The Brief

With dry January just around the corner, many of us are reigniting some of our curiosity with cutting back on alcohol. For some, that might mean seeking out alcohol alternatives — like non-alcoholic spirits, wines, and beers.

However, diving into non-alcoholic (NA) spaces — whether it's a bar, bottle shop, or community event — can be a tad overwhelming, especially if you’re just beginning to explore that sober curious journey and you’re not entirely sure what to look out for.

“It’s definitely intimidating,” says Obreanna McReynolds, co-owner of the new non-alcoholic bottle shop Burden of Proof in South Pasadena. “To walk in and see all the products and to think, ‘If I’m here, does that mean I can never drink again? Or I’m gonna be judged?’”

The Burden of Proof

For McReynolds and her husband Dean Peterson, opening up San Gabriel Valley’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop was a convergence of personal explorations and noticing a need in the industry.

Obreanna McReynolds and Dean Peterson, co-owners of Burden of Proof

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The two met in the summer of 2020 during the height of the pandemic and had their first date on ZOOM. For them, a typical night consisted of up to two bottles of wine.

“I prided myself going into the pandemic. I had my box of red, my box of rose, and my box of white. So, like many people, we turned to alcohol. And then coming out of [the pandemic], those drinking habits stayed.” Looking back on it now, McReynolds says she was slightly hungover for a couple of years.

However, their habits quickly changed in 2022 when Dean was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation — a type of irregular heartbeat — and was rushed into an emergency heart surgery. When told alcohol was an exacerbating factor in his condition, Dean gave up drinking overnight. In solidarity, Obreanna decided to cut back herself.

“ I think we both kind of expected that [this] would mean the end to going out — or having a fun drink at parties would be kind of like [having] a juice and a non-alcoholic beer here or there.”

It wasn’t until they ran into Minus Moonshine, a non-alcoholic bottle shop in Brooklyn, New York, that the pair realized the plethora of alternative options available to them — and it wasn’t just having a glass of juice. In those aisles, everything clicked.

“ We had always wished that LA had something like this, especially on the east side, where I think there are so many sort of older millennials like us who are not able to drink like we did in our 20s, maybe moving on to different life phases.”

Burden of Proof, McReynolds says, is that endeavor.

Mocktail anyone?

When it comes to alternatives, there are a few options. One is simply the non-alcoholic version of your favorite beverage that brewers have dealcoholized as part of its process. For some NA products, this extra step is where the sometimes surprising cost of these beverages stem from, McReynolds says.

The second, she says, are spirits that aren’t trying to replicate its alcoholic relative at all. “ There are a lot of spirits that are just built from the ground up to kind of fit the vibe of maybe a whiskey, so something spiced and warming that you sip slowly, neat or on the rocks.”

Then there are what’s called ‘functional’ ingredients or drinks — beverages that contain herbal and medicinal substances called nootropics or adaptogens that “make you feel a little something,” McReynold claims, “which is what people really miss about drinking oftentimes.”

Some non-alcoholic beverages can be used to cut the alcohol content of your traditional cocktail.

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Back on the shelves of Burden of Proof, some NA spirits are sold not just as replacements but as a way to cut an alcoholic cocktail. That way, McReynolds suggests, you feel like you have a little more control over the percentage of alcohol in your beverage.

“ So it's really not necessarily an either or thing. It's a matter of more choices, more options.”

Start with what you know

If you’re new to NA spaces and you’re starting to feel the need to become a mixologist to truly enjoy your drink, McReynolds says you’re not alone. Sometimes the initial journey becomes overwhelming and people lose focus of what they’re searching for in these alternatives. Instead of feeling the need to master the skills, she says it’s best to approach NA beverages the same way you would its alcoholic brethren. For people who are starting to explore, “it's much more familiar and approachable to start with the non-alcoholic version of a drink that they already know that they like.”

And when it comes to reliable, well-liked beverages, there’s nothing cozier than a classic Old Fashioned. At Burden of Proof, they recommend from their shelves the Pathfinder whiskey alternative — a hemp and root botanical spirit.

“If you have a whiskey sized hole in your heart, the Pathfinder will fill it well.” McReynolds says. “It has the [same] complexity, the warming spices, and also the bite.”

Pathfinder Old Fashioned Recipe

To make the Pathfinder Old Fashion you will need:

2oz of Pathfinder Spirit
½ oz of demerara syrup or simple syrup
4 dashes of aromatic bitters (NA alternatives welcome as well)
1 orange peel for garnish

“Fear not, I even have a drink every now and then”

For McReynolds and Peterson, alternative bottle shops like theirs serve a crucial role for the growing NA movement — especially now with so many options available for sober curious consumers online. “ I think bottle shops are such an important place to go for education, to go to try things, to go for guidance,” she says.

Bottle shops like Burden of Proof can serve as important information centers for the NA community.

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Despite the shop being only a few weeks old, McReynolds has already seen the fruits of its educational arm in action. “It’s really cool to see people in the shop start comparing notes and talking to each other” about alternative options they’ve tried and are recommending — people, she says, who are often casual alcoholic drinkers just scouting for another choice.

“I think it’s the most exciting part to just sort of see the little seeds of community being planted.”

And for those sober curious leaning into Dry January, skeptical about what the beginning of their journey means, McReynolds says, “Fear not, I even have a drink every now and then.” And at Burden of Proof, it’s not about giving up or condemning alcohol, she adds, “rather, we’re trying to just give people more choices.”

Los Angeles city housing officials are pushing back on allegations from the outgoing city attorney, who claims that a legal aid provider has failed to comply with its taxpayer-funded contract to help tenants avoid eviction.

At stake in the dispute is $177 million — approved months ago by the mayor and City Council but still awaiting the city attorney’s signature — to help renters stay housed.

For more than a year, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has refused to authorize new long-term funding for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, or LAFLA. On Thursday, she told LAist the delay was due to the nonprofit’s alleged failure to account for how it spends city funds.

“They didn't comply with the monthly reporting that they were supposed to do,” Feldstein Soto said. “They still haven't done so.”

LAFLA leaders strongly disputed those claims, saying they have provided detailed accountings of their caseloads and tenant outcomes. Barbara Schultz, LAFLA’s housing director, told LAist her organization has fully complied with the terms of its contract.

“After months of highly unusual investigations, document requests and audits that extend well beyond the scope of [the city attorney’s] office, she has failed to identify any misconduct — because there isn't any,” Schultz said.

Officials with the L.A. Housing Department also told LAist the contract monitoring and reporting requirements have been upheld.

“LAFLA has complied with every request for information put forth by LAHD,” said department spokesperson Sharon Sandow. “Like all new programs, tracking and information systems have been improved as the program has matured over the past five years. LAFLA provided the information requested.”

City attorney’s dispute with legal aid group runs deeps

Feldstein Soto has frequently clashed with LAFLA. Separate from its tenant defense work, the organization has joined lawsuits against the city over its homelessness policies.

Feldstein Soto has objected to giving LAFLA city funds, telling council members in a confidential memo earlier this year that the city should “reconsider the award of such a large contract to a frequent litigant against the city.”

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, LAFLA has led Stay Housed L.A., a city- and county-funded effort to provide eviction defense, rent relief and other aid to tenants at risk of losing their housing.

The city has also tasked LAFLA with scaling up the city’s “Right To Counsel” ordinance, which provides free attorneys to qualified low-income renters facing eviction. Statistics show that landlords almost always have attorneys in eviction proceedings, but renters rarely come to court with lawyers of their own.

Last year, Feldstein Soto rejected a new five-year contract with the organization, saying any further funding should have gone through a competitive bidding process. The city responded by opening up a new call for submissions. Officials ultimately selected the Legal Aid Foundation to continue eviction defense services. The City Council and mayor approved that contract in April.

But Feldstein Soto has continued to withhold her signature. On Monday, she issued a report detailing why she has delayed the contract with LAFLA, as well as contracts with other tenant aid groups slated to receive funding for rent relief programs, enforcement of the city’s ordinance against tenant harassment and tenant rights education programs.

Feldstein Soto’s report included a series of audits of LAFLA from the Harrington Group, an independent accounting firm. When LAist asked if she had identified any evidence of impropriety in those audits, representatives for her office did not respond.

Data on tenant outcomes

Feldstein Soto said she believes information provided by LAFLA is insufficient to determine how many eviction cases involving city funding went to court, what the outcomes were or the average cost per case.

“The funds that we provided have not been accounted for properly in any way, shape or form,” Feldstein Soto said.

On Wednesday, the city’s housing department published a report saying Stay Housed L.A. has assisted tenants in 27,273 eviction cases, including 6,522 cases in which tenants were fully represented by a lawyer throughout their legal proceedings.

Over the last four years, 53% of fully represented tenants stayed in their homes, according to the report. Another 41% were able to negotiate agreements in which their landlords gave them more time to move out, forgave their overdue rent or sealed their eviction record. Less than 3% of tenants lost their case in court.

Much of the funding for the tenant aid contracts comes from the city’s so-called “mansion tax,” which could soon be scaled back by the city’s voters in a potential November ballot measure.

What comes next? 

Schultz said if city leaders are not satisfied with the accounting, they could ask for a formal audit through the City Controller’s Office. Feldstein Soto launched an audit of LAFLA last year, but has not released any findings so far. She told LAist more information could be coming soon.

“I am likely to file both a public report and a confidential report with my client, because you can't just gift away public funds without an audit trail and without transparency and accountability,” Feldstein Soto said.

Meanwhile, tenant advocates say smaller legal aid nonprofits that receive city funding as subcontractors are in danger of running out of money soon. Lawyers could be laid off and tenants could become homeless if funding is not approved quickly, they argue.

Schultz said the City Council may need to look for ways to approve the funding without the involvement of Feldstein Soto, who recently came in third place in the June primary election. She will not advance to the general election for a second term.

“I think that the council should definitely look at — if they had a rogue city attorney that refused to follow their directions — what other avenues they could explore,” Schultz said.

City Council members have introduced a motion calling on the city attorney’s office to explain the delay. That request was supposed to come up for a vote in a housing committee meeting this week, but it was ultimately canceled due to an earlier meeting of the full City Council that ran hours over schedule.

When I visited Taqueria Hoy in Orange, owner Rafael De Anda couldn’t wait to get home to watch Mexico kick off its World Cup stint. After decades at the helm of his taco shop — he first started it as a food truck and now has brick-and-mortar locations in Orange, Santa Ana and Anaheim — he could put his feet up and relax. The business was in good hands.

His sons, Raphael V. De Anda, 34, and Christian De Anda, 30, had been working at the taqueria since childhood. But when Rafael De Anda was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011 and battling the disease, the young men took over the complete running of the business — with their father still an integral part.

While I get a lot of emails pitching stories for LAist, rarely does a story materialize from one of them. But when Raphael De Anda emailed me about Taqueria Hoy, including a video that captured the warmth of his and his brother’s relationship with their father, it quickly piqued my interest.

In it they are quick to praise him for his work ethic and the lessons he’s imparted to them. In honor of Father’s Day, we’re celebrating those lessons here.

Rafael De Anda makes tacos at his taqueria in Orange.

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LAist

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Lesson No. 1: Keep it simple and do it well

Rafael De Anda is from Arandas in Jalisco, and crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 1974. A few years into life in the Santa Ana area, he realized there was no good taqueria around, unless you drove to Los Angeles or San Diego. And so Taqueria De Anda was born in the 80s, before it was rebranded to Taqueria Hoy in 2020.

He says he wanted the tacos to taste just like the ones he used to have every day.  ”If you eat my tacos here, if you go to any part of Mexico, it will have to be the same,” he explained.

Taqueria Hoy has a straightforward menu, offering the usual carne asada, al pastor, pollo, chorizo and carnitas, along with cabeza (cheek) and lengua (tongue), the most tender cuts of beef.

Cabeza and carne asada tacos adorned with the Taqueria Hoy's green and red salsas.

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Cooking the meats to perfection, he says, and keeping the quality consistently good keeps people keep coming back — sometimes spanning generations.

It's one of his first lessons for his sons: Keep it simple but do it well. “ If you're not gonna eat them, don't sell it.”

That philosophy even extends to their red and green Hoysioso salsas, made in-house with high quality ingredients.

Only three people in the world know the recipe — Rafael De Anda and his two sons. And the sons have promised to make the condiment just the way he taught them.

Lesson No. 2: Honor your customers and staff

“ We just started making tacos and that's it,” Rafael De Anda said, never expecting for the business to last more than forty years. "We were busy and then we just kept going and going.”

He and his sons credit that to their customer base. Some of them are the great grandsons of those first customers, according to Raphael De Anda.

 ”We're very grateful to the community that has accepted us and that has allowed us to continue to serve tacos for all these years,” he said.

Some of the workers at Taqueria Hoy have been with Rafael De Anda for decades.

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LAist

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That love for their customer base also extends to their workers. Some have been at the taco shop for decades. Raphael De Anda said his father was a father figure to many, including those who crossed the border when they were young. He’d nurture them and help them get settled in the United States.

“He didn't only have two boys. He had many, many children,” Raphael De Anda said.

Lesson No. 3: Trust your kids

Now I love my father, but I cannot imagine working directly alongside him. I'm open and friendly at work, the type of person who would bake cupcakes for my colleagues' kids. My dad, on the other hand, would never hang out with someone outside of the office. Two different generations, two very different upbringings. One was raised in a strict all-boys Catholic school in Sri Lanka, another in an international school in Sharjah, UAE.

But while Rafael De Anda had a very different upbringing to his sons — him in Jalisco, his sons as American-born citizens who went to Chapman University — he's been open to their ideas and approaches.

They have taken to social media, using Instagram to explain how taqueros make carne asada, show off their heart shaped takeout containers for Valentine’s Day, and share collaborative posts with influencers.

“ Their way of approaching the business has been a little switching to the modern culture,” Rafael De Anda said. “I like it, that's something that I would not be able to do, to be honest.”

He adds that he keeps a close eye on what they are doing. “And to be honest, I'm proud of them,” Rafael De Anda said, uttering the magical words every kid wants to hear from their immigrant parents.

Lesson No. 4: Life isn't complicated. We're the ones who complicate it

Raphael De Anda said his father has instilled in his brother and him the importance of focusing on the task at hand rather than worrying too much about the future.

 "Sometimes my brother and I will talk with my Dad. "Hey, what do the projections look like for this year?" he said. "My Dad's like "well, it doesn't really matter. As long as we take care of what we're doing now, things will work out."

And Raphael De Anda said it always does end up working out.

Lesson No. 5: I do what I can with what I am given

Their father was not one to live in the future, and neither did he spend time worrying, his sons said.

"Instead of saying, "Oh, woe is me. I wish I had more customers", Raphael De Anda said, his father would focus on the customers he had.

"How do we treat them the best we can?"

Growth happened organically. Their father found the Santa Ana location through a conversation with a regular customer who was selling his billiards shop.

"The owner said, "We care for you so much and your presence, you've meant so much to the community. We want to offer you to buy the building first," recounted Raphael De Anda.

And he did.

Lesson No. 6: Be honest with yourself before you can be honest with others

The sons grew up hearing their father reiterate the message of staying true and authentic.

" Don't change who you are for others and that mantra is also carried through in everything we do here at the restaurant," said Raphael De Anda.

Birria, for example, is a popular offering at taquerias across Southern California. But, it's not something on offer at Taqueria Hoy.

 "That's not who we are. We have to be honest that we are a taco and burrito makers first," Raphael De Anda said.

And the burritos at Taqueria Hoy are massive.

And for some parting wisdom from Rafael De Anda, "How do you eat a big burrito? One bite at a time."

The World Cup has officially taken over Los Angeles, and not without controversy.

Fans have voiced frustration over ticket pricing and questions linger over whether the Iranian football team should be playing in the tournament.

Listen: Should Iran be playing at SoFi? Listeners weigh in as tentative US-Iran deal is announced

The man at the center of these decisions and how fans in Southern California are experiencing the World Cup is FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

Here's why he's the most influential voice in soccer right now.

How he got elected

The election of Infantino followed one of the worst corruption scandals in sports history. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted more than a dozen FIFA officials and executives on charges of bribery, money laundering and wire fraud.

Swiss authorities launched an additional investigation, which led to former FIFA President Sepp Blatter's resignation. He had held the position since 1998.

Following the corruption scandal, Congress passed a reform package, but criticism remains over lack of follow through.

Part of Infantino's success has been built on his ability to boost revenue for FIFA over the years.

Ticket pricing, human rights and other critiques

Getting in on the World Cup games here in L.A. has likely been... expensive.

And that's been one of the biggest critiques of Infantino as matches approached and FIFA announced ticket pricing would adjust based on demand. Infantino has defended the pricing method, comparing it to other major American sporting events.

Coaches, players and fans are also split on FIFA's decision to add three-minute mandated hydration breaks to matches, according to Reuters.

Infantino has also been criticized for downplaying concerns over human rights. For example, the Guardian reported in 2021 that more than 6,500 migrant workers died in Qatar during the 10-year lead up to it hosting the World Cup in 2022.

Oliver Kay, The Athletic's senior soccer writer, said during a conversation on LAist 89.3's AirTalk that Infantino's legacy is complicated and leaves true soccer fans with questions.

" How many of these decisions are being made for the good of the game, and how many of them are being made for whichever world leaders Infantino is cozying up to at that time?" Kay said.

With the World Cup fully underway and the LA28 Olympics on the horizon, bathroom access is bound to cause a stir for fans visiting from all around the world.

Los Angeles, like other major cities in the U.S., doesn’t have the most robust stock of accessible restrooms, and although that’s nothing new, it wasn’t always like this.

Read more: Visiting LA? Our public bathrooms are tricky to find but we’ve got maps

LA’s opulent toilets

As it turns out, L.A. was one of the epicenters of the early 20th century bathroom boom (no pun intended).

Temple University professor Bryant Simon, who is the author of the forthcoming book For Customers Only: Public Bathrooms and the Making of American Inequality, joined AirTalk, LAist’s daily news program, to talk about the history of public bathrooms and how we got to where we are today.

“Cities would compete with each other to build the most lavish public bathrooms,” Simon said. “In 1911 in L.A., the mayor held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and bragged about how ornate the bathroom was.”

When things started to go down the toilet

The goal was simple: encourage the public to feel safe and confident leaving their homes by creating convenient spaces for people to relieve themselves.

Instead, these public bathrooms attracted a different type of crowd.

“Drinkers and smokers, people using drugs and most ominously for city leaders, people seeking sex,” Simon said, adding that almost immediately authorities throughout Southern California started arresting men who were seeking sex with other men.

So, cities felt they had no choice but to close public bathrooms all together.

“Jim Crow laws fall down and cities closed public bathrooms,” Simon added.

Simon said this trend continued into the 1980s, with stricter policies around homelessness.

Toilet anxiety

United Sites is one of the companies that supplies portable toilets to the city of L.A.

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Today, you can see from this map how many bathrooms there are in the city and county, which has put some LAist listeners in a tough spot and on both sides of the issue.

Where do we go from here?

Similar to European models — big U.S. cities previously instituted for-pay toilets, but by 1974, they were outlawed after a gender equity campaign argued they discriminated against women who were forced to pay, while men could use urinals for free.

“ We have pay toilets now. It's called Starbucks,” Simon said.

Starbucks is trying to stem the loss of customers by simplifying its menu, reintroducing ceramic mugs and making other changes to be more like a local coffee house.

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Simon added that when private companies are essentially operating public toilets, they tend to become inherently unfair because the focus is on profits.

He says if public bathrooms are to come back at scale, they need to be maintained, including proper cleaning — and this likely means human attendants are involved.

“Public bathrooms have been closed over decades in order to keep other people away to the point that now we're all in the same boat of having no public bathrooms,” Simon said.