They're sort of the Oscars of the food world: The nominees for the 2011 James Beard Awards, which honor chefs, pastry chefs, restaurants, food writing, food personalities, and cookbooks from around the nation were announced today. Los Angeles makes a decent showing in the star-studded categories in which we were eligible. more ›

Everyday is I Love Hot Chocolate Day at LAist!! In honor of this delicious holiday proclamation we want to share some of our favorite high calorie highlights from Silver Lake's Lamill cobweb treat and the ganache-y nosh of Intelligentsia's brioche pairing, to the toasted almond marshmallow topped cocoa at NOLA Ice in Sherman Oaks. For the Malibu bound, check out 6 to 7 teaspoons of grated chocolate in your Chocolate Box Cafe drink, while decadent spiced hot chocolate with ginger awaits the Melrose crowd at Mozza. Feel like getting creative? Pick up a bag of rich chocolate powder from Teuscher in Beverly Hills and try your hand at some of the above creations. more ›

LAist loves the pizza you can take home from Mozza2Go (see, see more.) Actually, we love their entire 2go menu. The take-out arm of Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza isn't a traditional pick, but it's this week's Recession Obsession. more ›

Should this be one of those "that's so L.A." moments or a "why wasn't this done years ago" moments? For those of you who always carry plastic and never cash, this should be convenient, at least when you visit Nancy Silverton, Mario Batalli & Joe Bastlanich's Osteria and Pizzeria Mozza restaurants. more ›

Every foodie in LA was giddy with excitement about the recent opening of Mozza2Go. And who could blame them? Waiting for a table at Mozza meant standing around feeling stupid, blocking the front door or bathrooms while using your mind control powers to try to make diners leave the bar. more ›

Last night we couldn't get to the valet parking stand outside of Mozza because there were paparazzi all over the place. Naturally I jumped out of the car and joined them. more ›

Taste approved, this seasonal pizza at Pizzeria Mozza is crazy good and will only last until fresh artichokes are out of stock (likely by September). This $15 pie is made with stracchino, a soft and creamy cheese, and is topped with shaved artichokes, lemon & olives. more ›

">Eater LA visited finding that they're offering "the A-Z in gourmet Italian products, including the newly launched line of Mozza-brand edibles. Need some EVOO? Dried pasta with unpronounceable names? Canned tomatoes? Or even a cookbook? No problemo. The Batali-Bastianich-Silverton joint venture number three encompasses a small retail area plus counter where the hungry can place takeout orders from a condensed pizza menu, and/or choose from several grab-and-go salads and desserts out of a refrigerated case." Yum! Don't forget to check out their homemade recycled cooking grease soap and bacon pizza! more ›

LAist has eaten bacon pizza at Mozza, but we turn our attention to the soap in the bathroom. Customers can now wash their hands with soap made from the recycled cooking grease in the Mozza kitchens. more ›

Highland and Melrose is becoming a small, but nice mecca for good spots to eat. With Susan Feniger's street food themed restaurant just opening up, you've got three solid places to eat. The other two include the Red Pearl Kitchen and Mozza, which brings us back to the above photo. It's a goat cheese, leeks, scallions and bacon pizza, to which LAist Lifestyle Editor Julie Wolfson says, "um...yum!" more ›

Every morning on Good Day LA, Jillian Reynolds (formerly known as Jillian Barberie) is ready to have a good time. Ask her about her job...she loves it. Ask about her husband and baby daughter...big smiles. Life in LA has been very very good to Jillian more ›

Outside Mozza at Melrose and Highland, there are two fresh posters comparing Obama's inauguration as the 44th President to Sidney Poitier's portrayal of Dr. John Wade Prentice in the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. In the classic movie, Prentice's Caucasian fiance introduces him to her family--who is expecting him to be white--for the first time at dinner. Could this be artist Robbie Conal's work or someone else? Posters are graffiti and graffiti is illegal, but it's nice when street art brings dialogue, or at the very least, an interesting perspective. more ›

Cliched, but true: I have so many things to be thankful for this year. Here’s a random sampling because there are way too many to list: more ›

American Express conducted a survey (link works only for cardholders) to find the top 10 restaurants in the Los Angeles area. Their polling group was their customers and their data was their transactions (so no subjective surveys here). The list below is based on the number of transactions: more ›

• A 16-year-old boy who shot at a police car in Boyle Heights last night remains at large today.
• Details are clearing things up about what was first reported as a drive-by shooting that took place on Ventura Blvd. last night; turns out it was two employees of a smoke shop who were shot. The assailants entered the store through the back entrance.
• The body of 62-year-old Dean Gordon Christy was found yesterday in the Green Valley Lake are a. Christy, a North Hollywood resident and beloved Glendale teacher, was an avid outdoorsman who was first reported missing three months ago.
• George Russell Weller, the elderly man behind the wheel for a horrific accident at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market in 2003, has paid only $500 of the tens of thousands of dollars in fines and restitution he owes. The 91-year-old is appealing his 2006 conviction.
• After a 45-day shut down for sediment removal, water facility Pyramid Lake reopened today.
• Myrna who? Alumni of Venice High have begun a campaign to bring a decades-old statue of actress Myrna Loy out of storage and back on display on the campus. Loy was popular in the 30s on the screen, and her statue became popular in recent years as the object of pranks.
• EaterLA has their weekly roundup of celeb spottings up, and normally we wouldn't care, but their first report is about rocker Dave Grohl spotted dining at Mozza on Wednesday... LAist, however, spotted him just a few hours earlier than his dinner at our favorite East Valley cafe. Dave, my how you get around!

This week, Fodor's online published a little Q & A with editor Jennifer Paull who recently spent a long weekend in our dear city. She wanted to catch up on all that's been recently new to her as a frequent(ish) tourist. Among that was the Griffith Observatory, The Getty Villa, restaurants Osteria Mozza and Röckenwagner Café in Venice and Moss, the high-design housewares store on Melrose. What caught our attention the most, though, was her... more ›

Here are a few spots for eats and drinks that we are looking forward to seeing open: 1. We were very excited to pass on to you that last month was National Grilled Cheese Month, and now we're gearing up for the impending opening of Culver City's Meltdown, which is a (mostly) grilled cheese eatery that's slated to open as early as this week. Their menu, which is available online, looks like an ooey-gooey... more ›

Tongues are wagging about the long-anticipated opening of Mozza, the love child of local legend Nancy Silverton and celeb chef Mario Batali, that took place early last month. We, too, had our eye on the pizzeria's progress for most of this year as the changes happened molasses-slow over on the corner of Melrose and Highland. While LAist waits for the hype to die down a bit before we belly up to the bar, we're tuned... more ›