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Food Feuds: The Cups of L.A. Haterade Runneth Over
Photo by °L.A. | © Albert's Canon Photography via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
L.A. has been getting all sorts of love in the media as of late, with the New York Post calling us "the future" and GQ Magazine saying that our fair city is "the new frontier of beer."
Of course, there are plenty of people who aren't buying L.A.'s new-found fame. Michael Bauer, the SF Chronicle's food critic, tells Zagat:
"I think back to the late 80s when the trends were coming from LA, you had Wolfgang Puck and Michael Roberts, so you had that whole cadre of chefs kind of eclipsing what was happening here. But I think frankly since that time it’s been SF that has had the upper hand... In LA just about every place has to be a destination because you have to drive there. While you do have neighborhood restaurants, I don’t know if it’s the same as the caliber of restaurants we have here. In LA it’s more of a "see and be seen" and in SF it's more of a "let’s see what’s on the plate."
Similar backlash came from up North after L.A. won Sunset Magazine's great food debate, which pitted the L.A. Times' Pulitzer-winning critic Jonathan Gold against San Francisco Magazine's critic Josh Sens in an argument about who had the stronger scene.
But San Franciscans aren't the only ones drinking the L.A. Haterade. Peter Rowe of the San Diego Union Tribune says that L.A. is "a city that is to craft brewing what "The Innocence of Muslims" is to world cinema -- in other words, an embarrassment. Outside of Pasadena's superb Craftsman, it's hard to find notable beers from the L.A. region."
Now, it's true that Escondido has more award-winning breweries per capita. And we won't deny our love of the likes of Green Flash, Port, and Stone. But still, what's the sense in talking so much trash-- especially when you can't even get the name of the brewery right? (He first referred to Golden Road Brewing as "Golden Way" in his piece.)
The point is, haters gonna hate. And quite frankly, we'd rather have them hate from polar sides of the state. Less traffic for us, anyway.
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