For our last meal at gr/eats, which closes today, we wanted something traditionally Japanese: a burger. Actually, gr/eats does a good burger, preternaturally soft on the inside with a sharp layer of char on the outside. With an order of chicken katsudon, it epitomizes the culinary aesthetic of the charming Sawtelle Boulevard cafe: Japanese, American and a little of everything else. This was a menu where fish tacos coexisted with nabeyaki udon, where fried chicken and tofu meatballs were friends, where paella and spring rolls lived harmoniously as neighbors. [Photo gallery after the jump.]

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Nanette Gonzales

Competitors in the 2012 L.A. Cupcake Challenge

​[Update, 1:56 p.m.: The winners of the fifth annual LA Cupcake Challenge are My Delight (1st place), Cake Mamas (2nd place), Sweet Red Peach (3rd place).]

We've got no real excuse for this photo gallery except that it's Monday, and we love us some sweet food porn. Saturday afternoon, the L.A. Cupcake Challenge took over the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, where nearly three dozen local bakeries competed for top honors. The pictures (full photo gallery here) speak for themselves: It was a day of frosted combat, visual delights and sugar comas.

Guzzle & Nosh

Scallops with leek, potato and black truffle at Ludobites 8.

​This isn't technically from last night or even the night before. It's from Tuesday night, when we lived under the haze of a Lemon Moon. Today is Friday, and that means it's time for some gratuitous food porn, courtesy of LudoBites. In case you didn't win the Valentine's Day resy contest, you can still ogle Ludo's uni crème brûlée -- not our best picture but definitely our favorite dish. We recommend sharing a single order among four people; it's just that rich.

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After numerous delays, Tar & Roses, the new restaurant from chef Andrew Kirschner officially opens next Tuesday, January 24 (with at least one friends-and-family night before then).

A Santa Monica native and former Iron Chef contestant, Kirschner tells us, "I'm thrilled to be back in Santa Monica. I was raised at 24th and Montana. It's what I've been working toward my entire career." [Photo gallery after the jump.]

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The former Les Deux space on Las Palmas has been revamped and is reopen as Sadie, a sexy bar and gastropub, on Jan. 24. At a preview last night, we took a look around and tasted through a few of the cocktails. Our favorite (so far): the Armillita Chico. Made with Calle 23 Tequila Blanco, housemade grenadine, pomegranate juice and lime, the drink is named after famous torero Fermín Espinoza Saucedo.

[Photo gallery after the jump. Plus, a sad brief history of Les Deux, Part Deux.]

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Guzzle & Nosh

Scenes from the 2012 Winter Fancy Food Show.

​There's almost nothing new under the sun -- or the bright fluorescent bulbs of the Winter Fancy Food Show. There are, however, seemingly infinite ways to reformulate, repackage and rebrand the same food that already exists.

The biannual food trade show set up camp in San Francisco earlier this week with over a thousand vendors eager to display their "fancy" wares. How fancy was it? Not scallops and lobster foam fancy. More like bacon-infused chipotle sauce and high-end chocolate fancy, though we did visit one caviar vendor. A trip through the Fancy Food Show is like wandering around inside the world's biggest gift basket. One could easily spend an entire afternoon grazing upon nothing but flavored popcorns or miniature biscotti or cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. [Photo gallery after the jump.]

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Guzzle & Nosh

Red Hill: interior (left), butternut squash agnolotti (middle), tentative menu (right).

​It's hard to have a stealth opening with wraparound windows, but look closely and you should see Echo Park's Red Hill opening in the next few days, possibly as soon as tomorrow.

When we first reported on Red Hill back in April, it was one of two restaurants Jason Michaud (owner of Local) was planning to open. Chimú, a terrific Peruvian takeout eatery next to the Grand Central Market has come and gone, replaced by Local Express.

Michaud thinks Chimú failed because of price-point and location: "I think we were a little too expensive for the neighborhood. I think we should have brought the prices down a couple of dollars. And I think if we'd had a different location where could serve beer and wine and dinner, I think we would have had a chance," he says. These days, he's focusing on Red Hill. [Photo gallery after the jump.]

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Guzzle & Nosh

A pizza sits in front of the oven at 800 Degrees in Westwod.

​If Adam Fleischman is aiming to become the Henry Ford of the pizza world, he's made a good start of it with 800 Degrees, the Westwood pizzeria he officially opens on January 3rd. It features a long counter where diners choose from dozens of toppings in a process more common to Subway or Chipotle than to a Neapolitan pizzeria. 800 Degrees, however, eschews pedestrian toppings like green bell peppers and pineapple chunks in favor of peppadews, prosciutto and long-stemmed Italian artichokes. Here, we have the inevitable "masstige" trend so popular in fashion (ex: Missoni's line for Target) translated to the restaurant world.

Putting aside the question of what precisely "authentic" Neapolitan pizza is, an issue so complicated it would require a summit of Camp David-level diplomacy to untangle, 800 Degrees is making a play for the vast UCLA student crowd with pizzas that start at just $5. Fleischman is nothing if not pragmatic. [Photo gallery after the jump.]

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Guzzle & Nosh

Punch from Broadway Bar (top), the scene at Las Perlas (bottom), angry Scottish Highlanders from Seven Grand (right).

​In Los Angeles, even the bars get dressed up for Halloween. This year, all eight of the downtown L.A. bars owned by Cedd Moses -- Casey's, Cole's, Las Perlas, Tony's, Cana, Broadway Bar, The Golden Gopher and Seven Grand -- are competing against each other to see which bar can be the most zombified with ghoulish decor, creepy costumes and special Halloween cocktails. There's real money at stake. The staff at the winning bar gets to keep all the profits from Saturday night and divide it among themselves. The real winner? You.

This weekend, each bar is serving a custom-concocted punch for only $5 a glass. In some cases, it's a drink that's already on the menu; in others, it has been created specially for the Halloween festivities. Check out the photo gallery and cocktail descriptions on the next page, and judge for yourself.

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Guzzle & Nosh

The Riddler's Punch (left) at One-Eyed Gypsy (right).

​You could re-read Luc Sante's Low Life, or you could take a trip to the outer edges of downtown Los Angeles and, for the price of a cocktail or two, pretend to live in it. There will be no real danger. No blind tigers, no crooked bartenders to slip you a mickey, no chance you'll wake up in the cargo hold of a boat bound for Shanghai. You will be safe, probably, ensconced amid the "grit nostalgia" in which bars like The One-Eyed Gypsy and its cousin, Villain's Tavern, trade.

[Photo gallery after the jump.]

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