Erika Bolden

Biggest California craft beer producer

The Brewers Association has just released this year's numbers on U.S. beer sales. If you prefer Manifesto Eagle Rock Wit to Blue Moon (which is owned by MillerCoors), the news is good. Beer sales slowed overall, slipping 1.3% by volume. Within the craft beer industry, however, numbers continued to rise, with a 13% increase by volume (almost 11.5 million barrels) and 15% increase in dollars (compared with 12% and 15%, respectively, in 2010). Thanks to 1,940 breweries in operation last year, including brewpubs, microbreweries and regional craft breweries, the number of small beer producers is the highest it's been since 1880.

Why is this small but steady increase important? In the last few years, big beer advertising has shifted (slightly) less toward bikinis and beaches, and more in the direction of "top-shelf taste," "triple-filtered" and "triple-hopped." This is an industry acknowledgment that the average beer consumer now is looking for a brew offering quality in flavor and not just a fermented corn juice buzz or barbecue accessory. A continuously growing craft beer market means more stability for your favorite local brewer, and additional brewery openings.

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Gail Silverton and Joel Gutman, co-owners of Gelato Bar, one of our favorite gelaterias in Los Angeles, recently sold their Studio City location on Tujunga Avenue. Thankfully, the shop's name and gelato production will remain the same.

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newwavegurly/Flickr

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Dippin' Dots, those frozen ice cream pellets that pop up at the county fair every summer, might not be around much longer. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company filed for Chapter 11 today in U.S. Bankruptcy court in Paducah, Kentucky.

The company has struggled to pay a $12 million debt to its biggest lender, which moved to foreclose on the loan this week. The company hopes to reorganize so it can continue to operate.

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Courtesy of El Torito.

If you've ever wondered why the food at El Torito, Chevy's and Acapulco tastes remarkably similar, it's because they all have the same corporate parent, Real Mex Restaurants, Inc.. The company, which owes $49 million to its employees and food suppliers but only has $1 million cash on hand, recently filed for bankruptcy in Delaware, reports Reuters.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Jeremiah Cillpam, operator of Chick-fil-A Hollywood.

Jeremiah Cillpam's path to deep-fried success began, serendipitously enough, with a drunken water balloon toss and an act of chivalry. Nearly a decade later, the 28 year-old is one of Chick-fil-A's youngest and most successful owner/operators, having overseen not one, not two, but three of the chain's highly coveted franchises. That includes the high-profile and eagerly anticipated location in Hollywood, set to open next Thursday, September 22nd.

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A. Scattergood

David Haskell, Susan Park & Farid Zadi

The food world in Los Angeles can often seem like a particularly small one, maybe because we're all waiting out miserable traffic in the same farmers markets and Korean BBQ restaurants. Which is where, over a smoking grill and bowls of excellent yuk hew bibimbap at Oo-Kook on Olympic, a trio of local food industry veterans met yesterday to discuss the new restaurant management company they just formed. Farid Zadi, Susan Ji Young Park and David Haskell are now not only, respectively, a chef instructor and culinary school director, a food historian, and a sommelier -- among other titles that the trio have had over the years they've been in this industry -- but fixers.

Their joint company FOH/BOH³, so named because it will encompass front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house operations, and because there are three of them, will function less as a consulting service than as the restaurant equivalent of what Harvey Keitel has been in so many films: the clean-up man, the guy you call to recalibrate a situation that didn't turn out quite the way you wanted it.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Soul Daddy in Los Angeles at the Hollywood & Highland mall.

Soul Daddy arrived on the American fast casual dining scene the same way the reality show responsible for its existence arrived on television: haltingly, half-heartedly, with no panache and no clear vision.

Soul Daddy, which in May "won" America's Next Great Restaurant (perhaps the most bloodless reality show since CSPAN's broadcast of the HUD confirmation hearings), went on to open three outposts (one each in LA, NY and Minneapolis). Last week, Soul Daddy suddenly and "unexpectedly" closed. Unexpected if you had never watched the show or eaten at the restaurant. Totally predictable if you had.

The fiasco wasn't cheap. Based on SEC filings, Portfolio estimates the failure cost about $3 million. For Chipotle founder Steve Ells and his fellow judges/investors Bobby Flay, Lorena Garcia and Curtis Stone (each of whom reportedly invested $220,000), that's a big bruise, both for their wallets and their egos. What went wrong?

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If you've given a thought to the House of Pies, the longtime coffee shop and restaurant at the corner of Vermont and Franklin in Los Feliz, chances are its either been in contemplation of a piece of pie or noticing the unusual architecture. There was a short period when the distinctive, angular, cottage inspired buildings popped up not only around Los Angeles, but nationwide. Behind them was the same man who founded a restaurant chain that survives to this day.

Jim Thurman

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Graphic by Samrod Shenassa.

The latest installment in our sporadic series about life behind the kitchen door features Jason Michaud, the 39-year-old owner of Local. At his two-and-a-half-year-old Silver Lake cafe, he is committed not just to local produce and sustainable environmental practices but to paying employees a living wage and using fair labor practices. And he thinks his business is stronger because of it.

Previously:
Meet Your Busser: Gilbert Solorza
Meet Your Waiter: Laurel

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Photos by Star Foreman.

Bolivar Cafe & Gallery.

What's going on at Café Bolivar? The charming South American cafe on Ocean Park Blvd. in Santa Monica reportedly experienced a change in ownership this week, leaving many employees unhappy and one of the cafe's former owners furious.

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