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Lively interviews on what Los Angeles drinks and why.
22 Episodes
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‘Ineffable’ is the word Lou Amdur uses when describing his attraction to wine. He groups wine with love and friendship as being beyond description in terms of his ardency for them. When I first met him in the 2000s, I immediately recognized him as a champion of wine, especially wine made from marginalized grapes. I came to regard him privately as the patron saint of the forgotton grape- probably pineau d’aunis, an obscure grape that he gallantly promotes. Lou’s story of how...
We continue our conversation with Adam Weisblatt, who is a principle in Last Word Hospitality, a consulting firm with a healthy list of high-profile restaurant clients. In 2015, at the tender age of 30, Adam teamed with Holly Fox, formerly a project manager at entertainment group SBE. Since then, the two have helped consult on all aspects of the successful launching and running of restaurants, bars and other businesses. This means soup to nuts: from establishing...
Today, while seeking out more beverage truths about Los Angeles, we take a slight detour to the subject of creating success in an eating and drinking establishment. And we ask about the unique role that a beverage program has in this undertaking. Our guest is Adam Weisblatt, a principle in Last Word Hospitality, a consulting firm with a healthy list of high-profile restaurant clients. In 2015, at the tender age of 30, Adam teamed with Holly Fox, formerly a project man...
Caroline Styne is a successful restaurateur and a partner in the Lucques Group. She and her partner, Suzanne Goin, are also responsible for the first self-conscious ‘small plates’ restaurant in Los Angeles, a.o.c., which began a trend that is still going strong today. In doing so, she also initiated a vast by-the-glass wine program that not only provided many options to diners eating an unusual variety of things for dinner, she also made sure that those wines were really good and ...
Patrick Comiskey should be well-known to those who read the Los Angeles Times or who seek out writing about wine. He has been a regular fixture with the Times and, more recently, with the wine and spirits blog 750 Daily with many articles advising about smart wine drinking as well as various aspects of the Los Angeles wine world such as the legacy of Piero Selvaggio of the recently-closed Valentino restaurant or a story about L A wine tasting groups going back to the 60’s and the future...
Today we’re talking to Zach Negin who is the owner of Tabula Rasa Bar in Thai Town. Rather than talking about drinks per se, we take a look inside an establishment that is on the front lines of what we should think of as an L. A. wine bar. In the past few years wine bars have been staking out territories across L. A. and in some cases they have been emphasizing low-intervention or so-called ‘natural’ wines (not to mention artisanal beers). Tabula Rasa is such a place...
Nina Sventitsky moved to L. A. from New York in the 1990’s. Her career in marketing for magazine conglomerates led her there. She took a beginner’s wine course at Wally’s and became a wine enthusiast. After a stint at a short-lived wine magazine and a struggle as a wine rep through the economic crash, she became involved with the North American Sommelier Association, becoming a board member and cultivating sponsorships for the organization. Soon after, she landed a job...
Amy Christine started her wine journey as a server in Detroit. She was encouraged to take the Certified Somm exam which satisfied her attraction to arcane information and laid the groundwork for further extreme studies. After a move to Los Angeles and a fruitful stint in service at the evergreen A.O.C., she migrated to wine distribution and its more regular hours so as to more easily see her soon-to-be husband, Peter Hunken- and make wine with him. They now have several lab...
Tequila is at the center of a more general expansion of premium liquor worldwide. The wide-ranging flavors that are derived from the blue agave plant fall into line the with the variations one can find with the world’s finest spirits categories; scotch whisky, rum, cognac and others. Along with the agave-based mezcal that tequila is closely associated with, it has quickly become legitimized in the marketplace populating all premium tiers and is growing faster than other spirits. T...
The idea of starting a Los Angeles winery is a compelling narrative. Who doesn’t want to drink local wine? Apart from the touristy San Antonio winery and Rupert Murdoch’s Bel Air vanity project Moraga, Angeleno Wines is the sole commercial winery in the city of Los Angeles or its immediate environs. Jasper Dickson’s motivation in his local winemaking concept should probably be looked at foremost in terms of utilitarian convenience: If you live in a place and make wine, its ...
Sake in Los Angeles has broken out of its role as a warm accompaniment to tempura and maki rolls. Sake of all categories and regions are now common in restaurants beyond those exclusively Japanese. My guest is Kerry Tamura, who’s family blazed trails in Japanese-style hospitality in Chicago, with Shino, Café Shino and Murasake Lounge. Success came to the Tamuras particularly in the 80’s when many Japanese contract employees of the auto industry moved to the Chicago area to be near...
When she launched Amy Atwood Selections ten years ago, Amy Atwood was by and large alone with a portfolio that was defined by mostly pure and low-intervention wines. The wine author and friend Alice Feiring helped Amy to understand that her tastes had migrated to wines of this style and individuality and these were the wines that Amy put in her portfolio. ‘Nothing added, nothing removed’ is the philosophy of those who strive not to intervene in wine that is a pure expression of i...
What could be more Los Angeles than a glass of bubbly? Whether it is the prickle of Barefoot pink moscato or the creamy friction of Dom Perignon, wine with bubbles is the drink of the fabulist and the arriviste. L A in spades. Jeridan Frye is a U S brand ambassador for Ruinart Champagne which is a ‘maison’ within the famed LVMH champagne portfolio along with Moet, Krug and others. We talk about the phenomenon of ‘lifestyle’ that fuels the success of a classic brand like Rui...
The L A wine scene has changed a lot in the 21st century. In 2001, Tom Hunter recounts going to sell wine in L A for a small portfolio and having restaurant buyers tell him that they only carry wine that is sold in supermarkets because if customers don’t recognize it, they won’t buy it. Revel Wines started out in 2006 and by 2007 Tom had joined partner Matthew Plympton and a philosophy began to emerge as to the wines that they would sell henceforward. With importing out of t...
If one doubts the commitment Taylor Parsons had in spreading wine to his public when he was an active sommelier, one only need to look at his last stop, République, a case study in bringing wine to its rightful prominence. Everywhere in the restaurant there were displays and processes going on that let you know that it was time to drink wine. The nightly wine choices mirrored the nightly choices coming from the kitchen in equipoise and were displayed on a 70-strong list unique to ...
Anyone remotely involved with wine and spirits in California and the western states recognizes the deep red delivery trucks of Young’s Market plying their trade around town. Our guest today is Matthew Lapides. Matt combines his interests in business and wine sales in his job as Import Specialist with Young’s. The exceptionally large Young’s portfolio of premium and luxury-level wines allows Matt to operate on the dictum that he has the right wine for the given customer in his book...
Today I’m with Keith Mabry who is a wine buyer for K & L Wine Merchants. We talk about his early days becoming aquainted with wine in the hospitality program at Cal Poly Pomona and his early career in retail sales. In 2007, Keith was recruited by K & L and his employment extends back to its beginnings in Hollywood eleven years ago. Discussing K & L, he provides an insight into the evolution of an important wine and spirits retailer in this L A market.More recently Keith has bec...
Dan Fredman is a guy who likes wine and he describes how collecting wine is like collecting music, a narrative unfolding. Although a trained musician and seasoned A + R man, he kept his toe in the wine retail pool throughout the years. In doing so, he amassed a great knowledge and understanding about wine and about the L A wine market. Eventually he was able to parlay his experience into a boutique public relations firm helping wineries and wine-related businesses get their message out.In ...
I talk to Jeremy Raub, an owner of Eagle Rock Brewery. Eagle Rock was the first of an onslaught of craft breweries that have flooded the Los Angeles area in the past nine years. It’s brewery and cozy bar is nestled up against the 2 freeway in Glassell Park. Jeremy also operates the popular Eagle Rock Public House with his wife Ting and brother-in-law Jerry. In this conversation, we discuss Jeremy’s early interest in home brewing with his father, Steve, who is also an Eagle Rock partner an...
In 2008, Santos opened the winebar, Bacaro in an adjacent neighborhood to his alma mater the University of So. California. It was inspired by a visit to Venice, Italy where Santos was impressed with the region’s wine culture. Since then, he started another winebar in downtown L. A. called Mignon in 2010, a bistronomique-inspired restaurant in Hollywood called Papilles in 2011 and a fine dining seafood restaurant in Pasadena called Lost At Sea in 2016.Santos was motivated to get into the ho...
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