The Giving Tree: dineLA Restaurant Week 2010 and L.A. Chef "Family Tree"

Start putting your restaurant wish list together and get ready to dial reservation lines. The restaurants participating in the winter '10 round of dineLA have been announced and getting all your ducks (hopefully confit) in a row to take advantage of the semi-annual deal can be a frenzied process. Restaurant Week runs January 24 through 29 with a break for the weekend, and continues January 31 until February 5. With 230+ places to chose from, it can be an overwhelming task to figure where best to affordably indulge -- relatively speaking -- in three categories of meals: Deluxe Dining ($16 lunch, $26 dinner), Premier Dining ($22 lunch, $34 dinner), and Fine Dining ($28 lunch, $44 dinner).

Sponsored by the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, dineLA Restaurant Week is one gift provided to us actual residents. Check out dineLA's work-in-progress Los Angeles chef "family tree" to literally see how inter-linked the L.A. restaurant community truly is.

dineLA

At the launch party Tuesday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Mayor Villaraigosa was on hand to commend the many chefs in attendance--including Mark Peel, Alain Giraud, Karen and Quinn Hatfield, Neal Fraser, Ludovic Lefebvre, Eric Greenspan, Ben Ford, among many others--for their participation, while also reminding the audience that he loves his vino. A fact that he verbally articulated, rather than demonstrated, fortunately.