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Official L.A. Fashion's Night Out shirt designed by FIDM student Marc Blaskovits. From Transmopolis.

There are like a gazillion events happening tomorrow, Sept. 10, for Fashion’s Night Out, and you can find a great list at Mondette. Here are some others that are taking place in Santa Monica, for those of you on the Westside:

Fluxus: The Santa Monica Place store will have a guest DJ, complimentary cupcakes and champagne, an exclusive preview of the Fluxus fall/winter 2010 collection, and a Buy 2, Get 1 Free discount.

395 Santa Monica Place
Santa Monica, CA 90401
6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Fred Segal Santa Monica: While the Melrose location does its thing (see the Mondette post), this store will be hosting giveaways and gifts-with-purchase from JET, Sharon Segal, ICON and Line & Dot. There will also be personal styling by Kahi Lee, a debut wall installation by KSwiss, art by ICON, music by DJ OMG and cocktails.

Fred Segal Santa Monica
420 Broadway St.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

There’s also a bunch of stuff happening at The Grove, which Kelsi of Dedicated Follower of Fashion and Two Point Oh! L.A. has explained. There’s so much going on, I don’t know where to go!

The opening of the new Santa Monica Place mall has been exciting for those of us who knew the old, tired mall that stood in its place years ago. Perhaps some of the most exciting parts have been the new food options, some of which are entirely new to Los Angeles. La Sandia and Zengo from chef Richard Sandoval are two of those new restaurants.

I was invited to try out the food and drink at both places last week, and I came away from the experience pleasantly surprised. These restaurants — the Mexican La Sandia and the Latin-Asian fusion Zengo — are nicer than your usual mall joints, with some pretty respectable cocktails, too.

We started out with cocktails and appetizers at La Sandia. My favorite drink was the cucumber-serrano martini made with mezcal, cucumber, serrano chili, citrus and chili piquin salt on the rim. I love spicy hotness as well as cucumber in my drinks, so this was the prefect combination. I also really enjoyed the shrimp quesadillas made with shrimp, Mexican cheeses, black bean puree, chipotle aioli and topped with crema and avocado. So tasty!

La Sandia cocktails

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If you haven’t yet heard, the new Santa Monica Place mall opens tomorrow, Aug. 6, and if you remember what the old mall looked like, this is a real treat. Gone is the bunker-like feel (sorry, Frank Gehry, this was not one of your best designs), replaced by high-end stores and an open-air dining deck. There will be all sorts of hooplah surrounding the grand opening, including live music and dance, and sale specials, of course! Here’s a full list of retailers.

One of those special grand opening events will be taking place at Bloomingdale’s (yes, Bloomies!) with Nation LTD, the luxe basics brand. Designer Jen Menchaca will be offering styling tips, and there will be a giveaway contest with the chance to win one of three “Summer Survival Kits” filled with Nation LTD tees (retail value $325). The first 50 purchasers will receive a free denim Nation LTD tote, and Bobbi Brown makeup artists will be on hand to offer beauty tips and to give out mini Crystal Lip Glosses. If only I didn’t have to go to work tomorrow!

Friday, Aug. 6
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Bloomingdale’s at Santa Monica Place
395 Santa Monica Place
Santa Monica, CA, 90401

From SteveMcN (Flickr).

Here’s a partial list of upcoming Nordstrom Rack stores (full list at Nordstrom’s Web site):

• Los Angeles, CA – Beverly Connection – Opening Date: September 24, 2009

• Pasadena, CA – Hastings Village – Opening Date: October 8, 2009

• San Jose, CA – Westfield Oakridge – Opening Date: October 15, 2009

• Lakewood, CA – Lakewood Center – Opening Date: Fall 2010

Apparently Fashion Island in Newport Beach is getting a regular Nordstrom store (opening date: April 16, 2010), as is Santa Monica Place, whose re-opening date has yet again been pushed back (to Aug. 27, 2010). More on that at RackedLA.