Get your green drink on tonight. WORDS Author and USC professor Gina Nahai and actress Bahar Soomekh (Crash) read from Nahai’s latest book Caspian Rain – about a family falling apart just before the Islamic revolution in Iran. Immediately following, there’s a discussion of the changing lives of women of the Middle East, and relationships between Iran’s Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as how these communities interact in Los Angeles, “home to the largest......

Bodega Wine Bar is all about making wine as unpretentious as possible. The owners opened the bar after searching high and low for "a casual place to grab a glass of wine...somewhere that didn't require us to be wine experts, spend a lot of money, or even talk about wine much (if at all)" but found nothing. Ah - a wine philosophy this wine novice can get behind entirely! So, of course, I had to......

For many years, I was a Veuve girl. As in, Veuve Clicquot. But that's so obvious now and it's expensive. Then I became a Heidsieck (Charles or Piper) girl. Much nicer, less obvious, but still pricey for the good stuff. With the holidays mere seconds away (and with all my "wine novice" locations shutting down their wine tastings until next year) I thought it would make sense to tap into the one area of the......

One of the highlights of holidays past for me has always been getting to taste some of the the delicious chocolate goodies that seem to appear everywhere this time of year. So the idea of checking out and tasting some of our city's finest chocolate makes absolute sense, which is where next weekend's Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon comes handily into play. The event, which is presented by TasteTV, will include speakers and demos, as......

Dear WGA: Being Thanksgiving weekend and all, I have spent a lot of time the last few days thinking about what I am thankful for. I am very thankful that I have been able to make a living as a writer. I am thankful that every day I am able to do something creative, something I love. As I’ve walked the picket lines, I’ve been very thankful for the overwhelming support I’ve felt from......

I am thankful for… Thanksgiving - even though I think it’s a stupid holiday, and I pretty much hate all the food associated with it - for giving me the opportunity to spend the day with family that I love and actually enjoy being around. I am thankful every day that I am able to make a living being creative and doing something I love. (Except for when I’m on strike) I am thankful......

As California transplants, my family home up north has been a revolving door for visitors ever since we arrived in the Bay Area. While the constant influx of visitors can sometimes get a little tiring, it has had its benefits, primarily that my family has gotten to know NorCal's tourist destinations pretty well, particularly the Napa Valley and Sonoma County. For some reason I always seemed to miss out on wine tasting excursions when......

Last weekend we were happy to take part in the Harvest Festival, as part of a year-long 90th Anniversary celebration for the historic San Antonio Winery, a place much loved by LAist. The gracious Riboli family hosted the event, which was held at the winery, which has been in its same location on Lamar Street in East Los Angeles since 1917. There was food provided by the winery's onsite Maddalena restaurant, and wine aplenty......

If you like wine (or you think you do) Sunday night is your chance to unwind with a glass (or two, or five). Nunchux VI is holding their monthly party at 5:00pm and will be focusing on some nice Spanish imports ($4-$12 per glass) and tapas ($1-$5). If you're into the local wine scene, you may recognize the host. Santos Uy has been laying down his vino-know-how at AOC (West Hollywood) and Silver Lake......

Bands, Food, Carnival, Rides, Animals, Shopping, an Indoor Snow Park, Monster Trucks, Freestyle Motocross, and a Demolition Derby. Everything you would expect at a County Fair. The Carnival has the usual assortment of rides, games, and carnies. There are air conditioned shopping areas with over 2,000 vendors, a 4H style animal area with petting zoo, cows, and some bulls with 4' horns. When you get hungry you can get some over priced bottles of water......

Turns out that cheap buzz you've been getting from Trader Joe's staple swill might actually be a legitimate wine tasting experience: Charles Shaw Chardonnay has won the top prize at this year's California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition. This is great news for those of us who buy the stuff by the case - and although we may fondly recall many nights (and days) (and, um, softball games) spent chugging wine from a box,......

Last Sunday night, whilst many Angelenos were trying to make complete sentences out of what was left between all the bleeps heard during the MTV Movie Awards, I was down by the beach at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica, checking out an event called "Dessert Decadence." Billed as a sunset poolside minglefest, the event featured neither a sunset (too overcast and ran from 5-8, just a bit too early) nor a poolside (we......

A few miles northeast of City Hall, tucked in an triangle bordered by the 110, the 5 and the 101 freeways is one of Los Angeles' secret gems, the San Antonio Winery. Instead of Italian immigrants, warehouses and trucking lots now dominate this unprepossessing little slice of industrial Los Angeles. And in the midst of it the San Antonio Winery stands as the last remnant of a little known and largely forgotten aspect of Los......

If you happen to be in the area of the Greystone Mansion tonight, looking for something to do and have $75 burning in your pocket, check out the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank’s Wine Tasting and Silent Auction. Great wines are being featured from boutique wineries around California and there will also be (according to the press release) “fine chocolates and gourmet cheeses” too. Now, here at LAist, we are all for doing good......

Monday: Chill with Winos It’s Blue Monday at Silver Lake Wine from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. No RSVPs required for tonight’s triptych wine tasting with cheese from the Cheese Store of Silver Lake. Tuesday: Weekly Poetry in the Valley Hosted by Kirk Lumpkin, every Tuesday night is open mic night with the Cobalt Poets at the Cobalt Café in Canoga Park. They promise a very welcoming crowd for newcomers, but just wait until your......

It appears that The Echo, Echo Park's neighborhood live music/film screening/wine tasting/BBQ/book signing venue, is looking to expand. The club, which is associated with another Eastside institution—Spaceland—is planning to add enough space for 700 more people. This expansion, much like the controversy over other building projects around the city, has met it's fair share of opposition, so The Echo is looking for supporters to sign a petition in favor of the plan. And if......

THURSDAY • Let's Go Sailing, Say Hi to Your Mom, Summer at Shatter Creek and The Cloud Room are at The Echo tonight at 7 PM. Tickets are $7. [18+] • The Echo hosts another Irregular Wine Tasting on the patio, featuring the films of Verna Bloom along with "A Best-of-the-West Six-Pack of Polite Whites & Rude Reds." Tickets are $18 and the tasting starts at 8 PM. [21+] • At the ArcLight, take......

Like it or not, Los Angeles is all about networking. Who, what, why and how people know each other can create smaller social associations that make big cities more tolerable and humane. Whether inclusive or exclusive, they’re part of what makes urban living so dynamic. Plus in a town like LA, with its collection of special and creative folks, crafting social networks can be both fun and practical. Mara Schwartz and Karen Allen had these......

We saw Sideways not too long ago, and realized that we were among the uncultured masses who thought wine was just alcoholic grape juice. Apparently there's a lot more going on, with the grapes, the aging, the acidity, the complexity of flavors, and so forth. In fact, knowing this stuff can help you pick a great wine, but without knowing what foods go best with it, well, you're just a hungry drunk. Fortunately, LA......

Seems many restaurants have theme nights in LA. We've noticed that Monday's become a popular night for restaurateurs to cook up specials to entice patrons in on a school night. Gayot.com's has posted 2 separate announcements from restaurants regarding Monday specials: Wine & Cheese Tastings Maison 140 hotel in Beverly Hills (near the Peninsula Hotel) has partnered with The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills to host monthly wine and cheese tastings in the hotel’s......

If you won't be joining LAist tonight at the Viper Room to see Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, here are some other activities that run a close second: Tonight at Spaceland, see Evan Dando of the Lemonheads performing solo, preceeded by Lee Ving (former frontman of Fear). Doors open at 9:00 PM. The Knitting Factory will be hosting MF Doom/Brother Ali & BK One with John Robinson tonight at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $15.00.......

Tonight at The Echo, show up at 8:00 PM for an Extreme Wine Tasting, "The Hypothetical Curries of Vagina Tandoori: The Wines of Château Julien of Carmel." This event matches six hypothetical curries to six wines from Château Julien of Carmel; to counter the hypothetical curry, there will be "pertinent fromage from the Cheese Store of Silver Lake" and a DJ spinning wine-drinking music. There is only room for 60, so buy your tickets......

Enjoy a leisurely evening sipping wine and indulging in cocktail conversation at Slow Food LA's wine tasting. It will be held from 6:30–9:00 PM at Mel & Rose Wine and Spirits. Admission is $30.00 per person for Slow Food members and $35.00 for nonmembers; cost includes the tasting, a vintage chart and wine map. Head to MOCA at California Plaza tonight for the summer evening Immersion series. A weekly gathering with food, drinks, art......