The Patina Restaurant Group has catered the Emmys for 14 years and for the first time, Pinot Bistro will be offering the same Emmys Governors Ball menu the stars will be enjoying tonight. The special Emmys prix fixe dinner will be offered from Sept 21 to the 27. more ›

Yes, I said fruit. Let's get that out of the way immediately, shall we? The tomato--versatile, plentiful, flavorful, and local--is a fruit. It's also something that is in season right now (although you can conceivably make a go of growing your own right now and celebrating a little later on). The Patina Group of restaurants is celebrating this stellar ingredient with Tomato Festival menus at nine of their eateries, and to show off the spoils of the season they brought together a crew of food bloggers and Paul and Maryann Carpenter (the couple who operate Coastal Organics, the 17-acre Santa Paula farm from which the Patina Group sources produce) for a caravan tour of three Downtown eateries, with one course per stop, each showing off the tasty tomato. more ›

Anyone pretty much the world over can turn on their television on Sunday September 20th and watch the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. And even though Los Angeles is a company town, not everyone has a ticket to the show, which means once the show is over, only those on the guest list will get to head over to the Governor's Ball. The Emmy folks (that's the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, to be precise) have been busy planning this massive affair, and gave members of the media a sneak peak at the design and food and drink that will be enjoyed by the ball's attendees come Emmy night in L.A. more ›

Are hard economic times finally hitting the Los Angeles restaurant industry? Signs are pointing to yes: a press release just sent out this morning is announcing that Chef Joachim Splichal is closing his Beverly Hills seafood restaurant Paperfish. From the release: “It is with sadness that I made the decision to close Paperfish...Much time, effort and creativity went into the foundation of the restaurant, but we had an option in our lease to return the space to our landlord, and with the current economic climate, it did not make sense to continue to foster this new concept." Executive Chef Kevin Meehan will be moving to another venture in the Patina Group. Paperfish had been open since November 2007. more ›

Many of LAist's contributors have been checking out L.A.'s dineLA Restaurant Week -- and we've discovered that some experiences definitely offered more value than others. I decided to close out my own Restaurant Week experience with a casual lunch and a more upscale dinner: for the former, I took LAist editor Zach out to lunch at eat. on sunset, while I saved the fancy hotel dinner at Circa 55 for my special guy. Both restaurants offered exactly what I was looking for in a Restaurant Week experience: tasty, unique dishes for reasonable prices in a beautiful location. And did I mention good service? When it comes to dining in this city, nothing sets apart a fine meal so much as excellent service. more ›

As timing would have it, my trip to San Francisco last week came right on the heels of Michael Bauer's controversial article, The Dish on Los Angeles. Unlike many Angelinos, I did not get the impression that his article was maligning our entire restaurant scene. I thought it was a pretty standard assessment of a certain class of restaurant - the good, the bad, and the Patina Group. more ›

Over the weekend fine diners were invited to a special downtown event: immune globulin shots. more ›