Friday Quickies #24: Bad-Yet-Badass Reviews and Upcoming Events

Bad experiences, good writing: Paying homage to the food journalism's variant of "If it bleeds, it leads" - just wanted to highlight two negative but well-written food reviews. One from New York Times' Frank Bruni highlighting his zero-star dining at Ago, with a killer wave of wine, a piece of breaded veal with the meat so thin "a vegan could have made peace with it" and "the special rack-of-lamb veal chop."

Closer to our part of the country, Chubbypanda recounts his horrific time at Belcan entailing two-and-a-half hour wait for food, with the owner responding to his complaint by screams of "pay for my apartment!" Yea, definitely W... T... F...

Summertime Eating & Events: Two ongoing summertime events caught my attention - Wilshire Restaurant's Neighborhood Barbecue on Sunday (mentioned by Caroline on Crack) with a more laid-back and casual BBQ menu plus summery cocktails to boot. Also, Urbandaddy LA noted the launch of blue on blue's DETOx-RetoX Sundays, where you can spend the afternoon mellowing out from your weekend festivities with spa-style drinks and eats - think mixed berry smoothie with bee pollen, spicy beef rice wraps - or keep the party going strong with bottomless customizable mimosas and bloody marys and hearty fare such as tuna sashimi & pina-soy colada. I'm looking forward to checking out both these events before autumn rolls in.

And of course, anytime's a great time for mellowing out by beach bar; Citysearch LA recently updated their swank list of places to hang out and watch the sunset. . . while having a few sips.

Finally, if you got a Ben Franklin to burn, check out Gourmet on Fire at Loews Santa Monica. It's their 2nd year and they have a decent mix of chefs representing pretty hot places (e.g.Bar Pintxo, Grace, Akasha, Rustic Canyon). As much as I would like to attend, I'm more inclined to save the money for my soon-to-come birthday blowout meal (shh... don't tell).