Altadena Farmers Market: Big Mista, Plow & Gun Coffee, Oysters, Fox Pizza Bus, Mother Moo and Molonay Tubilderborst bread !

The new Altadena Farmers' Market opens Wednesday and if it sounds like one of the most interesting ones around, it's not surprising -- it's the brainchild of Joseph Shuldiner, founder of the Institute of Domestic Technology and designer of the Eat: Los Angeles books. Sponsored by Altadena Heritage, this is a farmers' market unlike the rest in L.A., since seven backyard farmers have become certified to sell at the market including Silver Lake Farms and (sub)urban farmers from Glassell Park and Whittier. Plus, the selection of prepared foods is a cut above most markets, including ventures like Twist and Jar handmade wild-yeast pretzels and homemade mustard, from Glendale and Plow & Gun Coffee, a hand-roasted drip coffee bar and coffee soda from Altadena.

Where: Loma Alta Park, 3330 North Lincoln Avenue, Altadena
When: 3 pm to 7 pm Wednesdays
Who: Farmers including:

•  The Garden of…- organic produce and flowers, Los Olivos
• Kenter Canyon Farms – Salad green mixes and herbs
• Suncoast Farms – Dried beans, asparagus, Brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables.
• Elsers Country Farm – Organic family farm, Yucaipa
• Farquhar Farms – Family farm, Redlands
• Muir Ranch — John Muir High School garden, Pasadena
• Drake Family Farm — Farmstead goat cheese, Ontario
• Jubilee Farm — Berkshire Pork, Grass fed beef, chicken, turkey, eggs. Sacramento
• The Growing Home — Diamond Bar (sub)urban farmer
• Flora Ito's Garden – Glassell Park (sub)urban farmer
• Silver Lake Farms – Local (sub)urban flower grower, Silver Lake
• Etheridge Organics — Organic stone fruit, citrus, cherries, Dinuba
• Ellwood Canyon — Organic produce, Santa Barbara
• The City Farm — (sub)urban farmer Reies Flores, chicken and duck eggs, Glassell Park
• Whittier Backyard Farms — (sub)urban backyard greens, Whittier

Prepared Food Vendors:
• Big Mista' BBQ — Pulled Chicken & Pork, Brisket, Turkey Tri-Tip, Pastrami
• Plow & Gun Coffee — Hand-roasted drip coffee bar, coffee soda, Altadena
• Pine Street Products — Handmade soaps, Altadena (sub)urban farmer
• Molonay Tubilderborst— Wild-yeast artisanal breads, Downtown L.A.
• Sqirl Preserves– farm-centric artisinal jams, Silver Lake
• Deisy's Tasty Food — Salvadoran Pupusas made of thick, hand-made corn tortillas with fillings
• Beyond the Olive – California olive oils with a fill-it-yourself station
• Fox Pizza Bus — A double-decker London bus kitted out with a wood-fried pizza oven, Los Angeles
• Mother Moo – Organic Ice Cream, Sierra Madre
• Twist and Jar — Handmade wild-yeast pretzels and homemade mustard, Glendale
• Gary's Knife Sharpening — Expert knife and garden tool sharpening while you shop
• Shucked Oyster Bar — Fresh oysters, muscles, clams and prepared fish

Fusion Burgers: Highland Park gets a familiar burger menu with a local twist

Mexican BBQ burger at Fusion Burgers

Drive down York Blvd. in Highland Park and it's hard to resist stopping for a $1 taco at one of the smoky open air taco tables dotting the street between Figueroa and Ave. 50. The tables doling out the best pastor tacos are distinguished by the pineapple speared at the top of the spit; the juices drip onto the rotating pork as it acquires the all-important crispy bits. The menu at the recently-opened Fusion Burgers, located in a former York Blvd. mini-mall taqueria, owes quite a bit to Umami Burger.
But there's at least one departure from the now-familiar burger selection: the Mexican BBQ burger, a nod to the excellent taco tables down the block.
Fusion's Mexican BBQ burger does a credible job of combining these hyper-local flavors in burger form, with a hefty charred slice of pineapple, a sweet Hawaiian-type bun slicked with aioli and coarsely-ground pork.

Very cheese and bacon burger: crispy onions are a nice touch

Aside from the Mexican BBQ burger ($8.50) and something involving house-processed chorizo cheese, whatever that is, there's the burger with parmesan crisp, oven-dried tomato and shitake ($8.50); the green chile burger; the triple pork; the lamb burger. There are some ambitious ideas going on here, ingredient-wise, as well as the inevitable homemade pickles, cane-sugar sweetened sodas and sweet potato fries.

There's a sudden rush in Highland Park of Salvadoran bakeries turning into Proof Coffee-pouring cafes and perfectly good carne asada joints turning into gourmet burger shops. It's true that a person can only eat so much carne asada. But there's something overly formal and awkward about these places, where the servers call you "madame" while you're ordering a burger or use the royal "we" when taking your order. Anyway, Fusion Burger, madames aside, is a welcome addition to York, since it fills a need for casual places where you won't end up dropping $60-$80 for two, as you're likely to do at the York, Ba or Maxmiliano. And the burgers are darn good.
Maybe every neighborhood could use a place that takes a hit concept, then makes it a little bit all its own.

Fusion Burgers
5933 York Blvd.
Highland Park
(323) 257-8705

Are you friend or foe of foie gras? Taste some now before it goes away June 30

Montes rose of syrah has a label drawn by Ralph Steadman!

Like the first time I set foot in Paris, the first time I had foie gras was a sweetly memorable experience. I was 23 and leaving Paris soon, moving back to L.A. for good. My French boyfriend wanted to take me too a really good restaurant, and suggested La Tour d'Argent. I didn't know much about food yet, but I knew that would be the kind of place I would feel uncomfortable and intimidated and they would sneer at us if we didn't order the right wine. So I suggested Hemingway's old haunt, La Closerie de Lilas, a relatively casual restaurant that was nonetheless much more expensive than I was used to. My friend insisted on ordering foie gras when he heard I'd never had it. I think it came with toast points and a glass of Sauternes; it was before we took pictures of our food so I don't recall. I fell in love immediately with the silky, slightly musky foie -- it was a potent reminder of all I was leaving behind in Paris.

Takami has views that don't quit

I don't eat it often in L.A. -- I remember a lovely foie gras done three ways at Grace, the beguiling cotton candy foie at Bazaar -- because I'd like to keep it as special as that last night in Paris.

But the state of California has decided to ban foie -- with a $1000 fine for selling it -- effective July 1. I'm sorry for the ducks and geese, but I'm not sure it's so much worse than battery cages or beef slaughterhouses or pink slime or all the other things we mostly ignore when we agree to eat animals. And there's hundreds of years of tradition behind it, which seems to count for something. So I'm coming out in favor of foie, and like the Artisan Farmers Alliance.

Seared foie gras, caramelized mango, rose reduction

With foie gras set to be banned as of June 30, many restaurants around town are doing Farewell to Foie dinners which are a bit of a devil's bargain -- one really good course of the rich liver is normally preferable to many, which could easily cause a crise de foie (French for upset tummy).

braised daikon, foie gras with shallot butter was our favorite

I was invited to sample one such dinner at Takami, accompanied by wines from Montes winery, and though it included six courses of foie, I'm happy to say the petite portions were not at all overwhelming. Takami, the Wilshire Blvd. sushi restaurant with the killer Downtown views, has always served foie dishes from French-influenced chef Stan Ota, and will be offering the dishes we tasted through the end of June, after which we will have to trek to Las Vegas or beyond for a foie fix.

nigiri of ahi tuna & foie gras with eel sauce

We enjoyed all the foie tastes -- those who like their foie paired with fruit would appreciate the one with caramelized mango, while braised daikon and shallot butter was an ideal non-sweet Franco-Japanese combination.
I wasn't very familiar with Chilean wine, and the Montes wines were excellent accompaniments to the rich dishes. I'd defnintely pick up their rose, Paso Robles syrah, or Late Harvest gewurztraminer dessert wine -- the perfect foil to the foie-gras infused chocolate truffles that ended the meal.

Tom Bergin's: Better beer, shinier shamrocks

Afternoon delight: an Irish coffee at Tom Bergin's vintage bar

Except for an awkward blind date with a guy named Michael Bolton (don't ask), most of my visits to Tom Bergin's have involved standing up in a packed the bar area, saying goodbye to somebody leaving Variety. Tom Bergin's Fairfax location makes it a perfect journalist watering hole for pubs like Variety, Los Angeles magazine, the Hollywood Reporter, Angeleno or the Condie Nasties. 
Alas, most of us don't nip out for a few scotches on our lunch hour anymore, so we saved up for farewell parties at Bergin's, where the middling food took a backseat to farewell toasts.

All the shamrocks have been replaced -- is that ex-Variety publisher Charlie Koones at the top?

After closing for several months for scrubbing and polishing, the 75-year old Tom Bergin's is now re-opened, with an all-new menu that's light on potato skins and other staples of bar food, instead concentrating on gastropubby fried chicken skin, free range burgers, Irish stew and cottage pie.
The new owners, who also run Little Dom's and Dominick's, wisely elected to leave the interior almost just the same. I hadn't realized what a lovely patina of age the place has until Los Angeles magazine's Elina Shatkin and I checked it out for lunch a few days after it re-opened. The number of historic restaurants around L.A. diminishes each year, and we should treasure each one, preferably while consuming several pints and Irish coffees.

A respectable beer list,though there's only a handful of Irish brews

The beer list has also been buffed up, with pints at a reasonable $6 that include the expected Guinness and Harp as well as O'Hara's Irish Red, Firestone Double Barrel Ale, Duvel and Stone IPA. Bottles and cans include some fairly exotic choices -- Pedigree Ale, Wexford Irish Cream Ale -- including Belgian DeuS on the reserve list at a jaw-dropping $69.

seared cod sandwich on a brioche bun

My seared cod sandwich with malt vinegar mayo was much better than anything I'd had at the old Bergin's, though $13 for a sandwich at lunch with another $3 for fries or salad means I won't be indulging too often at lunchtime.

Elina's traditional Irish breakfast (served all day!) substituted chicken sausage for the traditional pork, but supplied the requisite blood pudding along with fried eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and grilled soda bread -- a hearty breakfast, but not a cheap one at $16.
Tom, we're very glad you're back -- you never know when another reporter might move on to a new job. But I hope the regulars are ready to substitute trendier chicken skin for old-school potato skins.
Tom Bergin's Tavern
840 S. Fairfax
323-936-7151

News from Square One, Gingergrass and Glassell Park's new Lemon Poppy Kitchen at Taste of the Eastside

Pharmacie's Talmadge Lowe, left, demonstrated technique for tasty whiskey sours: Buffalo Trace bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup, Old-Fashioned bitters.

Sunday's Taste of the Eastside wasn't just a chance to try some great bites from restaurants around Silver Lake, Echo Park, Atwater, Eagle Rock and Highland Park, but also a good place to catch up with what's going on in the area.

 Good Girl Dinette's noodles with freshly-grilled beef or pork

At Square One Dining, where we sampled mini bacon topped pancakes, we asked about progress on the restaurant's upcoming location in the old Fritzie's space at Hyperion and Griffith Park. It's coming along slowly but surely with an early fall opening on the horizon. Co-owner Manao DeMuth is helping design the space, which has been completely redone and will include outdoor seating along Hyperion. Plans are to start with dinner and weekend brunch, with beer and wine available.

best Pavlovas ever at Proof Bakery

Meanwhile at Gingergrass, new bakery items will be available soon in the Bia Hoi annex next door. We sampled creamy coconut rice pudding and spiced cinnamon buns that will go down mighty nice with a Vietnamese coffee. Fresh beer by night, pastries by day -- now that's a good use of space!

Icy oysters from L&E were refreshing on a warm Sunday

We were also happy to find out about a new bakery and coffee shopin Glassell Park, Lemon Poppy Kitchen. Now in a soft opening stage, Lemon Poppy is in a Verdugo Road mini-mall about two blocks south of the Verdugo Bar and serves Handsome Roast Coffee and baked goods Wednesday through Sunday from 9 to 2. It's the lovechild of Katie from Robin's nest jams and Anca and Jack from Anca’s Romanian, a roving stuffed Romanian flatbread company!

Taste of the Eastside: show and tell marshmallows, pickles, jam and gnocchi

Guisados tacos

Tickets are still available for Sunday's Taste of the Eastside at Barnsdall Park from 1 pm-5 pm, and there's a full afternoon of demonstrations planned in case you need to take an eating break.
Tickets are $35 until Saturday at midnight, and $45 at the event, and benefit Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, SEE-LA and Rose Scharlin Nursery School.

Here's some of the local food and drink experts who will be presenting at the event:

KCRW's Evan Kleiman: Ricotta Gnocchi

Sqirl's Jessica Koslow: Simple Berry Jam

Jen Smith: CANNING and a Quick Pickle


Mixologist Talmadge Lowe on The Sour Cocktail

Naoko Moore: Healthy Japanese Vegan Picnic Dishes

Ann Kirk: Meyer Lemon Marshmallows

Mixologist Marcos Tello of Neat

Intelligentsia Coffee: Making Delicious Coffee at Home

And don't miss trying all the tastes of the near and actual Eastside, including:
Canele, Good Girl Dinette, Little Dom's, Cookbook, Intelligentsia, Guisados, Hugo's Tacos, The Farmer's Kitchen, Mohawk Bend, Auntie Em's, Pazzo Gelato, Xoia, Eagle Rock Brewery, Square One, Gingergrass, Reservoir, Malo, Madame Matisse, Cliff's Edge, Yuca's, Silver Lake Wine, Golden Road Brewery and more!

La Cuevita opens Friday: More mescal, but the bats remain

for now, the sign remains the same

The Little Cave on Figueroa was aways a low-key place to grab a beer, with adorable Bettie Page-esque dj's spinning PIL and heavily-tattooed bartenders who invited you to the premiere of their horror movie at the bar. But despite the charm of the pitch-black interior and spooky clientele, all things must evolve. This is especially true in Highland Park, home to increasing hordes of newcomers who don't really have that many bars to choose from, compared to say, Echo Park and Silver Lake. 

A freshened-up interior has Mexican flavor

So the Little Cave is now La Cuevita, turning from goth bar for Latinos to hip Mexican bar for those who don't flinch at $12 cocktails. The interior has been spiffed up with bare rafters and touches of Mexican decor, as well as more tasteful artsy bats than the previous mascots. Who knew there were windows in the crepuscular space?

taps and tequila at La Cuevita

We tried several cocktails created by Thirsty Crow's Cooper Gillespie and Jared Mort of Oldfield's, including the namesake La Cuevita with smoky mescal and ginger beer, the jalapeno margarita with grapefruit juice, the unusual mole Manhattan with a slight chocolate taste and the refreshing Mezcalada with Clamato, Corona and mescal. There's a solid selection of tequila and mescal, the same beer taps as before, and the same two outdoor drinking areas.
On Taco Tuesday, $1 tacos and $5 margaritas help keep drinking costs down. And conveniently for the olds, there's now a highly generous happy hour that stretches from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Now if they can just bring back that dj once in a while...
La Cuevita
5922 N. Figueroa
Highland Park
(323) 255-6871

Toasting L.A.'s new Greenbar distillery with a Vanilla Shandy cocktail

L.A. welcomed its first commercial distillery since prohibition Sunday evening as Greenbar Collective had its grand opening in a Downtown warehouse. (Unfortunately the draconian local liquor laws mean there's no tasting room, so it's wholesale only.)
Litty Mathew and Melkon Khosrovian's company has come a long way since we voted on fruit and herb-infused vodkas back in their Glendale kitchen. They've since concentrated on using organic produce and then organic grains to create the Greenbar Collective line of organic spirits including Tru Vodka, Tru2 Gin, Crusoe Rum and the latest, Ixa Organic Tequila. Soon to come is Slow Hand white whiskey and eventually an aged whiskey, distilled right in L.A. (Melkon travels to Mexico several times a year to make the tequila, which of course has to be made on site.) They also make organic Fruitlab liqueurs in flavors like Jasmine and Hibiscus, and the Barkeep line of bitters concocted by notable mixologists.
As much as the couple loves spirits, they love beer just as much, so here's how to mix a lager-spiked cocktail they enjoy at home for your all-organic enjoyment.

             TRU Vanilla Shandy
1 oz TRU organic vanilla vodka
2 oz organic lager
1/2 oz FRUITLAB organic jasmine liqueur
squeeze of organic fresh lemon juice
 Pour all into tall, ice filled glass
Stir for 10 seconds. Garnish with lemon and orange twist.

Salut, Greenbar Collective, on your new distillery!

Rocio's Moles De Los Dioses: Food of the Goddess, indeed

Rocio's "Mole of the Goddesses"

I had been wanting to try Rocio's Moles ever since the queen of moles, Rocio Camacho, landed at her new restaurant in Bell. Although I had been to Bell with Bill Esparza on the Latin desserts crawl, it still seemed like a fur piece to go for lunch. But then I checked the map and realized that for those of us near the 710, Bell is actually a quick trip south just past East L.A. In case you just came in, Camacho has been known for her startingly original array of moles and fresh approach to Mexican cooking since her days at Moles La Tia in Boyle Heights. Javier Cabral has been following her cooking ever since he was the Teenage Glutster, and it's well worth a little freeway action to get there.
Turning down Maywood Ave., the industrial street of discount mattress warehouses doesn't look like a promising place to find one of the better Mexican restaurants in the entire L.A. area. But it is, and on entering the small but immaculate and welcoming restaurant, you'll might find, as we did, that the only other party is a rather esteemed local critic and his family taking in a mole-infused late lunch.

pork with pipian rojo

Mole can be heavy stuff, so we ordered a smattering of other dishes as well since I had tasted many varieties of the mole back at Moles La Tia. Most all the dishes on the menu show the same spirit of experimentation with ingredients and preparations as the moles.

nopales with grilled panela cheese

Nopales (cactus) salad with grilled panela cheese had a bright dressing that perfectly offset the creamy cheese. The salad can also be had with chicken or shrimp instead of cheese.

corn and cuitlacoche soup

Corn and cuitlacoche cream soup was a little different than I expected -- rather than a fresh corn soup, it combined cornmeal with the corn fungus cuitlacoche in a soup that was interesting, but tasted more like the Mexican breakfast drink atole than a soup.

Guacamole (Diosa Sangre Ardente)

Do not miss the guacamole -- it comes in three different degrees of spice, each with a florid moniker. Diosa amorosa (goddesss in love) is not spicy; Diosa carnal (carnal goddess!) with serrano chile is very spicy, while the Diosa Sangre Ardente (Goddess with ardent blood) with habanero is also pretty spicy, though passion fruit gives it a fruity finish. Whichever you choose, you'll be completely in love with the chunky, just-made guac, though the chips are pretty standard. Instead, ask for some just-made tortillas, which are excellent. After working your way through some appetizers, choose a main course -- start by selecting chicken breast, filet mignon, salmon, fish, pork or veal. Different moles go better with different meats, so ask your server for saucing counsel. Tangy mescal salsa (complete with worm, of course) is perfect for fish. For the grilled pork, we tried the pipian rojo, a smoky but mild ancho chile sauce thickened with pumpkin or sesame seeds.

cherry ice cream with grains

I didn't want to miss the desserts, since the five choices were a far cry from the plain flan or tres leches cake found at most Mexican restaurants. Our server wasn't entirely sure what kind of grains gave such an unusual texture to housemade cherry ice cream, but the iciness that's common with Mexican ice cream, the slight grittiness of the grain and a potent topping of what must have been alcoholic rumpope or eggnog added up to a heady and refreshing finish to the meal.  
If the Valley is closer, Rocio's has another location near North Hollywood at 8255 Sunland Blvd.
(818) 252-6415.

Rocio's Moles
6242 Maywood Ave.
Bell
323) 588-5536


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Black Hogg: When hipsters lie down with lambs

Black Hogg's cod n' chips with waffle fries

There's no place more emblematic of how much Silver Lake has changed in the past few years than the  new Black Hogg. Once home to L.A. Chinese, known as "The scariest restaurant in L.A.," it's now a sleekly spare room with hand-crafted looking plywood furniture and a window fronting on Sunset Blvd. A few antique mirrors on the back wall serve as the only decoration; thankfully, the lighting fixtures are LED rather than the ubiquitous filament.
Right now it's the place everyone wants to be, from TV stars to adorkable couples, and the wait can be painful. (Hint: If only four-tops are available, see if another couple wants to share -- you may make some new friends.)
The food is gastropubbish in nature, and not entirely as piggy as the name might suggest. A Black Hogg is apparently a young sheep, so the signature burger is a lamb burger with blue cheese ($17). A liquor license is still in the works, so a trip to Sunset Beer or Silver Lake Wine beforehand is highly recommended.

9 lettuce salad with ricotta salata

Nearly everything (save the oysters on the half shell) is buttery or fried or meaty, and vegetarians are not particularly well accommodated. The menu's lone salad, a messy heap of nine lettuces with grated ricotta salata ($10), was somewhat one-note but slicked with a nice lemony dressing.

herbed chicken liver with chicken skin garnish

Spicy chicken liver was piled on toast in a sloppy heap with an alarming dog food-esque color ($7). Aesthetics aside, the zingy, herbed take on chopped liver was rustic and delicious, enough for four people to share. Perky pieces of fried chicken skin set sail on top, vaulting the presentation into decadent territory.
Most everyone orders the fried olives or fried "popcorn bacon," but we saved our oil rations for fish 'n chips ($15). Matt was crazy for the ruffled chips, which fall somewhere between crispy potato chips and fried potatoes and would make a terrific bar snack with a good dipping sauce. The fish itself was bland, though perhaps that can't be helped with cod, but we liked the crunchy nut-brown ale batter. We skipped dessert, as the angry mobs waiting for tables looked ready to break out the pitchforks.
Verdict: Black Hogg is fun and buzzy, though a little uneven in its first weeks. I love this kind of greasy, over-the-top meatiness at a casual drinking spot like Beer Belly, but I'm not sure I like it as much in a real restaurant. Add a few creative vegetable small plates to vary the non-stop pork parade, and we'll talk.
Black Hogg
2852 Sunset Blvd.
323-953-2620