See Julian Cox at The Art of Mixing at The Taste this Friday

Julian Cox (right) with fellow mixologist Ryan Magarian

One of the highlights of The Taste, the food, wine, spirits and culinary adventure set to land in Los Angeles this Labor Day weekend, is sure to be The Art of Mixing, a party and seminar by Julian Cox, the mixologist behind such cocktail programs as Rivera, Playa, Sotto and Picca.  He will be leading a cooking and mixology demonstration along with Chefs Ricardo Zarate of Picca (pictured below) and John Sedlar of Rivera.  The festival is sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and Food & Wine magazine, so they have been able to get heavy hitters like Cox to participate.

The Art of Mixing will be held on Friday evening from 9 pm - Midnight at the Paramount Studio Lot in Hollywood.  Tickets are $125, but you can get tickets for only $75 with discount code LAT, which makes this an excellent value.  KCRW DJ Jason Bentley of Morning Becomes Eclectic will be mixing (songs not drinks) to get the crowd in the mood for some delicious cocktails.

What does your ticket get you?  Aside from the demonstrations, which begin  promptly at 9:45 pm, you get unlimited tastes of food and drinks from dozens of restaurants and wineries/spirits makers.  The list of participating restaurants includes a variety of delicious spots such as hot Mediterranean newcomer Mezze, Zarate's Picca, Atwater Village's Canele and downtown sausage fest Wurstkuche among many others.  There is no risk of you going thirsty with options such as boozy snow cones from Damian Windsor's Ice Ice Shavie, rum from Ron Abuelo, Original Moonshine and more liquor and wine than you could shake a cocktail glass at.

I hope to see you all there as it promises to be a blast.  Tickets can be purchased here.
Learn More: The Art of Mixing: http://events.latimes.com/taste/artofmixing/

Ricardo Zarate

Ice Ice Shavie: Quality Ingredients and Mixology Flavors Come to Snow Cones

Ice Ice Shavie elevates the humble snow cone to artisinal status, using fresh and local fruits and herbs to create delicious flavors.  The venture from Damian Windsor, the head bartender at the Roger Room, and Liz Wiltgen offers flavors inspired by cocktails, although at public events does not include booze.  The Shavie team does do private events, at which they can add in the liquor to make these into truly adult shaved ice treats.

I sampled two of the flavors last weekend at the Studio City Farmers Market, which is the most consistent spot to find the Shavie team each Sunday.  I tried Strawberry Mojito with lime and strawberry juices, mint and sugar, as well as the Grapefruit Ricky with Elderflower, Lemon Juice, Vanilla and Grapefruit Juice.  Both were quite refreshing although I preferred the Grapefruit Ricky by a nose.

Other flavors available included:
Hammer Thyme: Strawberry, Thyme, Ginger and Simple Syrup
Blackberry Bramble: Blackberry, Lemon, Basil
Sonoma Fog: Sea Salt & Caramel

All flavors are $4 each and if you ask nicely they will put two flavors in one cup of shaved ice.  This was a whole other league than the Snoopy Snow Cone machines of our youth.  Windsor is one of the foremost bartenders in Los Angeles and the quality of his product was evident.  I hope to try the boozy version on a hot day soon.  Follow them on twitter or facebook to keep up to date.

Ice Ice Shavie: www.iceiceshavie.com