Normally I find KCRW relentlessly uninteresting, but it came to my attention that this week
Jonathan Gold was featured on the station’s “guest DJ project” hosted by Garth Trinidad. Gold, who writes for the
LA Weekly and
Gourmet, is the first food critic ever to win the Pulitzer Prize. The guy’s knowledge of the Los Angeles food scene encompasses everything from decadent Michelin-starred restaurants to divey bowling alley coffee shops, not to mention his fluency in the limitless diversity of the region’s ethnic cuisines. But before becoming the country’s most-lauded restaurant reviewer, Gold actually wrote about music, including the
first major piece on NWA back in 1989. For his guest spot on KCRW, he brought records (or maybe MP3s) by
Dr. Dre, the Germs, Funkadelic, Louis Armstrong, and John Dowland. Deep. The annoying thing is that they play only a portion of the songs, and they talk over them, too.
Incidentally, this Sunday in West Hollywood, Jonathan Gold will be hosting the
Gold Standard, a tasting of 30 restaurants hand-picked by the Gold himself. The event is sold out, but my brother was smart enough to get a discounted ticket weeks ago; hopefully he’ll remember to take pictures.
Jonathan Gold's Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles
(St. Martin's Press, 2000)
2 comments:
Yes, kicking myself over not having tix. Thanks for the post & link, Hane. His selection is a good go-to list for LA restaurants to check out!
- jen eno
After almost a week of reflection, and I've come to the conclusion that the Gold Standard was, while flawed, worth at least the discounted ticket that I got. Maybe that's because with unlimited wine tastings, how can you go wrong? The event was a little too crowded-- or, rather, the way the space at Smashbox Studios was set-up, it was sometimes challenging to get around, and some of the lines (Mozza, Palate) were way too long and I just ended up skipping them. But there were some excellent places I had never heard of, like Upstairs 3, Drago, Lou, and it definitely made me want to eat at the actual restaurants. If they do this in the future, I hope they change the venue to someplace that's bigger and has more parking, get the restaurants to have enough food so they don't run out after an hour (Hungry Cat!), and err on the side of savory rather than sweet. Pics here.
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