4 Events: Ray's and Stark, Chaya, Golden Road Brewing, Papilles

Birthday party: On March 5, Ray's and Stark Bar at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is celebrating its first year with a party. Executive chef Kris Morningstar has devised a menu featuring the best dishes of the year, such as chile with chorizo, dates, local goat cheese and almond sauce; squid ink pasta with garlic, chile, mint, opal basil and bottarga; and crispy pork belly with black vinegar sauce.   Sommelier-barsmith Paul Sanguinetti and general manager Martin Riese will DJ throughout the evening and guests will be able to participate in free screen printing on the patio. 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 857-6180, www.raysandstarkbar.com.

Good things come in threes: To commemorate Chaya Downtown's third birthday, the restaurant is featuring a three-course prix-fixe menu ($33 per person) and $3 happy hour specials during March.  The menu will consist of roasted heirloom beets with baked cana de cabra cheese, arugula, fennel and balsamic must, grilled Wagyu flank steak and sweet potato frites, with Belgian chocolate fondant with raspberry coulis and mascarpone ice cream for dessert. For happy hour, guests can savor bar bites such as the spicy tuna hand roll, buttermilk-poached chicken skewers with soy glaze and seven spices, and a flat bread of the day with a chef’s choice of marinara, olives, asiago and arugula.  On March 16, the official anniversary date, Chaya Downtown will host a “Flights and Bites” wine tasting with Chateau Ste. Michelle for $33 per person. 525 S. Flower St., Los Angeles, (213) 236-9577, www.thechaya.com.

Beer for benefit: Golden Road Brewing is teaming up with the Whole Planet Foundation to raise money for the organization by hosting a beer festival on March 11.  Attendees will be able to sample the brewery's signature beers, including the Point the Way IPA, Golden Road Hefeweizen, Either Side of the Hill (strong ale) and Get Up Offa That Brown.  Food will be provided by Whole Foods Market and local vendors.  The foundation is dedicated to alleviating poverty in the developing world by providing families with the tools to expand their home businesses.  Tickets for this event are $20 per person and can be purchased online. 5410 W. San Fernando Road, Los Angeles, (213) 373-4677, www.eventbrite.com, www.goldenroad.la.

"Off the Clock" wine tasting: On Sunday, wine aficionado Santos Uy will be highlighting five wines along with a myriad of sweet and savory bites from his new restaurant, Papilles, at local wine shop Domaine LA.  The featured wines will include a 2010 Batic Pinela and 2000 Lopez de Heredia Rosado. The tasting is capped at 25 guests, with tickets ($15 per person) available for purchase online.  6801 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 932-0280, www.domaine547.com.

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-- Leah Rodrigues

twitter.com/ LeahRodrigues24

Photo: Chaya Downtown. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Tea party in aisle five at Whole Foods

Do only Prius-driving, gay-marriage-supporting, organic-crazed liberals shop at Whole Foods? Not anymore.

Since Aug. 11, when Whole Foods Chief Executive John Mackey published an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal opposing President Obama's healthcare reform ideas, customers who disagree have boycotted -- or at least have claimed to be boycotting -- the high-end supermarket chain.

In response, a lot of other people, who oppose the proposed reforms, have apparently developed a sudden taste for organic kumquats. Read more on the Whole Foods saga here:

Does the Whole Foods boycott stand a chance?

Poor old Whole Foods Market. As if that "Whole Paycheck" joke wasn't mean enough, now there are lots of shoppers who say they won't go there to buy things anymore.

To recap: On Aug. 11,  the Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece by the company's chief executive, John Mackey, in which he spoke against deeper government involvement in the nation's healthcare. mericans, he said, should be responsible for their own health. Like, for example, by eating healthy food (of the kind Whole Foods sells). 

"While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment," Mackey wrote.

That editorial led to a call for a Whole Foods boycott by a group called (aptly enough) Boycott Whole Foods. It says its membership now stands at more than 20,000. Read more here.

Sampler Platter: Pez, caviar, tortas and Tijuana cuisine

Can you catch mad cow from fish? Where can you eat in Tijuana if you're not a drunk weekender? Can mannequins commit indecency? These questions and more answered in today's roundup of food news.

• Pez Candy Inc. sues Pez museum for copyright infringement. Laughing Squid 
• Teenage Glutster revels in Tijuana cuisine: smoked marlin tacos, abalone chorizo sopes, apple-guava tart and more.
• The mascot for an Ohio BBQ restaurant can continue to wear her halter top. Dayton Daily News 
• Petrossian is revived: more than just caviar. Gourmet Pigs
• Whole Foods will submit its private label products to testing for genetically engineered organisms. New Mexico Business Weekly 
• Hudson House: $10-and-under gastropub in Redondo Beach. Caroline On Crack 
• Scientists worry about mad cow disease from farmed fish that are fed cow byproducts. Reuters
• LA.foodblogging visits Cook's Tortas in Monterey Park.
• Obama administration vows to toughen food safety standards. Wall Street Journal

--Elina Shatkin

Photo: Deviled eggs topped with caviar. Credit: Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times