Last year I caught Akasha Richmond (Akasha) and Zoe Nathan (Rustic Canyon) talking beignets.

This Sunday, November 6 at L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade Culinary Cookout, which takes over the Culver Studios, not only will feature a ton a tasty bites from L.A. foodist favorites like Grace, The Hungry Cat, Osteria Mozza, Providence, Sotto and Tavern but exciting eats from all over the country.

Yup, you don’t have to step out of Culver City to browse fare from The Spotted Pig from New York, The Publican in Chicago, Tilth and Lark in Seattle and Globe in San Francisco! Extra bonus is the renowned mixologists who will be behind the bars. Not only will L.A.’s own Eric Alperin be mixing drinks but so will Neal Bodenheimer of Cure in New Orleans and Greg Lindgren of San Francisco’s Rye on the Road. I’ve always wanted to go to Cure! Now it’s coming to me. Woo hoo!

Last year’s L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade was a blast, sealing the deal for it as one of my favorite food fests. The layout was easy to navigate, everything was spaced apart, and the event wasn’t oversold or crowded. Plus as you can tell, it offers a great selection for those who appreciate good food and drink.

Tickets are $175 for general admission and $400 for VIP. But for $225 through Thrillist Rewards not only do you get access to the event and all the food and drink but an exclusive reception and drink class with Eric Alperin, Hungry Cat and a mixologist from Philadelphia’s Marc Vetri family of restaurants! But buy your tickets NOW since they won’t be selling them at the event. And, no, standing outside Culver Studios with your puppy-dog eyes won’t help you get in. Trust me.

Proceeds of the event will support childhood cancer research.

EVENT: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6 from 12 to 4pm

Culver Studios
9336 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, California 90232 (map)
Facebook: Alex’s Lemonade
Twitter: @alexslemonade

You’re not going to let a little Carmaggedon interfere with your weekend plans, are ya? Especially when there’s a bunch of food festivals like LA Food Fest (which I’m giving away tickets to) going on! Plus all this other fun stuff.

Thursday, July 14

Paella and Spanish Wine Tasting at 55 Degree
If you’re all Frenched out from Bastille Day activities today, 55 Degrees in Atwater Village has got a Spanish solution: paella from chef Adriana Morera of the Paella Project and Spanish wines like Tempranillos and Malbecs. The tasting will feature the country’s beloved dish with mussels, clams, chicken and chorizo, or there’s a veg option. Cost is $5 to $13.

• 6-10pm. 55 Degree, 3111 Glendale Boulevard, Atwater Village (map). (323) 662-5556

Bastille Day With Cointreau at Spare Room
The Spare Room really knows how to throw a shindig (I was just there last night for tiki night and had a hoot). So it’s no shocker that they’ll be doing up Bastille Day in style with Adele Jacques of ParisLovesLA performing Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot songs. Francophiles will tipple on specialty cocktails created by bartender Naomi Schimek. There’s the cognac, lavender, lemon cocktail Duke for a Day or do it up chic with the Champagne Flip (champs, cognac, Cointreau, egg yolk, cream and sugar).

• 8pm. The Spare Room at Hollywood Roosevelt, 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood (map). (323) 466-7000.

Bastille Day at The Bar at Cliff’s Edge
The Silver Lake bar is taking Bastille celebrations to another level inviting guests to show up in French costumes (I’m thinking Marie Antoinette or maybe a la hep cat Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face) for a chance to win a prize. The party will naturally have free cake as well as free rose wine and swinging French music! Vive la France!

• 8pm-12am. The Bar at Cliff’s Edge, 3626 Sunset Boulevard, Silver Lake (map).

Friday, July 15

District 13 Gastropub Opens in Hollywood
That’s right, slotted in the strip mall between Big Wang’s and Stout in the old Soi 56 spot is a new brewpub with food by  Executive Chef Aoi Ratanamanee (Rambutan). The brew food — sausages, burgers, fish and chips — is meant to complement the quality beer the restaurant will be serving up like The Bruery Rugbrod and DogFish Head Palo Santo Marron. There’s even a Danger Dog! Yummy on all counts!

• Opens 11:30am. 1556 North Cahuenga Boulevard, Hollywood (map). (323) 957-1313.

Saturday, July 16

Munchathon: 5K Fun Run/Food Truck Festival in Orange County
If you want to just get out of Dodge altogether, hit up this fun food festival in the OC where you can nullify any weight gained from good food truck eats by running an obstacle course (with food and drink stops for obstacles) at the same time. It’s so crazy it might just work. OK, maybe not but still sounds fun. There will be over 50 food trucks, like Ahn Joo, Lobsta Truck and Ludo Bites Truck, plus a rec area where you can play ring toss, basketball or Frisbee.

• 9am-5pm. Oak Canyon Park, 5305 Santiago Canyon Road, Silverado (map).

Eat Real Festival
This food festival doesn’t just feed you, it teaches you everything about our favorite subject, from where food comes from to how it’s made. Learn how to make your own tomato sauce from KCRW Good Food’s Evan Kleiman, watch a panel on “The Future of Food Writing” featuring LA Times‘ Russ Parsons and LA Weekly Squid Ink’s Amy Scattergood. Nosh on food from Nom Nom and Flying Pig food trucks and browse the marketplace with goods by Creme Caramel LA and butchers Lindy & Grundy. The festival is free to attend, you just pay for your own Marketplace goods and food purchases.

• Saturday 10:30am-9pm, Sunday 10:30am-5pm. 8800 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles (map).

Will Nguyen of Starry Kitchen sport the banana at this year's LA Street Food Fest?

Carmaggedon. Autopocalypse. The 405 freeway closed the whole weekend from the 101 to 10? What’s a Westsider who wants to hit up foodie favorite event LA Street Food Fest in Pasadena on July 16th to do?

Feel the Lure of LA Food Fest

A Sailor Jerry Rum bar if you want something other than beer, gin or tequila.

I mean, who would want to brave what’s being touted to be the clusterfuck from hell even if LASFF is a fun event featuring the food of LA’s most popular food trucks like Great Balls on Tires, Grilled Cheese Truck and The Frymsith?

And sure, restaurants Mo-Chica/Picca, Pal Cabron, and Starry Kitchen will also be serving up food and there’s even an Ice Cream Social with Scoops and Batch From Scratch, Bulgarini Gelato, CoolHaus and Ice Ice Shavie, the new mixology-driven shaved ice truck… Oh dear, that’s pretty hard to resist. (List of participants)

The things that may just push any booze-loving Westsider over the edge though? The Tequila Tasting Tent showcasing 13 tequilas as well as the Hendrick’s Gin sponsored Test Kitchen Luxe Lounge with Chef Farid Zadi and renowned mixologist Julian Cox (Rivera/Playa). Julian will be mixing up some unique specialties just for the event including his Gin y Hendrix with Hendrick’s gin, lime, mint, agave, salt and cucumber espuma as well as his Peat Rose with Hendrick’s, lemon, cane sugar, seltzer, lemon verbena, Islay Scotch and rose air. Now, do you still want to hole up at home with all this going on?

As Much as You Hate the Word, Call It a Staycation

The mayor will be returning to the food fest this year sans cast.

If you’re finding it hard to stick to your side of town but really don’t want to worry about driving either, LASFF organizer Shawna Dawson, the city of Pasadena and even Mayor Villaraigosa are trying to convince Westsiders to just take a “staycation” by booking a hotel room in the vicinity of the event.

The Courtyard Marriott in Old Town Pasadena is offering a special discount rate of $119 a night as well as a free shuttle to get to the event (perfect, considering that tequila tent). Well, it could be fun exploring what the ‘Dena has to offer. Hmm, I would be able to actually drink more at 1886 without having to worry about the long drive back home since the bar is just an affordable cab ride away from the Marriott.

Fun Things To Do in the ‘Dena During Your Stay

And Ms. Shawna, who herself is a resident of the 626, offered up other fun things to do, see, eat in Pasadena.

• Take in a movie at luxurious movie theaters: Gold Class Cinemas and ArcLight Theater.

• Relax at the Langham Hotel’s Huntington Spa with either their new summer Lemon Mint Swedish Massage (60 minutes for $110) or a Chuan back, neck and shoulder massage (30 minutes for $95).

• Must-do beer destination Lucky Baldwin’s Pub & Café is in the midst of its Xmas in July Beer Festival which features Christmas and rare vintage beers through July 17.

• Get an All-Out-Diva Pedicure ($60) at Dashing Diva to treat your feet after walking all over the festival.

• Enjoy vino at Heritage Wine Company, “the most comfortable Pasadena wine bar.”

• And if you still feel like eating after the festival, there’s the Hat‘s infamous chili cheese fries.

Maybe if I could get a friend to split that hotel room it won’t be too bad. Thinking, thinking.

Giveaway!

***CONTEST CLOSED***

To those who won’t be intimidated by a little traffic, I offer up the following: TWO tickets to the afternoon session (2-5pm) of the LA Street Food Fest this Saturday, July 16. Regular price is $60 a person and it includes food, drinks, cocktails, beer, music and parking but if you win you and your buddy get in for FREE!

No VIP tickets to give away this year but since the event is divided into three sessions with a limited capacity of 1,500 a sesh, it’ll be equivalent to what VIP was last year. Shorter lines and more elbow room! You in?

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is the following (do both steps to qualify):

1. Leave a comment below saying how you plan to spend Carmaggedon this weekend (besides at LA Street Food Fest of course) and include your Twitter handle. (There is no right answer; I’m just looking for suggestions, heh.)
2. Tweet: “#Carmaggedon be damned, I wanna go to @LAFoodFest, @carolineoncrack! http://wp.me/pNkdL-27M”

I’ll randomly pick a winner via Random.org on Friday at 10am and notify the winner via email. If I don’t hear from you by 2pm this Friday, I’ll draw another winner so check your email, Tweeps!

EVENT: SATURDAY, JULY 16 from

10am–1pm: Picnic in the Park (All Ages, Family Friendly)
2pm–5pm: Family Fun Day (All Ages, Family Friendly)
6pm–9pm: Date Night (21+)

The Rose Bowl
360 North Arroyo Boulevard
Pasadena, California 91103 (map)
Tickets: $60
Facebook: LA Street Food Fest
Twitter: @LAFoodFest

Jitlada's Jazz making it "Thai people hot."

Those first 30 minutes at LA Weekly‘s Gold Standard 2011 yesterday was an eating spree. Yes, I only had half an hour — afforded to me by a media pass — to take pictures and eat and drink as much as I could of the 40 or so food vendors at Jonathan Gold’s annual food event before the flood gates were opened at 1pm to the general public who had lined up in a long, serpentine queue in the Petersen Automotive Museum. I had suffered through the first Gold Standard event in 2009 and didn’t want to be shut out again by the clusterf*ck of foodies or prematurely sold-out food booths — issues that, frankly, prompted me to steer clear of last year’s event.

Drago Centro's foie gras parfait.

So I ran around snapping photos of Loteria Grill‘s tacos de lengua, Nickel Diner‘s bacon maple doughnuts (which apparently went well with the bourbon next door),�hey, Bulleit bourbon�no, focus! Guelaguetza‘s tamal de mole Amarillo�ran past A-Frame‘s Fine Print cocktails and kettle corn with my hands as blinders to outside where I allowed myself to snatch up Park’s BBQ and then to Manila Machine for the lumpia Shanghai with pork belly and pineapple adobo.

There, I tried chatting up my peeps while Chef Greenspan of the Foundry on Melrose yelled loudly from his booth across the way. He laughed and projected to the crowd as if he were on the Iron Chef. In any case, the Manila Machine folks were thirsty in the warm sun so I went to fetch them A-Frame cocktails. After dropping those off it was once more unto the breach. Drago Centro’s chef de cuisine Ian Gresik handed me a foie gras parfait with beef croutons saying he had four of those for breakfast this morning. I was so famished I shrugged off that pang of guilt and scooped a dollop into my mouth. Hm, creamy and rich, but I was still hungry.

Then there were the Vietnamese crepes from Susan Feniger’s Street. Meh. Fortunately Mozza‘s nommy Mozza Caprese with fresh burrata perked me back up. Would have been nice to follow that up with whatever Krissy Lefebvre was serving up at the Ludo Bites booth (Chef Ludo just had back surgery so couldn’t be there), but I didn’t want to bother trying to penetrate the wall of people. Instead I grabbed a pot pie from Good Girl Dinette across the way and a not-so-impressive cocktail shot made with Moon Mountain vodka.

Guelaguetza's Bricia checking out the event.

Later I ran into ol’ friend John of Social Domain who introduced me to Jitlada‘s owner Jazz — so adorable and humble even if she was telling us about the celebrities who have been popping up at her Thai restaurant. Apparently Natalie Portman stopped by pre-pregnancy. While John grabbed some extra hot sauce to make his Crying Tiger dish “Thai people hot,” I dug into the vegetable curry. OMFG it was STILL too spicy. Fortunately the Singha Beer booth was just next door so a tall cool lager soothed the burn a bit. When that wasn’t quite enough, a follow-up glass of Domaine Carneros sparkling helped.

The whole middle alley of the event was dedicated to wines provided by the Wine House. I shied away from all that since wine usually puts me to sleep, and was kind of disappointed that there weren’t as many cocktails as there seemed to be in the first Gold Standard. But I guess they were saving those for JGold’s annual cocktail party with Zocalo at Union Station. Ah well. At least there was Bulleit Bourbon, Babita’s sangria and A-Frame’s delicious Fine Print with rum, hibiscus, falernum, like and orange bitters. By the way, props to A-Frame for having a seemingly bottomless batch of cocktail.

By 2pm Jar was already sold out and packed up so festival goers discarded their plates on its empty table. Soon the Foundry followed (missed out on the grilled cheese sandwich!) as well as Mo-Chica and Ludo Bites. But I wasn’t too peeved by that since I had had my fill for the day, enjoying food fest favorites like Starry Kitchen’s chicken curry, Mozza’s caprese, Akasha’s jam selection, Guelaguetza’s tamales and Park’s BBQ.

Bloggers Mattatouille and Food Je T'Aime enjoying wine alley.

And it was fun running into Tweeps like @Mattatouille, @StreetGourmetLA, @MidtownlunchLA, @JulieWolfson, @SauceLA, @NomsNotBombs and @MyLastBite. I also got to congratulate Krissy of Ludo Bites on her and Ludo’s new show on Sundance and chatted with Akasha Richmond about her upcoming tequila dinner as well as her daughter Amrit’s social media successes. And Celestino Drago and Ian Gresik kept me company while I waited to see if I won anything from the Heal the Bay raffle (nope!). Yeah, extra schmoozy.

But the icing on the cake at the end of the day was finally introducing myself to the big man himself, Jonathan Gold, who I had previously been too shy to go up to. At the end of the day, he seemed happy with the event and talked about how strange it was to have a camera crew following him around for the documentary they’re doing on him. We spoke briefly about cocktails and then he was gone, posing in someone else’s picture.

I surprised myself by staying until the end of the event, having made up my mind beforehand that I was just going to stay for an hour or so to take pictures. But the good friends and good food made it difficult to tear myself away. What a truly fun day. Really glad I stuck around.

More photos after the jump.

Tavern Treats at LA Loves Alex's Lemonade

Sunday may have been the inaugural LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade food event for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation — a charity dedicated to fighting childhood cancer — but you wouldn’t have known it was the first time by sauntering around the beautifully laid-out event.

Unlike most food fests which are usually crazy feeding frenzies and absurdly long lines, there was something intimate and lovely about this one. Maybe it was the red-and-white checkered picnic blankets spread out on the lawn, the live band or the actual lemonade stand manned by adorable rugrats at the entrance, but it felt like a family picnic at the park. In a good way.

Hungry Cat's Howling Wolf cocktail

However instead of Mom’s over-mayo’d potato salad and Pop’s dried-out bbq skewers, we gorged ourselves on Food Network hottie Giada de Laurentiis’ pasta ponza and Pizzeria Bianco’s seasonal antipasto (bummer it wasn’t pizza). Craftsman and Sierra Nevada brew replaced ice-cooler standard PBR to wash down the tasting portions.

For dessert we had a choice of Zoe Nathan’s cinnamon sugar beignets, the Tavern’s smores or Nancy Silverton’s gelato. Oh, who am I kidding, I had them all because why choose just one? And we even got to rub elbows with honorary chairperson Jennifer Garner and master of ceremonies Jim Belushi.

But the real highlights for me, not to downplay the awesomeness of all of the above, were the libations. Hungry Cat was serving up delicious cocktails. A refreshing change from what you usually find at food events: sponsored non-stellar cocktails served up by thin actress/model types with the limp shake. But here we had folks who knew what they were doing shaking up Hungry Cat’s seasonal drinks like the Howling Wolf made with Sazerac Rye, chili-infused tequila, honey and blood orange juice as well as the Comfort King with light and dark rums, persimmons and rye.

Good news? Both these drinks are available at the Hungry Cat restaurants for this season. Huzzah!

Craftsman's Mark Jilg manning the taps.

Also, Craftsman Brewery had seasonal and year-round beers on draft with brewer/founder Mark Jilg manning the taps of 1903 Lager, Poppy Fields, Sour and Fireworks Saison. My fave was the Triple White Sage, a light and very drinkable beer. Unfortunately, Craftsman was only available in the VIP section. Regular ticket holders had to content themselves with Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada beers, which is not necessarily a bad thing!

Suffice it to say, this culinary event was a job well done by the folks at Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. I so can’t wait until next year’s fest, when I’ll spend all day there and make sure to employ a designated driver.

By the way, if you’d like to contribute to this important foundation, you can either donate here or apply for volunteering opportunities here.