Valerie Confections SUPER CHOC-O-FOOD

Still scrambling for holiday gifts? If you’re shopping for people who like food, or should like good food, then look no further than these L.A. options:

Valerie Confections: While Valerie Gordon is know for her toffees and cute-as-a-button petit fours, an interesting gift would be the SUPER CHOCO-O-FOOD, a huge block of milk chocolate with a hint of caramel loaded with dried pears, apricots, golden raisins, macadamia nuts, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds and peanuts. The packaging comes from Commune Design, and each color (pink, violet, aqua) corresponds to part of a triptych image found under the label. Valerie now also has teas blended by the American Tea Room just for the shop, including the Black & Blue, which was inspired by her Black & Blue jam and contains black tea from Nilgiri, blackberries, black currants, blueberries and blackberry leaves.

Kiss My Bundt Baking Academy: Chef Chrysta Wilson of Kiss My Bundt, formerly on West Third Street, is now teaching baking classes at Surfas in Culver City. The first class will be on January 15 and will focus on baking with winter citrus. And if you purchase a spot in this class before December 24, you’ll get 20 percent off. If you’ve ever had Wilson’s bundt cakes, you know they’re a treat.

Monsieur Marcel at the Original Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax: This gourmet foods store has all kinds of delicious treats, including European chocolates, fancy vinegars and oils, flavored salts, cheeses, wine and all kinds of fun stuff. This place will have lots of variety, so you’re sure to find something for the gourmand on your lift.

Red velvet Baby Bundt. Photo courtesy of e*starLA.

My favorite bakery Kiss My Bundt is in dire need of some cold, hard cash. Owner Chrysta Wilson is asking, for the second time, for help from the L.A. cake-loving community so she can keep her doors open. Kiss My Bundt needs to sell 150 Big Ol’ Bundts (those are regular-size bundt cakes), which retail for $32, by Jan. 31 or else the store on W. Third Street will have to close. The bakery is behind on rent due to the craptastic economy, which as well all know has forced many a beloved store to shut its doors. Wilson asked for help back in November, too, which raised a bunch of money but not enough to pay the bills.

So go over to the store and buy a Big Ol’ Bundt, or buy the equivalent in Mini Bundts ($2.50 each) or Baby Bundts ($4.50 each) for your friends, family or co-workers. The menu has something for everyone, from red velvet to maple bacon, and the cakes are perfectly moist, something that I can’t say about some of the cupcake stores out there. I recommend the pumpkin spice with the cinnamon spice glaze (I prefer glazes instead of frosting, but that’s good, too), the Luscious Lemon Drop, and the chocolate banana. My finance, Rory, likes the German chocolate, and this says a lot because he is not a sweets person!

Kiss My Bundt Bakery
8104 West Third Street (at Crescent Heights Blvd.)
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Broccolini bruschetta with kimchi (left) and smoky eggplant caviar hummus (right). From Hungry Hungry Hanh.

West Third Street’s BreadBar‘s Chef Noriyuki Sugie (that’s Chef Nori to you) has teamed up with author Kim Barnouin to create recipes for the upcoming “Skinny Bitch: The Cookbook,” and you can have first crack at those recipes. Starting tomorrow, BreadBar will be offering special vegan dishes and meals that are being considered for the cookbook.

The “Vegan Greetings” menu will be offered from Wednesday, Dec. 9, through Saturday, Dec. 12 and again from Wednesday, Dec. 16, through Saturday, Dec. 19 for dinner only. Chef Nori will extend the event to Dec. 20 and 21 if there are enough additional reservation requests. You’ll be able to order à la carte (dishes will range from $8 to $15 each) or as a four-course prix fixe menu for $25.

No word on what’s actually on the menu, but Barnouin and Chef Nori have teamed up before, so maybe the dishes will be similar.

UPDATE: Expect to see dishes such as fried tofu with seaweed salad and white sesame sauce, salad pizza with garnishes changing daily, and lentil tacos in a corn tortilla with avocado, salsa and fresh cilantro.

These clutches are going for less than $200.

I stopped by the Rebecca Minkoff sample sale on West Third Street last night and snapped some pics so you can pre-shop here. I saw prices ranging from $22 (for a small wallet I couldn’t actually find) to upwards of $400. There were also LnA clothes on sale, including $20 T-shirts and $45 long sleeve tees with a front zipper pocket.

Some of what you can expect at the sale:

The sale lasts through Sunday, Dec. 6, until 8:00 p.m. at 7961 W. 3rd St. (at Edinburgh Ave.).

I love Spacecraft's light fixture!

Last week the folks over at Spacecraft, the architectural design firm based in Hollywood responsible for many of Tinseltown’s hippest bars and restaurants, threw a party at their offices because…well, just because. When you have a fully stocked bar in your office, why not throw a party?

The party was catered by Capital City, the new Hollywood sports bar curiously not designed by Spacecraft. There’s just a good bromance of sorts going on in Hollywood, I guess. Anyway, the food was decent and included sushi (yes, sushi from a sports bar), some with fruit on top that somehow worked, and mini roast beef sandwiches.

There were drinks, games of pool and foosball, and good old fashioned revelry. But what was most interesting was owner Kristopher Keith’s prediction that Spacecraft’s latest creation, Stout, could open as early as Oct. 1. Of course, when I heard that, I was immediately skeptical, and my suspicion was validated when I inquired again and was told Oct. 1 is vastly optimistic. Restaurants and bars never open on time! I also tried to get some information about Spacecraft’s space on West Third Street, but I didn’t have any luck there. I’m really interested in what will go into the old Food Court LA space since it’s in my neighborhood. Hopefully we’ll find out soon!

Blogger Shop Day at Space 15 Twenty

I haven’t been out for a day of wandering and shopping (well, window shopping!) in ages, so when I saw there were some interesting events happening over the weekend, I recruited Esther of e*starLA to check them out with me.

We started out in Hollywood at Space 15 Twenty for the mall’s Blogger Shop Day, which featured a bunch of fashion bloggers and their personal collections, as well as vintage resellers, in the back parking lot. We got there toward the end of the event because we stopped off at Snackbar for a late lunch and popped into vintage store What Comes Around Goes Around before heading to the parking lot, (both Snackbar and What Comes Around Goes Around were also participating in the event) so we missed what looked like a live band. Anyway, most of what we saw were vintage items, though I did notice some specialty booths selling new tote bags and T-shirts. There was also a vegan cupcake booth from Bunny Muffin Bakery, which we I didn’t try because I have not had good experiences with vegan desserts and wasn’t about to try again. But if you’ve had anything from Bunny Muffin, then let me know what you thought in the comments.

[Note: So I mentioned we ate at Snackbar. Esther and I ordered a buffalo burger with gala apples, roasted corn and red grape aioli served with sweet potato fries to split. We asked for the burger cooked medium; it came out well done. The fries were overcooked, too. All in all disappointing.]

Overcooked buffalo burger from Snackbar

I have to admit that we didn’t stay long at this event because it was out in the sun, and it was just too darn hot. (Next time I’ll go earlier in the day. This was the second Blogger Shop Day, so hopefully there are plans for a third. Check the Space 15 Twenty Web site for updates.) So we left to make our way over to West Third Street’s Summer Sidewalk Sale.

Trina Turk sidewalk offerings

A bunch of shops, including Em & Co., Inago, Ethel, and Polkadots & Moonbeams, participated in this year’s sale. The best sale out of the ones we saw was definitely the one at Trina Turk. With two full racks and a bin of handbags for $40 to $60, these items were a steal! Of course, the clothing sizes were super small because they were samples, so I couldn’t fit into any of them. Sadness. There were regular production items for sale in the back of the store as well, but these were still out of my price range. Here are a couple of my faves:

This cute little number (that's the back) is $115 on sale!

Not on sale, $238

There were still a lot of items left at the end of the day on Sunday, so even though the sidewalk sale is over, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could still find these deals in the store. It’s worth a call.

We also stopped in at Kiss My Bundt Bakery. I have to say the blueberry lemonade and the lemon drop bundt were both awesome — nice refreshing sweets on a hot summer day!

Farmers Market. From Rosebud_03 (flickr).

Ever wondered about the inner workings of some of your favorite restaurants in the Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax or along West Third Street? If you take a walking food tour with Melting Pot Food Tours, owners and guides Lisa and Diane Scalia will give you the low down. And now the ladies have expanded their walking tour business into Old Pasadena.

I took the Farmers Market/West Third Street tour back in October, and I had a great time. I had been to the Farmers Market many times before (and since), but I never knew the stories behind some of the decades-old food stands. Some of the places we visited and sampled from included Bob’s Coffee & Doughnuts, Pampas Grill, Littlejohn’s English Toffee House and Mr. Marcel Gourmet Market. With the Farmers Market celebrating its 75th anniversary this year (Taste of Farmers Market is tonight, folks!), this tour would be a great way to get to know this L.A. institution better. From there, we walked over to the boutiques on West Third Street and visited all kinds of places, including Little Next Door (where we had some fantastic macaroons), Joan’s on Third and Chado Tea Room. Cook’s Library used to be on the tour, but since its closing, Kiss My Bundt has taken its place. Infinitely yummier in terms of instant gratification!

And now the Scalia sisters (super nice, by the way!) have taken their unique tour to the streets of Old Pasadena, with stops at Tortas Mexico, Bar Celona, Aux Delices Bakery and Cafe, Bird Pick Tea & Herb, Tibet Nepal House, Tutti Gelati and Mignon Chocolate. If this one is anything like the original version, you’ll leave full of food and new-found knowledge. And through the end of July, the Old Pasadena tour is $39 instead of the usual $49, which includes tastings at 9 eateries (11 on the Farmers Market/West Third tour) and a bottle of water to wash it all down. Lisa and Diane will even give you bus tokens to get you back to you car.

Farmers Market/West Third Street tour runs every Friday and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Old Pasadena tour runs every Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Both tours cost $49, except for Pasadena’s, which is $39 through the end of July (use discount code “Rose709″ when ordering on zerve.com).

Empty Stores on West Third Street. Photo from WWD.

Women’s Wear Daily has a story on the increasing number of boutique and specialty retail store closings around Los Angeles, with Robertson Boulevard, Melrose Place, Montana Avenue and West Third Street taking the hardest hits. I covered this for the LA Business Journal back in March when more than 30 storefronts were either empty or in the process of closing up shop. Other parts of the city have been affected as well, including Venice’s Abbot Kinney Boulevard, and a drive down Pico Boulevard between Robertson and La Cienega boulevards yesterday revealed some new empty retail spaces that I hadn’t noticed before.

But not all parts of the city are losing places to shop: Malibu Lumber Yard, the new swanky retail center next to the Malibu Country Mart, just opened last weekend. Good idea or bad idea? Time will tell, but in the meantime, head over to the Lumber Yard for free Crumbs cupcakes on Saturday (April 25). They’re giving out 1,000 freebies starting at 9:00 a.m., per EaterLA.

• More coverage at RackedLA