Brewsees

Bottle opening sunglasses

Talk about literal beer googles. Brewsees Eyewear's 12'Oz'er sunglasses might not make the biggest fashion statement, but they definitely win points for being the most useful 2-in-1 product during a tailgate party. Can't misplace your bottle opener when it's on your face.

Company founder Rob Ianelli came up with the concept after he stepped in dog excrement and could no longer use his flip-flop beer opener (true story). A couple of cold beers later, he decided "it was time to chase and capture the American Dream."

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Flickr user/Jeff Houck

Tuaca's New Inked Bottles At Room Temp

Tuaca, the Italian liqueur that you may remember as a bar shot staple in the pre-Red Bull days, has a new look thanks to Corey Miller, the tattoo artist of L.A. Ink reality show fame and owner of Upland's Six Feet Under tattoo parlor.

Regardless of how we feel about the citrusy vanilla liqueur, which the company says is based on a Renaissance-era formula originally created for Lorenzo de Medici (Did they really use so much sugar back then?), the new bottle design is pretty terrific.

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jgarbee

The Lares Altar

In L.A., where high-paid architects and interior designers seem as essential to a new restaurant's success as the choice of chef, walking into a well-worn local haunt like Lares in Santa Monica has that "welcome home" appeal you can't buy. It's the sort of place where the paint and woodwork take on the cracks and chips of age gracefully, developing a character that never needs a new coat of paint. It's also the sort of place people hit when they have pork carnitas and carne adobada cravings, not when they're looking to simply grab a drink.

In part, that's because the margaritas are proudly made with a mix -- ask for a fresh lime juice version and they'll make it for you -- and the beer list is old-school ("imported" here means Modelo). But mainly as the tiny six-stool bar area just inches from the front door is exceptionally dark by day, and come supper hour, an uncomfortably cozy way to get to know the dozen people lined up behind you for a table. You sidle up to this bar for one reason only: To have a beer at the altar.

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L. Bakofsky

A Bakofsky Paintings On The Bar At Little Bear

Beer sommeliers, mixologists, restaurant social media managers. Ah, the "fancy" job titles for new careers in the food world. Not that artists/brothers Andrew and Thomas "Lee" Bakofsky care. They're too busy painting (literally) while they sip a beer. Now that's a good job.

The brothers are known among homebrew geeks as two of the Yeastside Brewers founders. You'll also regularly find Lee behind the bar at Eagle Rock Brewery serving your pints (the shaggy-haired, laid back guy summing up whether to hand you a Solidarity or Revolution tasting glass). What doesn't usually come out in the average pilsner bar chat is that the brothers have long paid their Friday night pub bills as graphic designers. Very good graphic designers. They're even better artists, as so many local craft beer bar owners have come to appreciate.

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Jenn Garbee

David Hrobowski Sitting In One Of His Designs

To some, post-consumer Popsicle sticks are little more than prime vegetable garden composting fuel. But West Hollywood artist David Hrobowski looks at each four-inch piece of discarded birch wood as prime lumber for his latest New Orleans-inspired floor lamp design.

These are not dollhouse-sized sofas or hand-held summer camp crafts, but mahogany-stained, 20,000 stick glass-topped dining tables and 2-foot-tall Art Deco table lamps with shirred wood lampshades.

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jgarbee

An Ivory Palm Tagua Seed Bracelet And Antique Fork Bracelet

The very idea of "food jewelry" spurns visions of polymer clay buttered toast necklaces and dollhouse-sized Kitchen Aid charm bracelets. Cute, but not exactly what most of us actually want to be seen wearing in public.

To find food-inspired jewelry that is actually worthy of Monday morning meeting appearances, it helps to stay away from the plastic bento box bracelets and go all out sterling and gold. But even with higher-priced metals, the trick is finding those truly great pasta designs (the silver bow-tie pasta necklace we found is now on our holiday wish-list). Here's a photo tour of our Top 5 Food-Inspired Jewelry That You Actually Want To Wear In Public.

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We're pleased to see beer from Hangar 24 appearing on more menus and store shelves around town. Amid L.A.'s exploding craft beer scene, with all the new breweries and beer pubs and pop-up beer gardens, the humble Hangar 24 in Redlands doesn't always get a lot of attention. That doesn't mean they don't make great beer. They do. Their orange wheat beer is especially perfect for summer (and it's a nice tribute to Southern California history for a region once dominated by citrus groves). Almost as lovely as Hangar 24's beer is their growler, which is the prettiest in town.

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J. Ritz

The eastern portion of Morgan, Walls & Clements' Chapman Market on 6th Street.

We'd love to linger over a classic breakfast combo and endless cups of coffee at John Lautner's 1949 Googie Coffee Shop, since it was the actual place whose name defined a genre. And then enjoy the cannelloni au gratin at Sardi's on Hollywood Boulevard designed by Rudolph Schindler instead of whatever is served at The Cave (we really don't want to think about it). Meanwhile, the make-your-own toast void remains in Los Angeles since all Ship's locations were demolished. Eating Celestino Drago's pastas might be that much more sublime if Drago Centro were located within Stiles O. Clements' black and gold deco Richfield Building on the same site where ARCO Plaza by AC Martin Partners stands.

OK, enough whining. Even if we've lost a vexing number of architecturally significant restaurants over the years -- and continue to do so -- Los Angeles still keeps on giving to the architecture enthusiasts and food fans among us. Turn the page for our list of Top 10 Restaurants in Buildings Designed by Significant Los Angeles Architects.

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Michael Doret

In 2008, Michael Doret drove past Canter's Deli, but instead of lox and bagel chips, the ambitious designer found the long-awaited inspiration for his latest font: Deliscript. "Perhaps it was that mid century marquee vibe that called out to me," he explains, "but at any rate I saw something in the straight up and down script that I liked, and that somehow I thought I'd be able to extrapolate into a font."

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Matt Schodorf

Café de Leche in Highland Park designed by FreelandBuck.

It's that time of year again, when Dwell on Design takes over the aesthetically challenged L.A. Convention Center with many food-centric events during the weekend of June 25th through 27th.

First off, finalists for the sixth annual Restaurant Design Awards sponsored by the AIA Los Angeles are set, and online voting for the People's Choice Awards is under way. Your chance to pick your favorites in the Restaurant, Café, and Bar/Lounge categories ends Monday, June 21st at noon. Both the panel's and the people's choices will be revealed at the RDA discussion and ceremony on Friday, June 25 at the Design Innovation Stage.

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