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Last chance for Echo Park Farmers’ Market before Thanksgiving

John Sweredoski helps customers at the Farmers' Market

The Echo Park Farmers’ Market is an important errand for most Fridays, but today is especially important – next week is Thanksgiving, and we want to make sure everyone stocks up fresh, local ingredients for Turkey Day.

The most important item: Herbs! These are typically very expensive in the standard grocery store if you’re buying fresh, so forget Vons or even Whole Foods and stop by booths like Sweredoski Farms (pictured) for Rosemary, Lemon Basil (they grow the best!), Tarragon, Bay Leaves, and Chives.

Don’t forget the basics at any of the oter booths: Onions, lemons, shallots, apples, celery, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, garlic, yams and eggs (especially those eggs – incredibly fresh, organic and inexpensive!).

For the Acorn Squash and other heirloom squash, I always go to the booth on the same side as the soy candle guy. While I don’t recall the name, they have some of the best squash I’ve ever had! They all carry fresh salad mix, so keep your eyes peeled.

If Soledad Goats is there, be sure to pick up our favorite goat cheese appetizer to lay out while the meal is cooking: Either the hand-rolled soft cheese in the jar with olive oil & spices ($8-10) and/or the herbed hard cheese (about $1 per ounce).

Make sure to chat with the farmers – find out where they are located, and if what you’re buying is organic (doesn’t matter if it’s certified or not). If you miss out on today’s Farmers’ Market in Echo Park, you might also find many of the same vendors at the Silver Lake Farmers’ Market every Saturday from 8:00 am – 1:00 pm, and the Atwater Village Farmers’ Market every Sunday from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

The Echo Park Farmers’ Market takes place every Friday from 3-7:00 pm in parking lot #663 (half a block south of Sunset Blvd. off Logan Street).

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Allston Yacht Club scores with the city, plus new fall menu

Figgy Pudding. Photo courtesy of AYC.

Allston Yacht Club recently won a bit of a battle with the City of Los Angeles – a permit hearing on Thursday, October 27, 2011 ended in the restaurant’s favor, granting it an exemption from the city’s strict parking requirements. This means you won’t find a valet posted out front, and while you might have to look for your own parking, there’s usually plenty of it around.

In addition to the change in parking conditions, they also received a conditional use permit to serve food on the patio, extend hours to 2:00 am on Friday and Saturday, legalize happy hour and the advertisement of alcoholic beverages, and limited entertainment inside the restaurant.

But not a whole lot will change around AYC just yet (they are still tying up some loose ends), except of course for its new fall menu. We missed the holiday cocktail tasting, but LAist got a stab at the libations, which included the Accursed Fruitcake (Applejack, ginger beer, apple cider and “inebriated fruits”), Hot Spiced Cider (two types of rum, Canton Liquer) and the Figgy Pudding (fig infused bourbon, egg white, egg nog, cinnamon simple syrup, nutmeg). If you don’t get a chance to try these before the holidays, you might impress some Turkey day guests by trying some recipes AYC provided last year.

We’ve also heard on the grapevine that they’ll be expanding their beer selections, which seems natural as there’s a lot of beer competition in Echo Park these days.

If you’re hungry, AYC’s fall menu includes some delectable updates, including: Warm mushroom salad, double fried Korean style wings (pictured), Dashi whitefish stew, mussels and house made sausage with white wine and garlic. While we normally enjoy the Wicked Wednesday deal (plates are just $5), write this might require a little date night tonight!

Double Fried Korean Style Wings. Photo courtesy of AYC.

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Happy Veterans Day from the Echo Park Farmers’ Market

The Echo Park Farmers’ Market will be open today for Veterans Day! Shopping at the Farmers’ Market today means supporting some local Veterans. From the Farmers’ Market email blast:

We’d like to say thank you to the wonderful veterans that are a part of our market family: Jan Bruce of Frog Dog Herbs, Dexter Scott of Jazzy Sprouts, Oscar Rodriguez of Oscar’s Fresh Coffee, John Sweredoski of Sweredoski Farms, and Jack Balderama of Balderama Farms.

The Echo Park Farmers’ Market is located at Parking lot #663 , at 1146 Logan St. (half a block south of Sunset Blvd.). It runs every Friday from 3-7:00 pm.

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Mohawk Bend now serving up weekend lunch and beer flights

Weekend lunch hours in Echo Park are a great time to explore the neighborhood – it’s usually too early to witness the walk of shame by those non-Echo Parkian visitors from other corners of LA, so it’s usually nice and quiet. And, gosh darnett, The Park closes at 2:00pm! But for a couple of weeks now, Mohawk Bend has adopted new hours, helping absorb any weekend lunch crowds and making it easier to grab a little early afternoon brewsky (or a Bloody Mary! AYC used to be the only place with these spicy morning treats).

In addition to the new weekend hours, the doors now open at noon, they now offer pre-set tasting flights every evening from 5:00 – 7:00 pm. For $9 you get four 4 oz. California craft beers to try. The menu during lunch will stay the same, so I suggest trying out a Dork Burger, Fish ‘n Chips, and the calamari. Now I’m hungry!

New hours are:

Monday through Thursday, 5:00 pm – 11:30 pm
Friday,  5:00 pm – 1:30 am
Saturday, 12:00 noon – 1:30 am
Sunday, 12 noon – 11:30 pm

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Sunset Beer Grand Opening Party tonight!

Sunset Beer is hosting its grand opening party today just a month after it opened, the beer bottle shop and bar celebrating with, what else? Beer! They’ve recently added Golden Road Brewing Hefeweizen and the Golden Road Point the Way IPA (which I’ve had and it’s tasty!). There will certainly be some other beer-related shenanigans and some elbow rubbing with the staff and owners, so check it out!

Sunset Beer Grand Opening Party
Saturday, October 15 from 6-10:00 pm
Music by Mr. Cocoon
Sunset Beer Co. is located at 1498 Sunset Boulevard, #3

Also be sure to walk across the street to Villainy for its grand opening today!

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Villainy fills in the former Echo Curio space nicely

Villainy General Store opened its doors just last month, on September 15, 2011, taking over the former Echo Curio space after a couple of different places tried and failed to renovate and rent the space (a coffee shop/bakery type place, the a tattoo shop). After repainting the walls, rehabbing the original floor, replacing the stained glass window at the front (someone had broken it), and thankfully improving the bathroom, Villainy was open!

You can find owner Erich Schlieske by the cash register. He and wife Ellen McAlister started eEvil Ink Design in 2003, producing everything from greeting cards to silk-screened t-shirts, bags, journals, and more. Better yet? They live in Echo Park!

If you haven’t been to the new store yet, you should check it out – and, no, you don’t have to be a hipster to dig it. Some of the items I was eying and will definitely go back for include some of the Giurto’s Vita-Grain, which is a high-quality brand that makes flour, salt, and even organic cereal and polenta. The pancake mix they make is on my next shopping list, so that I can force the hubby make me breakfast one of these days soon.

Also of note (should any of my family be reading this article, hint hint): Peppercorn Bacon bitters for those houty touty cocktail nights, a 5 quart Dutch oven ($60 is a great price on that), lucky horseshoes for a mere $5, cast iron cookware and these really cool wood letter cutouts that I’m pretty sure would at least spell B-E-E-R in some combination (they run from $3-10). And of course, there are plenty of eEvil Ink items to pick up.

For some of these items the price might appear a little steep – but a trip to other specialty item stores like Whole Foods and TJs and there isn’t much of a difference. For instance if you’re into organic floor cleaner made from natural ingredients, you’re not exactly paying supermarket prices. If anything, Villainy is really a great local place to drop in and pick up a unique gift for someone, especially those people who are hard to shop for or already have everything.

And today’s (Saturday, October 15) a great day to swing in – they are hosting a grand opening party, celebrating with refreshments and music from 7:00 – 10:00 pm.

Villainy is located at 1519 W. Sunset Blvd.

Check out our photo gallery below:

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

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The Warehouse vintage store celebrating one year anniversary

One of our favorite vintage shops in Echo Park is celebrating its one year anniversary! Though owner Justin Warwick isn’t new to the store ownership thing in Echo Park (his first establishment was called Warwick Vintage at a couple of different locations on Sunset Boulevard), he and his team have done a fabulous job turning an empty warehouse into a thriving vintage store called, appropriately, The Warehouse. They also opened The Classroom LA down the street this year, where you can take classes on sewing, jewelry, terrariums, and more crafty things.

And what would be a one year anniversary without a celebration?

Drop by The Warehouse on Saturday, October 15, 2011. Starting at 7:00 pm, there will be live music, beverages, and Delilah’s Bakery cupcakes (uhm… YES!)

The Warehouse is located at 1197 West Sunset Boulevard. Contact events@thewarehousela.com for more information.

Also be sure to check out the store’s monthly events, including Movie Nights every third Tuesday, Comedy Night every third Wednesday, and the Echo Park Art & Design Fair every third Saturday. Click here for details on events!

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New pizza joint coming to Echo Park

Pizza lovers rejoice! We’ve got a new pizza place joining the ranks of new Echo Park restaurants – this time, however, on the other side of Sunset Boulevard.

Taking over an empty storefront in the same mini-mall as Beauty Box, Sunset Beer, and the computer repair shop, the new restaurant promises to fill in a pizza gap for those of us on the other side of the neighborhood.

We’re taking precautions announcing the people and the name behind the new place for now – the last we heard they were in the process of ending their lease at the current location, so we’ll refrain for the time being (we certainly don’t want to get anyone in trouble!). But let’s just say the menu will delight both hipsters and non-hipsters alike – vegan options, and even a pupusa-style pizza that we’ve heard is amazing.

And what great timing – how awesome would it be to grab a couple of slices to enjoy next door at Sunset Beer with a seasonal microbrew?

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Crawl along Sunset Blvd. for cold beer and Echo Park music – it’s Beer Week!

LA Beer Week (or “weeks” really) is like Christmas to me, the most important holiday of the year – but we don’t mesh with the whole drinking and driving thing, so we prefer to hang local and support the ‘hood!

So strap on those beer drinking/dancing boots for the Echo Park Musical Beer Crawl Tuesday, October 11, 2011. More than a handful of Echo Park businesses and venues are participating, including Backside, City Sip, El Prado, Grill ‘Em All Truck, Lot 1 Cafe, Masa, Mohawk Bend, Origami Vinyl, Sunset Beer Co., Taix 321 Lounge, The Echo/Echoplex, and Two Boots. Yeah!

Each place is offerings special discounts or rare keg tappings, be sure to check out what each place is doing by clicking here.

How do you take advantage of these discounts and special gatherings around Echo Park? “Passports” are now available for you to print out and flash at the participating venues. Click here to get your own! (Oh, yes, and it’s free!)

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Echo Park rules: LA Weekly’s Best of LA list

We all know it: Echo Park is the raddest. But it’s nice to get a little acknowledgment – LA Weekly’s Best of LA 2011 is out, and once again, we’ve got quite a few locations in our ‘hood to celebrate.

Keep reading what Echo Park businesses and locations made the Best of LA cut:

Spitfire Girl: Best Ironic Baubles for a Best Friend

Located along our stretch of Echo Park known as antique row, Spitfire Girl gets kudos for being a “more authentic version of Urban Outfitters’ indie accessories department.” From horses and owl-themed products to art books, jewelry, and woodcut wall art, LA Weekly recommends a stop as “you should have no trouble finding a unique gift for any lover of irony or beauty.” We have to admit we’ve never been to Spitfire Girl… we will definitely go now!

LA Weekly link
2203 Sunset Blvd. • (213) 989-1977 • spitfiregirl.com

Rewind Audio: Best Electronics That Don’t Fit in a Pocket

Audio geeks rejoice: “This is not the insanely priced stuff sought by audiophiles but great, quotidian, mainstream electronics…” says The LA Weekly.

Even better? “Their pristine little Echo Park shop attracts a steady stream of people in their 20s seeking a retro look and electronic equipment that’s fun to touch, as well as a 40s-and-up clientele who miss the richer sounds often lost to digital.

LA Weekly link
1041 N. Alvarado St. • (213) 273-8904 • rewindaudio.com

Read more

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Culture Collide Fest starts Wednesday in Echo Park

The annual Filter Magazine’s Culture Collide Festival descends on Echo Park this week, with dozens of performances at The Echo, Echoplex, Taix, 826LA, Origami Vinyl, Echo Park Independent Co-Op, Echo Park Methodist Church, and Reform Academy. The four-day fest brings artists from over 24 countries, along with live music there will be food, film screenings, and happy hours!

Along with musical performances, the International Happy Hour includes drink specials at Taix from 4-6:00 pm on Thursday and Firday, and 6-8:00 pm on Saturday, October 8. Click here to RSVP. The full schedule and lineup is also now available, click here.

Lineup includes artists like Ximena Sarinana from Mexico (who happens to have a new song titled “Echo Park”), along with headlines CSS, Clap Your Hands Say Yea, Avi Buffalo, and more. Echo Park always has some music events going on over the weekend, so if you don’t want to pay the $20 for the whole fest keep your eye out on the many music venues in the neighborhood for shows.

And finally like in past years, the festival ends with a free Toyota Antics block party event in Echo Park on Sunday, October 9. The party takes place at Reservoir and Sunset Boulvard, and often includes live music and family-friendly activities (we’ve seen bouncy castles before).

See you around!

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Tonight at AYC: Infused drinks with a kick for 5 bucks

I have to admit, I’m a little bit of a tequila snob – so forget the Gold Room’s tequila shot + taco special (no offense, I’m also a semi-vegetarian but refrain your judgment….). It’s all about AYC.

Tuesday night was the first night of Allston Yacht Club’s newly established nights of TNT – otherwise known as tequila night Tuesdays/Thursdays. $5 gets you a Jalapeno Margarita, a shot and sangria, or a daily special on Tuesdays. Thursdays are $5 for their “ball of infusion” – which is better than it sounds (their infused drinks during the holidays are just an example of why this is good stuff).

Today’s “ball of infusion” featured drinks? Fig Bourbon in their “Yacht Club Old Fashioned,” Peach-Steeped Dark Rum in the “AYC Dark and Stormy,” and finally Blueberries, Ginger, Dragon Chili and Polish Vodka in a Collins, unless otherwise requested.

We also really like AYC for the Wicked Wednesdays – all menu items are $5. Not to mention, it’s a low-key restaurant with plenty of seating at the bar – my favorite view!

See you there!

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“Taza” cafe to squeeze in Sunset Boulevard storefront

Today is National Coffee Day, so we’re happy to report we’ve got a new little cafe being added to our Echo Park places to grab your cup of jo.

According to a single, small sign posted, “Taza Café de Echo Park” is coming soon to a small 200 square foot storefront located at 1825 West Sunset Boulevard – across the street from The Echo near the Sunset Blvd/Glendale Bridge. The last shop to open up at his location was the Blood is the New Black popup shop, which temporarily opened last year. No dates are posted about when things are expected to get going, but we’ll keep an eye out for what the new shop will have to offer.

Taza joins the ranks of quite a few coffee shops and cafés nearby, including Stories, Downbeat Café, Masa, Pazzo Gelato, amongst others. But we always look forward to seeing what and if this new place has something different to offer!

Notice anything new to the ‘hood? Let us know!

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Echo Country Outpost saying goodbye to the Avenue

The Echo Park Avenue storefront that housed Echo Country Outpost for two years donned newly hung For Rent signs earlier this month when the folksy store slash gathering space decided to move up to Glendale Boulevard. Owners Erica Forneret and Chris Hajek (newly married!) along with Brendan Missett are very excited to expand their shenanigans to the former and HUGE 2HeadedHorse productions at 1770 Glendale Boulevard, although sad to leave their little corner at Echo Park Avenue.

So in celebration of the move, and a goodbye to their former diggs, the Outpost is having a little shindig. “Love, warmth, beauty, playfulness, bright colors, wooden smells, whiskey drinks and downhome art & music will all be magnified at the new Outpost…,” said the event invite. “Starting at 9pm on the 29th y’all should come over, listen to some good music, spend some time with this version of the Outpost and set a good course for what’s to come.”

See ya there, and good luck to the Outpost on the move!

Echo Country Outpost moving party
Thursday, September 29 at 9:00 pm
1930 Echo Park Ave

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Businesses collaborate to celebrate shopping locally in Echo Park

Saturday is a day to celebrate Echo Park businesses by shopping locally for the fourth (at least the fourth since its inception n 2009) Echo Park Art Walk and Shop Hop: A Celebration of Community At and Culture. Coordinated by 826lLA, Stories Books & Cafe, and Origami Vinyl, the event promises a ton of local discounts on your meals, wine, and other purchases. But if you or your wallet aren’t in the mood to buy, there are plenty of free art and music-related events along Sunset Boulevard (between Mohawk and Laguna) and even up Echo Park Avenue.

Why the Shop Hop? “By taking advantage of special discounts offered by Stories LA, the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, E.P.I.C., and others, you’ll support the thriving economy of a uniquely-creative Los Angeles community. And by making contributions to neighborhood non-profits who are opening their doors to participate in the Art Walk & Shop Hop on the 24th, you’ll continue their great work (which you’ll be able to see all day long).”

Make sure to visit the event website and Facebook page for a full list of discounts, events, and activities to participate in! The website will be updated live as there are new activities to share.

Echo Park Art Walk & Shop Hop
Saturday, September 24 from 12:00 noon to 10:00 pm
Between Mohawk & Elysian Park
For more information and/or questions, contact Shannon at shannon@826la.org
Website: www.echoparkartwalk.com

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