Small Bites: Street's new seasonal menu, Kitchen 24's new cupcakes, Agura's new happy hour

Word on the Street: This Friday, Susan Feniger's Street officially debuts its new seasonal dinner menu, featuring: Argentinian/Italian ricotta dumplings simmered in brown butter and lemon with celery root puree; black-eyed pea fritters; lamb kafta meatballs; Moscow-style eggplant; toasted amaranth, chicken and spoon bread dumplings; beef tenderloin schnitzel; honey-glazed Peking quail; barbecued Hawaiian pork wrapped in banana leaves and slow-cooked over a marinade of sugar cane, pineapple and soy; and more. The new lunch menu, which debuts on Saturday, also has several additions: mini Kobe beef chili dogs; crispy lamb taquitos; Vietnamese pulled pork sandwiches; Andouille sausage and shrimp gumbo; Moroccan spiced winter squash with roasted chestnuts; Burmese lettuce wraps with lentils, toasted coconut, peanuts, fried onions and sesame ginger dressing; Hawaiian ono sashimi in spicy sesame mayo; and more. 742 N. Highland Ave., L.A. (323) 203-0500, www.eatatstreet.com.

Cocktails and cupcakes: Kitchen 24's pastry chef, Daisy Roman, recently launched a featured daily cupcake at the 24-hour Cahuenga corridor diner. Flavors include: chocolate (Monday), carrot (Tuesday), vanilla (Wednesday), pumpkin (Thursday), winter mint chocolate (Friday), buttered pecan (Saturday) and red velvet (Sunday). Kitchen 24 also debuted four seasonal cocktails, including the Sweet-Tartini with muddled cranberries, Tanqueray, elderflower liqueur, cranberry juice and lime juice; and the Hot Spiced Cider with unfiltered apple juice, Jim Beam, orange liqueur and a secret spice syrup. 1608 N. Cahuenga Blvd., L.A. (323) 465-2424, www.kitchen24.info.

C'mon, get happy: Sushi and Japanese fusion restaurant Agura, the latest addition to La Cienega's restaurant row, recently launched a happy hour that features 50% off drinks and $3 to $5 small plates of salmon nachos, fried popcorn shrimp, spicy tuna and yellowtail rolls, shrimp-wrapped spring rolls, unagi avocado rolls, takoyaki and more. (10 p.m. to midnight Monday to Saturday and 6 p.m. to midnight Sunday). 514 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 289-1940, www.aguradining.com.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: The interior of Kitchen 24 in Hollywood. Credit: From Kitchen 24.

Valet parking: Now accepting credit cards

How many times have you stood in the valet line to retrieve your car after a meal only to realize that you don't have any cash, forced to ask friends or maybe even worse -- your date -- to lend you money?

Starting Dec. 1, valet stations at Osteria and Pizzeria Mozza in Hollywood and just-opened Bouchon in Beverly Hills will accept credit cards. Regent Hospitality Parking, which provides valet services at Mozza and Bouchon, among other restaurants, says that valet stations here will have wireless credit card terminals and that transactions will be completed "in less than one minute."

Regent Hospitality founder Brad Saltzman says that credit cards will be accepted at other restaurants' valet stands depending on the success of the company's efforts at Mozza and Bouchon. Valet parking fees at each restaurant will remain the same ($8 for Bouchon, $10 for Mozza).

The company claims it will be the first in the country to allow guests to pay their parking fees with credit or debit cards.

Why didn't anyone do this sooner?

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: A Regent valet in Culver City. Credit: Ken Hively

Wine Spectator reveals Top 100 Wines of 2009, but... are all wine rating systems flawed?

Now that Wine Spectator has finished dragging out the reveal of its Top 100 Wines of 2009 -- a 2005 Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon was ranked No. 1 -- over a yawn-inducing three days, we have to ask: Are wine ratings an accurate and useful guide for consumers? Or are they merely a series of wildly subjective impressions based more on context and expectation than the actual qualities of the wines? That's the question Leonard Mlodinow explores in a recent Wall Street Journal story, "A Hint of Hype, A Taste of Illusion."

Given the high price of wine and the enormous number of choices, a system in which industry experts comb through the forest of wines, judge them, and offer consumers the meaningful shortcut of medals and ratings makes sense.

But what if the successive judgments of the same wine, by the same wine expert, vary so widely that the ratings and medals on which wines base their reputations are merely a powerful illusion? That is the conclusion reached in two recent papers in the Journal of Wine Economics.

He's referring to findings published by Robert Hodgson, a retired statistics professor and the proprietor of Fieldbrook Winery. A few years ago, Hodgson joined the California State Fair wine competition advisory board, which allowed him to run a controlled scientific study of its tastings.

The results, published in the Journal of Wine Economics, showed that the judges' ratings varied by ±4 points on a standard 100-point rating scale. And "only about one in 10 [judges] regularly rated the same wine within a range of ±2 points."

Crumbs debuts 'Twilight'-themed cupcake

If you're more likely to suck the sugar out of Pixy Stix than the blood out of a human's neck, but you're willing to out yourself as a fan of "Twilight," "the love that dare not speak its shame," Crumbs has the cupcakes for you.

From now through the end of November, all Crumbs Bake Shops are offering a "Twilight"-themed cupcake ($3.75). It's a chocolate cake (what, not blood red velvet?) with strawberry filling and cream cheese frosting adorned with bat-shaped sprinkles and a pair of fangs. Maybe you can bring one with you to "Twilight: New Moon," using the tickets you got from Jamba Juice.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo credit: Crumbs Bake Shop

'Twilight: New Moon' giveaway

Got "Twilight: New Moon" tickets?

Jamba Juice is giving away tickets to tonight's 10:10 p.m. showing at the Universal CityWalk Cinemas. The giveaway takes place from 8-10 p.m. -- or until all tickets are gone -- at the Jamba Juice at Universal CityWalk. (Click here for our review of the new movie.)

According to the Jamba Juice news release: "'New Moon' stars Ashley Greene and Dakota Fanning are big fans of Jamba smoothies, so ... Jamba Juice has stashed 300 world premier tickets at 3 California Jamba Juice locations to hook up those special fans in desperate need of last minute tickets."

Tickets were given away last night in Oakland, and will also be given away in San Diego from 2-4 p.m. at the Jamba Juice at San Diego's Mission Valley Mall, between Mission Valley Road and Friars Road. The tickets are for the 7 p.m. screening at the nearby Regal Jack London Theater.

--Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch

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Beer bars are blooming in Los Angeles: Stout opens in Hollywood, Surly Goat to open in West Hollywood

You can find plenty of places in Los Angeles to drink an apple cosmotini or an organic artisanal rosemary-and-mint mojito, but for craft beer Los Angeles can be a humbling city. Not long ago, beer aficionados had few options for finding quality suds in L.A. These days...

A handful of new beer bars, such as recently opened Stout in Hollywood and soon-to-open the Surly Goat in West Hollywood are making the city more amenable to suds sippers. And after 18 painful months of red tape and construction (mostly red tape), the Eagle Rock Brewery just last week began brewing, making it the only dedicated commercial brewery operating within Los Angeles city limits. Co-founder Jeremy Raub hopes to release the brewery's first three beers by the end of the year.

Read the full story here.

--Elina Shatkin

Photo: 30 taps prominently line the copper bar at Stout, a new beer bar in Hollywood. Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times.

Food truck profile: Little Spoon dessert truck rolls across Los Angeles

Melissa Hanna and Laurel Tincher think they've found their sweet spot. Backed by food truck juggernaut Road Stoves, the two college-age entrepreneurs recently launched the Little Spoon dessert truck (Twitter: @weliketospoon), bringing together a wealth of freshly made baked goods from a variety of local vendors. Prior to the current food truck craze, Hanna had spent two years developing a business model for a dessert company that was based on partnering with local bakers and chocolatiers. "We're not trying to be a cupcake truck," Hanna says. "That's already out there."

With more experience in publicity and event promotion than in working at a professional oven, the pair will leave the baking to others. Little Spoon has contracted with several different caterers to produce the truck's rotating menu of brownies, cookies, bars, layer cakes, eclairs, tiramisu, creme brulee, (maybe) cupcakes and novelty items like pumpkin brittle, macarons and cookie bark (layers of toffee and chocolate drizzled on top of cookies). Drinks include an assortment of high-end teas and vintage sodas.

After testing the waters during the last couple of weeks, Little Spoon will start to roll out on a regular basis, splitting its time between private catered events and public locations. Wherever a sweet tooth aches, wherever a worker needs a distraction, wherever 3 p.m. rolls around and energy flags, Little Spoon will be there.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photos: Courtesy of Little Spoon.

More Americans feeling hunger's pinch

More Americans last year lacked the ability to put adequate food on their tables than in any year since the federal government began monitoring food insecurity, according to a government report today.

The report, posted on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website, blamed the current recession for the increasing number of people who are having difficulty meeting their dietary needs.

“The recent economic downturn has brought a sharp increase in the number of Americans who report having difficulty meeting their food needs,” said the report. “In fact, in 2008, the number and percentage of U.S. households classified as ‘food insecure’ reached the highest level recorded since federal monitoring of food insecurity began in 1995.” Read more here:

Photo: Volunteers fill rice bags at a food bank near downtown Seattle. Credit: Elaine Thompson / Associated Press

Preview: Philippe by Philippe Chow in West Hollywood

 

One of the great joys of life in Los Angeles is its aspiration toward casualness at all costs. In this city, the more dressed down you are at an upscale restaurant the more likely it is that you are someone important.

And so it was that on a recent Wednesday night at West Hollywood's new chichi Chinese restaurant, Philippe by Philippe Chow, a sizable turnout of meticulously informal diners found themselves seated in the resplendent red-white-and-black dining room, nibbling on thimble-sized crispy duck rolls and sipping exotic fruit-based martinis. Read more here:

Photo: The main dining room at Philippe by Philippe Chow, a recently opened ultra high-end Chinese restaurant in West Hollywood. Credit: Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times

Guy Fieri on TV, OK. But Guy Fieri in concert?!?!?

Food Network personality Guy Fieri is hitting the road -- not for dives, but for concert halls.

The Guy Fieri Road Show is part cooking demonstration, part concert, and kicks off Tuesday for 30 days and 21 stops complete with a food demo, a deejay – L.A.’s DJ Cobra -- and an on-stage mixologist to attend to, among other things, a six-foot-tall, 25-gallon margarita. Fieri pulls up to the Gibson Amphitheater on Dec. 17 and Las Vegas on Dec. 19.

It’s not just the concept that screams rock star. The higher-end ticket prices do too: At the Gibson, prices start at $18.95 and top out at $250 per person for the "Off Da Hook" package that includes stage seating and a chance to sample what Fieri is cooking and some of that margaritaville. Tickets for the Guy Fieri Road Show went on sale in September, and so far, according to his website, no venue has sold out. Has the host of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," who enraptures audiences while he tries one decadent dish after another, bitten off more than he can chew? Click here to find out what Guy has to say.

Photo: Guy Fieri. Credit: Jennifer S. Altman / Los Angeles Times