have been a lot more fun and swirly if I had had a couple of cocktails beforehand. Fortunately Rush Street knows that and has some liquid courage specials on this ladies’ night: $6 X-Rated vodka cocktails, $9 Pretty in Pink Cosmo (X-Rated, vodka, pineapple, cranberry) and Pink-a-licious Martini (X-Rated, Sprite, cranberry, vodka). Yes, they’re made from X-Rated Fusion Liqueur, a very sweet and fruity drink ingredient. However, I suspect that those who love the pole won’t mind the girly drinks.

If, however, you’d prefer to imbibe something other than a melon/berry/mango-y drink, the bar has a new spring cocktail menu that’s heavy in the flavored vodka department and seems girl-drink-intensive but has some interesting concoctions:

Some of the drinks on the Spring Fling Cocktail Menu ($12 each):

• Bronx Cocktail: Plymouth Gin, Cinzano Sweet Vermouth, Cinzano Dry Vermouth, orange juice, simple syrup
• El Diablo: Absolut Ruby Red, watermelon syrup, jalapenos, cranberry juice, lemon and lime juice
• Ginger Rogers: Beefeater 24, ginger syrup, lemon juice, mint, topped with ginger ale
• Lady Rio: Sagatiba Cachaca, Caravella Lemoncello, Dailys pomegranate syrup, simple syrup, raspberries
• Orange Clover: Jameson, Aperol, orange juice, simple syrup
• Pear Flower: Grey Goose La Poire Vodka, St. Germain, lemon and lime juice, grapefruit juice
• Strawberry Fields: Absolut Citron, strawberry, lemon, simple syrup, float of prosecco

I was able to try the mocktail versions of El Diablo and Strawberry Fields. Both were pretty tasty even without the booze. Although I have to say that just by reading the ingredients for El Diablo, it sounded like it had too much going on what with the grapefruit, watermelon, jalapenos and cranberry. Eesh! But the Flavorpill editor sitting next to me ordered it and loved it.

Anyhoo, if you’d like to give Rush Street’s ’80s Ladies’ Night a shot, it goes off every Wednesday night starting at 9pm. The pole dancing lessons are FREE. If you’re into this sorta thing, it could be a fun girls’ night out.

Rush Street
9546 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, California 90232 (map)
(310) 837-9546

Border Grill's churro tots

First Nutella poundcake and then salted caramel bars and now churro tots! All nommy brilliance, I tell you! I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica where the Border Grill Truck parks ever Friday at lunchtime.

I was just gonna get a couple of tacos to bring back to my desk but then the churro tot sign complete with food pornographic photo caught my eye. “Dulce de leche infused churros, cinnamon sugar, whipped cream.” Oh dear lord. Must. Have.

Funny enough, @HotPinkManolos — blogger, foodie and on-site manager for the truck — was on hand and comped my tots order. So nice! I would have blogged about this anyway because my peeps need to know about this cinnamony, fried bite of heaven.

I swear, I almost cried. And you know what that means: I was sooo happy.

Now these tots doesn’t really have the breadiness of a churro; more of a creamy center. But they do have that familiar fried crisp exterior and all that cinnamon.

I offered some to my boyfriend, thinking he wouldn’t want it, especially the tots covered in melted whipped cream. But after the first bite he was eager to take another and even dipped it in the whipped cream. Now, if he likes it — he’s a picky eater and not the sweet tooth that I am — then you now it’s some good stuff.

Such a nice treat for a Friday. And $3.50 for the six tots. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can carry these around in my pocket, though.

For an even better, food pornographic photo of the tots, check out LAist’s post.

Click here for the Border Grill Truck schedule.

Twitter: @bordergrill