Serge Gainsbourg + a wine tasting

You love "L'Anamour," and you love a glass of rouge. The two come together at the "Gainsbourg Soiree" wine tasting and silent auction at the Pacific Design Center on Nov. 4. 

Los Angeles Wine Tasting and Here Is Elsewhere gallery are paying tribute to the French singer with an exhibition of photographs of Gainsbourg and a French wine and cheese pairing.

Photographs by artists and friends of Gainsbourg will be on display; artists also have been commissioned to present their own interpretations of Gainsbourg, who died in 1991. Works are from Frank Habicht, Kami,  Vanessa Atlan, Tom Recchion, Jules Muck, Robert Schwan, Remy Bond and more, curated by Yann Perreau (director of Here Is Elsewhere) with Timothee Verrecchia (producer of "Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited" and curator of Gainsbourg exhibitions in Paris, Tokyo and New York).

7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 4.  Tickets are available online, $64 (until midnight Wednesday, $48). For more info, email info@lawinetasting.com.

Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., Here Is Elsewhere Gallery, B231 (2nd floor). 

ALSO: 

A tribute in food to Alexander Calder

Try this chicken salad recipe from Curious Palate

5 Questions for Pascal Lorange

-- Betty Hallock 

Photo: Cover of "Gainsbourg Revisited" (Universal)

John Lennon, baker

A recent segment on NPR’s Weekend Edition called “All We Are Saying: Three Weeks With John Lennon,” introduces tape recordings that writer David Sheff made while interviewing Lennon in New York over a three-week period in 1980. The Playboy interview hit the newsstands just two days before Lennon’s death. 

It’s fascinating to hear a relaxed Lennon talking candidly. (The interview has just been released as an ebook, unfortunately not as an audiobook.) But get this: At the time, Lennon was a stay-at-home dad and got into bread baking with his 5-year-old son Sean.  John Lennon, baker?

“I took a Polaroid photo of my first loaf,” Lennon says. “I was overjoyed, you know. I was that excited by it. I couldn’t believe it, it was like an album coming out of the oven on the instant. And every day I was cooking lunch for the staff--drivers, office boys, anybody who was working. Come on up! I love it!”

Such a happy memory. Wonder what he cooked.

Hear the story at NPR Weekend Edition.

 “All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono” by David Sheff  is published by Macmillan as an ebook ($4.99 at Barnes & Noble and Amazon’s Kindle Store). The paperback published in 2000 is out of print. 

--S. Irene Virbila

Photo: John Lennon plays Frisbee with his son Sean. Credit: EMI Music

 

The inside scoop on Territory Barbecue & Records, set to open May 15

From today's Calendar section:

Want a vinyl 45 rpm single to go with that pulled pork sandwich? How about a dram of Cheerwine while you're weighing a 180-gram investment opportunity? Territory Barbecue & Records, scheduled to open May 15, plans to offer Southern-style barbecue next door to stacks of specially cured new and used vinyl.

It's the creation of ex-Bad Wizard frontman Curtis Brown and former Tee Pee Records co-executive Tony Presedo. On a recent visit to Los Angeles, where taco trucks are as common as palm trees, Brown (who is also the impresario behind the popular taco truck Endless Summer in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn), was inspired to open a restaurant that paid homage to his North Carolina roots.

"What I haven't had here is any kind of good comfort food," he says, while setting up a temporary smoker to test a new recipe. "Eating barbecue out here breaks the bank. Everywhere you go it's like 50 dollars, and then the potato salad is weird."

Justin Timberlake's tequila makes backs sexier, love stoned-er, and that which goes around, come back around

Justin Timberlake is about to release a new tequila, called 901 (like the area code of his Memphis hometown), and the New York Daily News ran a story about how surprisingly good the product is. However, the story features quotes from three tequila aficionados who insinuate that the tequila might fare better if Timberlake's name weren't associated with it.

But this isn't the first time Timberlake has stepped outside his musical pursuits.

Other pet projects include his clothing line William Rast and the Manhattan restaurant Southern Hospitality.

The Timberlake name lent those efforts a bit of cachet, but the Death & Co. tasters said it could hurt his foray into the tequila biz.

"If I heard all the details and geeky talk and someone didn't mention Justin Timberlake, I would take this very seriously," Kaplan said. "Automatically, we have a preconceived notion of what he's coming out with and we were wrong."

Good thing he didn't name the liquor "Timberlake's Tequila" then.

"Oh yeah, without a doubt."

Oh no they didn't. Everything JT touches is classy. We would pay extra to have the agave imprimatur of the man who coined the term "LoveStoned" with nary an azure-eyed blink. Timberlake's tequila probably has hints of vanilla, rosewater and teenage girls' tears. Why wouldn't that sell itself? Celeb cachet didn't stop Sammy Hagar, Maynard James Keenan or Danny DeVito from marketing tasty tipple. The Dish positively yearns for the day it can roll up to House of Spirits and ask for "a bottle of your finest Timberlake vintage, good sir" while fielding three successive booty calls on three different Swarovski-encrusted iPhones. Because that's how we roll.

-- Jessica Gelt and August Brown

Photo: Jessica Biel gets a shot of Justin Timberlake at a Lakers game at Staples Center in April. Credit: Noel Vasquez / Getty Images

Picnic picks for the Hollywood Bowl

Now that daylight savings time has kicked in for the season, it’s never too early to start thinking about gearing up for the Hollywood Bowl and outdoor film screenings Cinespia sponsors in warmer weather at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Which is why when I stopped into Yolk on Silver Lake Boulevard after a coffee at LA Mill Coffee Boutique, I immediately pounced on these lovely wooden spoon and fork sets for $1 apiece. They also have wooden Chinese soup spoons for $5 each.

Made in Denmark, they’re smooth to the touch, very light -- and reusable. Just wash with a little mild soap and water. But please don’t soak them or stash them in the dishwasher. Yolk, 1626 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 660-4315.

-- S. Irene Virbila

Join us on Twitter @latimesfood

Photo: S. Irene Virbila

Datebook: Wine and cheese, curry festival and Thai New Year

 

THURSDAY

Eagle Rock favorite Colorado Wine Co., known for its laid-back approach to wine and convivial back room wine bar, hosts a tasting of Black Sheep Findswith founders Peter Hunken (part of the Holus Bolus and Piedrasassi winemaking teams) and Amy Christine (A.O.C. sommelier). The price is right at $25 for six wines, along with cheeses from Auntie Em's Marketplace. Be sure to say hello to owners John and Jennifer Nugent, who have practically made the shop an extension of their own living room. Colorado Wine Co., 2114 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. $25. RSVP to info@cowineco.com or (323) 478-1985. www.cowineco.com.

SUNDAY

Thai Town celebrates Songkran, Thailand's traditional New Year, by closing off Hollywood Boulevard between Western and Normandie and filling it with delicious Thai food booths, Singha beer vendors, live music, Thai boxing, dancing and traditional arts and crafts. The second annual International Curry Festival is also part of the mix, when international curry products will compete for the "Curry King" title. Thousands of people are expected, so may we suggest you arrive via subway. There's a Red Line stop at Hollywood and Western. Songkran Festival, Hollywood Boulevard, between Normandie and Western. 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Free.

TUESDAY

Celebrate the season with a Spring Flavors Cooking Class at Chez Cherie Cooking School. Learn about spring's most delicious fruits and vegetables and enjoy a light meal to boot. Chez Cherie Cooking School, 1401 Foothill Blvd., La Canada. 6:30 p.m. $65. (818) 952-7217. www.chezcherie.com.

Get ready to host a unique dinner party by taking a Spanish tapas class with Happy Trails Catering. Dishes you'll learn to create (and enjoy sampling) include Andalusian gazpacho, marinated olives and Marcona almonds, chorizo croquettes and sizzling shrimp in garlic sauce. Happy Trails Catering, 207 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. $75. (626) 796-9526. www.happytrailscatering.com.

-- Jessica Gelt

P.S.: We know the Los Angeles Beer Festivalis happening this weekend, but we've got our own beer man, Blake Hennon, on it. He'll post something glorious later this week. Stay tuned.

Photo: A 200-pound display of pad Thai in a six-foot wok was a highlight of L.A.'s Songkran (Thai New Year) festival in 2005, which also featured more than 50 food booths, a parade and dance and music performances. Credit: Jet Tila.

Snoop Dogg blows off Jonathan Gold

Before he wrote about food, Jonathan Gold wrote about music. During a guest DJ spot on KCRW last week, Gold recounted his early love of classical music and revealed a super-soft spot for both punk rock and gangsta rap.

"Snoop Doggy Dogg is kind of the Miles Davis of rap," Gold tells host Garth Trinidad before launching into a story about being repeatedly blown off by Dr. Dre and the man who penned the always classic "Gin and Juice" while writing a cover story about the pair for Rolling Stone.

"It was when they were recording 'Doggystyle,' they kept blowing me off, so I kept showing up at the recording studio every day at noon, waiting till they showed up about three and then they'd blow me off and blow me off -- but I got to talk to all the bodyguards, all the best friends, to the moms, to the preacher. There was a time when I spent more time with Snoop's family than I did with my own," Gold tells Trinidad.

What else does Gold listen to? The Germs. He got into punk after seeing X and the Screamers at the Whiskey. "And it was as transforming as anything I've ever done," he says. That was obviously before he ate a live prawn at the Living Fish Center in Koreatown.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: Frank Micelotta / MTV

This Just In: Two Boots soft-opens tonight; freebies coming soon

As a food-obsessed Echo Parker, I've been watching the Two Boots pizzeria next door to the Echo for quite some time now. I get hunger pangs just looking at it, especially because its lights have often been on, but its doors locked, as it has dealt with a host of delays (it was originally shooting for a December opening).

That changes today. Two Boots opened its doors (ever so softly) late this afternoon, and will remain open for several more hours. "We had our very first customer moments ago," says manager Sharon Kochanski. Tomorrow it will open for the whole night, beginning at 4 p.m., and probably closing around 2 a.m. (yes, late-night pizza binge for me!).

On Thursday, Feb. 19, Kochanski says, Two Boots will celebrate its grand opening party, hopefully in conjunction with a show at the Echo. On that day, from 6 to 8 p.m., the restaurant will hand out free slices and sodas to all comers.

Two Boots, 1814 W. Sunset Blvd., L.A. (213) 413-2668.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo of Two Boots in November by Jessica Gelt.

Tangier to close Saturday

Tangier, a favorite haunt of Los Feliz residents for years, will close Saturday night. The restaurant/bar’s manager, Javier Noriega, confirmed the impending closure to the Daily Dish today.

Laist reported earlier this month that the back room had stopped booking name music acts via promoter the Fold, and that the restaurant might soon cease operations.  It’s not yet known what will replace Tangier next year (2138 Hillhurst Ave. is currently in escrow). 

If you haven’t been to Tangier over the last few months, stop by Saturday night to say goodbye. Just about every music fan in town has fond memories of that one special show they’ve seen in the restaurant’s charming back room over the years.

Don’t forget to tip the bartender, and pray there is still booze left this weekend (we hear they may already be running low on a few choice spirits).

-- Charlie Amter

Photo: Tangier

Barney's Beanery: Jim Morrison peed here (on the bar)

You have to be really, really famous -- no, legendary -- to make a restaurant want to put up a memorial plaque marking the exact spot on its bar where you peed in the 1960s. You'd have to be the kind of guy who Val Kilmer played in a movie, the kind of guy who needs guards stationed to this very day -- at your grave -- to protect it from being completely covered in joints, urine and whiskey. The kind of guy whose filthy leather pants (that you never took off and probably wore without underwear) are enshrined at the Hard Rock Cafe.

In short, you'd have to be Jim Morrison, and the place that wants to make a shrine to something arguably really uncool that you did (like peeing on its bar) would have to be West Hollywood's equally legendary (well, sort of) Barney's Beanery.

Consider Barney's the ultimate L.A. roadhouse (with a menu of greasy offerings so lengthy that it shames "War and Peace") and consider this forthcoming plaque a birthday present to Morrison, who would have turned 65 on Dec. 8.

To mark the event Barney's is throwing a birthday bash for the Lizard King. The czar of classic rock DJs, KLOS's Jim Ladd, will host and broadcast live from the event. Morrison's bandmates Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger will attend, and lead Barney's owner David Houston to the spot where Morrison allegedly marked his beeritory.

"I'm hoping Ray's incredibly sharp memory will help us locate it," said Houston in a news release. "Wherever he says it happened, that's where we'll put it up."   

Barney's Beanery, 8447 Santa Monica Blvd., (310) 654-2287.

In other Barney's news, the owners are opening two new locations: One in Burbank later this month, and one in Westwood next year.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo credit: Associated Press