The new McDonald's "Southern Style Chicken Sandwich" head-to-head with the Chick-fil-a sandwich About once a month, I make the 25-minute trek to Redondo Beach to get a taste of Chick-fil-a (This was the subject of a post I wrote almost exactly a year ago). With the price of gas up around the $4 a gallon mark, this isn't exactly the smartest move, but I believe their chicken sandwich, a piece of chicken on a......

Uncle O'Grimacey! This year there hasn't been any advertising for that horror of horrors, the Shamrock Shake. But curiosity got the best of me. I headed over to the local McDonalds and ordered one up. The employees gathered to stare at me the way people do when I ask for my tacos extra spicy or I'm about to eat something like pig's ears. I heard one of the employees mumble to the other, "Did......

'Capitalism' by Kwasi B. via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr American Flag. Check. California Flag. Check. City McDonald's Flag. Ha! Location possibly near Wilshire and Western......

Chipotle is hot for Westwood and UCLA is hot (or just plain cheap) for them As said in Extra, Extra, thanks to our friends at EaterLA, there are free burritos in Westwood tonight: "Those poor students and cheap business people, they love the freebies. A new Chipotle opens on Broxton today, and to commemorate, they're giving away free burritos." One student reader phoned in from the line. "It is sooooo long. This is crazy......

So, looking forward to the Golden Globes tomorrow night? If you like lists being read aloud (and, really, who doesn't?) then NBC has a show for you. But, wait, there's more! Since the news conference announcing the winners will take one hour, NBC is filling the other two hours originally scheduled for the Globes with a "Dateline" special, including interviews to be conducted by Matt Lauer with some actors that are up for some......

Would you like a nonfat latte with that Big Mac? That’s what you’ll probably be hearing in the near future, if you’re a fan of the Golden Arches. McDonald’s announced recently plans to add “coffee bars” to its 14,000 U.S. locations starting this year. They’ll also be hiring baristas to work the new stations serving up mochas, lattes and the Frappe – kind of a like a Starbucks Frappuccino or a Coffee Bean Ice......

Molly's Charbroiled Burger, a rickety burger shack on Vine between Selma and Hollywood, is one of those funny little places that is both totally ordinary and totally L.A. -- run by Koreans, with a Mexican line cook, who serve up good old American burgers, fries, hot dogs, burritos, and, um, bulgogi plates. Students at the neighboring film and recording schools swear by the breakfast burritos -- cozy bundles of egg, french-fry hash browns, bacon,......

While you were minding your own business, Mel Gibson, the LA Sheriff's Department were making sport of their power - arresting people and messing with gang members - simply to rack up points during in-house games and contests. One recent competition, described in an internal Sheriff's Department e-mail obtained by The Times, was called "Operation Any Booking." The object was to arrest as many people as possible within a specific 24-hour period. Other one-day......

Former protégé of super producers The Neptunes, Vanessa Marquez has sang alongside big names like Justin Timberlake, Usher and Nelly. Marquez, best known as the female voice on Timberlake's hit single "Rock Your Body" is on her own and looking to make a name for herself. The Rialto native, who takes the stage tonight at the National Orange Show Fairground in San Bernardino opening for Omarion and Marques Houston, took some time out from a......

Okay, first on my list are the $42 nine-course tasting menu at Tagine, cheap but tasty Belizean rum, and a cabeza taco at Taqueria Chihuahua: the LA Times shares some of the best dining deals in the city. Jonathan Gold's been on a Korean kick lately over at the LA Weekly: this week he discovers the best fried chicken in K-town, if not the city, and last week he spent time with a former......

Sports, in my opinion, is the forebearer to "reality" TV as we know it today. We view many of our sports heroes as being close to super human. And yet with today's access to information we find ourselves readily identifying with the Clark Kent side of Superman. This is exactly the allure of the reality TV genre. Regular folks doing extraordinary stuff for our viewing pleasure. Now Chris Neil of the Ottawa Senators isn't exactly......

There are very few companies putting out consistently funnier ads than Jack in the Box. Their latest is a jab at the Angus burger trend that was adopted by Burger King and Carl's Jr., and has recently been picked up by McDonald's. Instead of following the leader, Jack in the Box decided to promote their Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day campaign, hyping their breakfast-served-all-day advantage, and then they tried their......

Giants 6, Dodgers 4 - He's not looking like A-Rod, but Barry Bonds is starting to look like, well, Barry Bonds. A little trimmer than the past couple years and a lot faster on the basepath, he's also plunking four-baggers out of the park as if he was just 40 years old. His three run shot in the first put the Giants ahead early. Los Angeles tied the game, but fell short in their comeback......

When Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald began a six-week leave of absence Wednesday after being diagnosed with cancer, no one expect that Sunday there would be obituaries being written for the seven-term congresswoman. Rep. Millender-McDonald, the first African American woman to head the House Administration Committee, easily won her district (California's 37th congressional district) in last year's election by 82%. She lobbied to ban smoking in the Speaker's Lobby off the House floor, a request that was......

The Times has a pretty funny story about fishing for bottom dwellers in our beautiful river. The whole thing is good but this was out favorite part - without giving anything away. Gaeta brought along white bread as bait, this column brought a $300 Orvis fly rod, a spin rod and a fresh Egg McMuffin from a nearby McDonald's. How could a carp resist that? About 15 minutes into the fishing episode, there was......

To promote their new series "Drive", Fox is giving away free gasoline at the Unocal 76 at the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Blvd. near the mall in Century City. Don't get fooled by the old Google satellite image that shows SM Blvd. before they improved the roads. This is the 76 across the street from the Walgreens (formerly the charming Santa Glen Market) and two blocks away from the McDonald's. LAist......

Ducks 3, Blackhawks 1 - Tied for last (actually behind the Kings) in the West, Chicago didn't present much of a challenge for playoff-bound Anaheim. After giving up a power play late in the first, the Ducks responded with two goals by rookie Dustin Penner in the second. A third goal by George Parros put it out of reach in the third. Rockets 92, Clippers 87 - Los Angeles led Houston 87-85 with less than......

If you've been scoring at home, LAist has given up fast food and drive-thrus for Lent. Now, we're not Catholic or anything, we just think Lent is a convenient excuse to do something good for ourselves. It hasn't been that painful to toss some tuna into a bowl and mix a tad of mayo in there and serve it on toast. It hasn't been that horrible to use the George Foreman to bust with......

We get a lot of email. Some people send us one or two things a month, some send us one or two things a day. Some send all the Internet myths and crap and scams. Some send us things that we really just don't understand. Today we got something that at first we tossed aside but later thought, we know this is a joke, but if it were real, MAYBE we'd have a slight......

Los Angeles Sunday on NPR Last night, NPR featured, almost back to back, two stories about LA. The first, an interview with LAPD Chief Bratton on LA's increased gang problem. A few minutes later, Al Shelton's Western Art storefront on Ventura Blvd. is featured. (All Things Considered, NPR) LA's Reservoirs "Facing new water regulations prohibiting open-air reservoirs of potable water, the city would prefer to cover Elysian and Upper Stone Canyon reservoirs with fabric, metal......

In Pasadena, one block north of Orange Grove Blvd on Lake St., is fast-food heaven. Among the four corners sit five fast food joints: KFC, Carl's Jr., McDonald's, Roscoe's Chicken 'n Waffles, and Orean. What the hell is Orean?!!? Oh, it's a fast food vegetarian joint. From breakfast burritos to hot dogs and hamburgers, it's an all-American vegetarian fare. However, the food doesn't come too fast -- the service is at pace with a......

Despite the fact that McDonald's has tried to palm off salads, wraps, grilled chicken, and other healthier options to its hamburger-based mainstay, Angus burgers have made their way onto the menu at a half-dozen area Mickey D's. And we're just not talking one Angus burger that can be found in several McDonald's restaurant, like one found in South Pasadena, but three different burgers: Regular, Mushroom & Cheese, and Deluxe. Clearly feeling the heat from......

In McDonald's restaurants all over town, LAist has noticed a lot of fellow junk food junkies nibbling at Big Macs and tossing out important Monopoly game pieces. As a service to you, our friends and neighbors, we present to you all the game pieces that are actually rare and will help you get a "Monopoly", so as to receive the prizes that you so deserve. Keep in mind that eBay is deleting pretty much......

Torontoist visits the site of a new Frank Gehry structure, stalks "the elusive Bahamas streetcar", and watches Tom Green get surgery. Phillyist rejoices in the Phillies' wild card chances, mourns the injuries sustained by Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse, and goes pirate on our asses. SFist notes that Guns and Roses were in town, that San Franciscans are taking over reality TV, and that the San Francisco Chronicle's skills of original nomenclature could use......

Lede of the week: Imagine if Peter Pan had been a fucked-up teenage vagrant with a permanent hard-on, Wendy had been a cum-drenched junkie living in Brooklyn and Captain Hook had looked something like Mickey Rourke - you’d think to yourself, “I bet Larry Clark had something to do with this”. - LA Weekly's Style Council Stoke of the week: "While no one would ever confuse Paris Hilton with Mother Teresa, a homeless man......

So, you're a Silver Lake hipster* who wants to go to the Sunset Junction street fair this weekend without shelling out that $15 no-longer-suggested-donation entrance fee. It's not that you're not into fiscally supporting harmony and diversity in the community blah blah blah, and some old grampa at the Little Joy the other night said that the Cramps alone were well worth that $15, but frankly, you're a little ticked off that you haven't......

Disney turns back on McDonald's The pop culture giant will not be renewing its Happy Meal toy contract with the fast food giant because, well, kids are getting giant, according to a report in today's LA Times. The paper reports that Disney "wants to distance itself from fast food and its links to the epidemic of childhood obesity." Is it only a matter of time before we'll be able to get plastic figurines when......

At halftime of the Lakers-Suns playoff game 3 tonight, a Tom Petty song played during the "McDonald's I'm Lovin' It Highlights." And LAist couldn't help but think of Petty's doppelganger: Suns' point guard Steve Nash. Well, we're glad that Tom's got music and Steve's got the skills to fall back on.......

Fishbone was a wildly energetic LA band that was both punk and funk; they played on bills with the Red Hot Chili Peppers all the time. But Fishbone didn't grow up to be VH-1 stars like Anthony, Flea & Co. — their cast-of-thousands energy didn't translate well from the stage to CD, and what with various band members dipping into drugs and religion — now they're still around, but they're not making zillions touring Japan.......

Tomorrow is the day that anyone can be Irish, so long as they're sporting something green, hoisting a pint of Guinness, and most likely trying to wrap their tongue around an Irish brogue. In fact, most folks will salute St. Patty's Day by drinking like an Irishman (or woman), but to round out the experience, LAist would like to help folks eat like the Irish in LA. So what is Irish cuisine? One can......