Recharge and Relax at The Springs, Los Angeles

After many months of planning, design and construction, The Springs holistic wellness center finally opened its doors this past weekend. A one-stop shop for your personal well-being, The Springs offers yoga classes, organic cold pressed juices, organic raw vegan food, wellness treatments, and a space to just relax - all under one roof.

The Springs is located in the Downtown LA (DTLA) Arts District and is the brainchild of Jared Stein and Kimberly Helms, who met working on Broadway musicals in New York. While this is their first business, the pair (who are both business and life partners) have applied their experience in managing large scale Broadway productions to create this ‘Urban Oasis’. Stein and Helms first noticed the space in 2012 while touring in LA for work. Two years later, their vision for a holistic wellness community center turned into a reality.

Urban Oasis Design

The 13,500 square foot space was designed to look like a desert oasis, with indoor planters and cement being the main elements of the interior design. The space has such an airy and open feeling, it is hard to tell whether you are indoors or out. Design, Bitches is the company that designed this beautiful space.

There is also a cool graffiti motif throughout center. The artist behind the beautiful murals is Angelina Christina.

Yoga

The yoga studio also features a giant graffiti mural and the Yoga Director is Gloria Baraquio. There are 11 different types of yoga classes offered, some of which are Kundalini, Restorative, Flow and Hatha yoga. There are also specialty classes such as yoga classes conducted in Spanish. If you are a hardcore yogi, you may want to consider the All Springs membership, which  includes unlimited yoga, one free monthly infrared sauna session, and 10% off all wellness services, juice and food.

Yoga Studio

Yoga Lounge Area

Wellness Services

The wellness services here are complete offering reiki, acupuncture, massage, infrared sauna session, gravity colon hydrotherapy, cranio-sacral and The Grinberg Method.

Organic Food and Juice

All juices are organic cold pressed. They have a state of the art cold press machine in the back and bottle their juices the night before. The Forager is highly recommended – a juice blend of apple, fennel, cucumber, basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, lemon and lime. The food menu was designed by Chef Michael Falso (formerly from M.A.K.E.), and features 100% organic raw-vegan dishes. This means that the food is never heated above 118 degrees to retain natural enzymes, and to achieve maximum nutrition. Organic wine and beers are also served.

Juice Bar

Cold Pressed Juices

Pop Up Shops

On your way out, stop at the pop up shop area, a space that is for community use. Currently, the space is occupied with local products and crafts from Atomic Garden.

The Springs
608 Mateo Street
Los Angeles, California, USA
Telephone: 213-223-6226

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Plan Check Opening Downtown Location and Oktoberfest Special, Los Angeles

I’m not sure if I can claim that Plan Check has the best burger in town but they sure do make a dam* good burger!

Featured in Jonathan Gold’s 101 list this year, Plan Check has 2, soon to be 3, neighborhood locations – one on Sawtelle, Fairfax, and on Oct 20th, one on Wilshire. The new location is going to do something a little different by featuring a special Korean BBQ burger made with grilled pork belly and “kimcheese”.

Overall, the food is good ‘ol American comfort food.  But the traditional menu has a few items that are the chef’s interpretation of regional flavors such as the Smokey Fried Chicken, an ode to Southern cooking, which consists of Jidori fried chicken, smoked milk gravy, yam preserves and spicy pickled okra.

The name Plan Check was influenced by the history and activity near its first location, which was adjacent to the Building and Safety Department. Designers, Architects, and Engineers would go to the Building and Safety department to submit their plans for review for permitting and hence became the inspiration for the restaurant’s permanent name.

The PCB, aka Plan Check Burger, is a really solid burger and is the item that is closest to the restaurants original roots – a perfectly seasoned patty with Americanized Dashi cheese, a slice of ketchup leather, schmaltz onions, pickles, and a crunch bun. They have a great list of craft beers, cocktails and whiskeys to help you wash down the meat and grease.

According to LA Eater, Plan Check at the  Fairfax location will offer Oktoberfest specials through the month of October. Only 15 are served a day and for $15, you can get a pint of Licher beer with a burger and brats mash up special. Don’t delay, the early bird catches the worm.

PCB (Plan Check Burger)  - Dashi Cheese, Ketchup Leather, Schmaltz Onions, Pickles

Southern Fry - Smokey Fried Jidori Chicken, Spicy Green Pimento Cheese, Duck Breast Ham, Pickles 

Pickles

Baby Kale "Caesar" Salad

Plan Check Kitchen + Bar

1800 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, California, USA
Telephone: 310-288-6500
(Other locations on Fairfax and Wilshire)

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Italian East Meets West at Scopa Italian Roots, Los Angeles

With so many great restaurants in LA, Scopa Italian Roots in Venice somehow slipped behind the scenes. Open for nine months now, the absence of a restaurant sign (and purposely done so) makes it is easy to walk or drive by without noticing it at first pass. Scopa relies on word of mouth and feels confident enough to do so.

An upscale Italian eatery, Scopa’s menu might look a bit generic at first glance. The food, however, is anything but. Their dishes carefully blend both bold and subtle tastes, creating layers and layers of flavors to discover. The team behind Scopa are no rookies. Their resume rhymes off places like Black Market in Studio City, Pour Vous in Hollywood, and Harvard & Stone. Their Chef, Antonia Lofaso,  has also made multiple appearances on Top Chef. The concept behind Scopa’s Italian food is East meets West. Chef Antonia Lofasa, having grown up in Jersey, combines her Cali influences with her Italian-American upbringing in Jersey.

To give you an idea of how much we enjoyed Scopa, a group of us all went there for brunch one morning, and then went straight back for dinner a few hours later! 

They have an extensive drink and wine list, offering pages and pages of cocktails, whiskies, aperitifs and more to choose from.

Here is my force rank of all of the dishes we had with the best dish listed first:

1. Veal Chop Milanese - "cooks garden" sorrel, dandelion greens, cress
2. Soft Eggs - Italian sausage, cavolo nero, peppers, onions, polenta
3. Manila Clams & Uni - toast, parsley, garlic
4. Scallops Oreganata - garlic, parsley
5. Chitarra Pasta - pecorino, black pepper
6. Roast Chicken - creamed polenta, kale, calabrian chilies, shallots
7. Fresh Oysters
8. Italian Hero Sandwich - copa, prosciutto, salami, salami, provolone, lettuce, olive oil, vinegar
9. Prosciutto and Burrata - olive oil, grapes
10. Italian Chopped Salad - salami, imported provolone, ceci beans, oregano, peperoncini, radicchio, artichoke, red onion, roasted pepper

The first five on the list are must have's! It was incredibly hard having to force rank them, but there you go. The veal chop is only available for dinner and the soft eggs are only available for brunch. Their pasta was a perfect al dente and the simple rich sauce just made it heavenly.

Italian Hero

Veal Chop Milanese

Prosciutto and Burrata

Chitarra Pasta

Roasted Chicken

Manila Clams

Scopa Italian Roots

2905 Washington Blvd

Venice, California, USA

Telephone: 310-821-1100

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Taste of Yucatan at Chichén Itzá, Los Angeles

Repeatedly mentioned by LA Times Jonathan Gold, Chichén Itzá, located in Mercado La Paloma in Southeast LA, is a great place for good Yucatecan food that is fast and cheap.

There are 2 reason why you want to visit this place:

1. Yucatecan cuisine has Mayan, Spanish, Lebanese and South American influences, giving it a cosmopolitan flare compared to the Mexican food you may be used to.
2. Mercado La Paloma is an experience. It is more than just about food - it is a marketplace that offers Mexican crafts, cooking classes and community events.

Cochinita pibil is the restaurant's signature dish. Unique to Yucatan, cochinita pibil is a slow roasted pork dish marinated in citrus juices (normally Seville or bitter oranges) and achiote, which are the two main ingredients that give this dish its characteristic color and taste. Cochinita pibil is served in one of three ways: with rice and beans, as a soft taco, or as a sandwich (torta) with toasted French bread.

Tamale horneado is another unique dish where the tamale is baked instead of steamed, giving it a crunchy texture. The horneado tamale is stuffed with achiote chicken, hard cooked eggs and tomato. The kibi (ground beef and cracked wheat patties) is a dish with strong Lebanese influence.

There are bottles of habanero hot sauces available (which you can buy to take home) if you want to add some heat to your food. But if you don't find it spicy enough, ask them to bring you something spicier. In the back, they have a similar sauce but with alot more heat! The secret is rolling the habanero peppers between the hands (to release more flavor), and then charring them before making the hot sauce. Add this to your cochinita pibil, with a bit of fresh lime juice and salt, and you will be golden! This is how the locals eat it.

Torta de Cochinita Pibil

Taco de Cochinita Pibil

Tamal Horneado

Habanero Hot Sauce

A few miles from Chichén Itzá is an awesome market, ported over to LA from NYC this past year, called Artists & Fleas. Open on the 3rd weekend of each month at 647 Mateo Street, Artists & Fleas is an outdoor market with carefully curated local vendors featuring art, jewellery, housewares, vintage fashion and unique reclaimed wood work. It is an intimate setting where creative minds conjoin. A dedicated food area, featuring LA-based food trucks, is also set up for the hungry mouths.

Chichén Itzá

3655 S. Grand Avenue

Los Angeles, California USA
Telephone: 213-741-1075

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Fried Chicken is Good, But Spicy Fried Chicken is Better! Hattie B's, Nashville

Damn Hot White Chicken with Fries

This might not look like alot, but this piece of hot fried chicken is ONE MILLION Scolville units!! Made with ghost pepper extracts, the Damn Hot Chicken at Hattie B's is not for the faint-hearted.

In the South, fried chicken is a staple. However, in Nashville, hot fried chicken is the thing. Hattie B's, owned by the Bishops and named after Nick Jr's great-grand mother, is one of the newer kids on the block.

Their most popular chicken order is hot, followed by medium, and then damn hot. The medium and hot are fairly similar in heat, with the difference being that the hot has a dry spice on top of the wet.

If spicy is not your thing, they also offer traditional Southern fried chicken.

As for sides, the pimento mac n cheese is a must order!

Are you thinking that even the Damn Hot might not be enough heat? Well...I've got a secret. They have an off-the-menu item called "Shut The Cluck Up" that is 3 Million Scolville Units! Come on, I dare you.

Hot Dark Chicken with Pimento Mac n Cheese and Southern Greens

Hattie B's
112 19th Avenue S
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Telephone: 615-678-4794

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An American Chocolate Road Trip with Wild Ophelia, Beef Jerky Chocolate

Just when you think you've seen it all, they come out with Beef Jerky Chocolate! Now, this is one chocolate combination you don't come across often.

Wild Ophelia, sister company to the very popular Vosges Chocolates, is an all natural American brand that combines chocolate with ingredients sourced from small American farmers and food artisans.

With a very Southern flair, Wild Ophelia offers flavors such as Beef Jerky, Southern Hibiscus Peach, New Orleans Chili, Sweet Cherry Pecan, Smokehouse BBQ Potato Chips and Peanut Butter and Banana.

In true Katrina Markoff style, everything has a story. And here is the one of "Wild Ophelia". On a small ranch house in Leipers Fork, tennessee, Wild Ophelia was nicknamed such because of the smart plans she hatched while a kid. Instead of making pocket money serving lemonade, she would serve her experimental creations such as chocolate dipped beef jerky and fresh peaches with hibiscus, hence the inspirations for the Wild Ophelia chocolate line up.

Also similar to Vosges Chocolate, the Wild Ophelia bars have tasting tips. Here is the one for the beef jerky bar: "Close your eyes, breathe. Let the plains of Wyoming roll on your tongue as you snap the chocolate in your mouth. Beef jerky, smoked paprika and deep milk chocolate deliver the power of the magical cacao bean".

The beef jerky chocolate was really good. The beef jerky bits were small enough to blend with the chocolate creating a very nice uniform flavor that wasn't overpowering.

The artwork inside the chocolate box is adds a nice design touch too.

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The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden, Nashville

Speaking of keeping the Drug Store Soda Fountain culture alive, The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden in Nashville trys to do just that. An old school burger parlor and beer garden specializing in burgers, wursts, housemade sodas, floats, shakes and craft American & German Beer, The Pharmacy is the brainchild of Holland House's, Terrell Raley and is one of the best burger joints in town.

Their beef burgers are made with 100% organic Tennessee beef, and their wursts are housemade and served with sauerkraut, horseradish and beer mustards. Both are served with a  light fluffy Provence roll that are specially made for the restaurant. If you are not a meat lover, they have veg options such as the falafel or black bean burger.

If you plan on eating late, leave the kids at home. After 9pm, The Pharmacy is a 21+ only place.

Cheese Burger with Jalapenos and Tater Tots

Jagerwurst with German Potato Salad and Horseradish Mustard

Housemade Strawberry Ginger Ale and Maraschino Cherry & Lemon Soda

The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden
731 McFerrin Ave
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Telephone: 615-712-9517

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Keeping the Drug Store Soda Fountain Tradition Alive at Wiles-Smith, Memphis

At the turn of the 20th century, the American trend of soda fountains inside a pharmacy began to emerge. By the 1920s, when the prohibition began, almost every drug store in the US had a soda fountain, which became the new social hub. The tradition died around the 1970's when fast food, bottled soft drinks and ice cream became more popular.
.

Wiles-Smith Drug Store, an original pharmacy soda fountain, keeps this tradition alive and is the only remaining one in Memphis. Today, it still operates as an indpendent drug store and soda fountain.

You are really stepping back in time at Wiles-Smith. There was a young girl sitting with her dad enjoying grilled cheese and a milkshake, and it was amazing to think that she is enjoying the same tradition that her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents enjoyed.

Try their malted milk, ice cream soda and grilled cheese sandwiches for a true original experience.

Strawberry Ice Cream Soda

Chocolate Malted Milk

Wiles-Smith Drug Store
1635 Union Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Telephone: 901-278-6416

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Good No Fuss Mexican Food at Las Delicias Mexican Bar & Grill, Memphis

If you're looking for good, no fuss Mexican food in Memphis, then head to Las Delicias Mexican Bar & Grill. This is a super popular joint that attracts huge line ups during lunch. This isn't really a place you go for atmosphere. The interior is extremely plain and has just the bare minimum needed to serve their customers - tables, chairs and a cash register.

Their tortillas and salsa that are served before the meal are always fresh. Their tortillas are crispy and have a nice airy texture. If you order the fajitas, don't expect thick cuts of meats served on a sizzling hot plate with toppings neatly organized for you. Their fajitas, served with small corn tortillas, are cooked pretty much the same way as their burrito filling - grilled meat, bell peppers, onions, bacon and melted cheese all tossed together.

Tortillas and Salsa

Alambre Fajita (Chicken and Beef) with Grilled Jalapeno

Chicken Burrito Grilled with Onions, Bell Peppers, Refried Beans and Cheese in a Flour Tortilla

Las Delicias Mexican Bar & Grill

4002 Park Avenue

Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Telephone: 901-458-9264

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