Chocolate is embedded in the holiday narrative. It’s what Santa enjoys in his cookies and what we like to heat up and sip by a Winter’s fire–chocolate may be the reason for the season! Well, at least Jonathan Grahm of Compartés seems to think so: chocolate is what makes the world go round. Jonathan and his Brentwood based chocolate brand have been sky rocketing in 2012 and are set to have an explosive 2013. Before that, they have to tend to the very busy holiday chocolate rush which is seeing them working and working and working until the big 25. We spoke with Jonathan via email about what the holidays at Compartés is like and how LA influences his luxury sweets. They have a lot of goodies that you are going to want to taste…

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Chef John Sedlar is one of the most interesting working chefs in Los Angeles. The food, service, and look of both his Playa and Rivera are perfectly articulated fine dining with a laid back, LA hints to New Mexican cuisine. Sedlar’s best trait is that he gets bored easily and constantly is playing with food. He grows big ideas which have seen in boozy dinner menu and an often utilized rooftop garden. He is an always working food filter who takes influences and surroundings and funnels them through the Playa/Rivera point of view. His most recent experimental menu is a mashing of Mexican cuisine and Chinese cuisine: it’s Playa’s Mexi-China menu.

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On the twelfth day of Holiday, my LA friend gave to me: Lawson Fenning’s Birch Coasters.

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Nearly a week ago I had a meeting at Intelligentsia in Silver Lake. On the way out I had remembered that a few friends of ours Instagrammed a photo of themselves at Black Cat the night before. I caught sight of it on my way out and I decided to take a peek inside. The space looked nice and really cool but, strangely, they told me I couldn’t take photos or share anything last Tuesday and to come back a few days later because “a friend was writing a story about it.” Well, we waited a few days and we went back, we took photos, and we had a nice lunch there. You should stop by–because they’re open!

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We went to Atwater Village this weekend for brunch and with the intention on wandering around the main Glendale Blvd strip to grab holiday gifts. Surprise: we sadly didn’t have that many options. We had built up the area in our head to be cutesy and homey but we realized walking around that there were a lot more food storefronts than we thought and way too practical spaces that don’t lend themselves to be casual gift shops. We founds some drinkable goodies at 55 Degrees and, as we strolled North on Glendale, we noticed a peculiar store that was what we imagined to be all of Atwater Village: Individual Medley.

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