​Chances are if you're a Whole Foods shopper, you have at least some level of commitment to eco causes. Be it a concern for your overall carbon footprint or simply wanting lots of organic options. For that, we applaud you. Then again, maybe you just like their ice cream selection. That's cool, too.

But what about that pesky fossil fuel burning trip to and from the store? Fresh Food Bike can help with that part of the equation (should your used vegetable oil powered Mercedes be in the shop) by bringing you all your perishables via their stylin' IZip Store eBikes.

More >>

novyranches.com

Novy With An Admirer

​After all of that Novy Ranches grass-fed eyeball farmers market talk, we had to call up the Northern California ranch's owner, Lowell Novy, a Northern California by way of Nebraska veterinarian turned cattle rancher.

A mouthful? Sure. But a good one. Novy was more than happy to chat -- honestly -- about the grass-fed beef industry. And chat he did, in that endearing and knowledgeable way that only someone who is 75-years-old and has an irreplaceable mountain of first-hand experience on the topic at hand can do. Yeah, we wanted to know more.

And so we'll let Novy get right to it, as he did when he called us back, with hardly a question from our end. Why would a vet who could be comfortably retired right now decide to invest his safety net in raising and selling grass-fed beef? And, why would he even bother to cart it all the way down to L.A.? These are the sort of honest, old-fashioned answers (Read: No press releases required; Or in Occupy L.A. terms, from the little guy) that will make you want to order that whole cow head. Or sure, a New York steak, brisket or ground beef, if that's more your grass-fed style. Turn the page.

More >>

There's a new tequila in town, and it's going to set you back a lot more than a bottle of Cuervo. At $250, Casa Dragones is pricier than any of the artisan tequilas that you'll find at Wine Expo, our favorite north of the Border shop to score sipping-worthy tequilas.

Like Casa Dragones, all of the Wine Expo sippers are made from 100% agave, not blends like many mass-marketed brands. Sure, it comes in a hand-etched crystal bottle, but we're not planning on displaying the Casa Dragones on our mantle -- we want to know if it's really worth the $20 a sip. So Squid Ink asked Erik Moreno, Wine Expo's tequila expert, to join us for a tasting.

Jenn Garbee

Erik Moreno And His Wall of Tequila

​

More >>

When filmmaker and photographer Douglas Gayeton decided to write a book that would chronicle the 5 years he spent in rural Italy, he didn't dash off a guy's version of Under The Tuscan Sun. Fortunately for the rest of us. Instead Gayeton assembled a patchwork of sepia prints, singly and in montage, scribbled with handwritten notes and sayings and even recipes. The result, titled Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town, is a pictorial narrative of Pistoia and its inhabitants that seeks to explain the Slow Food movement in photographs and marginalia, playfully, even fancifully, like a modern illuminated manuscript. The book includes a preface by Carlo Petrini (the founder of the Slow Food Movement) and an introduction by Alice Waters (well, you know who she is). To commemorate the book and to celebrate slow food, 33 restaurants around the country will host a special prix fixe dinner on November 18. Each participating restaurant will have copies of Gayeton's book available.

Douglas Gayeton

​

More >>