Mark Your Calendars for LA Loves Alex's Lemonade's 10th Anniversary On Sept 14, 2019!

It's almost time for one of my favorite food events of the year: LA Loves Alex's Lemonade! They're celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. That's right, 10 years of raising money to end childhood cancer along with great food and drinks. Hosted by Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne from the Lucques Group and Chef David Lentz (The Hungry Cat), they've raised over $7.3 million since they started - an amazing feat.

This year's event will be on Saturday, September 14, 2019 at UCLA's Royce Quad. I love that LA Loves Alex's Lemonade not only showcases some of LA's best chefs but also bring in great chefs from outside of LA.
This year's LA lineup includes Josef Centeno (Orsa & Winston), Michael Cimarusti (Providence), Ori Menashe (Bavel), Lufo Lefebvre (Trois Mec), and many more. Some of the chefs coming from out of town include Marc Vetri (Vetri, Philadelphia), Gabriela Camara (Contramar, Mexico City), Frank Ibarra (Bibi Ji, Santa Barbara), Perry Hendrix (Avec, Chicago) and Donald Link (Peche, New Orleans).

There's never a shortage of great food and drinks (cocktails or wine) here. I wasn't able to go for a while when I lived in Boston, but I'm excited to return this year!

Photo: Becky Sapp

General admission tickets are $225 and VIP tickets are $500. Tickets are partially tax deductible and can be purchased here. Be sure to check out the great silent and live auction items while you're there, too. It's all for a good cause! Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation supports various programs from data lab and research initiatives to find cures to providing resources for families to travel to get treatment.

West End Roof Top Opens at The London West Hollywood

With our year-round perfect weather, LA can't have too many rooftop bars. Well, there's another one now, West End Roof Top at The London hotel in West Hollywood.

The West End is a pretty relaxing place to hang out and offers nice views of the city.

The rooftop bar has some frozen blended drinks and easy drinking cocktails. My favorite was the Churchill Goes Tiki (bourbon, pineapple juice, orange juice, orgeat, 1821 Japanese chili lime bitters, $17)

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LA Food Events in August to Put on Your Radar

So I'm a few days late posting about upcoming August festivals (sorry) but summer is in full swing in LA and there are plenty of upcoming food events you should put on your radar!

August 11
Hitching Post 2 Pop-up at LA Wine
This famous Central Coast spot is popping up for one day only at LA Wine. They're bringing over their red oak-fired grill to LA to serve up at LA Wine's outdoor patio starting at 5pm until sold out.

Photo courtesy of Hitching Post

August 22-25
Los Angeles Food & Wine
This year's LA Food & Wine Festival has set up 14 different events over 4 days. Some of my favorite picks include the dinner at Magic Castle with Chef Jason Fullilove and Andre Bienvenu (from Joe's Stone Crab) if for no other reason than you get to go to the Magic Castle. Multiple guest chef dinners are scheduled including the Legends dinner with Nancy Silverton and Jeremiah Tower. For those who want to attend one of the walk-around tastings, there's a Burger Throwdown with Alvin Cailan, LA's Faves and Craves with Jet Tila, The Great Steakout with Curtis Stone and Brunch so Hard with Jeremiah Tower.

Ma'am Sir will be serving this Hawaiian POG cocktail for their dinner collaboration with Chef Sheldon Simeon from Lineage (Maui)

August 25-27
Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo
This one is more for the industry folks. The expo's exhibitors include food products and beverages to new technology and everything you can think of that's related to restaurant operations. The expo also takes place at the same time and area as the Coffee Fest and Healthy Food Expo.

August 30-September 1, 2019
LA Times’ The Taste
The Taste, put on by LA times, always takes place over Labor Day Weekend and this year is no exception. For three evenings on Friday-Sunday, head to the walk-around tastings complete with chef panels, wine seminars, cooking and mixology demonstrations. The participating chefs change each day from Badmaash, Meals by Genet, Otium to Redbird.

Heroic Deli & Wine Bar is The Santa Monica Neighborhood Italian Spot To Go To

If you live or work in Santa Monica, then you need to know about Heroic Deli and Wine Bar. The place is divided into distinct spaces with the wine bar on one side and a cute communal dining on the other side.

On the deli side, I tried the OMG sandwich. The OMG is their challenge to Bay Cities' Godmother sandwich, and it's a great sandwich. It's served on freshly toasted ciabatta that had a nice crunch. Sure, at $16 it's more expensive than the Godmother, but it's filled with better quality ingredients (I shared the sandwich so only showing you a little piece here)

The sandwich is made with Italian prosciutto, salame, capocollo, mortadella, porchetta, smoked mozzarella, artichokes, housemade giardinnaire, house roasted tomatoes, olives, mustard, mayo, and Italian black summer truffles.

I also tried quite a few dishes from the wine bar side over my two visits there, including:
Insalata di Granchio (Pacific crab, lemon zest and vinaigrette)

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