Elise Thompson

Tonight just before 7pm the fire detector in the kitchen of Susan Feniger's popular new restaurant, "Street" malfunctioned. It detected a nonexistent grease fire and the sprinkler system sprayed a hot chemical down on the kitchen from behind the chefs, coating much of the food and sending everyone running out of the kitchen. Not only is the food a loss, but there are strict rules about this kind of thing both from the Health...

You know those movies, where there is a serial killer out there, and only one man who can catch him? But that one guy is an ex-cop who got on the bottle after a serial killer murdered his wife. And he's living in some cheap apartment putting whiskey on his cornflakes now. So the one guy on the force who believes in him has to go hunt him down and clean him up and...

Maybe there is such a thing as a free lunch after all, if you don't count their promotional value. In order to combat the threat of KFC's new grilled chicken. 400 El Pollo Locos will be offering free chicken today from 9am until 8pm. Only two restaurants across the country will not be participating, including the Universal Studios location. According to their press release, "Customers who ask to Taste the Fire will be given...

Photo by Elise Thompson for LAist With this latest heat wave, everyone is looking for ways to cool off. Studio City's Gelato Bar on Tujunga is one of our favorite summer spots. The flavors not only change according to the season, but by the day, so sometimes you have to take what you can get. Luckily there is always something exciting on the menu. New flavors in rotation right now are acai berry, pear,...

According to her friends Phillipe Marcade, Bebe Buell, and Legs McNeil, Sable Starr passed away in her sleep last Friday of cancer. She was 51 years old. Her death has not yet been confirmed by official sources, but those closest to her have been posting tributes to her since yesterday on the internet. Most people learned the sad news in a posting on Legs McNeil's Facebook, which was in response to an email sent...

Most people don't even have to look at the menu when they sit down at Versailles, the popular local Cuban restaurant with a handful of locations around town. Ironbeer, chicken/pork combo, and you're good to go. Maybe check out the specials board for the delicious braised oxtails or leg of lamb on a weekend. But two weeks ago Versailles added a little extra pizzaz. Although they served limited appetizers before, they now offer stuffed...

Cartoonist B. Kliban once advised, "Never eat anything bigger than your head." But what did he know? He also thought cats should play banjos. The Hat has been serving up deliciously greasy pastrami sandwiches since 1951. They are so old-school, they only recently started accepting credit cards. Although pastrami dips are the main attraction, locals know to go there for the chili fries. The massive mound of junk food is a sight to behold,...

Photo by Elise Thompson for LAist. Yes, you can buy Thin Mints by the case. Don't judge me. It used to be impossible to diet during Girl Scout Cookie season. They were everywhere. Then slowly the munchkins stopped going door to door, and the cookie stands at shopping centers have limited hours. Nowadays unless you have a coworker taping an order form up in the lunchroom, hunting Girl Scouts can be a major undertaking....

No one really likes green beer or Shamrock Shakes. And corned beef and cabbage is iffy at best. Luckily Yummy Cupcakes has brought back their Guinness cupcakes this year, available today and tomorrow at both store locations, in Burbank and in Santa Monica. The Guinness is added with a light hand, so the mild cake tastes mostly of buttermilk, cocoa and brown sugar. The glazed topping holds the strongest taste of ale, topped with...

Just in time for Valentine's day, Paperwhite Studio, which is run by Laureen Moyal and Yuliya Gorlovetsky, presents I Love You More Than..., an online project to determine how we calibrate love. According to the website: “i love you more than ‘blank’. ” is a little project with a big heart. We believe that you can never really evaluate the value of something unless you measure it up to something else, so we wanted...

Photo by tkksummers via Flickr To Live and Eat in LA celebrates the new vegan options at Trails Cafe in Griffith Park in Happy Trails to You! A Forest of Vegan Goodies. Especially exciting are the savory vegan pie, made-from-scratch cornbread and chili. Gridskipper coins the phrase No Frills Watering Holes which sounds much classier than "dive bars". There are some of the usual favorites on their uber-cool map. We have spent many a...

Photographer Gary Leonard opened a gallery for his rare archival prints last month. The Apparel News has a mini-profile of the prolific photographer, who has documented most every Los Angeles ribbon-cutting, political ruckus or cool concert since the 1970s. The name of Leonard’s downtown L.A. space is Take My Picture, Gary Leonard, which was also the title of his weekly columns which ran for years in the Los Angeles Reader, New Times and CityBeat....