Consider It Catered

Downtown LA Scenes Filled With Restaurants That Make Party Planning a Snap

While waiting for your colleagues who are selective about what they eat, to make their decision, you can always entertain yourself playing no deposit online casino games during your lunch break. Every office has one: the picky eater. Whether it’s someone who only eats chicken. Or never eats chicken. Or counts their carbs with a pocket calculator. Or doesn’t eat vegetables that have traveled more than 80 miles, because of the resources it uses up.

And nothing kills the mood at a festive catered event faster than people holding empty cocktail napkins. That’s why ordering the catered meal for an office party can be an exercise in problem solving.

Thankfully, there are a growing number of no-fuss Downtown eateries that do the problem-solving for you – restaurants that do more than just cater, but that offer up extensive options, customized menus, and even hold your hand through the …

New Late-Night DASH Offers Holiday Hours

News Brief

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – The city Department of Transportation has introduced a late-night Downtown DASH bus route that will run through the holiday season. LADOT officials, along with Councilwomen Jan Perry and Wendy Greuel, announced the new route, which began operating on Nov. 21 and will continue through New Year’s Eve, during a press conference last Thursday outside of Walt Disney Concert Hall. The DASH runs Friday and Saturday nights from 6:30 p.m.-3 a.m. The line parallels portions of the Metro Red Line, which is also operating until 3 a.m. during the holidays. The new route travels from the Convention Center to the Seventh Street/Metro Center Red and Blue line station before turning east to head up Main Street with stops at Sixth, Fourth and Second streets. It then connects with the Red Line again on First Street in the Civic Center before looping back south along Grand Avenue, stopping at Disney Hall, Pershing Square and the Fashion

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Gone Fishing

New Downtown Sushi School Plans to Teach Traditional Skills

by Richard Guzman

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Master sushi chef Katsuya Uechi admitted that as a kid, he wasn’t exactly a great student, which makes his role as the head of a new Downtown Los Angeles school somewhat ironic.

But this is a school where Uechi is right at home doing what he does best: preparing sushi.

There is also a noble purpose, implied Uechi, who founded the small Katsu-ya restaurant chain in 1998. He has partnered with Noritoshi Kanai, president of the Japanese food-importing business Mutual Trading Company and a pioneer in bringing sushi to America, partly because he is concerned about maintaining the authenticity of traditional Japanese sushi. He also noted a shortage of qualified chefs.

Located at 843 E. Fourth St., in a gritty industrial section of the Arts District, the Sushi Institute of America opened this month and will teach a maximum of 20 students per session

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The New Face of Theater

New LATC Launches 2008 Season With Three-Month World Festival

by Kathryn Maese

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – When the New LATC raises the curtain on its second season this Friday, theatergoers will get a rare chance to see Mexican icon Ofelia Medina, who dazzled audiences as Frida in the eponymous 1984 film, perform her one-woman show based on the book of poems Poesia No Eres Tu.

With Intimamente – Rosario de Chiapas, the actress, writer, director and activist will open the New LATC’s 2008-2009 season in dramatic fashion as part of the three-month Face of the World Festival, which features 25 shows on four stages. It’s a fitting choice, since Medina’s exploration of happiness, solitude and the search for freedom mirrors the LATC’s own tumultuous journey in recent years.

The Latino Theatre Company won a contentious fight to operate the city-owned theater under a 20-year contract and, following a $4 million renovation, reopened the venue last year. The space

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Coffee Anyone?

How to Find the Coffeehouse That’s Right for You

by Richard Guzm�n

As in many neighborhoods, coffeehouses Downtown are social gathering hubs where the ambiance is often as important as the brew.

But with dozens of coffeehouses that cater to various tastes and personalities, where you go for your cup of Joe can say a lot about who you are. In Downtown Los Angeles, in fact, there’s a place for everyone, whether you’re an artistic type who likes to discover hidden gems, a serious coffee aficionado who can’t talk enough about Brazilian beans, or a stressed-out office dweller who just needs an excuse to leave the cubicle.

Behold, a few Downtown destinations, along with descriptions of some of the people who frequent them.

The ConnoisseurIf you think of coffee as a drink worthy of discussion and admiration, and are yearning to explore exotic beans with the help of a coffee sensei, then Caf� Corsa may be the ideal place

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Purple’s Reign

Oprah Winfrey-Produced Musical of Empowerment Arrives at the Ahmanson

by Julie Riggott

Toward the end of The Color Purple: The Musical About Love, actors Felicia P. Fields and Stu James share a duet as Sofia and Harpo. Fields, a full-figured gal, jumps up in James’ arms and wraps her legs around him in a playful scene that has become a definite crowd-pleaser.

“We played around with it to the point where if you can’t figure out what’s going on with them in ‘Any Little Thing,’ then God help you,” Fields said with a laugh.

She kept laughing as she added, “I came up with the jump, and he came up with the pelvic movement. It’s a tribute to Stu’s strength. When you’ve got access to muscles like Stu’s, you need to utilize them. So I keep him in the gym.”

“This song is like the icing on the cake,” James said. “It’s my favorite number in the show.”

Fields,

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L.A. Fashion District Shopping Tour

Monday-Saturday with advance reservation, 10:30 a.m. Three hours of walking and shopping with a guide in the nation’s largest fashion district. $36 per person.

Call (213) 683-9715 or urbanshoppingadventures.com.

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Howser Finds New York in Downtown

KCET Series Continues With the ‘Film Shoots’ Episode

by Jon Regardie

In the first few months of his “Downtown” series, KCET television host Huell Hoswer has discovered community treasures including the Eastern Columbia Building, the Los Angeles State Historic Park and the Downtown Art Walk. In an episode that airs this week, however, he encounters something that many in Downtown probably would not expect: New York City.

For the episode titled “Film Shoots,” Howser drops by the set of the TV show “CSI: NY,” much of which is actually shot in Downtown Los Angeles, not the Big Apple. It’s the latest in a long, long line of productions that have masked Downtown as New York, or many other cities (Baltimore, Washington, D.C., etc.), for that matter.

In the episode, Howser chats with some of the show’s actors, and explores one of Downtown’s most common sights – the film crews and their loads of trucks and production workers.

“Film Shoots” airs

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Little Radio’s Big Problem

Royalty Rules Could Force a Change for Downtown Internet Pioneer

by Evan George

When Dave Conway founded Little Radio, a Downtown-based Internet radio station, he was sending out clandestine playlists to friends using illegal rooftop antennas.

Three years later, Little Radio is a multimedia company that deals in brand marketing, event planning, rock shows and even the sale of environmentally friendly electric cars. Its five employees work in two large rehabbed warehouses in the Industrial District.

But at heart – and by name – Little Radio remains centered around the web streaming of music that Conway calls the company’s “life blood and our heart and soul.” The free 24-hour radio station informs all of the other business endeavors, he said.

Not if the recording industry has anything to say about it.

In a ruling earlier this month, the Copyright Royalty Board, which manages fees that radio stations pay to the recording industry, upheld a decision to

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