Consumer Non-Cyclicals

Valenza Chocolatier Making Things Sweeter In Costa Mesa

We stepped into a kitchen space known as The Hood (conveniently located down the street from our offices) for a ribbon cutting. This commercial rental space is now the home of Amy Jo Pedone. Her chocolate journey began with the passing of her dear cousin to ovarian cancer. Despite her finance degree ... More >>

Top Five Dive Bars in North Orange County

The last horse finally crosses the finish line! As we conclude our OC dive bar hunt, the north corner of the orange curtain contains a few noteworthy watering holes within its borders. Before you decide to burn a tank of gas getting to LA, don't forget the gloriously grimy crevices lurking between L ... More >>

On The Line: Alfonso Ramirez Of Pinot Provence, Part One

Ch-ch-ch-changes happen all the time in the restaurant industry. Chefs leave, and are replaced by someone with a vision more aligned with that of the establishment. Alfonso Ramirez helms the kitchen within Westin South Coast Plaza's fine-dining establishment, Pinot Provence. Where have you worked in ... More >>

PETA Bringing Factory Farm to UC Irvine--You, Too, Can Get Into a Pig Crate!

Over the past couple of years, PETA and its members have really stepped up its presence in Orange County, and it's about time given that the group's senior vice president, Dan Mathews, is a Costa Mesa boy through and through. But tomorrow promises to bring one of PETA's highest-profile campaigns yet ... More >>

First Flight: A Visit To Valiant Brewing Company

Before Valiant Brewing Company officially opens for business Saturday, we hopped in for a drink (or four). Our guide: Jack Thomas, Assistant Brewing Technician. He gave us the lowdown on our four samplers featured above. This way, you'll be plenty informed about what to order come the weekend. Per J ... More >>

Valiant Brewing Company in Orange Announces Grand Opening Date: Feb. 9

Orange you glad it's the new year? We've got so much to report as of late, we barely have the time to sit down and post it. With new concepts featuring local craft brews launching every month, our excitement is over somewhere even more dear to us-- a brewery.Founders and spouses Brian and Kelly Schr ... More >>

Christmas Day at Disneyland

11th Annual Fall Wine Classic

Nixon Library

Lucha Libre

MOLAA

Orange International Street Fair This Weekend

Is the Orange International Street Fair here again? Yes it is, reminding us that summer is wrapping up. For those unfamiliar, it ain't the OC Fair. Chicken Charlie will not be in attendance, but I'm sure there will be just as much fried foods there than is probably advisable to consume in any quanti ... More >>

Drink of the Week: Cerveza Indio

Unless you've been living under a rock, you have to know that Indio beer has started being imported from Mexico into the United States. There are billboards; there are giant posters in liquor store and convenience store windows; there are radio ads in two languages. Suddenly, everyone seems to have ... More >>

Katella High Students in Finals of National Cooking Contest RIGHT NOW

As I type, a group of students from Katella High School are prepping as California's entrant in the national Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) STAR culinary arts finals in Orlando, Florida. Let's all stop reading, close our eyes, collectively send good karma their...and back t ... More >>

Five Reasons to Hate GRUMA, Makers of Mission and Guerrero Tortillas, Maseca, and Other Tortilla Evil

If you're a fan of Mexican food in this country, you're most likely a consumer one way or another of GRUMA, the world's largest tortilla maker. Their American brands, Mission and Guerrero, are the top-selling brand in the United States and a favorite of Mexican households, respectively. Their masa, ... More >>

This Saturday: OC Brew Ha Ha To Preview 20 Craft Beers at Taste of Doheny

OC Brew Ha Ha is one of the greatest craft beer events in Southern California. With more than 70 breweries and 175 beers, it's like Disneyland for brewers, beer enthusiasts and everyone who likes to drink.   Unfortunately, it's not until September. (Sob!) But to quell our thirst for t ... More >>

Spend $80 At One Of These Irvine Spectrum Restaurants, Get Two Tickets To The Circus

It's rare that Donald Bren's empire will give you something for nothing...and this isn't one of those times; but the free Circus Vargas tickets The Irvine Spectrum is offering (with purchase) is more than I would usually expect from Bren & Co. So here it is: if you're going to spend $80 at one o ... More >>

Starbucks Buys Bakery Chain To Make Its Food Better

It's a common complaint that the food at Starbucks isn't very good--overpriced fodder customers often equate to airplane food if they're being generous. Yesterday, Howard Schultz and company announced they plan to do something about their weakness. They've bought up a San Francisco-based bakery ... More >>

Ben & Jerry's 'Euphori-Lock' Protects Your Pint From Ice Cream Thieves

It's a scary world out there, folks. As we speak, there there could be thieves hovering around the freezer with a spoon, ready to swipe a bite of your ice cream and hope that you don't notice. How will you protect yourself? 

Carl's Jr. Is Testing An Ice Cream Burger (AKA 'Brrrger') Only in Orange County

Sometimes, we just luck out. Because look what we've got here. It's the new "Ice Cream Brrrger" from Carl's Jr., being tested only in OC. Don't freak out--they didn't simply add a scoop of rocky road to their Western Bacon Cheeseburger. Because that would be gross. Maybe. Nope, it's a ... More >>

California Wine Festival

Dana Point Yacht Club

How Doritos Were Born At Disneyland

Adapted from 'Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America'

A "Pink Slime"-Using Beef Producer Files For Bankruptcy

The Wall Street Journal reports that AFA Foods, which contributes to about 2% of total U.S. beef production has filed for bankruptcy protection.  The company's products are sold by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Burger King Holdings Inc., Jack in the Box Inc., Carl Karcher Enterprises Inc., Wendy' ... More >>

Brazilian Beer Company Creates Beer-Flavored Easter Eggs

​I'm not a beer drinker, but I am a chocolate Easter Egg eater and Catholic. So there's no better way to celebrate the coming of Christ that to eat beer-flavored Easter eggs!Skol, a Brazilian beer company owned by Anheuser-Busch, announced last week that they had just released the product, but tha ... More >>

3hree Things: On Kate Upton's Carl's Jr. Commercial

Watch out for 3hree Things every Tuesday, where Riley Breckenridge, drummer of Orange County's favorite local alt-rock band Thrice, gives his take on life in Southern California as an OC native. That's Carl's Jr.'s new commercial for Kate Upton's boobs the Southwest Patty Melt, an 890 calo ... More >>

AB1616, the California Cottage Food Bill: Support This!

​California does not have a cottage food law. Currently, if you bake a cake at home and sell it to the public--let's say at a bake sale--you are breaking the law. If you make a few pints of jam from the fruit in your backyard and sell them from a shop, you're breaking the law. There's no way to ge ... More >>

Were Doritos Invented at Disneyland?

​Over the weekend, I gave my short history of Mexican food in Orange County at the Segerstrom Center's Samueli Stage as part of its hosting of the awesome, ribald Chautauqua! show. Since I doubt I'll ever grace any stage at the Segerstrom again, I decided to focus my 10-minute lecture on OC's two ... More >>

On the Line: Chris Kim of Rolling Sushi Van, Part One

​What can you say about someone who pimps sushi out of his nontraditional wheels? Chris Kim's luxe lonchera is a Mercedes Sprinter van, and he has even fewer square feet to work with than any New Yorker (assuming they're using their kitchens). While he recovered from the New Year's Eve event at th ... More >>

John Freese's Holiday Shopping Guide

​You only have one holiday shopping weekend left. Freak ya out? In order to help your lazy, procrastinating ass, we enlisted the help of drummer extraordinaire Josh Freese. And why not? The man who rocks behind the kit for bands such as Devo and Weezer is also one of the greatest marketing ... More >>

New (Fake) Ben & Jerry's Flavor: OccuPie Wall Street

Tauntr.comSpeaking of fake Ben & Jerry's flavors, this one is 99 percent awesome. Illustrator John Defreest created the conceptual OccuPie Wall Street, described as "apple pie ice cream with some other good stuff in there, we think. We're not really sure. No one can explain it to us."  ... More >>

Wine Company Trying to Trademark Term 'Taco Truck'

​Today is something called National Taco Day, which is a total bullshit holiday made up in 2000 by Chuy's in Austin. It started as a marketing ploy, and Chuy's actually filed a trademark application for it, but it let its rights to the term slip, meaning hundreds of lazy bloggers and reporters can ... More >>

Five Things You're Doing Wrong With Mexican Food

Flick user Ryan Leighty​We love Mexican food 'round here, and not just because I'm doing a book on the history of Mexican food in the United States. It's the native cuisine of Southern California, something many Americans have seamlessly assimilated into their day-to-day lives--and an easy subject ... More >>

En La Noche

MOLAA

Why Local Craft Brewing Is Important: The Atrocity that is Budweiser Select 55

​Left to his or her own devices, your local craft brewer will come up with things like amber beer brewed with sweet potatoes, rye IPA that's meant to complement a pastrami sandwich, or a revival of the California Common beer.Left to their own devices, Anheuser-Busch came up with... whatever that i ... More >>

Anaheim Brewery Opens

Dave Lieberman​Orange County's latest craft brewery, Anaheim Brewery, has had their soft opening at the Anaheim Packing House, the retail center being developed by the company behind the Lab and the Camp in Costa Mesa. The brewery continues the 130-year-old tradition of brewing in OC's original Ge ... More >>

First Wendy's in Russia Skanks Up Chain's Iconic Mascot

Flickr user Mykl Roventine​If we think of all the mascots in the fast-food hamburger chain galaxy--McDonald's Ronald, Carl Jr.'s galaxy of gals, Jack, the Burger King--perhaps the most boring is Wendy's, um, Wendy. It's intentional, of course: she was modeled after the daughter of Wendy's founder ... More >>

The Mumlers at the Commonwealth Lounge Last Night

​The Mumlers June 20, 2011 Commonwealth Lounge, FullertonSan Jose's The Mumlers, whose vintage-rock stylings were the point of focus in Fullerton last night, represent an interesting bit of musical irony in the post modern indie scene: they sound incredibly soulful--for a bunch of disaffected pro ... More >>

The Bruery Collaborates with Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione on Japanese-Inspired Beer

From left: Bruery head brewer Tyler King, Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione and Bruery CEO Patrick RueThe Bruery Facebook page​Some big news from The Bruery. Founder Patrick Rue, who we recently profiled in a Weekly cover story, is teaming up with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery on a specialty br ... More >>

Former Karl Strauss Culinary Director To Open Restaurant in Huntington Beach

Red Table​ Chef Louie Jocson grew up in Fullerton, studied at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and worked at Antonello Ristorante. He eventually became the Culinary Director of Karl Strauss Brewing Company.

Pepsi Unveils Spambot "Be Social" Vending Machine

PepsiOMGWTFPepsi​In a move that ups Coca-Cola's decades-old "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" campaign, PepsiCo introduced a new vending machine prototype that allows consumers to buy their friends around the world a soda.

Five Non-Slutty Carl's Jr. Commercials

​Eater published a fun, if predictable, collection of what it calls Carl's Jr.'s Slutburger ads--you know, those ads featuring hot chicks eating burgers that made founder Carl Karcher sad in the last years of his life due to their wanton sexuality.Of course, Carl's Slutburger phase is a relatively ... More >>

Toast The Royal Wedding With...Viagra Beer?

Celebrate Big Willy style....​While all eyes will be on William and Kate next week in a wedding of epic proportions, Brits will toast the newlyweds with all sorts of bubbly, including one named Royal Virility Performance. This isn't the only commemorative beverage made for the special day, but it' ... More >>

Pulitzer Prize Winning Food Critic Jonathan Gold Reviews...The Olive Garden

​Sometimes an April Fools prank can backfire on the prankster. It happened to Jonathan Gold, our esteemed colleague and Pulitzer Prize winning food critic at the LA Weekly. His planned joke on his longtime food photographer Anne Fishbein to meet him at Olive Garden didn't go exactly as planned. ... More >>

Will Eating Sea Kelp Save Us From Radiation?

​The officials have assured us we're fine, a very safe distance from the radiation that's still emitting from the disaster-hit nuclear plant in Japan, but that hasn't stopped folks around here from taking extra precautions. People are flocking to local health food markets such as Mother's and Wh ... More >>

Jesse Thomas

Viento Y Agua

Can We Please Stop Freaking Out About S.510 (the Food Safety Modernization Act) Now?

Flickr user paullew​The large food safety overhaul has passed the U.S. Senate after a clerical error and a deal between the Democrats and the Republicans to keep it out of the continuing resolution that will keep the government running, and is now headed back to the House for final passage (and, u ... More >>

BB Cream: Your Makeup Kit In One Tube

[Trendzilla] The Asian skincare sensation that's sweeping the nation

TK Burgers Refuses to Conform to the Numbing Sameness of a Fast-Food Chain

This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

Pizza for Pesos: Chicago Pizza

Adobo a Go-Go

Fast food done right