The Edison Brings the Deals Back to Downtown

35 cent cocktails are back at The Edison, quite possibly the best happy hour deal in town! Better yet, they're now available on both Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5-7 PM, while you can get a $1 Millenium Cocktail on Fridays at the same times.

The 35¢ cocktail changes all the time, but expect competently prepared classics like this gin martini we had last week.

Five bar snacks are available for $5 each from 5-7 pm also and each comes with either Edison or Tesla (sweet potato) fries.

Kobe Beef Slider

Singapore Wings, with a sweet glaze.
My favorite bite of the night

Beer drinkers should watch out for the "Dog Days of Summer" deal, where you can get (kosher) hot dog, onion rings, and a draft beer for $10. If you get a glass of Chimay cing cent like I did, consider that that usually runs $9 a glass here. That means your hot dog + onion rings come out to $1.

If one cocktail isn't enough (when is it ever?), be happy to know that everything else on the menu is 40% off during happy hour, so you can give my favorite the Brown Derby, a concoction of bourbon, honey, and grapefruit juice, a try.

PS. Radio Room is returning to The Edison on Tuesday July 13. This time they're featuring bartenders from Ward III in New York: Michael Neff, Kenneth McCoy, and Abdul Tabini.
Event starts at 8 PM with a $10 cover. Check out www.edisondowntown.com for pre-sale tickets so you don't have to wait in line!



The Edison
108 W 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 613-0000
www.edisondowntown.com


Disclaimer: I was hosted by The Edison during this happy hour.

EFFEN Vodka Party at La Vida

EFFEN is a wheat-based vodka from Holland that is targeted for the club scene and "younger drinkers."

EFFEN boasts their focus on "design" as evidenced by the good looking box and bottle its product comes in, along with the rubber grip of the bottle, which will make busy bartenders' lives much easier. Rushing and grabbing bottles in a busy night club? Yep I can see how a gripping a glass bottle will be hard and how that rubber sleeve would really help.

Photo courtesy of EFFEN

It's also evidenced by the EFFEN by Design events they've been putting on around the country. I was invited to one held at La Vida in Hollywood. They had invited Vanessa de Vargas, an interior designer, to speak about interesting architecture in Los Angeles. The four cocktails (created by La Vida's even director) are named after historical and architectural landmarks like The Parker and The Coonley Playhouse.
Two of the four cocktails were made with the plain EFFEN vodka while the other two were made using the black cherry flavored vodka. The regular vodka runs at $25.99 at BevMo - not a bad price - though the Black Cherry flavor seems to run above $30.

La Vida's new executive chef is the former Chef de Cuisine at Rivera, Joseph Panarello. While I didn't get to have a full meal here, the passed hors d'oeuvres did give an idea of what he was doing at his new gig.
We all loved these little lamb chops. I probably ate about four. I'm looking forward to having a full dinner here soon.


Disclosure: The party was hosted by EFFEN vodka and I received a bottle of their regular vodka.

La Chiripada Winery (Dixon, New Mexico)

Seems like almost every state makes their own wine now, and New Mexico certainly is no exception. In fact, Albuquerque's Gruet Winery is pretty well known for their sparkling wines. Put a group of graduate students in Los Alamos for 2 weeks and we won't fail to take advantage of the weekends to go wine tasting.

A quick research on the smartphone brought us to La Chiripada.

La Chiripada is a quaint and modest winery in Dixon (50 miles north of Santa Fe) marked by a small adobe structure, where casual wine tastings are held. We walked in with hair still wet from the rafting trip that morning. You can do that in New Mexico, it's just that kind of lifestyle.

Surrounded by the beautiful landscape of New Mexico

La Chiripada was started in 1977 in the Rio Embudo Valley of NM and now produces a variety of red, white, and dessert wines. Many of the red varieties are local, including Canoncito and their most popular, Rio Embudo Red, a local Leon Millot French hybrid grape variety.

Most of the reds weren't "quite there yet" for me being perfectly drinkable and enjoyable but without enough depth. Keep in mind we tried young wines during the tasting, though I did enjoy the Reserve selection.

The whites fared better, on the other hand, with the crispness I tend to look for in my whites.
Since the tasting fee is waived when you buy a bottle, I took home a bottle of the Special Reserve Riesling.

La Chiripada Winery
Hwy 75 (3 miles East of the Hwy 68 and Hwy 75 junction)
Dixon, NM