ShopEatSleep

Just opened:

• Tavern From Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne (AOC, Lucques, Hungry Cat) comes the ladies’ newest creation, a restaurant/lounge/marketplace, in Brentwood. Yes, it did open today. I called.

• Pourtal A high-tech wine bar in Santa Monica, Pourtal offers wine via preloaded punch cards and electronic dispensers. Fancy.

To open in the near future:

• Trader Vic’s The Beverly Hills institution moves downtown to L.A. Live. Scheduled to open Saturday, May 2.

• La Grande Orange Cafe The Santa Monica location is scheduled to open May 7. Food being tested and staff being trained, according to tweets from @LaGrandeOrange. Pizza will be added to the menu at the new location, with Pasadena getting pizza some time this fall.

• Playhouse and Sweet Love Hangover The nightclub/24-hour restaurant taking over the Fox Theater space on Hollywood Boulevard is now slated to open June 11. We’ll see. This is like the third or fourth time the opening date has been pushed back.

Extreme Wow suite

A W Hotel has opened in Doha, Qatar, the first for the brand in the Middle East. The new hotel has 291 guest rooms, 31 suites and 154 residences. It also features two Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant concepts, including a Spice Market, which is also in W’s Atlanta and Istanbul locations. But the most intriguing part of the Doha location is the 15th floor Extreme Wow (i.e., presidential) suite, which apparently has its own massage and meeting rooms, and an elevated tub in the bathroom. Sounds pretty swanky. More photos after the jump.

Keep Reading

Today Red Mango announced a new flavor, Tangomonium, “a light and refreshing flavor with notes of fruit and citrus,” according to the company’s press release. If you, like me, are wondering what it tastes like (tangerine? mango?), head over to a Red Mango store on May 2, when you can get a free small cup with one topping from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. What will Pinkberry come up with to counter, I wonder?

Malibu Country Mart. From Wikipedia.

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board has cited more than 30 Malibu businesses for violating waste water discharge permit requirements. Among the businesses cited are the Malibu Country Mart, Cross Creek Plaza and Malibu Colony Plaza. The city of Malibu was also cited. No wonder the owners of the new Malibu Lumber Yard shopping center spent $3 million on an on-site waste water treatment system! From the Malibu Times.

• More on Malibu construction generally and the Lumber Yard specifically at LA Business Journal.

Malibu Lumber Yard. From hereinmalibu (Flickr).

• The L.A. Planning Commission approved Rick Caruso’s mixed-use project at 8500 Burton Way. The 88-unit apartment building planned for near the intersection of La Cienega and San Vicente boulevards will include a Trader Joe’s on the ground floor. More at CurbedLA.

• The Wall Street Journal has a story on Pinkberry’s latest capital infusion: $5.8 million of a $15 million round. Here’s a story I wrote back in February about the froyo biz in L.A.

• Bravo is coming out with a new reality show that will follow the staff at Fred Segal Santa Monica, per Reuters. The network is also premiering “NYC Prep,” which looks like it’ll be a real-life “Gossip Girl” so hopefully we’ll see lots of pretty clothes (and bad behavior!).