Los Angeles Magazine's third annual Food Event (From the Vine) was held at Saddlerock Ranch, home of Semler and Malibu Family Wines, yesterday. Beautiful place, gorgeous weather, ice cold Stella at the ready, all for a good cause (proceeds go to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and the Concern Foundation)--who could ask for anything more. On to the observations:
1) There were zebras, buffalo, emus, horses on the ranch. Zebras!
2) Once everyone got past the wildlife aspect of it all, the event itself was quite the shindig---food from kind of a random group like Rustic Canyon (the oxtail-stuffed arancini were very good, but Zoe Nathan's pastries knocked our socks off), the Gelato Bar, Saddle Peak Lodge, Onyx and Hampton's from Four Seasons Westlake, Shin, The Foundry, Lemonade, Caffe Primo and others.
3) Rustic Canyon's Josh Loeb said they just got the keys to their new bakery location, permits are filed and work will being soon. Expect a March/April opening.
4) Not sure if Saddle Peak Lodge knew the buffalo would be lingering around the front gate when they planned to serve buffalo tartare.
5) Andrew Steiner (Andrew's Cheese Shop) learned a valuable lesson: Fine, stinky cheeses make a great snack for flies.
6) Once again amazed that people will stand in huge lines for a tiny little scoop of gelato. Good gelato, sure, but really?
7) Top Chefs love their beer.
8) Only one thing would've made it more perfect: If the chefs cooking in the demo tent (Neal Fraser, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, Nancy Silverton, Betty Fraser) also had their restaurants around the loop. For more stories from Eater LA, go to la.eater.com.
