The Brief

I don't know about you, but I am barely dragging myself across the finish line of 2023.

So when the convo in my friends' group chat turned to talk of a signature cocktail to ring for 2024 (my friend group does an "elevated potluck" for the occasion) my first reaction was: I. Just. Can't.

Or could I?

Could I do something simple and easy — ideally inexpensive — and something that could use up some of the alcohol I already had? (The holidays tapped me out, people!) And could there be a mocktail version that wouldn't leave out the non drinkers, like my husband?

Sure, I could try to spend days of my life making my own elderflower liquor or searching our shrub bitters for mocktails-into-cocktails that would no doubt be delicious. In fact, I might resolve to do just that in the new year. But right now? I want e-a-s-y.

Bringing in the big guns

That's when I decided to bring in reinforcements. I turned to Anna Lisa, the L.A.-based recipe creator behind the Trader Joe's 5 Items or Less website (and its 487,000 strong Instagram account) and author of the Trader Joe's 5 Ingredients or Less cookbook. I put the challenge to her.

Her solution was so blissfully simple that we both chuckled at her answer, and her advice: Don't try to reinvent the wheel.

She suggested I look no further than the beverage aisle at any supermarket in America, which will bulge with fizzy alcohol-free drinks. (The market share for bubbly sodas, seltzers and waters has gone through the roof since the pandemic.)

They're fairy inexpensive, and they make the perfect starting point for a mocktail that can transform into a cocktail, with the addition of some spirits, syrups and citrus and perhaps fruit, in any DIY combo that sounds appealing, she said.

1. Start with your favorite fizzy flavors

Since she is the Trader Joe's Queen, she suggested trying their line of apple cider vinegar sodas, which come in lemon and strawberry, ginger and lemon, and elderberry and pomegranate. (And in case you are wondering, no, they don't taste like you are chugging apple cider vinegar. They are light and slighly sweet, with no added sugar. The perfect blank canvas for a cocktail.)

But really, any fizzy sodas and waters you find at your local market can be subbed in here, as long as you start with a base flavor that you like.

2. Add a dash of syrup or a bitter

Next up, add a syrup or a bitter if you've got one on hand, or skip if you don't.

If you do have a syrup in your liquor cabinet, this may be the place to start building your drink's flavor profile so you are using what you've got.

3. Make it pretty

Then, think about accents. Lime? Lemon? Orange slices? Cherries? A strawberry sliced through the bottom so it can perch on the rim of a glass?

4. Spiked, or not?

Finally, if desired, add alcohol. "Vodka has very little taste to it, so it goes with everything," Lisa said. But tequila could work. Gin, too. Or a ginger beer?

5. For extra credit...

Bonus points if you channel a stylist's eye to the beverage area at the party, and serve drinks in pretty glasses or copper cups. Don't forget drink charms so no one confuses one drink with another (one of the downsides of trying to serve a signature drink for all.)

Mostly, though, she advised that party throwers just relax. "Don’t stress too much about it," she said. "Everyone is there to have fun and have a good time. Whatever you serve will be fine."

This laid back advice is based on hard won experience.

'Real cooking'?

Lisa started her website just two years ago — and only after dragging her feet and worrying whether anyone would read it. "My biggest fear was that people were going to be like... that's not real cooking!" she said.

But she was a tired wife and mom to a 2-year-old and a newborn, and trying to get dinner on the table each night was an endless chore. She found herself searching again and again for easy dinner recipes. And Trader Joe's was a go-to destination in part because it's compact size means "not a lot of choices for my mom brain." And then she remembered hearing the adage, "If you can't find it, create it."

And that's how she came up with the idea for the popular website that uses TJ's to find ingredients that can be mixed and matched into quick, easy and delicious meals. (In case you are wondering, she said she has no affiliation with TJ's, and has never heard from management there.) She is currently at work on a second cookbook and looking for a publisher.

'Enjoy yourself'

"I think people are intested in, 'Is it easier? Is it going to improve my life?'" Lisa said. "Nobody cares that it's not an hour-long dish that took 20 ingredients to prepare.

"As long as it makes you happy and you enjoy it, that's good for your mental health. Just take it easy and enjoy yourself."

She was talking about her philosophy for the daily dinner-time struggle, but it also served as cocktail advice for me.

And, now that I think of it, these are words of wisdom for all of us as we drag ourselves over the finish line and into a new year.

On a Sunday night at the Mexican restaurant La Popular in Claremont, diners are eating to a soundtrack that starts with cumbia and jumps to J Balvin and Bad Bunny before landing on Luther Vandross.

That’s the aim of DJ collective Compás Discoteca — to bring connection and community through live vinyl mixing at La Popular and El Balcon in Ontario.

How Compás Discoteca was born 

Ricardo Carlos, Elias Ruiz, Albert Piña and Adrian Silva have been friends for about two decades. They all DJ as a hobby and often share music. On a night out in 2024, they saw a sign: a parking space for a “compact car,” minus two letters.

“The C and T are missing — compá. Like, ‘We're compás,’” Carlos said, recounting that night.

A "Compás Discoteca" turntable mat.

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Dañiel Martinez

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LAist

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Their DJ collective, Compás Discoteca, was born. “Compás” means “buddies” in Spanish and “Discoteca” means “nightclub."

Seasoning the scene

When Compás Discoteca first formed, the members said Southern California’s vinyl-listening scene was more focused on track selection, letting songs play out in full. The collective wanted to bring more life to the experience by mixing music live.

“It just seemed a little stale,” Silva said. “I feel like we helped to bring some seasoning to that.”

They also wanted to play genres people wouldn’t normally hear together.

“You might hear us jump from funk to cumbia to hip-hop to disco, soul to house. We're just trying to take people on a journey with us,” Silva said.

Each compá takes their turn at the turntables for two 30-minute sets. And each brings their own sound.

Three of the "compás" pose for a picture in between their sets.

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Dañiel Martinez

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LAist

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Silva is the “party-starter.” He gets people dancing.

Carlos has a Latin bent, taking influence from his Puerto Rican, Salvadoran and Creole roots.

Ruiz lives for “jaw-drop moments” and brings records he thinks will surprise his fellow DJs.

Piña spins rare world grooves in the funk and boogie vein.

“He probably gets the most Shazams from us and from the audience,” Ruiz said of Piña. “But most importantly, you feel like you're hanging out and with some good music.”

Albert Piña prepares looks through a box of vinyl records during his DJ set at "La Popular" in Claremont.

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Dañiel Martinez

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LAist

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Feeding off the energy

Compás Discoteca DJs at El Balcon in Ontario on the first Friday of each month and at La Popular in Claremont on the third Sunday.

The vibes for Sundays are chill, they said, and Fridays are for letting it all loose.

“There's like an energy there, like, ‘Oh, man, we made it through the week.’ We try to feed off of that,” Piña said.

Along Highway 62 in Joshua Tree, a stack of high school lockers holds something the High Desert was missing: a real New York-style bagel.

For that, you have DIY baker Richard Lee to thank.

“I want a bagel. What do I do?” Lee remembered thinking after moving to Twentynine Palms in 2023 from Los Angeles, where he had lived for more than a decade.

The Bagel Portal from 29 Loaves.

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Courtesy 29 Loaves

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It wasn’t just any bagel the born-and-raised New Yorker was craving, but the kind from back home that gives “a little crunch” when you bite into its crust — with a “chewy, softer” inside and a taste Lee calls “ineffable.”

“Like maybe a sourdough or an Italian bread,” he said.

Taught by YouTube, tested by family in New York

Richard Lee converted his garage in 29 Palms to make bagels.

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Courtesy 29 Loaves

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A tinkerer by nature, Lee launched 29 Loaves in early 2024, bringing bagels he handcrafts in his licensed home operation to Twentynine Palms, Joshua Tree and surrounding communities.

“I went to the culinary school of YouTube,” he said, having watched more than 100 videos on how to make a bagel. At first, he relied on his own taste buds as a guide, before sending his creations to his family in New York to taste.

After months of overnight shipping, Lee said, “Even a UPS store is asking me, ‘Why are you doing that?’”

“I know it makes no sense,” he told them. “That's how I operate.”

The Bagel Portal off Highway 62 in Joshua Tree.

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Richard Lee

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Courtesy 29 Loaves

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Eventually, his sister gave the thumbs-up. To be extra, extra, extra sure, Lee went to folks living in the desert with New York ties to get their blessing.

“Attention is an ingredient,” Lee said of his bagels. It’s a philosophy he’s honed while running his other business providing IT services, which he now operates remotely.

“Garbage in, garbage out,” he said. “If you make a mistake or something falls on the bagel and marks it, it’ll end up that way as a finished product.”

Why bagels mean so much to him

Lee, whose father is Korean and mother is Brazilian, said his bakery is ultimately about food memories — and draws inspiration from what he ate growing up. The only other baked good 29 Loaves sells is pão de queijo, a gluten-free Brazilian cheese puff he makes.

Richard Lee handmakes New York-style bagels at his home operation.

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Courtesy 29 Loaves

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But nothing rivals bagels. Sundays were often bagel days in his childhood home in the Long Island suburbs. As a teenager working for his father, Lee remembered they would make detours off the Long Island Expressway to grab fresh bagels.

“They were nice and plump, and they were so hot,” he said.

Father and son would eat them straight out of the bag — no cream cheese, no nothing.

“Those were the types of memories that I wanna bring here,” Lee said.

Big surf from distant hurricanes in the Pacific could bring coastal flooding to Southern California starting this weekend.

Hurricanes Polo and Odalys are expected to cause coastal erosion, flooding and high surf along Southern California's already battered coastline. Swells from Polo are expect to arrive as early as late Sunday and peak Monday and Tuesday.

Bryan Lewis, National Weather Service meteorologist, told LAist that high tides could reach 7 feet. He said Long Beach and Avalon are among the more vulnerable areas for potential flooding and erosion.

Long Beach and Los Angeles warned residents to prepare for potential flooding and other effects through at least Wednesday.

In early September, Hurricane Marie brought coastal erosion and flooding that led homes being red- and yellow-tagged in L.A. and Orange counties.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Friends & Family Flea, a new market from the team behind Maum Market, will make its debut Saturday in Koreatown. 

For organizer Arnold Byun, the launch is something of a homecoming. 

Nearly five years ago, Byun and his co-founder, Kioh Park, were living in Koreatown and spending months at Document Coffee Bar dreaming up what would eventually become Maum Market, the Asian makers market they launched in January 2022. The market now has a regular presence at ROW DTLA, where it hosts pop-up markets on Dock Street several times a year.

“The genesis of Maum Market is actually really embedded in Koreatown,” Byun, 31, told The LA Local. “And we have a lot of affection and personal history with Koreatown, so it’s a very personal thing for us just to return to our roots.” 

Most of the 24 vendors participating in the first Friends & Family Flea have some connection to Koreatown, Byun said. Some grew up in the neighborhood, some still live there and others have moved away but retain ties to the area. The vendor list includes apparel brands, artists, jewelry makers, beauty and wellness businesses and food vendors. 

“We’ve been trying to be pretty intentional about curating from the community as much as possible,” Byun said.

There will be plenty of food and shopping, including “sogeum-bbang,” or salt bread, tea, handmade candles, soaps and vintage clothing, as well as flash tattoos and burgers and fries from Love Hour. The LA Hwatu-Hanafuda Club will teach visitors about hwatu, the Korean deck of playing cards with roots in Japan. The club will also offer $5 tarot card readings.

Friends & Family Flea, a new market from the team behind Maum Market, will make its debut Saturday in Koreatown.

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Courtesy Eena Cho

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Eena Cho, founder of the LA Hwatu-Hanafuda Club, was born and raised in Koreatown. She remembers living with her mother in an apartment on Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue and volunteering at the senior center near Seoul International Park, where she spent time with older Korean residents.

She also grew up playing go-stop with her grandparents during Korean holidays, like Chuseok and Seollal. 

“That was a big part of my childhood,” said Cho, 24. “Another part is that living in LA where there’s so many different groups of people together, I remember my best friend Maria growing up, she was Mexican, and we would be playmates because both of our parents were working overtime.”

For Cho, joining Friends & Family Flea felt like a natural fit.

“Koreatown is a beautiful diaspora of many different cultures,” Cho said. “And I think that makes Koreatown, Koreatown.”

Friends & Family Flea, a new market from the team behind Maum Market, will make its debut Saturday in Koreatown.

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Courtesy Eena Cho

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The local focus is a big part of what Byun hopes will distinguish Friends & Family from other flea markets and fairs. He said organizers wanted to create something that “intentionally celebrates a specific neighborhood,” in this case, Koreatown. 

For the Koreatown market, that also means highlighting small businesses beyond the restaurants that often get the most attention.

“It’s more about, you know, where do we get our dry cleaning, where do we get our shoes done, or these kinds of services that I think don’t get highlighted as often as maybe restaurants do, but are really core and essential parts of a community business,” Byun said.

Byun’s own history with Koreatown also makes the neighborhood an especially fitting place to start.

His family immigrated to the South Bay from Korea in 2002, when he was 6. He remembers coming to Koreatown with his parents on the weekends for Korean meals and grocery trips.

Byun still thinks of the neighborhood as a second home for Korean immigrants, while appreciating how its community has grown more diverse.

“I’m just really happy to see it become a really beloved neighborhood,” he said.

The market is also giving back locally. Hats sold at the event will benefit the Koreatown Youth and Community Center, Byun said.

And this may not be a one-time run. If Saturday goes well, organizers hope to bring Friends & Family Flea back to Koreatown on a monthly basis. They also plan to offer discounted vendor fees to Koreatown residents.

“I feel like there was so much opportunity for us to really hone in and create something more hyperlocal and also really embed ourselves in the community as well,” Byun said.