Halloween Is Frightfully Fun in Downtown LA

Casey's Irish Pub

You may have heard that a holiday approaches.  So before you get your costume and drink on, it pays to know where you can enjoy the appropriate spooky ambiance, if that is the vibe you seek.  Yes, Halloween is on Monday night and to celebrate the sacred evening and share the spirit of competition, eight of the 213 Group's bars in Downtown LA are competing as to who can create the ultimate Halloween experience.  On Tuesday night I set out with illustrious panel of judges who visited all eight in a single evening to determine which bar could generate the most zombie spirit.  We were picked off one by one by creatures of the night and only a few of us including ThirstyinLA lived to tell the tale.  If you see my fellow judge FoodGPS, watch out, he may be after your brains.

Each establishment was given the same amount of money to work with, which was certainly a bigger challenge for Casey's as it is the largest space including an outdoor patio, than for several of the smaller sized establishments such as Cana Rum Bar.  Each bar was challenged to decorate their space in their chosen theme, to include zombies wherever possible, to have the employees dress up in theme and to offer a punch for only $5 through Monday evening.

Dexter's Kill Room

The winning bar will not be revealed until Monday night, but there is some serious coin on the line as 213 impresario Cedd Moses has decreed that the winning bar will get to keep the profits from this Saturday night.  Not only that but one lucky undead will receive airfare anywhere in the U.S.  Zombies in Hawaii anyone?  Who will the Most Valuable Zombie be?

The most disturbing decor of the evening was certainly at Tony's Saloon in the Arts District.  Customers can sip on Etorphine Vodka Chloride punch while they try and escape the plastic wrap.  You can struggle but you will not be able to free yourself as the bar has transformed itself into one of Dexter's kill rooms from the Showtime series Dexter. The punch is named after the drug that Dexter injects into his victims to immobilize and incapacitate them.  The blood spattered plastic wrapped environment is completely transformative.  It felt like a different establishment.  I escaped via the pizza establishment, but barely.

Smoke billowing from an unseen fog machine welcomed us to the underground lair of Casey's Irish Pub.  Cobwebs galore covered the entire bar and the zombified bartenders included Amy Winehouse.  Both a Jameson and a glass of their Bloody Zombie Punch will likely be needed to calm you down as the hungry, I mean helpful, zombie staff surrounds you.

Some of the best punch you can find in downtown, any night of the year, is at Cana Rum Bar.  Allan Katz's Fiending Frenzy was absolutely delicious and beautifully presented, served out of a crystal punch bowl.  The voodoo threatens to put a hex on all who enter but the punch itself may be the antidote to the curse.

Fiending Frenzy at Cana

Sympathy For The Devil, the smoke fizzing punch at Broadway Bar was eye catching, as were the wild paintings on the wall, reminiscent of the Haunted Mansion.  Several customers there could have been in the running for the Most Valuable Zombie (I'm thinking of Lorenzo and Hello Kitty), if only they surrendered and joined the 213 Empire.

Sympathy for the Devil (Broadway Bar)

Golden Gopher unnerved us all.  The theme of zombified fairy tale characters was disturbing to say the least.  Whether it was Pinocchio was a bloody long nose or Snow White oozing flesh, this felt like a sick John Waters and David Lynch collaboration.

The Undead Horde packs a punch at Seven Grand.  The staff in tartan kilts, zombie makeup and not much else were not shy about butting their booze where their rotting flesh is. The Horde is made with Devil's Cut Boubon and may be their way of separating you from your brain.  The corpses in bodybags hanging from the balcony outside complete the terrifying experience.

Cole's Red Car Bar is serving the Dead Rose Punch, which may involve a dead rose petal on top, to seal your doom, while at Las Perlas, Jalisco Punch is on tap.  The Day of the Dead lasts all weekend long there as the tasty Tequila based cocktail works its way through your bloodstream.

You don't have to wait until Monday night to experience this fright fest.  Just mosey on downtown, put on your costume and enjoy.  But remember to always have a getaway plan.  You never know when the zombies will strike and the smell of the punch and brains may lead them right to you.

Picture Gallery below; addresses at the bottom:

Cole's Red Car Bar

Las Perlas

Jalisco Punch (Las Perlas)

Golden Gopher

Seven Grand

Tony's Saloon: 2017 E. Seventh St., DTLA.  Phone: (213) 622-5523
Casey's Irish Pub: 613 S. Grand Avenue, DTLA.  Phone: (213) 629-2353
Cana Rum Bar: 714 W. Olympic Blvd, STLA.  Phone: (213) 745-7090
Broadway Bar: 830 S. Broadway, DTLA.  Phone: (213) 614-9909
Golden Gopher: 417 W. 8th Street, DTLA.  Phone: (213) 614-8001
Seven Grand: 515 W. Seventh St, 2nd Floor, DTLA.  Phone: (213) 614-0736
Cole's Red Car Bar:118 E. 6th Street, DTLA.  Phone: (213) 622-4090
Las Perlas: 107 E. 6th St., DTLA.  Phone: (213) 988-8355

Las Perlas Exclusive Tequila Launch Party Tomorrow

Tomorrow night (Thursday) at 7:30 pm is your chance to be among the first to try Las Perlas Private Reserve Herradura Double Barrel Reposado tequila at the release party. Tickets to the event cost $99 and include Mexican snacks, unlimited house margaritas and Spiced Daisys, a taste of the tequila and best of all a 750ml bottle to take home. The bottle would cost $150+, so you come out ahead just factoring in the "party favor."

Herradura Double Barrell Reposado is hand-crafted and harvested, and estate bottled in the tiny town of Amatatin, Jalisco, smack-dab in the middle of tequila country. The 100% blue Weber agave tequila is aged in toasted oak barrels for 11 months, 9 months longer than required, which gives this reposado tequila its deep copper color. The tequila is then matured for an additional month in a new toasted oak barrel, to allow it to round out its flavor profile. The barrel used for the Las Perlas double barrel was selected by 213 Downtown founder Cedd Moses while on a trip to Hacienda San Jose del Refugio, Tequila Herradura's home for 140 years.

Tomorrow night is also the launch of the Las Perlas Mezcal Collective, which is modeled on the Seven Grand Whiskey Society and the Cana Rum Society. Las Perlas General Manager Raul Yastorza said, "Mezcal Collective evenings will provide a cultural immersion and mash up, with estates and bottlers providing rare hand-of-the-maker insights, and an exploration of mezcals many myths and legends, tools of the trade, and traditional glassware, while celebrating regional expressions of spirits, food, art and music." At tomorrow's inaugural event, special guest Herradura Global Brand Ambassador Ruben Aceves will speak about the tequila-making process and the traditional methods used to produce the special spirit that attendees will be sipping.

If you would like to purchase tickets to the launch party, visit lasperlas.eventbrite.com. The party will be held from 7:30 - 9:30 pm at Las Perlas. To join the Las Perlas Mezcal Collective, and receive updates and evites, visit www.lasperlas.la, or email GM Raul Yastorza at raul@213downtown.la.

Las Perlas: 107 East 6th Street (between Main & Los Angeles Streets), DTLA. Phone: (213) 988-8355. Website: www.lasperlas.la

Dia de los Muertos: Tonight & Tomorrow Night at Las Perlas

Celebrate Dia de los Muertos tonight and tomorrow night at mescal specialist Las Perlas, in downtown Los Angeles. They will have $7 Diablo Palomas, $6 Margaritas, and $3 Tecates. The bar is outfitted in "Day of the Dead" decorations and skeletons are welcome to sip on the succulent libations.

Note that El Carmen in Mid City is also celebrating Dia de los Muertos tomorrow night November 2nd.

Las Perlas: 107 East 6th Street, Downtown Los Angeles. Phone: (213) 988-8355.  Website: lasperlas.la

Ilegal Mezcal Los Angeles Launch

Ilegal Mezcal recently became available in California and to celebrate and spread the word, the brand which launched in 2007 sent Stephen Myers, their Global Brand Ambassador, on tour to talk about mezcal and about the Ilegal brand in particular.

Last week a crowd of mezcal lovers filled Las Perlas, the mezcal focused bar on East 6th Street in downtown LA, to hear a presentation by Myers (pictured at left). The attendees included Bricia Lopez, the legendary mezcal enthusiast who has cocktails named after her at three different bars, as well as local bloggers such as ThirstyinLA, MicroLiquor, StreetGourmetLA, FoodGPS, and Glutster among others. Myers, a charming Australian bartender, gave a talk about how he and John Rexer founded Ilegal Mezcal when they were operating a bar in Guatemela and their customers were enthusiastic about the mezcal that they were smuggling across the border from Mexico. You may be wondering why an Aussie was lecturing a bunch of Americans about mezcal. Myers was traveling across Latin America and took a bartending job at Cafe No Se in Antigua, Guatamela working for Rexer, to make money. After several years in Guatemala serving a growing demand for mezcal among the international visitors to their bar, Myers and Rexer decided to create their own brand of mezcal.

Ilegal Mezcal is an artisinal mezcal, made in small quantities, in the village of Tlacolula, outside of Oaxaca. Myers said that almost all mezcals are single village and small production products, in contrast to the mass produced tequila which dominates the export market for agave liquor. Mezcal like tequila is made from the agave plant (although unlike tequila is not necessarily from the blue agave). The heart of the plant is baked in earthen pit ovens and then distilled and mezcals are 100% agave and fermented in oak vats. As a small batch product, there is significantly greater variation in the end product than in the more mass produced tequilas.

Ilegal Mezcal is distilled twice and filtered once. The line includes 3 variations that I got to sample: Joven (unaged), Reposado (aged five months), and Anejo (aged for three years). The Joven has chocolate and grapefruit notes in the flavor. The Reposado was smokier and had more heft than the Joven with a medium smoke and pear flavor. The Anejo is aged three years in American and French oak. It is smooth but smoky with some caramel. My preference, and that of several other attendees was for the Reposado, which had a great balance without being overwhelmed by smokiness.

Due to its name, Ilegal Mezcal went through a struggle with the US government in order to use the Ilegal brand name and its preferred packaging. Despite the fact that the government of Mexico had already approved it for export, the TTB, the US government agency which must approve liquor labels in the US refused to allow them to use their name because it might confuse consumers who would think the product was illegal. After much research the partners were able to show that other brands with similar names were permitted and the agency relented. Fortunately for US mezcal aficionados, Ilegal Mezcal is now legal and available on the West Coast as well as its initial launch market of New York.

Here in Los Angeles, Las Perlas and the Tar Pit Bar both carry the range of Ilegal products. Although Las Perlas has a variety of mezcal cocktails, I recommend drinking the Ilegal Mezcal neat, particularly the Reposado. The only thing criminal about this product is that we had to wait so long to get it.