Culver City

Yes, We Have No Bluth Co. Banana Stand

So fly your Arrested Development freak flag at 'I Just Blue Myself'

Sign the Petition to Bring Bluth's Original Frozen Banana Stand "Home:" Update

Click here to find out where you can sign a Change.org petition to bring Bluth's Original Frozen Banana stand to Newport Beach!ORIGINAL POST, MAY 8, 1:30 P.M.: To promote the 15 new episodes being released soon of Arrested Development--only the best television show ever about life in Orange County, ... More >>

Petition Drive Launched to Bring Bluth's Original Frozen Banana Stand to Newport Beach

As a guest food blogger brilliantly reported on the Weekly's Stick a Fork In It, NetFlix is promoting new Arrested Development episodes by taking Bluth's Original Frozen Banana stand to London, New York and Los Angeles. That's sparked a petition drive to bring the stand to the wacky family's "hometo ... More >>

What Do a Santa Ana Artist, Ex-Surf City Art Center Director, Leonardo da Vinci and Citizen Space Exploration Have in Common?

A Santa Ana artist who has created an institute dedicated to the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci has joined visions with a former Huntington Beach museum director opening a new exhibit on citizen space exploration "to dream, conceptualize and build the world of tomorrow." You can't see the fruits ... More >>

Play Your Own Game

[Ask Exene] I'm a struggling college actor in a small, biased theater department. What do I do?

Jenni Rivera Had Ovaries of Steel

The ballsy, brash, brilliant, too-short life of the Mexican regional music queen and Long Beach girl

Dave Reviews OC Yelp Reviews, Part 6

Today in the Red Pencil Diaries: people who actually manage to stuff relevant content into a few sentences! Yes, there are actually succinct Yelp reviews that don't totally suck! (Shocking, isn't it?)Sadly, they are far outweighed by people who change their minds without telling anyone why, and the ... More >>

[UPDATED: Guess What...] Surfas Culinary District in Costa Mesa to Open THIS FRIDAY, Nov. 9!

[UPDATED Nov 8., 9 a.m.] Well, apparently the management has other ideas. Despite three separate employees, including two managers, giving the date, Steven Surfas says not yet. Watch this space for an announcement whenever they get their I's dotted and their T's crossed.[ORIGINAL POST, Nov. 5, 8 a.m ... More >>

The Kamikaze Kitchen Debuts First Episode With Chef Ben Ford

Friend of the blog, Weekly contributor, author of Deep End Dining and frequent Good Food contributor Eddie Lin and Valentino Herrera of Trippy Food have unleashed the first episode of their "Kamikaze Kitchen" project. The point of the show, in case you missed it, is to drop in on chefs at their rest ... More >>

Surfas (AKA Cook's Paradise) to Open in Costa Mesa's SoCo Collection

Surfas, the Culver City paradise that draws food lovers from every corner of the Southland, is opening a second store, right here in Costa Mesa. It'll be located at 3309 Hyland Ave., in the South Coast Collection, across the parking lot from the OC Mart Mix (Portola Coffee, the Cheese Shop, Savory S ... More >>

First Taste: Ramen Yamadaya Costa Mesa

ProfessorSalt.comYamadaya's Kotteri ramen​They're finally open! Back in November we reported that Yamadaya's first Orange County restaurant was opening by the end of that month. They put up hand-written signs in their papered-over windows counting down the days. "8 Days," the sign promised, and ... More >>

Shuji's Top Five Restaurants for 2011

ProfessorSalt.comTacos & Carnitas Sahuayo​It's the time of year again when I select a short list of five favorite restaurants. I love places with a tiny menu, tightly focused on producing one thing or variations on the thing at which they excel. Often, that specialist is an ethnic hole-in-the ... More >>

LA Galaxy to Host MLS Cup Viewing Party at Olde Ship in Santa Ana THIS Sunday

​SO...my chica had one of her Patchwork festivals this past weekend in Culver City, and I saw someone I never imagined was into crafty stuff: Jaime Cárdenas, the PR guy for the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer squad. He's a pal, and a graduate of Cal State Fullerton. I congratulated Jaime on his team's ... More >>

Ramen Yamadaya Coming to Costa Mesa!

ProfessorSalt.comKotteri ramen at Yamadaya​When I heard the news, it was like Christmas in October. Yamadaya, the renowned LA ramen shop, will open store No. 3 in Orange County in late November. There are plans afoot to open a fourth location in Westwood in December, maybe in time for actual Chris ... More >>

Vela Scarves Blends Western Fashion With Islamic Tradition

Vela's signature piece, the ruffled "Mademoiselle"​"Victorian Lace," "Black Ruffle Prima Ballerina" and "Cat's Meow" are names of the top-selling products at Vela Scarves, a Fountain Valley-based online fashion company that produces high quality hijabs, or headscarves, for Muslim women."Vela is a ... More >>

3hree Things: Moonlight Graham

Watch out for 3hree Things every Tuesday, in which 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.courtesy of Moonlight GrahamGentlemen* of Orange County, 2200 square feet of absolute awesomeness ... More >>

July 16-17: The Weekend of Culinary Desmadre

​Screw Carmageddon. The weekend of culinary desmadre in the Southland is ON. Since the original post, we've discovered that not only will OC be represented at Eat Real, but OC Weekly will--Gustavo is leading panels at 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday, and I will be demonstrating preserved lemons ... More >>

[UPDATE: Now, Gringo Bandito to Participate!] Two Cool Gustavo-Involved Panels for this Weekend's Carmageddon Eat Real Festival!

​Update: Amy Scattergood unfortunately had to pull out of the "Future of Food Writing Panel" for Saturday, but we got a great guest for Sunday's panel on the Great Mexican Food Authenticity Debate: Matt McCollum, the main sales guy for Gringo Bandito. It'll be awesome to have Matt--a Dallas native ... More >>

OC Weekly Honored By Los Angeles Press Club

Yay, Kelly!​Last night the Los Angeles Press Club held its 53rd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards at the ornately appointed Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. We know you have some burning questions: Did award presenter and Mary Tyler Moore Show thespian Ed Asner really ... More >>

Delilah Snell Is a Patchwork Kind of Gal

[Trendzilla] The Santa Ana resident helps to run OC and Long Beach's largest indie craft festival

[UPDATE] 5 Die in Long Beach Plane Crash. Tom Dean, Laguna Beach Developer, and Bruce Krall, Ladera Ranch Banker, Among the Dead

​UPDATE, MARCH 21, 4:10 P.M.: The doomed twin-engine plane pilot who died in Wednesday morning's Long Beach Airport crash has been identified as Kenneth Earl Cruz.The 43-year-old Culver City resident worked for Rainbow Air of Long Beach, had been a commercial pilot since 2003 an ... More >>

Pork Overload at Yamada-Ya Ramen

ProfessorSalt.comKotteri Tonkotsu soup with kakuni​Even though Orange County has its share of first-rate ramen shops, I'm afraid we've just been demoted to second-tier losers. There's an escalating pork arms-race waged by the new-school purveyors of tonkotsu (pork bone) soup in the South Bay like ... More >>

5 LA-Based Food Trucks That Should Come To OC More Often in 2011

Come on, LA food trucks. We know traffic on the 5 and 405 sucks, but if you make Orange County a regular stop on your weekly routes, you'd surely have lines waiting. Bonus: OC has more parking. Here are five of my favorites: 1. LudoTruck LudoTruck​I had a chance to try the very-hype ... More >>

Gettin' Made: Off the Strip Reception Friday Night

Make sure you leave room in your plans this Friday night to head up to Culver City to check out the Off the Strip art show opening at the WWA gallery! "Kent" by Ken Garduno​ Get all the details on this comic-strip based art show after the jump.

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Hello Kitty + Skateboards = Art

[Trendzilla] Girl Skateboards all decked out, Sanrio-style

Dueling Dishes: Battle Empanada

Dave Lieberman​Empanada isn't a very specific word in Spanish. It just means something enveloped in dough, something "em-breaded". It doesn't prescribe the filling, the shape or even the method of cookery. Beef Wellington would technically be an empanada, as would a deep-fried pig in a blanket.Usu ... More >>

Looking Back: 2009 Orange County Deaths

​Turn on the weepy, string ensemble music: It's time for us to look back on the year that (almost) was and remember some of the figures from Orange County who have left us. There was unexpected tragedy, there were some suspicious circumstances, there were rich legacies... there's even the possibil ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Dâm Funk? Damn Right

Arellano Honored Nationally for ¡Ask a Mexican! Columns

Gustavo Arellano and his ¡Ask a Mexican! column was honored in the large ciculation category at last week's 2009 AltWeekly Awards presentation during the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) convention in Tuscon, Arizona. Arellano received honorable mention in the "Column: circulation 50,0 ... More >>

Babylon Heights

Garage Theatre

'Babylon Heights' Shows That It's Hard Out Here for a Shrimp

El Chinaco's Pupusas Still Número One--Even Catered!

It cracked me up when commentator hungrymomma left this gentle scold regarding my taco review--hey, I'm a wab, chula! But I also laughed because I was planning to do a re-review of El Chinaco, the iconic Salvadoran eatery whose owner, Mirna Burciaga, famously took on the Minuteman Project a couple y ... More >>

OCMA's 2008 California Biennial Is the Gift That Keeps On (and On and On) Giving

God Is Not In the Details of Jim Hornung's 'Archeo-Art' Show In Long Beach

The Weekly's Head Count of the 48 New Faces Who Want to Be Your Next Sheriff

Primo Proto-emo Dude Goes Pop

Ex-Gameface Singer Jeff Caudill Now Rolls with the Goodtimes Band

Aural Reports

More Bang for Your Bukowski: MC/Producer Sol-T refreshes old-school hip-hop

CD Review

Piers Faccini , Tearing SkyThis Week in Thirty-two

The Happening

Give It Up for the Geisha

The exquisitely phony charms of the Asian bourgeoisie—Hollywood style

By Scott Foundas

Give It Up for the Geisha

The exquisitely phony charms of the Asian bourgeoisie—Hollywood style

This Is Pop

And Eugene Edwards is your brain on pop

Mommy Not Know!

Diary of a Mad County

Monsters Ball

Not Halle Berry! Dave Grave!

Shut Up and Take It

Joan Didions insiders guide to the insiders

Coachella Rumblings

DWUS

Driving While a UCI Student