Recharge After Christmas at the Boxing Day Social

Christmas is such a tiring day of the year.  So much preparation. So many dishes to cook, presents to wrap and stockings to stuff.  The day after you need to recharge after one last helping of Cousin Florence's fruitcake.  What better way than at the Boxing Day Social at the Spare Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel?

A $10 minimum suggested donation gains you entry to the "Social" event of the year on Monday the 26th.  The event is a fundraiser for the Hospitality Kitchen, which feeds and cares for the homeless.  Live music will be provided by Hobo Jazz, who contrary to expectations are not homeless clients of the Hospitality Kitchen.  In addition to the live music, your donation gets you a bottomless glass of punch (which puts any bottomless cup of coffee to shame), bar bites and entry to the legendary Jenga Tournament.  If you strapped for cash after being guilt tripped into buying too many presents for friends and relatives, blankets, sleeping bags or warm clothes will also be accepted as entry donations in lieu of cash.

In addition to all proceeds from entry benefiting the Hospitality Kitchen, there will be the First Annual Bartenders with Bar Tabs Auction.  You can bid on drinks with one of the top bartenders in LA at one of the best bars in the city.  Each bartender is generously donating their time and a bar tab at their establishment; the tabs will be mixed and matched and you can bid on an evening with folks such as Kate Grutman, Aidan Demarest, Marcos Tello, Dave Kupchinsky, Lacey Murillo, Lauren Osbourne and more.

This Social will be hosted by Naomi Schimek, so you know it will be legit.

Monday December 26th, 7 - 11 pm @ the Spare Room at the Roosevelt.
7000 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood.  Phone: 323.769.7296 | Website: http://www.thompsonhotels.com/hotels/la/hollywood-roosevelt/drink/the-spare-room

Cart for a Cause: Nobu Edition

Tuesday March 23rd was the first day of operation of Cart for a Cause. This is a temporary gourmet truck that will operate on Tuesdays and serve gourmet lunches from shnazzy chefs for $10. The beneficiary of the cause is St. Vincent's Meals on Wheels, a Catholic charity based in downtown LA which brings meals to the housebound. According to LA Weekly's SquidInk Blog, $6.50 of each meal goes to the charity.

Nobu Los Angeles was the first restaurant/chef up and they will be returning this coming Tuesday as well. The location was behind the UTA building on Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills, the same building as the Niketown, just off Rodeo Drive.

There were three options: sushi with black cod, sushi with chicken skewers, and a field green salad with shrimp. All the lunches also came with a drink, either bottled water or one of the pomegranate beverages from Pom, who is one of the sponsors. (Pom corporate sibling Fiji Water and Lexus are also sponsors). I opted for the sushi with chicken skewers. The skewers came with two types of sauce, a red sauce that was mildly spicy and a darker one that reminded me of teriyaki sauce.

It was incongrous to see a nun hanging out at a food truck. But she was there to represent the cause. A reasonably sized line had developed by the 12:30 launch time and after a suitable number of photo ops, the food distribution began. They only had 150 portions and sold out within an hour. I was told by a friend who went by too late that by the time he got there only the shrimp salad was left.

The sushi was 3 pieces of spicy tuna roll and 3 pieces of salmon and avocado maki. According to the Cart for a Cause facebook page, the two sauces/skewers were anticucho & kushiyaki.

After next week's Nobu round 2, other chefs will be taking weekly turns. They will apparently be using other locations to park the cart in future weeks as well. Note: the best parking option is to park in Via Rodeo's underground valet parking lot. They have 2 hour free parking, no validation required, and the only cost is the valet tip. It is less than a 5 minute walk to the UTA driveway from there.