One of our favorite annual events was held on Saturday, September 10th at UCLA and Karen and I had the great pleasure of once again attending.
Not only is L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade always extremely well organized in a great setting on the Royce Quad, with great wines, beers and other libations, but guests were treated to culinary treats from a veritable “who’s who” of star chefs, from restaurants both local and afar:
Nick Anderer (New York, NY) – Maialino
Thomas Bellec (Los Angeles, CA) – THE Blvd Restaurant
Chris Bianco (Phoenix, AZ) – Pizzeria Bianco, Pane Bianco, Bar Bianco
April Bloomfield (New York, NY) – The Spotted Pig
Josef Centeno (Los Angeles, CA) – Baco Mercat
Adam Cherney, Amy Deaderick, Javier Espinoza, Mercedes Rojas (Los Angeles, CA) – THE LUCQUES GROUP
Michael Cimarusti (Los Angeles, CA) – Providence
Josiah Citrin (Los Angeles, CA) – Melisse, Charcoal Venice
Derek Dammann (Montreal, QC, Canada) – Maison Publique
Giada De Laurentiis (Las Vegas, NV) – Giada
Eva Ein (Santa Barbara, CA) – McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams
Susan Feniger (Los Angeles, CA) – Border Grill
Michael Fiorelli (Los Angeles, CA) – Love & Salt
Ben Ford (Los Angeles, CA) – Ford’s Filling Station
Jeremy Fox (Los Angeles, CA) – Rustic Canyon
Neal Fraser (Los Angeles, CA) – Redbird, BLD, ICDC, Fritzi Dog
Ray Garcia (Los Angeles, CA) – Broken Spanish
Andrew Gavalla & Shannon Swindle (Los Angeles, CA) – Craft
Valerie Gordon (Los Angeles, CA) – Valerie Confections
Cosmo Goss (Chicago, IL)- The Publican
Jonathan Grahm (Los Angeles, CA) – Compartes
Maria Hines (Seattle, WA) – Tilth, Golden Beetle, Agrodolce
Timothy Hollingsworth (Los Angeles, CA) – Otium, Barrel & Ashes
Bruce Kalman (Los Angeles, CA) – Union Pasadena, Knead & Co Pasta Bar + Market
Anthony Keene (Los Angeles, CA) – The London Hotel
Sara Kramer & Sarah Hymanson (Los Angeles, CA) – Madcapra
David Lentz (Los Angeles, CA) – The Hungry Cat
Donald Link (New Orleans, LA) – Pêche, Herbsaint, Cochon, Cochon Butcher
Jenn Louis (Portland, OR) – Sunshine Tavern, Lincoln Restaurant
Tyler Malek (Portland, OR + Los Angeles, CA) – Salt & Straw
Matt Molina (Los Angeles, CA) – Everson Royce Bar
Walter Manzke + Margarita Manzke (Los Angeles, CA) – Republique
Ori Menashe (Los Angeles, CA) – Bestia
Zoe Nathan (Los Angeles, CA) – Huckleberry
Dahlia Narvaez (Los Angeles, CA) – Mozza Restaurant Group
Bryant NG (Los Angeles, CA) – Cassia
Nancy Oakes & Dana Younkin (San Francisco, CA) – Boulevard Restaurant
Adam Perry Lang (New York, NY + Los Angeles, CA) – Serious BBQ
Chris Phelps & Zak Walters (Los Angeles, CA) – Salt’s Cure
Zachary Pollack (Los Angeles, CA) – Alimento
Ari Rosenson (Los Angeles, CA) – CUT
Steve Samson (Los Angeles, CA) – Sotto
Aaron Sanchez (New Orleans, LA) – Johnny Sanchez
Michael Schwartz (Miami, FL) – Fi’lia, The Genuine Hospitality Group
Sahar Shomali (Los Angeles, CA) – Lucques Group
Jon Shook & Vinny Dotolo (Los Angeles, CA) – Animal, Son of a Gun, Jon & Vinny’s
Nancy Silverton (Los Angeles, CA) – Mozza Restaurant Group
Frank Stitt (Birmingham, AL) – Highlands Bar and Grill
John Sundstrom (Seattle, WA) – Lark, Bitter/Raw, Slab Sandwich & Pie
Andy Sutton (Anaheim, CA) – Napa Rose
Suzanne Tracht (Los Angeles, CA) – Jar
Marc Vetri & Jeff Michaud (Philadelphia, PA) – Vetri
Bryan Voltaggio (Los Angeles, CA)? – Volt Restaurant
Michael Voltaggio (Los Angeles, CA) – ink.
Jonathan Waxman (New York, NY) – Barbuto
Rocco Whalen (Cleveland, OH) – Fahrenheit Charlotte
Jason Winters (Los Angeles, CA) – Urban Pie
Sherry Yard (Los Angeles, CA) – Ipic Group
Shiho Yoshikawa (Los Angeles, CA) – Sweet Rose Creamery
Impossible to pick food favorites. So many delicious bites that it was somewhat of a blur. A couple of standouts among a sea of standouts were the brunch burger from ERB, the pork belly from Redbird and the lamb belly from Bestia.
This is definitely a chef-driven/food focused event, but you can also see the whole lineup of wines, beers and cocktail providers here:
http://www.alexslemonade.org/static/lala/
Some of the wine highlights for us…
It was great to get a chance to visit with Larry Schaffer of tercero and taste several of his terrific wines before his table got too busy [as it always does]. An added bonus was he brought a couple juice samples from soon-to-be-this-year’s harvest.
Another winery based in Los Olivos, we especially enjoyed Habit Wine Company’s Gruner Veltiner and Cabernet Franc.
Hudson Wine Brokers continue to show that not all delicious wines from Australia need to be high alcohol fruit bombs.
Jamie Edlin of Hollywood & Wine poured several wines. Really liked the Archium Dissident GSM blend.
The Tyler Winery Pinot Noir and Chardonnay provided by high end wine merchant Chambers & Chambers were real crowd pleasers.
In addition to “star chefs” there were other stars in attendance as well, such as…
Jimmy Kimmel
Timothy Olyphant
Kumail Nanjiani
Annabeth Gish
Joe Mantegna
Ray Romano
Laura Dern
Kristen Vangsness
Nolan Gould
Pauley Perrette
…among many others.
Check out all the photos here from the event’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/alexslemonade/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10153743415086561
While you’re at it, you should check out their videos as well to see what you missed…
https://www.facebook.com/lalovesalexslemonade/videos
I just can’t wait until this event isn’t around anymore.
Wait? What?
I guess I should ‘splain myself.
For those who don’t know the story…
Alexandra Scott decided at age four that she wanted to set up a lemonade stand to raise money to help cure childhood cancer, not just for her but for all children. Others took up the cause as well and by the time Alex passed away in 2004 at eight years old [she’d been fighting the disease since before she was one], she and those inspired by her had raised more than $1 million. The following year, her parents Jay and Liz Scott founded the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to continue what Alex had started. More than $127 million has been raised since 2000, and one of the events that raises funds for this foundation is LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade. At this year’s LA event alone, which is hosted annually by Chef Suzanne Goin, her business partner Caroline Styne and Chef David Lentz, over $1 million was raised.
So wouldn’t it be great to not have to raise funds for this cause every year?
But in the meantime, this is about as deserving of a cause as one can possibly think of. If you missed it this year, we hope to see you there next time.
Michael Perlis has been pursuing his passion for wine for more than 25 years. He has had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show him the way, as well as a wonderful wife who encourages him and shares his interest. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, he had the amazing luck to meet Eve Bushman. Now, as Contributing Editor for Eve’s Wine 101, he does his best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers. Michael is also Vice President of Eve Bushman Consulting (fka Eve’s Wine 101 Consulting) http://evebushmanconsulting.com/ and President of MCP Financial. Michael can be contacted at michaelthezinfan@aol.com or michael@evebushmanconsulting.com.
