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Tags: Food Travel / Barbeque / Santa Monica / → All Tags
Avoid Sticky Fingers With the VIP Pass to LA's BBQ Fest
When last we wrote up the Santa Monica Pier, we alluded to the rotating roster of shows and events that go on throughout the year. The next one happens this coming weekend, May 9-10, and promises to temporarily silence the routine complaints that you can't get good BBQ in Los Angeles. For these two days, Southern and Midwestern BBQ will come to the westside in the form of the awesome Los Angeles BBQ Festival.
Only $10 per ticket gets you into the festival, where each heaping helping of BBQ heaven will cost you another $10. There's a $50 VIP option available—more on that in a sec—and if you pre-purchase either option online you'll get access to the festival an hour before the rest of the public; general admission is 1pm-6pm on both days.
Tags: Table Crashing / Santa Monica / Restaurants / → All Tags
Table Crashing: La Botte in Santa Monica
Only three restaurants in Los Angeles were awarded two Michelin Stars in the 2008 guide for the city and several were awarded one-star, including another Table Crashing fave, CUT.
So we decided to test out the one nearest to our abode--La Botte in Santa Monica which earned a one-star. The restaurant's location is a few blocks from the touristy Third Street Promenade, thankfully, as anything on the Promenade should be avoided.
Yet it's in the ground level of a modern-looking apartment/office building. This is both good and bad--good because you get a sort of tucked-away feeling but bad because who eats in the ground floor of an apartment/office building?
Nevertheless, La Botte has a cozy atmosphere once you step inside. Indeed the Michelin guide agreed:
It is difficult to imagine a warmer interior than in the homey yet fashionable place, which pays homage to Italian wine with its hardwood floors and walls crafted from the staves of oak wine barrels (a nod to the name, Italian for "wine barrel").
Tags: Shopping List / Santa Monica / Food / Shopping-in-SoCal / → All Tags
Shopping List: Santa Monica's Montana Avenue
Visitors to Santa Monica often hit up the Third Street promenade which is kinda like the South Street Seaport in NYC except with cooler stores, more homeless people and more crazy street acts. While the Promenade has the average chain stores you can find in your hometown mall and a couple of cool restaurants nearby on Ocean, the less touristy shopping spot to hit up is Montana Avenue.
From 7th to about 18th Street, Montana Ave is where the local Santa Monicans shop. There's no Gap or Anthropologie here but there's Planet Blue (other location in Malibu is where Pam Anderson and Paris Hilton go for their publicity shopping trips), hi-end boutique shop Morgan Le Fay and the pricey Jill Roberts. Also on the street is Kiehl's, Dermalogica and Rachel Ashwell's famous Shabby Chic store (Britney Spears is a fan.)
But this place isn't like another Rodeo Drive. Nope, there's even a laundromat on Montana Ave so you can do your laundry while you shop and eat.
Pets can also shop here at the Wagging Tail. And since LA is a very dog-friendly city, most shops allow your pets inside and provide water bowls outside.
Yet for some reason, there's also a lot of kids stores and Mommy-to-Be stores like Kids Bizz, Crankypants, BabyStyle, and Mom's the Word.
More on the shops and stores that don't involve procreation after the jump.
