LOVE ANGELES PROJECT®

Veloce Hats LA

 Source: Veloce Hats - The concept behind Veloce was conceived by Cameron Picardi, a 19-year-old L.A. native. Cameron drew his inspiration from the melting pot Los Angeles provided him. From Venice Beach, to downtown he found ideas all around. His idea was to mix two styles of hat; the 90’s styled volleyball cap and cycling caps. The result of this is a fun, eye-catching hat that can be worn from dusk til’ dawn. 

The name, “Veloce” was selected for it’s meaning. Veloce is an Italian word, when translated it means “fast” it’s purpose was chosen for both irony and literal meaning, in addition to Cameron’s initial description of it, “When I see it I just think to myself…wow that looks fast haha!” Literally it pertains to the fast pace life of L.A. and ironically it’s used to remind people that sometimes everyone should take a break from the fast pace L.A. life. The Veloce hat was designed to be versatile, aesthetically pleasing, as well as durable. 

When Cameron was designing the hat, he imagined something that could be worn by anyone; from beach bums, to urban hipsters. After settling on the design, he moved on to the color palette, he chose bright & vibrant colors that would stand out. His final hat is a not only a product for mere utility, but a bold piece that makes statement. From the beach to the streets it’s a fresh alternative to the everyday baseball cap, or as Cameron says, “Zee best hats!” www.velocehats.com

Magnificence Comes From Across the Seas

Kate Whitney - From the ancient peninsula of Croton in Southern Italy hails an artist so elegant and chic, his jewelry is simply a reflection of his brilliant artistry. Gerrado Sacco, the famous master Goldsmith,  brings the old world charm and depth to the New modern world of fashion and style.  

Gerardo Sacco's creations are rich in historical significance, recalling the ancient past of the Italian Southern Peninsula as a colony of ancient Greece. (Magna Grecia, the Latin translation of "Great Greece", was the name the ancient Greeks gave to that particular area of Italy.) The techniques used are those that the master Goldsmith has recovered from the past, inspired by the backgrounds of this beautiful region.

For over forty years, Gerardo Sacco has been successful in the field of artistic jewelry design, incorporating styles and features from the Magno-Grecian, Byzantine, renaissance, baroque and deco cultures. Every piece is a work of art, handmade and unique. The impressive selection of earrings, bracelets, necklaces, rings and broaches capture the beauty and elegance of both the originality and quality of Gerardo Sacco.

Several of Gerardo Sacco's magnificent and unique pieces have been exhibited in numerous museums in Verona, Venice, Rome, Naples and seven religious creations are currently on display in the Vatican's Museum.

His style while elegant and sophisticated has now broached to the hip and conscious and is flooding such cities as New York and Los Angeles.

With his new line I Pupi de Gerrado Sacco, he is introducing the ‘Opera of the Puppets’, an exclusive collection of 14 ancient figures that distinguish certain values to emulate in our every day lives.  From the Courageous to the Independent, these figures, worn as necklace pendants or bracelet charms, are as exquisite and detailed on the outside as they are symbolic of that which they stand for. 

Known as Diva Goldsmith - Gerardo Sacco has been creating for some of the most elegant women of our time including Elizabeth Taylor, Brooke Shields, Isabella Rosallini and the stunning Maria Grazia Cucinotta.  Maria Grazia, a Sicilian born actress known for her beautiful performance in Il Postino, is shown here exhibiting the powerful magnificence of Gerardo Sacco's work.

While haling from Italy, the works of Gerardo Sacco are available in the most well known cities both in Europe and in the States through an importer and distributor of fine Italian Jewelry called EighteenK. EighteenK is a young dynamic company, established in 2007, have a glowing reputation for service, sophistication and style and they are respected and appreciated not only in Italy, but around the world.  They are conscious of the desires that make Jewelry what it was meant to be:  worn for glamour, grace, elegance and greatness.

I don't believe in coincidence - I believe in Divine Alignment and in meeting the creators of Eighteenk and the brilliant works of Gerardo Sacco, I have been exposed to beautiful, luxurious, conscious raising works that feel as good as they look.  Their weight is that of true gold and coming into a time on the planet where to "feel the way we want to be and thus creating what we see", this jewelry is a powerful tool in being that we wish to be.  It will remind you of the King and Queen that dwells within you and that the Kingdom of Heaven is surely at hand....if we will but see it.  Blessings come through EighteenK delivering works from across the seas for our elegance, style and ease....

Gracias DJ Jose Spinnin Remix (Video)

Twin Flames in a music video intended to paint the different sides of Love including sensuality - I don't know if it's been done before??? It was the most magical day in Malibu with my beloved, all of nature was out and celebrating including Whales, Dolphins, Seals, Eagles, Hawks, Rabbits, Ladybugs!! Early in our relationship, I told Patty one day that if she ever wanted to do to do a music video that was as sexy as Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" I would be there:) Enjoy and feel free to leave a comment on Youtube if you can!!!

Filmed in Malibu, CA 2010
Production: Bamba Films & Menta TV
Starring: Patricia Manterola & Forrest Kolb
Directed by: Isi Sarfati (www.dpisi.com)
Produced by: Jonathan Venguer
Edited by: Camilo Abadia & Isi Sarfati
Ⓡ&Ⓒ 2010 Patricia Manterola Todos los derechos reservados
www.patriciamanterola.com twitter: @pattymanterola

Broken Hearts Hurt Men More than Women

By: Shari Roan - Women may shed more tears over a busted romantic relationship, but men suffer the greater emotional toll, researchers say.

In a study of more than 1,000 men and women, ages 18 to 23, researchers found that unhappy romances cause men more emotional grief, including threatening their identity and feelings of self-worth. Young men and women express their distress at a breakup differently. Women are more likely to feel depressed after a breakup, while men are more likely to have substance-abuse problems.

Men may be more affected by a breakup because their romantic partners are their primary source of intimacy. Women, however, are more likely to have other close relationships with friends or family members to turn to for support, said the study's author, Robin Simon of Wake Forest University.

Nonmarital relationships are important to a young adult's well-being, Simon said. "However, the advantages of partner support and disadvantages of partner strain are more closely associated with men's than women's mental health," she wrote.

The study is published in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Jane Lynch and The New iPhone (video)

Loving Cancer Survivors Day

Source: Livestrong - Sunday is National Cancer Survivors Day and we want you to know that LIVESTRONG is about the people- the survivors that have fought or are fighting this disease. We are about the people affected by cancer- moms and dads, husbands and wives, siblings and grandparents and friends. Who do you know that has been affected by cancer? Who has beaten this disease? Who has passed away after a hard battle? The more we talk about cancer, the more we realize that we are all affected in some way.

Good News, Interracial Marriages Soar!

Source: Yahoo - Nearly 15 percent of new marriages in the United States in 2008 were between spouses of different races or ethnicities, a number that's six times that found in 1960, according to a report by the Pew Research Center released today.

The top three states for intermarriages were: Hawaii, Nevada and Oregon.

In 1961, when President Obama was born, less than one-in-1,000 new marriages in the United States were between a black and a white, as was the case with Obama's parents. By 1980, the Pew survey shows that share increased to one-in-180, and by 2008 to one-in-60.

The dramatic rise in overall intermarriages (not just black-white) has been partly driven by a large wave of immigrants from Latin America and Asia over the past several decades, along with a breaking down of longstanding cultural taboos against interracial marriages, Pew scientists suggest.

The results come from a Pew analysis of the most recent data on the topic from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Racial and ethnic trends

Of the 3.8 million adults who married in 2008, 9 percent of whites, 16 percent of blacks, 26 percent of Hispanics and 31 percent of Asians married someone whose race or ethnicity was different from their own. For whites these shares are more than double what they had been in 1980, and for blacks they are nearly triple. For Hispanics and Asians, these rates are little changed from 1980.

Black-white couplings represented only one-in-nine of the new interracial or interethnic marriages in 2008. White-Hispanic couples made up the lion's share, 41 percent of these new marriages, while white-Asian couples made up 15 percent.

Among blacks, men are more likely than women to marry out, with 22 percent of black male newlyweds and 8.9 percent of black female newlyweds marrying someone who was not black in 2008. Those numbers had increased from 1.3 percent and 0.9 percent, for black men and women, respectively, in 1960.

This increase in intermarriages among blacks is in stark contrast to the overall decline in marriages found among this race, about a 30-percent drop between 1970 and 2007 for both black men and women ages 30 to 44. Marriage rates also declined for young whites during this time period, but not by as much.

Top regions for "marrying out"

About 21 percent of all newlyweds in Western U.S. states married outside of his or her race or ethnicity, compared with 13 percent in the South and Northeast and 11 percent in the Midwest.

The top nine states for out-marriage rates, each with rates of 20 percent or more, are located west of the Mississippi River and include: Hawaii (43 percent), Nevada (28 percent), Oregon (24 percent); Oklahoma (23 percent); California (22 percent); New Mexico (22 percent); Colorado (21 percent); Arizona (21 percent); and Washington (20 percent).

Of all newlyweds in 2008, 15.5 percent of those who attended college married outside their race or ethnicity, compared with 13.5 percent of those with only a high-school education and 11 percent of those who didn't complete high school.

History of marrying out

The increases make sense when you take a look into our nation's past, the analysts say.

For most of our nation's history, state laws made it illegal for whites and non-whites to marry. In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia resulted in such anti-miscegenation laws becoming unconstitutional for the 15 states that still had the laws.

Even so, popular opinion lagged, and two decades later in 1987 just 48 percent of the public said it was "okay for whites and blacks to date each other," according to Pew scientists. That number for those who were OK with inter-dating increased to 83 percent by 2009.

Actually marrying (not just dating) an "other" wasn't as popular. A Pew survey in 2009 revealed 63 percent of respondents said it would be fine with them if a family member married "out" to all three other major racial and ethnic groups tested in the survey (white-American, African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American). Eighty percent of respondents said they'd be fine with a new spouse in their family who came from at least one of the "out" groups.

Marrying out was slightly more acceptable when the "out" group was a white-American than if another of the groups studied.

The findings are based primarily on Pew Research Center's analysis of demographic data about new marriages in 2008 from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) and the Pew Research Center's analysis of its own data from a nationwide telephone survey conducted from Oct. 28 through Nov. 30, 2009 among a nationally representative sample of 2,884 adults.

Friends of the LA Family

Source: Brandx - It was the first Swimming with Sharks pool party of the season at the Standard Hotel in downtown L.A. No surprise: The rooftop was awash with swimmers and sunbathing revelers. Photography by Colin Young-Wolff for the Los Angeles Times.

Chianti Without the Candle Wax

Source: WSJ - Or the straw covering. World-class wines from the region are out there, and at gentle prices. At a certain point in American history, people stopped saying hello and goodbye and began saying ciao. On the streets of Manhattan, Seattle and even Greenwich, Conn., I've overheard otherwise non-Italian speakers madly ciao-ing each another when they arrived or departed. The only other Italian word I've heard uttered as often may be Chianti. And like ciao, Chianti has more than one meaning: It can stand for a cheap, simple bottle or a wine made by a world-class producer. Anyone who isn't a student of Italian winemaking (or, for that matter, Italian history and politics) may have a hard time discerning the difference between the two.

For a long time, there was only one type of Chianti: a cheap straw-covered bottle called a fiasco—which doubled as a good description of the wine itself. A bottle of Chianti was better suited to candle-holding than collecting. The reasons were numerous but mostly had to do with mass production and poor-quality grapes. Sometimes Chianti could contain as much as 30% cheap white grapes like Trebbiano in the blend—never mind that the wine Chianti producers were making was a red.

But by the mid-1980s, things started to change. Prominent Chianti producers took a more worldly view; they reduced their yields, eliminated the cheap white grapes and began experimenting with nontraditional varietals like Cabernet and Merlot. Some producers even made all-Sangiovese wines, which, though Sangiovese is the main grape of Chianti, was considered heretical at the time.

The wines they produced couldn't be legally labeled Chianti because of the grapes they contained—those cheap white grapes were actually required. So their creators simply called them vino da tavola (table wine) and later—and more potently from a marketing perspective—Super Tuscans. The name supposedly came from the fact the wines were made "supra" or above the rules. These wines proved so much better than the basic Chianti that the Italian government eventually changed the rules in 1996, allowing all-Sangiovese wines to be called Chianti, and by 2006, they changed the rules again to include all the grapes like Cabernet and Merlot that had once been banned—allowing them to be up to 20% of the blend.

Some Super Tuscan producers decided out of pride or history or perhaps even spite not to rename their creations, though many others embraced the new rules and began making Chianti again, albeit on a much higher level. But thanks to the addition of these new wines and these new regulations, the profile of Chianti changed—from a medium-bodied, relatively high-acid red to a wine that could be big and tannic from a big dose of Cabernet, or soft and plush from a bit of Merlot.

These changes have been lost on many wine drinkers, who continue to think of Chianti as it was in the past, and as a wine they know well. It's one reason why Michael Taylor, wine director of the Italian Village restaurants in Chicago, sells so much Chianti and why, for wine director David Lynch of Quince restaurant in San Francisco, Chianti is a hard sell. Mr. Taylor's customers like the comfort of a wine that's familiar, and he sells more Monsanto Chianti Riserva than any wine on his list, while Mr. Lynch has to persuade his customers to try it instead of something more "sophisticated." In both cases, their customers' preferences are based less on information than image.

Chianti Classico is the largest and most important Chianti appellation, covering about 100 square miles and encompassing important winemaking villages such as Greve, Castellina and Gaiole. It is one of seven Chianti subzones—others include Chianti Fiorentini and Chianti Rufina, home to top producers Selvapiana and Frescobaldi. But Chianti Classico is, with just about every top producer located there, the best address, much like Burgundy's great Côte d'Or. And there are significant differences from one Chianti Classico village wine to another, just as there are in the Côte d'Or.

That may be the most important fact to know about Chianti today: Despite sharing a single grape—Sangiovese—and a similar climate and growing conditions, Chiantis are some of the most diverse wines in the world. But there's really no easy way for anyone who's not a serious wine drinker to tell the good Chianti from bad, the quality-minded producers from the also-rans. (The Chianti Classico Consorzio's gallo nero (black rooster) neck label is a guarantee of origin and proof of more selective standards—though a barnyard fowl isn't exactly a grand cru designation.) The fact is, a good Chianti can be found only through investigation and study—the opposite of what most people expect when they're choosing Chianti. And so I decided to hold my own tasting to see what, exactly, a Chianti buyer might find.

For me, the first difficulty came in amassing the bottles: It's hard to find a good selection of Chianti in New York, where wine buyers may still need convincing of its quality. I finally found a retailer with 10 Chianti labels I wanted—Varmax Liquor Pantry in Port Chester, N.Y., about 25 miles from Manhattan. (The store usually has 20 to 25 on the shelf.) I shopped some more and finally lined up a couple of dozen bottles, mostly from the excellent 2006 and 2007 vintages as well as a few just-released 2008 wines.

My chef friends were particularly keen to join in my tasting, perhaps thanks to Chianti's long-standing reputation as a great wine with food. Paula, a cooking-school instructor, made a special Chianti risotto with Swiss chard, mushrooms, pork and red onions and brought it over in a little red wagon to my house. (Click here for the recipes for Chianti mushroom risotto and Swiss chard ribbons.)

The Chiantis we tasted fit into three broad categories. There were the light, bright juicy wines that were uncomplicated and delicious—like the sappy, crunchy red fruit of the 2007 Badia a Coltibuono Chianti Classico ($18) and the bright, snappy 2008 Selvapiana Chianti from Chianti Rufina, one of the top producers of that region, as well as the lithe and charming 2008 Peppoli Chianti Classico ($24), one of several properties owned by Marchese Antinori. The latter, made from Sangiovese and a little Merlot, so entranced Claudia, a pastry chef, that she practically swooned. "This is what I call Chianti," she said. "I could drink the rest of this bottle myself."

Less popular and, thankfully, less numerous were the leaner, more astringent examples like the 2006 Le Corti Corsini. The 2006 Barone Ricasoli Castello di Brolio, whose founder, Bettino Ricasoli, was the Chianti Rufina producer credited with the creation of Chianti, was another unpopular choice. "I guess you'd call this wine rustic," said one friend. "But to me it tastes like dirt." (I found it a bit austere.)

And then there were the wines—and happily they were the most numerous—that were a beautiful synthesis of modern technique and Chianti terroir. They were wines that tasted of a place and a talent, wines that could easily match any wine in the world. There was the suave 2007 Querciabella Chianti Classico ($24), from a great modern estate, a wine so rich and so seamless it simply flowed from its beginning to its end. There was the rich, luxurious 2006 Castello di Ama Chianti Classico ($35), from an estate famous for one the world's greatest Merlots, L'Apparita, but one also committed to making great basic Chianti.

There was a plump, modern 2006 Castello di Fonterutoli Chianti Classico ($25) that the legendary consultant Carlo Ferrini helped to produce, and an impressively structured 2006 Fontodi Chianti Classico that may well be my Chianti ideal: lush but structured with a firm minerality that one friend called "sexy." (An Italian winemaker's favorite tasting term?) And finally there was the 2007 Fattoria Felsina Chianti Classico, from one of the great Chianti producers in modern history, a beautifully rich but restrained wine that inspired near-awe among my friends. "I had no idea that Chianti could be so sophisticated," said one, guessing the wine cost "at least $75"—about $50 more than its actual price tag.

And that is the beauty of Chianti to me. It may not be safe, it may not be predictable (will it be juicy and bright or nuanced and subtle or taste like dirt?), but it's a wine with a rich history that's still unfolding today. And the price of experimentation, unlike, say, Burgundy, is something that most wine drinkers can actually afford.

What It Really Takes to Get Ready for Bikini Season

By Jeannine Stein - Kourtney Kardashian makes gearing up for bikini season look so darned fun and easy. In a recent issue of Life & Style magazine she explains that she drinks a lot of water, works out with 2-pound dumbbells (while wearing a fun leopard-print T-shirt) and has dropped her chai lattes in favor of espresso shots to save calories.

If you believe the glossy magazines that insist this is what it truly takes to drop 10 to 20 pounds and deflate your muffin top in time for summer, we've got a timeshare on the Gulf of Mexico we'd like to sell you.

The reality? Brace yourselves for several weeks of sacrifice and deprivation, beginning with working out six days a week, twice a day — yes, twice — in a demanding routine of cardio and strength training. Add to that a strict diet regimen that leaves little room for cupcakes and Twizzlers. And those two post-work glasses of wine? Don't even think about it.

"Some people have an unrealistic expectation of what getting into shape for summer really entails," says Fred Engelfried, a trainer at the Sports Club/LA. "They think that working out three days a week is going to make that happen. The truth of the matter is that to take off two pounds per week, people need to be consistent across the board."

Native Shoes

I picked up a pair of Native Shoes at Kicks on Larchmont!! Love them!!!!

Growing Vegetables Upside Down

Source: NY Times - IF pests and blight are wrecking your plants, it might be time to turn your garden on its head.

Growing crops that dangle upside down from homemade or commercially available planters is growing more popular, and its adherents swear they’ll never come back down to earth.

“I’m totally converted,” said Mark McAlpine, a body piercer in Guelph, Ontario, who began growing tomatoes upside down two years ago because cutworms were ravaging the ones he planted in the ground. He made six planters out of five-gallon plastic buckets, some bought at the Home Depot and some salvaged from the trash of a local winemaker. He cut a two-inch hole in the bottom of each bucket and threaded a tomato seedling down through the opening, packing strips of newspaper around the root ball to keep it in place and to prevent dirt from falling out.

He then filled the buckets with soil mixed with compost and hung them on sturdy steel hooks bolted to the railing of his backyard deck. “Last summer was really hot so it wasn’t the best crop, but I still was able to jar enough whole tomatoes, half tomatoes, salsa and tomato sauce to last me through the winter,” said Mr. McAlpine, who plans an additional six upside-down planters this year.

Upside-down gardening, primarily of leggy crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, is more common partly because of the ubiquity of Topsy Turvy planters, which are breathlessly advertised on television and have prominent placement at retailers like Wal-Mart, Walgreens and Bed Bath & Beyond. According to the company that licenses the product, Allstar Products Group in Hawthorne, N.Y., sales this year are twice last year’s, with 20 million sold since the planter’s invention in 2005. Not to be outdone, Gardener’s Supply and Plow & Hearth recently began selling rival upside-down planters. “Upside-down gardening is definitely a phenomenon,” said Steve Wagner, senior product manager for Plow & Hearth.

The advantages of upside-down gardening are many: it saves space; there is no need for stakes or cages; it foils pests and fungus; there are fewer, if any, weeds; there is efficient delivery of water and nutrients thanks to gravity; and it allows for greater air circulation and sunlight exposure.

While there are skeptics, proponents say the proof is in the produce.

Tomato and jalapeño seedlings sprout from upside-down planters fashioned out of milk jugs and soda bottles that hang from the fence surrounding the Redmond, Wash., yard of Shawn Verrall, a Microsoft software tester who blogs about gardening at Cheapvegetablegardener.com. Mr. Verrall turned to upside-down gardening last summer as an experiment.

“I put one tomato plant in the ground and one upside down, and the one in the ground died,” he said. The other tomato did so well, he planted a jalapeño upside down, too, and it was more prolific than the one he had in the ground. “The plants seem to stay healthier upside down if you water them enough, and it’s a great way to go if you have limited space,” he said.

While horticulturists, agronomists and plant scientists agree that pests and blight are less likely to damage crops suspended in the air, they said they are unsure whether growing them upside down rather than right-side up will yield better results.

“Growing things upside down seems like a fad to me, but I’m glad people are fooling around with it and hope they will let us traditionalist gardening snobs know what we’ve been missing,” said Hans Christian Wien, a horticulture professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Judging from gardening blogs and Web sites, those fooling around with upside-down gardening are generally enthusiastic, particularly if they have planted smaller varieties of tomatoes.

“Bigger tomatoes are too heavy and put too much stress on the vine, causing it to twist and break,” said Michael Nolan, an avid gardener in Atlanta and a writer for Urbangardencasual.com, who has four upside-down planters also made out of five-gallon buckets in which he grows bushels of cherry and patio varieties of tomatoes as well as small pickling cucumbers.

Tomato varieties are labeled as either indeterminate or determinate, and horticulture experts recommend choosing indeterminate ones for upside-down gardens. Determinate tomato plants are stubbier, with somewhat rigid stalks that issue all their fruit at once, which could weigh down and break the stems if hanging upside down. Indeterminate types, by contrast, have more flexible, sprawling stems that produce fruit throughout the season and are less likely to be harmed by gravity.

When Mr. Nolan first tried upside-down gardening, he used the Topsy Turvy planters, which are made of polyethylene bags and look like Chinese lanterns gone wrong. But he was disappointed in the yield. “I far prefer using buckets,” he said, which hang from tall metal shepherd hooks bolted to the posts supporting his backyard deck. He paints his buckets bright colors, and plants herbs and marigolds in the top to help retain moisture.

Another, less decorative solution for preventing evaporation is to top the planters with mulch or simply cover them with a lid. Regardless, Mr. Nolan said, “The upside-down planters tend to dry out really fast, so I have to water a lot — probably once a day in the heat of the summer.”

Many gardeners reported that the thinner, breathable plastic Topsy Turvy planters ($19.98) dried out so quickly that watering even once a day was not enough to prevent desiccated plants. There were similar comments about the Plow & Hearth version ($12.95) and while the Gardener’s Supply upside-down planter ($19.95) has a built-in watering system, online reviewers said it is difficult to assemble.

In addition to plastic soda bottles, milk jugs and five-gallon buckets, upside-down planters can be made out of thick heavy-duty plastic trash bags, plastic reusable shopping totes, kitty litter containers, laundry hampers and even used tires. Web sites like Instructables.com and UpsideDownTomatoPlant.com show how it can be done, and YouTube has several how-to videos. Variations include building a water reservoir either at the top or bottom of planters for irrigation, cutting several openings in the bottom and sides for planting several seedlings and lining the interior with landscape fabric or coconut fiber to help retain moisture.

Donald Rutledge, a construction project designer and manager in New Braunfels, Tex., devised a triple-pulley system so he could easily hoist his nine upside-down planters 16 feet above the ground, away from ravenous deer. He made his planters out of five-gallon buckets four years ago, following instructions on the Internet. “The tomatoes and basil worked real well upside down, but the lettuce, peas and carrots weren’t so successful,” he said. “It’s been trial and error.”

This year, he put his plantings right-side up in the buckets to see if it makes any difference. He said his suspended garden started as an entertaining summer project for him and his three children but has become more of a scientific pursuit: “Is upside down better than right-side up? I’m guess I’m going to find out.”

Panera cafe: Take What You Need, Pay What You Can

Source: USA Today - Imagine walking into a Panera Bread and picking out anything you wanted to eat or drink — then, at the end of the line, instead of handing your money to a cashier, you faced a donation box.

What would you do if you knew that some of the money you placed in the box would be used to train at-risk youths or to feed folks lacking funds to feed themselves?

KINDNESS COMMUNITY: New ways we give and volunteer

That's what Panera Bread is trying to find out this week in an outside-the-box experiment in St. Louis. It's a concept that has never been tested by a restaurant chain — and that marks a new career for Ron Shaich, who stepped down as Panera's CEO last week.

"I'm trying to find out what human nature is all about," says Shaich, 56, who has converted a former Panera-owned restaurant in an urban area of St. Louis into a non-profit restaurant dubbed Saint Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe. (Similar cafes planned outside of the St. Louis area will be called Panera Cares Cafes. Panera was founded in St. Louis and still brands its restaurants there as St. Louis Bread Company.)

A sign at the entrance says: "Take what you need, leave your fair share." Customers who can't pay are asked to donate their time. The cafe opened Sunday and will operate seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

While the store does have cashiers, they don't collect money. They simply hand each customer a receipt that says what their food would cost at a conventional Panera. The receipt directs customers with cash to donation boxes (there are five in the store). Cashiers do accept credit cards.

Shaich considers the non-profit Panera Foundation to be his next big thing. "My hope is that we can eventually do this in every community where there's a Panera," says the entrepreneur who bought Panera more than two decades ago when it had just 19 locations and grew it to more than 1,400 locations and upwards of $2.8 billion in annual sales.

He plans to open two more of the non-profit cafes in two more cities in the next six months, but declined to say where. His goal is hundreds of Panera Cares Cafes around the country.

But first, this one has to work.

"It's a fascinating psychological question," says Shaich, who says he's dreamed of doing something like this for years. "There's no pressure on anyone to leave anything. But if no one left anything, we wouldn't be open long."

Experts are divided on whether the concept can work.

"It's a step forward not just for Panera, but for the whole restaurant industry," says Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president at WD Partners, a food service consulting firm.

"You'll see other restaurant chains thinking about doing the same thing."

Not everyone agrees.

"I don't think the honor bar system will work nationally," says Marian Salzman, a trends consultant. "While young people are very much attuned to helping out and making a difference, if they find themselves sitting next to other customers with whom they don't feel comfortable, they're not coming back."

But the concept has worked, with surprising success, at a handful of individually operated community cafes in Salt Lake City, Denver and Highland Park, N.J.

Those cafes have all operated under the guidance of Denise Cerreta, founder of One World Everybody Eats, who has consulted with Panera. The community cafes are open to everyone, she says, but are less of an attraction to the homeless and more of an attraction to folks who may have lost jobs or are facing other unexpected economic hardships.

She says that Panera is about to take community cafes to the next level. "Ron Shaich is creating a tipping point of this movement," she says. "I think we'll see a wave of people following."

But all that Shaich really wants right now is for his first community cafe to work. It looks like a Panera. Its menu is identical to a Panera's. It even puts the same antibiotic-free chicken in its salads and sandwiches.

The only substantive difference is that the baked goods — except bread used to make sandwiches — arrive one day old. These are unsold items from other St. Louis Bread Company restaurants in the area.

This particular Saint Louis Bread Company site had been a marginally profitable company-owned restaurant. Shaich was particularly fond of the location because he once lived just down the street — and ate at it often — when he formerly lived in St. Louis.

He converted the restaurant into a non-profit and reopened it Sunday. As it turns out, he says, the location's revenue was actually up 20% on opening day vs. the previous Sunday.

What's more, says Shaich, who spent Sunday and Monday at the cafe, one-third of those who ate at the restaurant left more than the suggested retail price.

Many have warned Shaich that this will fail. He thinks otherwise: "The core of my life has been to make a difference. Now, I'm using my business background to make a difference in the world."

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Burger Kitchen's Handcrafted Handiwork

Source: LA Times - The Los Angeles restaurant with 26 varieties is getting into a groove. Los Angeles is mad for burgers. We don't just obsessively grill them in our sun-soaked backyards; we also gobble them down at a growing number of gourmet burger spots including Umami, 8 oz. Burger Bar and the Counter. But that's not enough to sate our desire for juicy meat patties. When a new restaurant called Burger Kitchen opened on 3rd Street early last month 2,400 customers descended on it — "Day of the Locust" style — in the first week alone.

"We were hit by the power of the Internet," said co-owner Alan Saffron somewhat ruefully. "We wanted to do a soft opening, but it was a swamp. We could not provide the people with what they wanted at first."

And what they wanted was a new burger fix. Burger Kitchen gave them not one, but 26 choices. Getting the kitchen up to speed when it came to handcrafting all those combinations took some time, admits Saffron. But he and his son Daniel, who co-owns the restaurant with him, now say that they've got the process down pat.

That seemed to be the case during a recent Wednesday lunch rush when the kitchen cranked out a steady stream of savory hamburgers to salivating diners at the many tables in the large room.

Menu choices read like a meat-eaters' atlas of the world: There's Burger the Greek, made with a lamb patty, feta cheese and kalamata olive tapenade; a Thai chicken burger called Bangkok Visitor, slathered in peanut sauce and wrapped in a lettuce leaf; the Eiffel Tower burger piled with creamy blue cheese and slicked with spicy mustard; the Summersetshire Cheeseburger laced with Worcestershire sauce; a salmon burger topped with baby spinach, grilled tomato and beurre blanc sauce; and the humongous 24-ounce Cowboy Burger that ropes in even the most elastic of stomachs.

The Mountain Burger, with applewood smoked bacon, jalapeños and barbecue sauce, is a messy pile of pounded short rib and prime sirloin chuck that, cooked medium rare, dribbles rivulets of grease and blood into its fluffy 5-inch Ca' d'Oro Bakery bun. A side of beer-battered onion rings that puddle just the right amount of oil at the bottom of their basket provides the perfect accompaniment. As does a Stone Pale Ale, one of 20 craft beers on offer at the folksy wooden bar at the back of the restaurant. There's also a list of 26 wines by the glass or bottle.

Although he has been a talent manager for more than two decades, Alan Saffron is not new to the restaurant business. He owned what he says was the No. 1 steakhouse in his native Sydney, Australia, 30 years ago. For the past 10 years, he cooked for private parties on the side.

"My specialty was steaks, " he said. "I became known as the secret steak chef of Los Angeles."

There's nothing secret about the Burger Kitchen, though. Things have calmed down since the breakneck pace of the first weeks, and now the Wednesday beer-tasting dinners are building quite a following. For $20 you get a burger, fries and a flight of four beers. Now, that's a value meal.