It may not seem like a big deal, but nothing is more comforting to me than a glass of wine and a grilled cheese sandwich. If you add an overcast sky to the equation, a crunchy homemade pickle, and a bowl of tomato soup— just stick a fork in me, I’m done. Lucky for me, [...]
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Bottega Louie
If you’re reading downtownster you might already have a feel for our style—we’re not a news blog, meaning that we don’t run around and look to break the latest greatest story in less than six hundred words. Frankly we leave that to Ed and Eric at blogdowntown. No, our mission at downtownster is to find [...]
Hello Wine Lovers
Hello Wine lovers. California being a temperate climate for growing wine grapes allows us to mimic many varietals from the French growing regions. Tonight we will taste the Rhone Valley style wines. Syrah and Grenache and Mouvedre are a few red varietals that are common. For a white wine there are three types. Marsanne Roussane [...]
Downtown’s Queen of Green
I noticed Minh-Son Dang within the first few days of moving into my building on 4th and Main. I’d see her riding her bike to and from the building, standing on a corner in conversation with a fellow downtownster, always mid-laugh or mid-smile, and always wearing green glasses. What I noticed most was that everyone [...]
DOWNTOWN OLIVER BROWN XS
Foreword: I started posting Downtown Oliver Brown on blogdowntown, a mostly news blog, back in 2008. It took just a few weeks for me to realize that Downtown Oliver Brown needed a home like downtownster and so did a lot of other writers. And in 2009 downtownster was born. So now with downtownster up and [...]
The Other Team
It is nearly the end of the NBA regular season and it seems like no one is even mentioning Los Angeles. If we were to fast-forward a few weeks to April 18, the day playoffs begin, there would still be no mention of Los Angeles. It seems that Southern California has forgotten all about … [...]
Chano’s
It’s Thursday night and the drunk college kids are out in droves. I had gotten the munchies about fifteen minutes ago, and decided to make the trek deep into USC territory just for my favorite nachos. They are to be found at Chano’s – wonderfully, authentically Mexican and around since 2003. Bookmark It
A LETTER FROM MY INTERN II
Foreword by Stan Lerner: I wasn’t kidding when I said she won’t stop with the letters! Guttentag Boss, I’m currently writing to you from my quaint Berlin Hostel, which was chosen based on the fact that it boasts its own bar, complete with the stereotypically stoic East European bartender and lots of equally stereotypically cheerful [...]
THE LAB Gastropub – An Actual COLLEGE HANGOUT?!
If you’ve lived in downtown for the past five years, you’ve noticed what the rest of us have been noticing…sweatshops have turned into American Apparel factories. Dilapidated theatres are remodeled into hipster hangouts. And Sizzlers are converted into gastropubs. FINALLY, on Figueroa and McCarthy Way, or right next door to the Galen Center, USC Hospitality [...]
THE EDUCATION OF CHARLIE BANKS
Somehow your past always finds its way into your future – particularly if it’s something, shall we say, questionable, that you may have done or didn’t do. And even moreso if it’s something from your youth. Let’s face it. When we’re young and in those angst-filled teen years, although at the time we think we [...]
