Jobmouse via flickr

The rumors have abounded for months, that Whole Foods would take over the 2520 Glendale Boulevard location in Silver Lake currently occupied by Ralphs. Today, the Eastsider reports that a company spokesperson for Whole Foods has confirmed that "there is a commitment to occupy the ... location." Timing and specifics are not currently available.

The move poses a whole slew of questions that reflect on the very essence of Silver Lake as a neighborhood.

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Courtesy VICE

Truckers in the Wild hosts Max and Eli Sussman

Back in the early 2000's, I pitched VICE magazine's then-editor some food content. He basically scoffed at me. "Food?" he said, "That's just not the demographic we're going for." So I've watched with great interest as VICE has produced more and more food content over the last few years. Obviously food is way hipper than it was 10 years ago, but to work for VICE this content has to be painfully, outrageously, flawlessly hip.

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G. Snyder

Mayer Hawthorne with burger in hand

If you're someone who subscribes to the theory that food is the new rock, then you might have see last Wednesday night as a watershed moment. Umami Burger, the L.A.-based gourmet burger chain that's set to open it's thirteenth location next week, released the first of what it's calling its "artist-exclusive burgers."

The idea of designing menu items around musicians isn't new -- back in 2008 Denny's infamously introduced a list of "rockstar" menu items including a Katy Perry-themed "Hot 'N' Cold Cherry Chocolate Cappuccino" and a "Hooburrito," a chicken strip and cheese sauce-filled abomination inspired by Hoobastank. (Apparently it did to your small intestine what their music did to your ears.) But the slicked-out Umami Burger franchise is no Denny's, of course, and you can be sure that when these burger-marketing gurus pick an artist to design a burger around, it's going to be one with plenty of hipness to spare.

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D. Solomon

fries and sliders

Highland Park Kitchen on York Blvd. had been open for only about ten days in early March before a front page L.A. Times article declared Highland Park a soon-to-be "outpost of hipster cool" with York Blvd. its "ground zero." In recent years, the northeast L.A. neighborhood has seen an influx of hip, trendy businesses in an area dominated by long-standing, largely immigrant-run mom-and-pop shops.

Among Highland Park Kitchen's York Blvd. neighbors are a pawn shop, tattoo parlor, contractor's office, party-supply business and several liquor stores. Plus an art gallery, and shops with records, vintage clothes, and artsy home design accessories. As for food? There's The York gastropub, Cafe de Leche with gourmet joe, sandwich shop Schodorf's Luncheonette, and Italiano's, the neighborhood pizza standby. The La Estrella taco truck and El Huarache Azteca are down the street too. And Andre Guerrero's Italian restaurant Maximiliano's opened just a few months ago.

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WalnutStudiolo

Last year Food Gadgets for Hipsters looked at the Bicycle Wine Rack. Its hipster quotient registered high scores, considering its lovingly crafted and carefully tanned leather straps would likely be used to cart around bottles of ironically cheap wine. Yet strap in a more expensive bottle and that score would plummet to levels so low you might as well be shopping for bike accessories at SkyMall, in earnest. These are the laws of hipster economics.

Our readers demanded something more reliably hip. A bicycle gadget so specialized and expensive that even the most costly beverage would still register as ironic. We searched, and found you that device. Presenting the Bicycle Can Cage by WalnutStudiolo, a $64 contraption of handcrafted leather capable of holding nothing more than a single canned beverage. Strap in a can of Pabst and you're unflinching hip. Feeling more like a tall boy? According to the our calculations (expressed cost of gadget/ cost of can), you're still looking extremely ironic.

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designed by oopsmark

If there is one thing hipsters love more than cheap wine (read: irony), it is expensive gadgets for transporting cheap wine on their bicycles (read: elaborate irony). Thus, the bicycle wine rack. Just in time for Cinespia's summer screening series and other seasonal hipnik picnics, this system of leather straps can adjust to fit different types of 3″ bottles and clamps snug enough to keep the bottle from moving around, even when riding over the many potholes on Santa Monica Boulevard.

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