A couple days ago, on a mild November Sunday evening, some dear friends of ours, Clarissa and Ludo, hosted a magical, birthday celebration of food and relaxation with a modern, European flair. They have been going to Speranza on Hyperion Blvd. for a couple years since it switched over from a not-so-great place called Capri. I have lived in this hood for seven years and didn’t even notice the changeover, but had recently heard that it was super good and they had handmade pasta. Ok - say no more. If this is a place that Ludo would go to, (quite possibly the world’s pickiest Swiss man about Italian food) I knew it had to be outstanding.

 

 

This was, to date, the best birthday party I have attended in years. A few years ago, I started realizing my idea of a perfect evening being a “kegger” was ancient history and there was no comparison to a good dinner party to celebrate a joyous event. We enjoyed a beautiful evening of six courses of traditional Italian dishes, all served family style on large platters, which made for a very intimate gathering.

 

 

 

 

 

Menu:

Assorted Cheese with Pear Slices and Olives

Caprese Salad

Melon and Prosciutto

Pasta Choices (primi) Pesto Fettucini or Squid Ink Spaghetti

Grilled Lamb Lollipops with lemon, roasted fingerling potatoes, and blanched Asparagus (Secondi and Thirdi)

Cake (yumi)

 

Everything was so well thought-out, but not overdone or fussy. We started off with plates of cheeses and fresh pear slices and fresh, warm baguettes. The cheese platter was an assortment of cheeses, a triple cream brie and a tete de moine (head of monk) that was shaved off in long slices and looked like carnation flowers and a creamy blue. The tete de moine was so gorgeous and subtle in flavor and was my favorite, for a new taste as well as the beautiful way it was displayed like chanterelles mushrooms.

 

 

When the squid ink pasta came out, I knew these people were serious. The blackness of the ink would transform anyone into a goth teenager. I have not had squid ink in years and I remembered it from Spanish Tapas bars to be more purple in color, not black as india ink. It was divine. Of course, they had me at the pasta and then more and more food kept coming out. My kind of event.

 

 

 

 

The food was tasty, the crowd engaging, we were exposed to a new place in our neighborhood and met some interesting, new people. And about three blocks from home. I wish I could do this every Sunday. It was definitely inspiring and will kick start my Sunday suppers for the Winter season.

 

Tees designed by the owners based on architectural projects they were part of 

 

The owners of Speranza have an interesting background. We chatted with Joaquim, Jens and Hieu who used to art direct visuals and graphics for the world re-knowned architect, Rem Koolhaas. Some may know him from the NY and Paris Prada Stores. Of course, his work spans much more than the retail couture locations.  

 

Birthday boy toasting Campari and Soda

 

 

Some how, like many of us, the owners fell in love with food and went as far as opening a restaurant, renovated the space, and opened up Speranza. The evening, of course, was made more outstanding by the fact that it’s not usually open for business on Sundays and we had the whole place to ourselves, about 25 people at one long table and topped if all off with coffee and digestifs and fresh berry cake from Susina Bakery. 

 

 

Can’t wait to go back for that squid ink pasta and more of those perfectly charred lamb chops. 

 

One more thing to be thankful for this holiday season - good friends and good food AND especially friends with good taste.

Totally addictive. 

 

Speranza

2547 Hyperion Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90027

323.644.1918

 

  

 

 

 

For those not in the know, the term ’sausage party’ is slang for a party or a crowd where the majority of the people are dudes. What do you do when your life is overrun with gay men? You can do what I do and co-host a literal sausage party for my friend Stephen’s birthday. This was definitely not an event for homophobic, vegetarians but you can’t please them all.

 

 

The truth is, everyone loves sausage, but no one likes to admit it. It’s kinda trashy, totally phallic and so bad for you. All the things that make for a fantastic party! A local German bar, The Red Lion, is known for the imported beers and brats, oh and the sausage is good too. This place is more packed than ever these days.

 

 

We had bratwurst, Italian sausage, pork chorizo, smokies, genoa salami, duck salami, saucisson, Spanish chorizo.  We went all out, yet there still seems to be sausages of countries we missed entirely. There were some greens, uhm parsleys and green onioin garnish, and many cheeses, but we really ran with the sausage theme. 

 

 

As usual, I spearheaded the event and gave out digital commands like a drill sergeant via text messages and emails and ichat. Some common things I said were “did you look at the list?” and “I texted you earlier”.  The event was pulled off with ease, even up to the last minute with the co-hosts showing up an hour early, to light candles, assemble canapés and hors d’oeuvres, and put out the cheeses.

 

 

It was co-hosted by four other friends so we could go all out with the food and drinks and made our lives easier by not having to get a gift or be subjected to an expensive night of dinner and drinks, or better yet, Medieval Times. Of course, my boyfriend, Jason, does all the behind the scenes, like hanging lights, getting propane, cleaning the patio furniture, and doing just about anything I ask for. What a sport. Sometimes I don’t realize how much work is put into these events but the collective effort of everyone pitching in as well as guests showing up with nice ales and beers, and chocolates for me, certainly made for a very memorable evening.

 

 

When hosting cocktail parties, I really like to make the food bite size. Slicing a piece of cheese is about as much effort as I want to put into getting some food in my mouth while balancing a glass of wine and clutching a purse. It’s rare to have both hands free. 

 

 

This was my game plan,and is directly quoted from my email to the co-hosts:

overall we have a couple warm apps, a “wow” dish, some different takes on cheeses, and a specialty cocktail with additional mixers, like grapefruit juice and tonic water for vodka based drinks. We are gonna ask guests to bring a beer of their choice, ie Chimay etc.

 

 

Menu Planning:

 

Signature Cocktail:  Pomegranate sake-tini

Various Ales

Wines

 

Mini pigs in a blanket: puff pastry with dijon mustard

canapés- persimmon and prosicuitto

white bean bruschetta

five spice braised pork on daikon radish slices with carrots in ponzu

sticky rice stuffing with Chinese sausage, served on cucumber slices

 

grilled sausage platter with grilled onion and roasted fennel 

(mixed sausages pork chorizo, spicy Italian, brats etc)

 

marinated picholine olives

spiced nuts

salumis- cheese store-  spanish chorizo and assorted salumi.

artisan wildflower honey and goat cheese

quince paste and manchego

 

cakes-  wan and beth…a hotdog cake and a delicious salty sweet chocolate cake

 

******************************

 

 

The best part about the event was a bit of an impromptu ‘cake room’.  I happened to be re-doing my office and we (as in my boyfriend) painted two of the walls with the Benjamin Moore chalkboard paint just that week, which comes out like a very matte charcoal colored paint. We had put the desserts up in the office on my new mid-century credenza that I got from Silica Three. 

 

 

 

 

The chalkboard walls came in handy since throughout the evening, everyone snuck in and scrawled birthday wishes to Stephen. We were planning to bring the cakes down to the main food table but it just seemed like a great idea to have the wall-of-love be the backdrop.

 

If you are wondering, the bird lamp is from ebay. The 2 cake stands are vintage Indiana milk glass, one that is hobnail that I gifted to Bethany last year and one that is mine. 

 

 

The food highlights of the night were probably the Humboldt fog with honey and the lil beef smokies in puff pastry. Those were being eaten like popcorn shrimp. The five spice braised pork on daikon was my own invention as well, and though had no sausage, was part of my scheme to introduce people to that unique flavor since I am making a micro-roasted five spice blend as my holiday gift to all.

 

 

As for the desserts, Wan’s adorable cake with a sculpted hot dog out of fondant on it was hilarious. Bethany’s chocolate sweet and salty cake was absolutely delicious and I had no qualms about drunk cleaning that night at 2am while I snuck a few bites of it every time I shuffled past it on my way to the sink.

 

 

A good tip for making sausage on the grill with onions was something I had read about in Cook’s Illustrated. The trick is to cook the sliced onions and the sausage together in either the oven or on the grill, in a tented baking pan. The juice from the sausage will flavor the onions and fennel, in this case, then you basically just take the sausage and finish them on the grill to get the charred flavor and the nice grill marks. Grilling raw sausage directly on the grill, even if you can control the temperature, usually results in dried out shriveled weiners. Eek no thanks.

 

 

I made all these in the morning since it decided to be about 90˚F that day in LA. Then, I just reheated them in the oven at about 300˚ and served them on a large, wood cutting board with the fennel and onions and assorted mustards, spicy brown, tarragon dijon, and dijon mustards.

 

As my friend Anne summed it up, it was a “phallicly classy event”. 

 

Is it just by chance that House Industries, long time font preservers and typography developers would start making actual objects for the house / home?  I think not. A recent gallery show opening in Los Angeles at Subliminal Projects, Letters and Ligatures, showcased their font genius as well as their clean, fun, modern take on housewares and textiles.  

 

 

Aside from just using House’s retro infused fonts for various graphics projects, I started taking more interest in their commercial and product endeavors when they started offering Neutra house numbers and lingerie adorned books (i.e.Agent Provacateur). Personally, I did not feel right using Neutra house numbers on my non-Neutra house, so I opted for Avant Garde. 

 

 

When they released their Alexander Girard children’s blocks a couple years ago, I made sure to get a set for my neice and nephew. They had to have these to include in their collection of Naef toys and puzzles and the Kay Bojesen Wooden Monkey. I quickly assumed the role as shopping aunt, addicted to making sure style was a large part of their childhood years.

 

 

Every stylish kid in the nation should own a set of these Girard blocks. While at the show, I couldn’t help but feel like I was in an oversized children’s romper room of giant colorful alphabets, numbers, and mobiles. As you progressed through the gallery, the last room had some cutting boards that were fashioned out of solid wood using one of their new script font’s ampersand as the shape. The same shape also comes in a cast metal object that could be used as bookends.

 

 

The idea of “and” as something to associate with food made me smile, alluding to the abundant and endless possibilities surrounding food. I was curious about the stroked line on the cutting board and if it was for meat drippings, but I was told it was purely aesthetic to define the shape. Oh well.

 

 

The names they have chosen to collaborate with are broad in scope, but somehow they manage to reflect the discipline of thoughtful, considered typography, illustration and design. I look forward to seeing their future creations in both type and product form. 

 

 

It was nice to put a face to a font, (get it?) and I got to meet and chat a little with both Adam and Andy Cruz at the opening. They are two of the founding members, who are also brothers, along with a few others, they make up House Industries.

 

 

If you are into screen-printing, Fresh Pressed, the cool DIY screen printing shop in Los Feliz has a House Font Kiosk set up now to make and typeset your own tees. 

 

Didn’t you hear? ‘His’ and ‘Hers’ tees are back in style, especially in custom brush script fonts. 

 

 

 

Letter and LIgatures

thru Dec. 5, 2008

Subliminal Projects

1331 N. Sunset Blvd

LA 90026

213.213.0078

 

related site:

http://www.maximodesign.com/ 

 

 

 

pencil 

 

“Rock Out with your Sock Out” is the big idea behind Ashi-Dashi and the super fun socks they offer. This brand new site boasting food and pop culture inspired socks was started by Ken Macy, a fellow freelancer I met a few years ago in Los Angeles.

 

My favorites are, of course, the “meat”, a nicely marbled steak graphic, and the “kick the Habit” cigarette tube socks. Funny.

 

 

meat 

 

These would make great stocking stuffers, pun completely intended, and with the special promotional code for 20% off, it might be wise to stock up on a few pairs for yourself as well as gifts. These would put a smile on any face.

 

 

kick the habit

 

 

‘Ashi-Dashi’ literally means, ’stick out your feet’, in Japanese. I was just visiting Japan and sure wish I had these kooky socks every time I was asked to remove my shoes to go in a shrine or a restaurant.  

 

Like they always say in advertising, socks sell.

 

Shop Ashi-Dashi 

PROMO CODE: SOXONTHEBEACH

20% off

 

good for Friday 11.14.2008 !! 

 

all photos courtesy of Ashi-Dashi 

I finally had had enough of my Eames dining room table that had turned into nothing more than a stage for the dance of pseudo-organized stacks of papers, receipts, periodicals, and bills. These were constantly being rearranged and reorganized, but never getting put away. Basically, an open filing cabinet on display, 24 hours a day.

 

I headed down to Silica Three, a Danish and European second-hand furniture warehouse that a friend had caught wind of on Apartment Therapy as well as on Craigs List. Apparently, this is no secret since another friend had purchased a vanity here a few months back. This day, I was on a mission to “just look” and see what was available in the form of a credenza to organize or hide the method to my madness. 

 

 

 

In the past few years, due to the onslaught of “Hollywood Regency” and other forms of eclectic interiors, more of the previously highly sought after Danish and mid-century pieces have been a bit easier to come by at more reasonable price points. I had been lightly looking at pieces from Room and Board, mainly because I needed something with filing drawer capabilities  When I called Silica Three, David, the owner, informed me that most the credenzas were actually dining room buffets and if I wanted to get a filing thing put in, it could be customized for that. Cool.

 

 

 

Since I did not have $10k for a Florence Knoll credenza with marble top, I figured I should go take a gander. I am trying, whenever possible, to make large purchase decisions based on sustainability, not only in the material that is used to create them, but also whether they are well-designed and well-crafted vintage items that have stood the test of time in both aesthetics and function. 

 

 

 

As I am sometimes famous for, I went with the full intention to “look”, but left with a receipt and an empty pocketbook. The one I purchased was actually from England and not Denmark, which didn’t bother me too much as it was teak that they had sanded down and oiled and is now a beautiful, restored piece with nice, detailed pulls. Because I needed to have a filing system, my options were narrowed down to which units could be modified. Unless you are getting a Wegner or some other well known Danish designer I personally don’t think it’s a big deal if it is not from Denmark. 

 

 

 

All that matters now is keeping the eye sore of paper stacks cleared off the dining room table. There were plenty of other unique pieces like lamps and vases too, even housewares. David goes shopping a few times a year in Europe and has storage units over there. When they get full, he ships them back to the non-descript space in North Hollywood. aka Noho, where they are restored and refinished. They also have a showroom in Culver City in the Helms Bakery, but I am sure going to the source gets you slightly more choices and better deals. This place requires some imagination and some digging, but is basically what a dream thrift store looked like about 10 or 15 years ago. You can still find some real thrift stores that look like this in the south of France, but who wants to deal with shipping bulky items overseas while on vacation?

 

 

 

New shipments are announced periodically on Craig’s List and I believe they are getting one in early December. The site doesn’t have prices listed yet, but I would highly recommend going down there. He seems like a reasonable guy willing to work with people on prices, but you didn’t hear that from me…

 

 

 

Now to balance out the universe, I’m on the mad hunt for an ornate, gold framed mirror to offset the streamlined wood pieces that are taking over my abode. Eclectic modern here I come.

 

Silica Three

5533 Satsuma Ave

North Hollywood, CA 91601

(310) 880-7770 David

 

Open Saturdays and Sundays 10-4 and by appointment

I suggest calling before you head over there.

 

It’s working. Wallflour has inspired someone other than myself to have a garden party!  A few weeks ago, I got an email from my friend, Heather, about a garden party to take place at my friend Reid and Tommy’s house in Echo Park. It was as simple as sending out an email and asking everyone to make canapés to enjoy together on a Sunday afternoon. We take full advantage of the non-existent seasons in LA- Garden party in October? I’m planning to enjoy Thanksgiving outdoors as well.

 

jicama, date and mint canapés 

 

The word “canapés” might be intimidating to some and was obviously up for interpretation. Traditionally, in France and Spain, it means a small snack that can be enjoyed in one bite and usually before a meal, with a cocktail. Most times canapés involve some kind of bready bottom to delivery the salty, savory topping to your mouth. I’m not a ‘canapé cop’ though, and the party was a complete success. There are no rules when it comes to food-centric gatherings.

 

 

crab salad with granny smith apples and toasted baguette 

 

Eating outdoors always makes food more enjoyable. So many yummy things were set out. My favorite dish was the homemade deviled eggs that Juon made. Amazing, he even made the mayonnaise from scratch and just goes to show the simplest things can be absolutely delicious when made with care and the right ingredients. Another highlight was the crab and celery salad on bruschetta toasts and the blanched asparagus tips with a miso dipping sauce.  

 

best deviled eggs ever 

 

Everyone was so inspired and usually inviting ten or so people would get you about five more dishes than what you would make yourself. But that day, the dishes out-numbered the people since many felt inclined to make several dishes and show-off their culinary flair.  The fact that the guests all work in creative fields is reflected in the presentation and arrangement of the food. Another tasty savory item was the jicama and date canapes. Joan went with a 70’s theme and in addition to the asparagus, she made a warm crab dip and a salmon mousse. So beige and so 70’s. 

 

 

an abundance of sweets

 

And then there was dessert. There were about four kinds of dessert. Mindy’s chocolate cream puffs were beautiful and fluffy. I made some ramekins of chocolate pot de cremes with fresh whipped cream and there was a huge platter of cookies and brownies courtesy of Tommy’s offsite kitchen, aka, Delilah’s Bakery. 

 

 

grabbing hands grab all they can… 

 

Cooking and entertaining at home can be so fun and totally affordable. I’m pretty sure everyone went home with doggie bags.These events are rather simple to put together and so much more relaxing than going to a restaurant. Restaurants really can’t accommodate more than a table of six. And there’s nothing more depressing than a screwed up order. Even if it’s not yours, it just sets the mood at the table. 

 

 

cheese and salumi with cornichons and fig spread 

 

Stay tuned for the coverage of the sausage party (literally) that I will be co-hosting this weekend with some friends at my place. It was that or subject myself to a night of Medieval Times. Some quick thinking on my part, and a full blown cocktail birthday party is in effect. Phew, that was a narrow escape.