MY 800TH REVIEW! And what better way to celebrate with a FTR for the very first Dessert Week LA?!…read more:) 2016 was the first year of Dessert Week LA! It's kind of like DineLA on a much smaller scale, and only featuring dessert places. During the first six days of Dessert Week (this year Oct 9-14), select dessert shops around Los Angeles offered special deals, discounts and menu items for dessert connoisseurs like me to try! The week then culminated with the Top 25 Desserts coming together for a Dessert Festival where attendees could come and try samples from all the places in one designated area. This year it was held on Saturday, Oct 15 @ Pershing Square in DTLA. Being dessert addicts (no joke, we have 10 pints of artisanal ice cream in our fridge at all times), my bf and I were stoked and bought tickets online ahead of time. They had 3 ticket tiers: GA - $15: Entry to the event and lets you sample from 10 vendors of your choice. VIP - $25 (what we got): All the perks of GA plus sampling from all 25 vendors, and early entrance and hour before GA. VIP Group Package - $85: Get a private cabana with couches, table and a server for your party. We definitely recommend getting the VIP passes we got since we were allowed to get in an hour early and beat most of the lines, and also got to sample from all of the vendors! The VIP Group Package was way overpriced IMO and when we looked at the cabanas there, literally nobody was sitting in them (even though they said they sold all but 3 of the available cabanas). Participating vendors of this year's Dessert Week LA included: Salt & Straw SusieCakes Lady M Confections Sprinkles Diddy Riese Porto's Saffron & Rose Wanderlust Creamery Beverly Hills Beignets Gelateria Uli Ridges Churro Bar The Pie Hole Breadologie Bakery Sweet Lady Jane Coolhaus Braise & Crumble Cafe Café Dulce Cream Crepe Studio Frostalicious Hello Sweetie Pies Ice Cream Lab Nothing Bundt Cakes Randy's Donuts Jamaica's Cakes Because it was the first year, there were a few kinks that needed to be fixed, but I could definitely see this becoming a popular food fest over the years! Upon entry, we were confused which line to stand in because they kinda merged into one. They needed bigger signage explaining where to line up for VIP vs GA tickets. Also, no tickets were sold at the door. They needed to be purchased online ahead of time. Once inside, we were given a sampling card (looked like a Bingo card) where each vendor could sign off before you received a sample from them. It kinda reminded me of going to Costco and eating all of the samples, except this time all the samples were desserts. All of the vendors had their own tents, but they were close together and the lines also ran into each other at several of the smaller areas. I also don't think the sampling card thing was the most efficient. Booths that were understaffed had a hard time managing signing off cards while handing out samples at the same time. The biggest annoyance/con IMO was the LACK OF TRASH CANS! I could not understand why they didn't have a trash can for each booth. A lot of the time my hands were so full of empty sample cups and I had to walk around Pershing Square trying to find a trash can because there was only one located like every 50 feet. It was super annoying and inconvenient. It was cool how the vendors offered a variety of different desserts, like pastries, cake, gelato, ice cream, etc. I am personally an ice cream connoisseur, but it was cool branching out and trying dessert spots I had never been to before. Everyone working at the vendors was super friendly and they all looked excited to be there! At the end of sampling, you were able to vote for your favorite so one business would be crowned winner of Dessert Week LA. My bf and I didn't really care about it so we didn't vote and aren't really sure who won, haha. For $25, we sampled desserts from 25 LA-based dessert vendors and were surprisingly very full! I liked that this festival wasn't SO HUGE that it was annoyingly packed and the lines weren't obnoxiously long. They did a good job for their first year, although there are definitely things they can improve on in the future. I would definitely be interested in going next year to try new vendors and desserts!

Hands down the best way to spend your Tuesday night! The Los…read moreAngeles Burn Academy is an organization dedicated towards the promotion of the Fire Performance Arts and Fire Safety Education. Every Tuesday night a group of amazing fire performers, aspiring students and friends of the fire get together for a night of conversation, music and fire! Break up the monotony of your week and come join the Burn Academy for a hot night!

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!! Yeah, i didn't see any curry... thats…read morebecause there was way toooooooo much things going on. Highly suggestion ppl go next year if they're not doing anything. Parking is far, so put on your walking shoes & sunblock. They had Muay Thai Kickboxing Tournament with prestige gyms/teams. Best of all it was free!! Usually cost!! The beer area was crazy, so worth chilling there. Go on a picture freenzy there because its just local fun. Real Thai ppl and families attending this event!! unlike the horrible cherry blossom festival with like no Japanese people/families. So many food vendors, fruit vendors, gift vendors...etc

Props to Simpang Asia (http://www.yelp.com/biz/simpang-asia-los-angeles) for being the winner, the…read moreCurry King 2009! This was my first curry festival and overall, it was a lot of fun! It was held on April 5th, 2009 alongside the Thai New Year Festival. At first, it was disappointing. The hot water was cut off around 1PM and all the curry vendors stopped serving food. No samples, no food. We had to wait over an hour for them to fix it. However, when business resumed, it was a curry FEAST! For $4 they provided a Curry King Contest Judge's Pass of 6 sample tickets to redeem at participating curry vendors and two voting ballots. I tried Jamaican, Indian, and two Thai curries. I recognized Palms Thai restaurant, whose food has been consistently good. The Jamaican curry vendor had the worst curry. Yuck! I can't even describe the taste...I felt like Gordon Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen upon eating unedible food. Time to hurl. Simpang Asia was my personal favorite and I placed all my votes in their box. They had the longest line for samples/food purchase and I waited 10 minutes to sample their food. Despite the wait, their curry was the best. Aside from the sample curry, I bought one of their curry croquettes. It was so good! It was $2, but who cares when it was a ball of creamy curry goodness. I expected there to be more curry vendors in the contest as there were many more Thai food vendors at the adjacent Thai New Year Festival. As for next year, I would come back, but hopefully they don't have the same technical problems that would delay the curry feast. I would also take the Metro Rail Purple Line (Wilshire/Western) to the festival next time. Parking was scarce and traffic was horrible on the streets.

I went to this event twice but both times I was at the Los Angeles location by USC. The first year…read moreI attended was in 2015 and Big Grams really stole the show. Wild performance! - I also attended the following year and thought the line up was well presented. I liked the people in the crowd and the atmosphere. Everyone was excited to be there and treated other attendees with respect. This is not true at all festival events so, I appreciated this vibe. - The snowboarding aspect to the event was unique and fun! I also enjoyed the art-focused pop ups. From what I can tell from the other reviews, the Pasadena location move has not been successful. I find this surprising because Pasadena offers more space, easier driving conditions and better parking options.

Designated alcohol area, cannot bring drinks out of the fenced area. The line to get in the…read moredesigned alcohol area was 400 people long, line to get a drink was another 100 people long. Not sure if I'll be back next year

If you are an art-lover, collector, enthusiast, supporter, patron or just curious to learn more…read moreabout the art scene in LA, then ForYourArt or FYA is the place to go. ForYourArt is an interdisciplinary producer and meta-curator, creating fresh initiatives through its hybrid model of projects, publishing and media platforms. They cultivate patronage and cultural engagement, i.e.: The Annual LA Art Weekend, a four-day event highlighting a comprehensive assortment of the city's contemporary art, architecture, and design hot spots. Ooh! Wait, it gets better... ForYourArt media provides tightly edited information from the perspective of cultural insiders. Projects produced by ForYourArt focus on promoting cultural philanthropy as they further develop tools for navigating the cultural landscape - a virtual map to the best destinations. FYA keeps readers current with emerging trends, must-see exhibitions and vital resources in Los Angeles and beyond. How cool is that!? Now there's no excuse for us creative refugees from abroad, transplants or art enthused cultural junkies. A LITTLE HISTORY on FYA ForYourArt was started in 2005 by Bettina Korek. After working at LACMA, where she worked for the Prints and Drawings Department to raise acquisitions funds, commissioning editions by artists including Raymond Pettibon, Shepard Fairey and Alexis Smith and producing the IFPDA Print Fair. Upon leaving Bettina joined the board of the Prints and Drawings Council, and continued to support the Department as a volunteer until 200X and led the Print Fair Committee. Bettina then worked in the Development office, launching the museum's first young patrons group, which she co-chaired as a volunteer from 2005-2009. Bettina then transferred to the Marketing and Communications Department. During this time, she launched pARTy, an event to bring the young patrons from LACMA, MOCA, the Music Center and the LA Opera together. Her experience at the nexus of curatorial, development and marketing activities, and the realization that these departments did not often collaborate within the museum led her to found ForYourArt in 2005. While working in the development department, she had started a weekly email highlighting art events in LA, responding to a need voice by potential young LACMA patrons. ForYourArt has evolved organically, acting both as a media entity and cultural producer and as an event production and public relations firm through its consulting division, FYAworld.

Great live band and singer with go-go dancers! A fun retro evening great for parties or date…read morenights. Au Lac's vegan menu is delicious and their drinks are strong and wonderful!

Jonathan and Jill have the best chapters in La Paz. Their service is top notch. Everything from our…read moreairport transfers, hotel Accomodations at the La Concha, fish packing, and their own restaurant along the popular Malecon is by far hard to beat. We booked our trip directly through him at the Fred Hall show in Long Beach and everything went smoothly. If you're thinking about heading down to the capital of Baja, then definitely look at Tailhunters as your one stop shop for a great time with friends and family. Thanks again Jonathan and Jill. We all look forward to our next fishing adventure. September 2020

Ok - I'm biased. Jonathan is my cousin, but then again, I think that he's so very cool, smart and…read moreoverall wonderful person! He's been doing this for at least 15 years plus, so he's very experienced and knowledgeable with planning fishing and touring excursions. His business - Tailhunter International - is a sportfishing, travel, diving & adventure service. He's been in business for a long time, so he's very experienced and knowledgeable with planning fishing excursions, resort accommodations and touring in La Paz and surrounding areas in Mexico. If you're looking for reliable service, information and vacation travel for the time of your life, Jonathan is definitely who you need!

The Fit Expo is an annual must for us in LA, but this year was very disappointing. It was poorly…read moreorganized, with people cutting lines, and the women at the booths lacked customer service skills. There were fewer booths this year.

This event could use some better planning. When you drive into the convention center, there's no…read moresignage telling you where thefitexpo is. You figure it out on your own and then realize you could have parked closer. They soak you for $30 on parking, too. Then you get in line and there is no one guiding the huge crowd. People are forming a looping line around the building. After 30 minutes of waiting, an employee came out and moved the line. She told us that "people without wristbands should hang a left" when they go through the glass doors. Actually, hanging a left brought you to checkins for martial arts shows. The second left brought you to thefitexpo checkin. So that miscommunication got the line all mixed up and people were confused and some waited in the wrong line. We figured it out and got in the right line, but we lost our place and were WAY further back now after waiting 1 hour outside. Aggravating, unprofessional experience. Only one appearance by one employee giving incorrect instructions to hundreds of people. Fortunately, a nice couple recognized us from outside and the woman called us over to get in line with them since she saw we lost our place. They were unhappy with the unorganized mess, too. My advice is to get serious about managing the crowd outside the event. You need way more employees guiding the crowds with accurate information. When you have hundreds of people at an event, this is not an appropriate time for self service, figure it out on your own stuff. I was annoyed before I entered the event. The event itself had some good and bad. There were lots of booths with free samples, which was good. It was a big crowd, but there was a lot of space on the floor, so that was good, as well. Plenty of bathrooms were available. Now for the bad...I wanted to see the powerlifting competition, the bodybuilding competition, strongman, and jiu-jitsu, but everything was going on all at the same time. The schedule they emailed me made it look like the shows were staggered. We had to go back and forth between powerlifting and bodybuilding missing parts of each. That was disappointing. They had photo opportunities with celebrities, which is very popular. We made the rounds and one thing I noticed was that Jay Cutler's booth handled this professionally. He had proper lighting and a woman there to take photos with your phone. I was very happy to have her do it instead of me because I was carrying bags and had to fumble around taking a photo with one hand. None of the other celebrities took it as seriously and didn't do this. They should all do it like Jay did. Elevate the sport and show your fans that you care. Jay impressed me by doing these simple things. I was a little frustrated by the fact that the event didn't seem well managed. There didn't seem to be a lot of celebrities there, either. At past events, celebrities were roaming all over the place. I guess it's changed.