Mohawk Bend, Echo Park's Newly Opened, Extensive Watering Hole.

If you were keeping tabs on who has the longest list of beers on tap in LA, you might want to add Mohawk Bend to the list. Opened yesterday, this bar in Echo Park carries over 70 beers on tap, all but five are dedicated to California craft beers. They have a full bar which is also all-California, and a full dining menu.

For owner Tony Yanow and GM Paige Reilly, this isn't their first venture in California beers. They opened Tony's Darts Away in Burbank which also has a California-only beer list, and a local brewery is in the works.

The space was a theater, more than 20 years unoccupied. As you enter, you will see the open kitchen on the left, and the bar on the right.

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Worthy Burgers in OC: Joseph Mahon's Burger Parlor (Fullerton, CA)

I never got to try Chef Joseph Mahon's burger while he was at Bastide, but everyone raved about it.
Naturally when he opened Burger Parlor in Fullerton, I decided I had to try it, OC or not (being in Pasadena, OC seems extra far).

Burger Parlor is sort of a permanent pop-up. The space is Rialto Cafe by day and Burger Parlor by night (Wed to Sat nights only at the moment).
In this casual and intimate space, regular customers can chat unintimidated with Mahon, and occasionally his wife and adorable baby boy.

There are nine burgers on the menu and thick cut steak fries, but a sign indicates that he can also construct something vegetarian-friendly. You need only ask.
Mahon has the burger basics down: good meat patty, ground daily from Nebraska Angus beef, and good buttery buns. Of course, he doesn't just stop there - more after the jump.

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A Pupu Party, LA Mag's Island Style Cook-off

Who doesn't like pupu? No one, because who doesn't like Hawaii? In conjunction with the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, Los Angeles Magazine threw an island-style cook-off between four of LA's greatest chefs. A pupu cook-off. Readers tried the pupu and voted online over a period of few weeks, and it all culminated in a cook-off between two finalists at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows.

The winning pupu: Foie gras sushi
Chef Mark Gold, Eva Restaurant

The attendees don't want to just come and watch the cook-off, of course. We want to eat and drink and have fun. And those we did.
First, the drink. Pineapple Mosquito made with vodka, pineapple juice, liquor 43, mint, pineapple juice

We also ate the pupu prepared by the two finalists: Chef Mark Gold from Eva Restaurant prepared sushi with whole lobes of foie gras, tea smoked plum, and grated yuzu. Chef Neal Fraser from BLD prepared Hawaiian tuna poke with wasabi tobiko and sambal creme fraiche; he also prepared some spam banh mi.

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