Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name…

And other times, you want to go to a smart gastropub with a crowd of well-dressed peers and a massive selection of really good beer.

SmithHouse Tap & Grill opened in August 2011, by Curtis NySmith and Top Chef all-star Angelo Sosa. With the exposed brick and low, swooping arches, this place could easily be something far more lofty and less approachable. But in this case, the elegant interior comes across as comfortable and warm – the perfect setting for happy hours and get-togethers with good friends to…

wait for it…

wait for it…

Pour your own beer, tableside, from one of the restaurant’s five built-in taps.

Yes, LA is in the middle of an explosive beer Renaissance, and you can’t swing a wilty hop without hitting a new gastropub or beer bar. But SmithHouse stands out not only for its hefty 120 beer offering, but also in their dedication to serving these beers the way they were meant to be served. They boast six different temperature lines and different pressurizations, so each draft comes the way God or, (more likely), some monk, somewhere, intended.

And what is a gastropub without the grub? SmithHouse’s food is solid, if mostly dressed-up bar food. Their tuna pastrami is fresh with good spice, the onion rings are very onion ringy. They have the requisite chicken fingers, chili, wings, dips. There are a few Asian dishes, including a dumpling appetizer, banh mi and a few rice bowls. You won’t go wrong ordering any of the burgers – the cheddar crunch burger actually tastes like Fritos! – Their proprietary cheddar disc is almost exactly like a perfectly round hard tortilla shell. Kinda nifty. I didn’t bother trying a salad, because anyone who orders a dinner salad at a bar is a d-bag…

But the real winner and must-try is the beer fondue. I like to think of myself as a pretty classy dame, but I had to fight the urge to run my fingers along the inside of the bowl and lick each digit clean. It’s this creamy/salty concoction, with a kick of spiciness at the end. It’s served with a side of three soft pretzels (but, based on empirical research, tastes good on almost everything – especially french fries). On the menu, they say the fondue is infused with Harp’s Pale Ale to “bring out the salty/sweet flavor of the cheese;” I felt the beer actually brought out a savory, nutty quality, and dialed the cheese’s lactic sweetness down a notch or two. I invite you to try it and see for yourself…

SmithHouse – come for the beer, stay for the beer fondue. Or come for the beer fondue and stay for the beer… Either way, come: Your tableside tap is waiting.

This incredible dinner is less than 10 days away! If you’re in the LA area, you should be there.

October 10 through the 23 will be a celebration of all things beer in Los Angeles, as craft beer fans immerse themselves in beer culture for fourteen straight days. The festivities will be non-stop with beer dinners, special tastings, book signings, debut of new beers, tap takeovers, beer crawls, educational seminars, and more, culminating with the LA Beer Week Festival which will feature over 70 local, regional, and national craft breweries. Proceeds from the festival will be benefitting The Spero Foundation which provides counseling, guidance and raises money for various charitable purposes.

For more information on LA Beer Week:

• Visit their website
• Find them on Facebook
• Find them on Twitter

For LA Beer Week, Firestone Walker is pulling out all the stops with their Deconstructed LA beer dinner. Firestone Walker will be breaking down their “XV” anniversary blend into eight individual components and they have enlisted the help of renowned beer inspired chef The Home Brew Chef Sean Paxton, who will deconstruct the flavors in each beer then craft small dishes to create a perfect and seamless pairing.

The event will host the debut of XV, Firestone Walker’s 15th anniversary ale. Every year, in September, Firestone Walker blends several of their strong, barrel-aged beers to create the Anniversary beer; this year’s is XV. Firestone Walker brings together top local winemakers under the guidance of Brewmaster, Matt Brynildson, to blend one of the most unique brews available. Eight ales, were hand selected to create XV, a blend that will become this year’s finest moment.

“Sean is mildly insane and phenomenally talented; his unbridled imagination and deep understanding of the DNA of beer and food creates a real experience ,” said David Walker, co-proprietor of Firestone Walker. “Add that to Matt Brynildson’s equally inspired Anniversary blend and you have something that you’ll not forget.”

Deconstructed L.A. will be held in the Bardot at the Avalon Theater from 7pm-10pm on October 12. Tickets are $75/person and very limited. The price will include complimentary beer, small plates, an event snifter glass and an amazing evening with Executive Chef Sean Z. Paxton, David Walker and Matt Brynildson as hosts.

Tickets and additional information available at www.FWDeconstructed.com or call 805-225-5911 x607.

Drive about ten miles east of downtown Los Angeles and you’ll find yourself in a sort of cornucopia of Asian food. Vietnamese, Chinese – a spectrum of dim sum that stretches from soup dumplings in tiny, ten-tabled holes-in-the-wall to cavernous event palaces where older women push carts of cooked chicken feet, jellyfish, pig stomach and a rainbow of intestines.

Clearly, it’s not for everyone.

But in the heart of the shining and glitzy LA Live complex, towering over the city on the 24th floor of the Ritz Carlton hotel, chef Sara Johannes is bringing old world-style dim sum to Wolfgang Puck’s WP24. The restaurant launched Family Style Dim Sum Sunday Dinners on September 25. For $55 each, diners get four courses (ten dishes to share), including honey drizzled BBQ pork buns, scallop steamed shu mai with blue crab in ginger sauce, organic Jidori chicken chow fun noodles with sweet Thai basil, Singapore style chili prawns, and farmer’s market vegetable fried rice. For an additional $20 per person, Alaskan king crab dumplings, Peking style duck two ways or Korean grilled lamb chops with kochujang aioli can be added to the menu. Not a single durian pastry to navigate or chicken brain to avoid.

Perfectly paired with Klaus (brother to Wolfie) Puck’s wine suggestions, the bright, precise flavors – from mild hot-sweet to deep and searingly spicy – are a lovely introduction to the vast and sometimes overwhelming world of Chinese small bites. The restaurant is lovely, the views spectacular; and the menu is not only based on seasonal availability, it is also designed to change according to the weather: a little spicier on cold days, a bit more Yin when the temperature climbs.

But if after the concert, the game, or the Family Sunday Dim Sum Sunday Dinner, you still want to try a bit of dou fu fa (silky tofu in syrup) for dessert, that drive to San Gabriel is a twenty minute straight shot down the 10.

Photo by Steven Armstrong

On Saturday in Los Angeles, ”Beer Chicks” Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune, local craft beer mavens and authors of The Naked Pint: An Adulterated Guide to Craft Beer, re-teamed with Cedd Moses, the Cosimo de’ Medici of L.A.’s cocktail renaissance, to host the second annual L.A. Craft Beer Crawl—a two-part, seven-hour beer tasting event that led intrepid imbibers on a bibulous journey through the city’s Historic Core.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, Los Angeles is in the midst of a craft beer revolution—the size, speed, and strength of which continues to astound even the most hopeful observers. Four years ago, L.A. was a craft beer desert—a barren wasteland in an otherwise fertile craft beer-producing state. But today, the L.A. Metropolitan Area ranks among the fastest growing craft beer markets in the nation, thanks to a recent proliferation of craft beer-serving bars and restaurants, and a burgeoning brew scene led by such local favorites as Craftsman Brewing Company (Pasadena), Ladyface Ale Companie (Agoura Hills), Strand Brewing Company (Torrance), The Bruery (Placentia), and Eagle Rock Brewery (Los Angeles).

The return of the L.A. Craft Beer Crawl further evinces L.A.’s growing love affair with craft beer. And the fact that two competing large-scale craft beer events took place on the same day, at the same time (Hollywood’s Blue Palms Brewhouse—a leader in the local craft beer revolution—celebrated its 3rd anniversary that afternoon), demonstrates just how expansive the local movement has become.

Unfortunately, the unforgettable zeitgeist of last year’s L.A. Craft Beer Crawl did not seem to carry over to Saturday’s event. That may be partly due to the concurrence of the Blue Palms celebration, which—with its more esoteric tap list—drew the lion’s share of L.A. beer geeks. But I think this year’s emotional drop-off had more to do with the organizers’ decision to divide the crawl into two sessions: an earlier, limited admission VIP event, and a later general admission event. The division made for a much more relaxed crawl. But it also took the steam out of the event; the second annual L.A. Craft Beer Crawl never quite reached critical mass, and it failed to imbue participants with that vital sense of camaraderie. Last year’s participants left feeling like they’d been a part of something special. But this year’s participants left feeling like they’d got what they paid for: a pleasant afternoon featuring unrestricted access to plenty of great beer.

Among the fifty or so beers on tap that afternoon, these seven L.A. area beers stood out as my favorites:

• Cismontane Brewing Co.’s Antigua Caturra Infused Citizen. A California Common infused with coarse ground coffee to impart a rich coffee flavor without affecting the brew’s golden hue.
• Craftsman Brewing Co.’s Smoked Black Lager. Los Angeles craft brewing pioneer Mark Jilg’s take on a traditional Schwarzbier.
• Craftsman Brewing Company’s Sour Braggot. This beer has a sour nose that tickles the back of the throat, but it goes down like honey (with a bite). If you like sour beers, Craftsman’s Sour Braggot is a must-try.
• Eagle Rock Brewery’s Stimulus. This Belgian-style Amber is infused with Intelligentsia coffee. Try it alongside the Antigua Caturra Infused Citizen.
• Strand Brewing Co.’s Double Dry Hopped 24th Street Pale Ale. Poured from a fresh cask, this beer smells of citrus and gumballs, and tastes like heaven.
• TAPS Fish House & Brewery Helles Lager. Brewmaster Victor Novak’s crisp, easy-drinking, traditional German-style lager.
• TAPS Fish House & Brewery Oak Aged Thomas Jefferson. An American Strong Ale aged for a year in American oak. A full-bodied beer with layers of vanilla, caramel, and toffee.

Speaking of cognac, Rémy Martin celebrated the L.A. launch of its latest spirit, Rémy Martin V, at Drai’s last week – the rooftop restaurant/club crowning the W Hollywood. The event attracted an eclectic crowd that ranged from a few jet-setting members of the Monegasque princely family to Jaleel White, the Urk Man himself.
 
But make no mistake – V is not cognac. So to avoid confusion, Rémy Martin simply calls it what it is: a distilled grape spirit, or, more specifically, an eaux-de-vie distilled from Ugni Blanc grapes harvested in the Champagne region of France – the company’s first clear spirit. Yes, clear. If that’s confusing, think of it this way: Rémy Martin V is like Rémy Martin cognac, but without the barrel aging. (OK, maybe that’s more confusing.)
 
So how does it taste? It tastes a little like grappa (an Italian pomace brandy), and is similarly phenolic. But it’s subtler than grappa, thanks to double distillation and a special ice-cold filtration process. Rémy Martin V is intended to be a mixing spirit – something that will appeal to a young, club-going, fruity-mixed-drinks-imbibing sort of crowd. Some might call it a marketing gimmick – like Crystal Pepsi, but more fun. You be the judge.  

It’s been quite a promising seven months for Untappd as they near their one millionth check-in on their web-based app. If you haven’t heard of Untappd, it’s similar to Foursquare but instead of checking into different venues, you “check-in” to the beers you are drinking, where you’re drinking and you can quickly rate them. Meanwhile, you can see what your friends are drinking and Untappd will make recommendations to what other beers you should try that are similar to the one in your hand and you can see what micro, macro and local beers are trending.

Today, Friday the 3rd, Untappd is having an east coast and a west coast Million Check-In Meet Up. For the east coasters out there, it will happen at Rattle N’ Hum in New York at 8:00 EST. For all my left coasters out there, it will happen at 6:00 PST at Libary Alehouse in Los Angeles. If you attend the events, be sure to check into the venue when you check-in to your first beer and you’ll unlock a promotion to receive half off of your next beer. Even if you aren’t attending the party, check-in to any beer today and you’ll earn yourself the Million Check-In Badge.