Close your eyes and picture this: You’re wearing your favorite pair of fun pants. You’re not at work behind a computer screen, but instead you’re floating through a beer fest and it’s raining Chinese dumplings. Now you’re sprawled on a lawn at an old fashioned pie bake-off. Smell that? It’s the ocean breeze. You've arrived at a seafood festival on the beach. Did somebody say chocolate? You’re suddenly sampling truffles at an artisan chocolate salon. Now you’re in your finest pair of ripped jeans, sitting front row at LA Fashion Week. Holy shit, is that the man, the legend, Jonathan Gold divulging the behind the scenes deets at a City of Gold screening?
No, we didn’t hypnotize or roofie you. (Aren’t we sweet?!) It’s all happening this weekend in LA …
Thursday, September 29
Cognoscenti Coffee x Mooon Party!
Cognoscenti is throwing a party to celebrate the launch of a new app by Mooon that’ll help us coffee snobs navigate LA’s specialty coffee scene. While they’re at it, they’re also popping bottles for the opening of Cognoscenti’s third location in the Fashion District. There will be food by The Rooster Truck, music by Michael Antonia of The Flashdance and a Thursday Night Throwdown with the best baristas in town competing to showcase their fancy schmancy latte art.
Deets: 7 p.m., Cognoscenti at City Market South; $5; Please RSVP HERE
Image courtesy of Hello Mooon
DTLA Neighborhood Nights at L.A. LIVE
A brand new event is bringing the block party to DTLA. Once you’ve slammed that laptop shut for the day, get down to L.A. Live and ring in the weekend early with cover bands and $5 food and drink menus from the not-so-shabby Katsuya, Wolfgang Puck, Smashburger and more.
Deets: 6 p.m. till late; L.A. Live; Discounted $10 parking at West Gate, Gate B only; More info and participating restaurants HERE
Image courtesy of L.A. LIVE
San Gabriel Dumpling and Beer Fest
Oktoberfest may be of Bavarian origin, but it has become a universal celebration of beer and good times everywhere. Who doesn’t want to attend a festival where you can guiltlessly drink liter after liter of beer? Two years ago, dumpling-mecca San Gabriel established their own Oktoberfest and swapped out the pretzels and brats for doughy asian delights. Dumplings and beer for all!
Deets: 6 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.; San Gabriel Mission District; FREE entry but beer tasting wristbands are available for $20-$30 HERE; *Individual beer drinks not available for purchase, only wristband holders can sample beer; Wine tasting is available for purchase at the festival
Image courtesy of City of San Gabriel Government
Thursday, September 29 - Sunday, October 2
LA Fashion Week SS17
A twice-yearly event, LA Fashion Week seeks to highlight our City of Angels as the standout cultural hub that we've known her to be all along. With a program that highlights aspiring and up-and-coming designers alongside more established fashion icons, LA has the ability to open our eyes to some hot new finds. The designers’ collections are being displayed in multiple formats that go beyond the runway and include sweet collabs with artists and musicians too. You won’t want to miss this.
Deets: Beginning 5:30 p.m.through Sunday, Hollywood Athletic Club; Schedule available HERE
Image courtesy of LA Fashion Week
Friday, September 30
Beyond Fest
Lauded as the highest attended genre film festival in the US, Beyond Fest is your chance to catch up with some old favorites (Taxi Driver, Dawn of the Dead), discover something new (The Accountant, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) or just lose your freaking mind (in the mother of all Japanese horrors where The Ring and The Grudge come head to head in Sadako vs. Kayako). Beyond Fest also raises funds for American Cinematheque in the process, so what better reason to spend your next two sunny weekends in the dark? Nicholas Cage and Bruce Campbell are even going to join you. Check out the brilliant teaser HERE
Deets: Egyptian Theatre through Oct 11; Tickets range from FREE - $15; Full info and schedule HERE
Image courtesy of Beyond Fest
Front Porch Cinema on the Santa Monica Pier
Don’t go storing the lawn chairs till next summer just yet. The Twilight Concerts on the Pier may have faded, but enter — Front Porch Cinema! Presented by LA’s best outdoor movie folk, Eat See Hear, Front Porch Cinema is an equally free night out under the stars in Santa Monica. Screenings will take place every Friday from this week through October 28, kicking off with Zootopia. Food and drinks available on site.
Deets: Music starts at 6 p.m.; film at 7:30 p.m.; lawn chairs available for rent; More info HERE
Image courtesy of Eat.See.Hear.
Saturday, October 1
The Eat Show
A brand new tasting event for LA foodies has arrived. The Eat Show has 50+ restaurants from LA and the OC all under one roof in DTLA. We’re told this event is not a festival but a “celebration of culinary excellence for real food enthusiasts,” which sounds even more enticing. With both a lunch and dinner session available and vendors including Seoul Sausage Co., Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Roscoe’s, Mama Musubi and more, why would you stay home and cook? With 50 vendors at $50 a ticket, that’s $1 a restaurant!
Deets: Lunch, noon - 3 p.m.; Dinner, 6 - 9 p.m.; The REEF DTLA; Tickets $50 (VIP $90) HERE; Tickets limited to 1,000 per session
Image courtesy of The Eat Show
The 8th annual Los Angeles Printers Fair
No digitial invention can ever compete with the musty smell of an old book, or even the fresh inky smell of a new one. The Los Angeles Printers Fair celebrates the (hopefully never extinct) art of bookmaking with a showcase of all things print-related. There will be live demos and over 80 vendors selling printed wares as well as a letterpress swapmeet and a special exhibit of an historic collection of printed vinyl sleeves from Stoughton Printing Company. The fair will raise funds for the non-profit International Printing Museum.
Deets: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; International Printing Museum; Tickets $10, $8 students/seniors, $5 kids under 12 can be pre-paid HERE
Got some bookshelves to fill? Check out some of the best bookstores in LA according to local author Amelia Gray.
Image courtesy of The International Printing Museum
The 10th Annual Los Angeles Chocolate Salon
Imagine an entire room filled with artisan, premium handmade chocolates, chocolate modeling demonstrations, chocolate chefs and most importantly, chocolate tastings. This creamy, dreamy little event is now in it’s 10th year, but alas, this will be its last. This is your last chance to truly go to chocolate town.
Deets: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Pasadena Convention Center; Tickets: $20 advance, $25 on door, $5 for children 6-12, available HERE
Image courtesy of Chocolate Salon
OFF THE HOOK Seafood Festival
Saturday, October 1 is the official start to National Seafood Month, so here’s a seafood festival to get you started. The Santa Monica Pier will be home to yet another stellar event of seafood tastings, cocktails and chef demos from some of LA’s best seafood restaurants — The Lobster, Herringbone, Geoffrey's Malibu, Gladstone's and FIG, and more. And because we should be grateful and conscious of our friends of the sea, Off The Hook will raise funds for Westside Food Bank and awareness for the sustainable seafood movement through Seafood for the Future.
Deets: 3 - 7 p.m.; Santa Monica Pier; Tickets $60-$90 HERE
Curious about who's serving up the best fruit of the sea in Los Angeles? We asked Chef Brian Malarkey of Herringbone for his seafood hit list ... HERE
Image courtesy of Off The Hook
L.A.’s Only Live Animated Comedy Show
This one certainly brings new meaning to the term “comedy sketch.” The animated comedy show will feature animators, cartoonists and other artists in action. This is LA’s only live animated comedy show. With a lineup of comedians that includes Drew Droege (Bob’s Burgers) and Jimmy Pardo (Conan) and an animation lineup that has Mike Hollingsworth (Bojack Horseman) and Colin Heck (The Simpsons) on board, it’s sure to be a wet-ya-pants kind of evening.
Deets: Doors at 7:30 p.m.; show at 8 p.m., The Virgil, FREE; More info HERE
Image courtesy of Picture This
Sunday, October 2
The Great Rock and Roll Flea Market
With an unmatched rock ‘n roll history, only LA could present an authentic monthly Rock ‘n Roll Flea Market. On the first Sunday of every month you can expect a treasure trove of hand picked vinyl, clothing, jewelry and even boozy brunch bingo.
Deets: 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Regent Theater, More info HERE
Image courtesy of The Great Rock and Roll Flea Market
LA Times screening of City of Gold
We may be the City of Angels, but anyone on the food scene knows that we’re certainly the City of (Jonathan) Gold — the powerhouse LA Times Restaurant Critic and Pulitzer Prize winner who has ‘made’ many an LA establishment. This documentary invites you to explore LA through the eyes of the master critic, followed by a Q&A with the man himself. But like all things JG, you can’t have an event without fine cuisine and so a tasting party awaits you on the other side. Partial proceeds will benefit non-profit Food Forward.
Deets: Doors 5 p.m.; movie 6 p.m., Q&A 7:40 p.m., tasting party 8 p.m.; The Wiltern, GA tickets start at $12; All ages, full bar; See more info HERE
Image courtesy of The Wiltern
KCRW’S Annual Good Food Pie Contest
If you didn’t already love KCRW, here’s one more reason — a pie contest! Pie pros and home chefs alike will compete for prizes such as Best in Show and Best Crust from some of LA’s best chefs and food writers. KCRW DJ Garth Trinidad will also be on hand to get the groove going and there will be pie tasting for all in addition to food trucks, activities for the kiddies and a marketplace. Bring a picnic rug and chill under the spell of everyone’s fave public radio station.
Deets: 11 a.m., Royce Hall at UCLA (between Royce Hall and Powell Library); Schedule and more info HERE
Image courtesy of Fowler Museum at UCLA
Header image courtesy of KCRW / Fowler Museum of UCLA
